and others who were only concerned--but most of them absconded,
so that the company and their plans were broken up.

When Alonzo and Edgar returned home and related their adventure, they
were all surprised at the fortitude of Melissa in being enabled to
support her spirits in a solitary mansion, amidst such great, and so
many terrors.

It was now that Alonzo turned his attention to future prospects. It was
time to select a place for domestic residence. He consulted Melissa, and
she expressively mentioned the little secluded village, where

"Ere fate and fortune frown'd severe,"

they projected scenes of connubial bliss, and planned the structure of
their family edifice. This intimation accorded with the ardent wishes of
Alonzo. The site formerly marked out, with an adjoining farm, was
immediately purchased, and suitable buildings erected, to which Alonzo
and Melissa removed the ensuing summer.

The clergyman of the village having recently died in a _good old age_,
Edgar was called to the pastoral charge of this unsophisticated people.
Here did Melissa and Alonzo repose after the storms of adversity were
past. Here did they realize all the happiness which the sublunary hand
of time apportions to mortals. The varying seasons diversified their
joys, except when Alonzo was called with the militia of his country,
wherein he bore an eminent commission, to oppose the enemy; and this was
not unfrequent, as in his country's defence he took a very conspicuous
part. Then would anxiety, incertitude, and disconsolation possess the
bosom of Melissa, until dissipated by his safe return. But the happy
termination of the war soon removed all cause of these disquietudes.

Soon after the close of the war, Alonzo received a letter from his
friend, Jack Brown, dated at an interior parish in England,--in which,
after pouring forth abundance of gratitude, he informed, that on
returning to England he procured his discharge from the navy, sold his
house, and removed into the country, where he had set up an inn with the
sign of _The Grateful American_. "You have made us all happy, said he;
my dear Poll blubbered like a fresh water sailor in a hurricane, when I
told her of your goodness. My wife, my children, all hands upon deck are
yours. We have a good run of business, and are now under full sail, for
the land of prosperity."

Edgar married to one of the Miss Simpsons, whose father's seat was in
the vicinity of the village. The parent