comin', you persave. Me!--oh, the Lord that _I was_ able!"

"Very well," replied the other, anxious to rid himself of the pedlar,
"that will do, now. You are, I perceive, one of those good-natured,
speculating creatures, who are anxious to give hope and comfort to every
one. The world has many like you; and it often happens, that when some
good fortune does throw the means of doing good into your power, you
turn out to be a poor, pitiful, miserable crew, without actual heart
or feeling. Goodbye, now. I have no more time to spare--try Dick o' the
Grange himself, and let me know his answer."

So saying, he rang the bell, and our friend the pedlar, by no means
satisfied with the success of his interview, took his leave.

CHAPTER XXIII. -- Darby in Danger--Nature Triumphs.

The mild and gentle Mave Sullivan, with all her natural grace and
unobtrusive modesty, was yet like many of the fair daughters of her
country, possessed of qualities which frequently lie dormant in the
heart until some trying calamity or startling event of more than
ordinary importance, awakens them into life and action. Indeed, any one
in the habit of observing the world, may have occasionally noticed, that
even within the range of his own acquaintances, there has been many a
quiet and apparently diffident girl, without pretence or affectation of
any kind, who when some unexpected and stunning blow has fallen either
upon herself or upon some one within the circle of her affections, has
manifested a spirit so resolute or a devotion so heroic, that she has at
once constituted herself the lofty example whom all admire and endeavor
to follow. The unrecorded calamities of ordinary life, and the annals
of human affection, as they occur from day to day around us, are full of
such noble instances of courage and self sacrifice on the part of woman
for the sake of those who are dear to her. Dear, holy, and heroic woman!
how frequently do we who too often sneer at your harmless vanities
and foibles, forget the light by which your love so often dispels the
darkness of our affliction, and the tenderness with which your delicious
sympathy charms our sorrows and our sufferings to rest, when nothing
else can succeed in giving us one moment's consolation!

The situation of the Daltons, together with the awful blow which fell
upon them at a period of such unexampled misery, had now become the
melancholy topic of conversation among their neighbors, most, if
not