d, she exclaimed with her usual enthusiasm,--"All
right--all happy--Missy have goodee friend, goodee husban--him alway mild
and kind; Missy very goodee too--some time little warm, but never, _never_
when she lookee at massa; him melt her heart, guide her steps, both go hand
in hand to heaven."

The negro's conception of this union has every prospect of being verified,
and proves that the simplest and most uninformed of human beings may yet
enjoy the light of reason, and a just perception of the characters of those
around them.

When Charles had bade adieu to his family, the lovers of Matilda and Ellen
were each urgent for their respective marriages: but the awfulness of that
sacred engagement into which they were about to enter, the consciousness
they entertained of the goodness of their parents, and the happiness of the
state they were quitting, held the young ladies for some time in a state of
apparent suspense, and almost incertitude. This was neither the effect of
want of confidence in the men they loved, nor of that spirit of coquetry by
which the vain and frivolous part of the sex seek to prolong what they
consider the day of their power. Far different ideas pervaded their minds
and influenced their conduct; for not only the tenderness of their
affection for their parents, but the sense of their responsibility as
Christian wives, called to new duties and new avocations, appointed to
guide their inferiors, and submit to their future husbands, pressed upon
their hearts; and when at length the solemn ceremony took place, it was to
each party rather a day of serious thoughtfulness and fearful anxiety, than
one of exultation and exhibition.

In a short time this solicitude vanished, and a sense of happiness,
confidence, and unbounded affection spread over their minds the most
delightful serenity, and rendered every act of duty an act of pleasure.
Matilda looked to Edmund as the guardian of her conduct, and he found in
her the reward of his virtues, the companion whose vivacity enlivened the
fatigue of study, and whose benevolence extended the circle of his
enjoyments; and although apparently of very different tempers, the
affection they felt for each other, and the well-regulated minds they both
possessed, rendered them proverbially good and happy.

After residing a few years abroad, and increasing his knowledge and
reputation, Charles returned, and is now become the husband of Miss Weston,
who is an amiable and vir