eing her passing the gate into the lane, he broke out into a low
laugh, and returned again to the fire-place.

"So, I must be a saddler, must I? Ahem! Well! it takes two to play at
that, so we'll see who makes high, low, Jack, and the game this deal.
Hurst was about right when he said things would come to a compass
afore long. Guess they have, but who cares? I reckon I know which side
my bread is buttered!"

Here David White again crossed over to the window, and looked out. His
mother was far away in the lane, and just turning the last pannel of
the garden fence, where the road branched off, and led by the old
mill. Withdrawing from the window, he took a small hand-saw file, and
a rudely fashioned key from his pocket, passed over to the bed, and
lifting the foot-valance, drew out a large and strong oaken chest;
then glancing hurriedly around the room to be sure that no one was
present, he applied the key to the lock. It did not quite fit, but,
after carefully filing and applying it for some time, the bolt turned
in its socket, and the chest stood open before him. In rummaging the
till, he at length discovered the object of his search, a purse of
silver coin, the accumulated gains of months, and placed there by his
mother only a few days previous. This was not her usual depository for
money, but, in the present instance, it had been laid aside until the
absent minister of the village should return, into whose hands she was
accustomed to deliver her spare funds for safe keeping. Laying the
purse by his side, he locked the chest, and having arranged every
thing as nearly as possible as he found it, retired through an
opposite door into his chamber.

"Twenty dollars and a shilling, I think they said," muttered he to
himself. "A good round sum for one evening's work. I wonder if I
hadn't better take mother's fashion, and praise Heaven for it?"

Having entered his chamber, he sat down to count his newly-acquired
treasure, and finding the amount as large as he expected, carefully
deposited it, with the exception of a few dollars, in a leathern belt
around his person. Then assuming his shot-pouch, and flinging his
rifle to his shoulder, he stooped down, and taking a small bundle,
wrapped in a silk handkerchief, from his trunk, retired from the
house, slamming the door violently after him, and walked rapidly on,
until he reached the summit of an eminence near the old moss-grown
mill, which was the last place from which he co