indeed were all the Dences.

They started gayly, and rattled off at a good pace. Before they had got
many yards on the high-road, they passed a fir-plantation, belonging to
Mr. Raby, and a magpie fluttered out of this, and flew across the road
before them.

Jael seized the reins, and pulled them so powerfully, she stopped the
pony directly. "Oh, the foul bird!" she cried, "turn back! turn back!"

"What for?" inquired Mr. Coventry.

"We shall meet with trouble else. One magpie! and right athwart us too."

"What nonsense!" said Grace.

"Nay, nay, it is not; Squire knows better. Wait just one minute, till
I speak to Squire." She sprang from the carriage with one bound, and,
holding up her dress with one hand, ran into the house like a lapwing.

"The good, kind, silly thing!" said Grace Carden.

Jael soon found Mr. Raby, and told him about the magpie, and begged him
to come out and order them back.

But Mr. Raby smiled, and shook his head. "That won't do. Young ladies
and gentlemen of the present day don't believe in omens."

"But you do know better, sir. I have heard father say you were going
into Hillsborough with him one day, and a magpie flew across, and father
persuaded you to turn back."

"That is true; he was going in to buy some merino sheep, and I to
deposit my rents in Carrington's bank. Next day the bank broke. And the
merino sheep all died within the year. But how many thousand times does
a magpie cross us and nothing come of it? Come, run away, my good girl,
and don't keep them waiting."

Jael obeyed, with a sigh. She went back to her party--they were gone.
The carriage was just disappearing round a turn in the road. She looked
at it with amazement, and even with anger. It seemed to her a brazen act
of bad faith.

"I wouldn't have believed it of her," said she, and went back to the
house, mortified and grieved. She did not go to Mr. Raby again; but he
happened to catch sight of her about an hour afterward, and called
to her--"How is this, Jael? Have you let them go alone, because of a
magpie?" And he looked displeased.

"Nay, sir: she gave me the slip, while I went to speak to you for her
good; and I call it a dirty trick, saving your presence. I told her I'd
be back in a moment."

"Oh, it is not her doing, you may be sure; it is the young gentleman. He
saw a chance to get her alone, and of course he took it. I am not
very well pleased; but I suppose she knows her own mind. It is to be a
mar