es, however, their tithes had been refused for two, and, in
some localities, for nearly three years, although the opposition to
the payment had not for such a length of time assumed the fierce and
implacable spirit which had characterized it during the last twelve
months. These observations will now enable our readers to understand
more clearly the picture with which we are about to present them.

On entering the house of this truly pious and patient pastor, the first
thing that struck you was the sense of vacancy and desolation united. In
other words, you perceived at a glance that everything of any value was
gone. You saw scarcely any furniture--no clock, no piano, no carpeting,
no mahogany chairs or tables, or at least none that were not of absolute
necessity. Feather beds had gone, curtains had gone; and all those
several smaller elegancies which it is difficult, and would be tedious,
to enumerate here. Seated at a breakfast-table, in an uncarpeted parlor,
was the clergyman himself, surrounded by his interesting but afflicted
family. His hair, which, until within the last twelve months, had been
an iron gray, was now nearly white, and his chin was sunk in a manner
that had not, until recently, been usual with him. Servants, male and
female, had been dismissed, and those whose soft, fair hands had
been accustomed only to the piano, the drawing-pencil, or the
embroidery-frame, were now engaged in the coarsest and commonest
occupations of domestic life. Nor were they, too, without their
honorable sacrifices of personal vanity and social pride, to the
calamity that was upon them. Silks and satins, laces and gauzes,
trinkets, unnecessary bonnets and veils, were all cheerfully parted
with; and it was on such occasions that our friend the _Cannie Soogah_
became absolutely a kind of public benefactor. He acted not only in the
character of a pedlar, but in that of a broker; and so generally known
were his discretion and integrity throughout the country, that such
matters were disposed of to him at a far less amount of shame and
suffering than they could have been in any other way.

The family in question consisted of the father, his wife, four
daughters, and three sons; the eldest daughter had been, for some
months, discharging the duty of governess in a family of rank; the
eldest son had just got an appointment as usher in a school near
the metropolis; two circumstances which filled the hearts of this
affectionate family w