d supper of beefsteak
and fried potatoes ready: there they are smoking hot in the dining-room
this blessed minute; so come and eat."

The deliciousness of that meal I will not attempt to describe, nor the
comfort of the night's rest that followed it. Before separating from our
generous companions we three women (for even the widow came out strong
after the trouble was over) tried to express in some degree our
gratitude for their extreme kindness, but they laughed at the very idea
of any obligation on our side, and declared that the pleasure of our
society had far outweighed the hardships of the journey.

As a fitting sequel to this story I will add that the next morning the
two young gentlemen (one of whom resided in the town which I was
intending to visit, and knew my relations well) hired a sleigh and
invited me to drive across the country to my destination with them. And
about a week after my arrival I was surprised by a visit from the
director, who said that, having business in the county, he had come
twenty miles out of his way to see the little girl who had been so
cheerful and good-humored under so severe a trial of fortitude as was
our railroad disaster among the Pennsylvania hills. I believe that the
noble old gentleman really thought me more deserving of praise than
himself; and I am certain that not one of the three ever considered that
there was anything wonderful in having thus sacrificed their comfort and
risked their health in behalf of three women, insignificant in
themselves and having no claim, not even that of previous acquaintance,
upon their attention and care.

E.

WILLIAM, EARL OF SHELBURNE.

Among the English statesmen of a century ago, William, earl of
Shelburne, seems to us to have a peculiar claim upon the recollection of
citizens of the United States--one, too, that involves none of those
offensive associations that cluster round the names of, let us say,
Grenville and North. For in looking at Lord Shelburne's career we see a
man whose clear-sighted judgment from the first, and consistently,
protested against that system of high-handed imperialism which drove
thirteen reluctant colonies into a war of independence; who both in
office and out of office did his utmost, first to avert, by a policy
never of cowardly concession, but of just expediency, the impending
storm, and then, when it had burst, to withstand and counteract its
fury; and the last great act of whose public lif