-perhaps that he had twice stolen it,-as that he had stolen the oil of cinnamon. No one believed in the possibility of his innocence, except our friend Willy.

Down with

and the panthers, of this forest.
you, sir! Do not cling around me in this
manner! Let go my sash, or I will cut away
those little hands! What noise is that? Off
with you, I say!"

And, frightened at some real or imaginary noise, Gatura dashed the struggling child to the earth and rode rapidly away, leaving, in the boy's hands, the shawl sash, by which he had hung so tightly, and which had been folded, after the oriental fashion, round the waist of the Malay. A small packet dropped from it-it was the lost pearl!

Hungry and bewildered as he was, the stout

The boy and his father returned to Negumbo; and, in a little while, the colonel was called away on service; and Mrs. Pemberton being in delicate health, Willy was left much to the care of Gatura, who spared no pains in his endeavour to win the favour of the lively and spirited boy. He constructed a pad, on which to take him before him on a blood horse, belonging to the colonel, and carried him every day upon some excursion to the cocoa groves (or topes,) or the dreary forests which sur-hearted boy lost neither his courage nor his rounded their habitation. One day he took him to see the manner in which wild elephants are caught; and Willy was delighted with the sagacity and affection displayed by one of the tame ones, who, apparently recognising an old companion in the largest of those that had been ensnared, actually opened the fastenings of the gate for the release of his friend;thus showing, although enslaved himself, his sens of the value of freedom. Willy was enchanted; and, on Gatura's dwelling upon the grandeur and interest of a buffalo hunt, never ceased importuning the Malay to afford him that gratification.

One fine morning, accordingly, they set forth professedly to witness this remarkable spectacle. The high-bred steed carried them rapidly through the cocoa tope, into the very depth of the forest. No sign appeared of the hunters; but, pleased with the beauty of the scenery, the golden rays of the sun darting through the shaddock and the tamarind, and resting on the beautiful fruit of the jamboe, and amused by the variety of bright-coloured birds and gorgeous butterflies, the boy took no note of the distance. At last, as the day advanced, the claims of hunger began to be felt, and he intimated to Gatura his desire to return home. "Home!" said the Malay, in the low accent of bitter hate; "you never shall return. Do you remember the day-you, child as you are, may forget; but, on my memory that day is burnt in characters of fire-when for strik ing this horse, ay, this very horse, as Colonel Pemberton, my master, your father, was pleased to think over hard, he snatched the whip from my hand, and struck me, ay, lashed me with it, as if I had been a beast? I grasped the crease in my bosom; but that would have been a brief and common vengeance. I have waited for such revenge as may endure; and now my hour is come. You, too, young sir! you were pleased to read out of some story-book, to your mother, that pearls might be hidden in the mouth; that stripping the dress, and searching the person, was no security against a skilful thief! Home you shall never come to tell your father that tale, unless, indeed, you can win your way through the beasts and reptiles, the snakes

presence of mind. He pocketed the precious jewel, plucked the unripe fruits to appease the cravings of appetite, and tried, with all his might, to retrace the way by which he had come, and to turn back to his home; but, far beyond his own knowledge, he only plunged deeper and deeper into the forest. He avoided, however, with remarkable boldness and sagacity, the frequent dangers from snakes and wild animals, took refuge under a talipot-tree from a storm, which sent the shrieking flormouse to the same friendly shelter; and at night, remembering that the Cinglese sometimes constructed their habitations for security on the branches of trees, he climbed the tall trunk of the cocoa to sleep.

What was the agony of the bereaved mother during that long and solitary night! Gatura had not returned, and, wholly unsuspicious of his treachery, she imagined that some fatal accident had happened to him and to his charge. Messenger after messenger did she despatch in every direction; Colonel Pemberton was recalled; and every means taken that the most anxious affection could dictate, to recover the missing child.

He, meanwhile, wandered on, subsisting on wild fruits by day, and sleeping in trees by night, until he had nearly reached the boundaries of Candy. He, too, poor child, was heart-sick and home-sick. The high courage which he inherited from his father, roused at the approach of danger; but at other moments, foot-sore, weary, bruised by falls, and torn by bushes, his spirits flagged, and his strength was exhausted. One day, as he was passing by some brush-wood, which half concealed the entrance to a low cavern, a furious buffalo came bellowing up a track in the forest, and, pausing for an instant, lowered his head to attack the child. Another moment, and Willy would have been gored by his horns, or tossed into the air; but a man rushed from the cavern, and, seizing the child with one arm, with the other flung a piece of cloth (part of his own garments) over the head of the buffalo, blinding him, and entangling his horns, so that the boy and his preserver had time to retreat into the cave, the entrance to which was too low to admit the enraged animal.

Willy was saved; and, turning to thank the friend to whose boldness and address he owed his life, he burst into tears of delight, clapped his little hands together, and shouted, "Vinna! dear, dear Vinna!"

Three days after this, Vinna, bending in respectful salutation, with his arms folded upon his bosom, stood in the presence of the beautiful wife of the Candian king. She listened to his little story, and listened pityingly, for she was a woman and a mother. She promised, with the grace of conscious power, and nobly did she redeem her promise, to redress all Vinna's grievances, whether as regarded the oil of cinnamon, which she justly suspected Gatura to have stolen, or the pearl; and with regard to that pearl of pearls, the noble boy Willy, she made it her first business, her first pleasure, to send him home to his distracted parents, laden with presents, and accompanied by his brave preserver, the faithful Cinglese.

Her fair companion, the high-born and graceful Jessy Stewart, who, startled, as Agnes had truly said, at the sudden sound of Allan Macdonald's gun, had been standing in some dismay behind her friend, now that the shock was passed, advanced smilingly, and found a seat upon the bank beside her.

"How fond you are, Agnes, of that huge dog! What would the exquisites who hover ed round you in London and in Paris say, if they saw you in full dress, too, not as I am, snooded and plaided like a Highland lassie, with your jewelled hand resting upon that shaggy head, and his long, rough body reclining upon the satin skirt! What would they say to that, my dainty leddy,' as old Annot is wont to call you?"

"And what matters what they say or think, Jessy ?" responded the warm-hearted maiden, kindling into a dignity of youthful beauty and unconscious stateliness, pure, delicate, and graceful as the attitude of a swan upon the mountain or lake, or the station of a doe amongst her native glens. "What care I for the exquisites of Paris or of London? Not half as much as for the mountain posy which you have been collecting-the harebell, and the heather-sprig, and our own elegant and aburdant Scottish rose. What is the worth of a 'wilderness of such 'monkeys,' compared with that of our noble, faithful Öscar? What would be the amount of their services in a whole century, measured with those which be has rendered to us? Why, did you never hear," continued Agnes, observing the surprised look with which her friend regarded ber evident excitement; "Did you never hear of poor Oscar's exploits in the hard winter, five years back? No; you were in Germany at the time: and it was before Allan's attachment and your return of affection (nay, Jessy, a princess would have no cause to blush for loving such a man as my brother;) it was be fore this affiance, so gratifying to us all, had given you a daughter's interest in the affairs of our house. If you are not afraid of a long story, I will tell you why it is that, from the oldest to the youngest, we all consider Oscar, not merely as a noble animal, but as a bene factor and a friend.

"No, Oscar! no; your young master is deer-stalking to-day. Don't you hear the gun, which has startled Jessy so wofully? He does not want you just now, Oscar. His view, before firing that startling gun, which, wo is me! will have more than frightened the poor, pretty deer; for Allan is such a shot, that he seldom misses his aim,-his view, before he frightened Jessy, and awakened the echoes and brought down the red deer with that sudden shot, was to creep towards them quietly and stealthily. He does not want the good hound, Oscar, to-day! Oscar must stay with his mistress." And as the lovely Agnes Macdonald spoke coaxingly these coaxing words, her small, fair hand thrown around Oscar's "You know the pride and delight of our neck, as he stood beside her, the noble animal family, my little sister, Jean; but you did not looked up in her face with his bright intelli- know the beloved and venerable relative, my gent eyes, delighting in the sweetness of the dear and excellent grandfather, of whom shel voice, comprehending, or seeming to com- was, from the moment she could totter across prehend, the meaning of the words, and ac- the room, climb into his lap, and hang prat quiescing most contentedly in her decision. tling round his neck, the prime pet and faThere was, certainly, no great hardship in vourite. He doted upon the sturdy, hardy, merstanding at the side of Agnes Macdonald, the ry little girl, with her joyous smile, and her joybeautiful and the kind; and with looks that ous temper, so fearless, open, frank, and kind: spoke, as plainly as looks could speak, his af- and she, in her turn, idolised the fine, cheerfection and his gratitude, her honest and faithful, benevolent old man, her most alert playful favourite (somewhat of the largest and roughest for a lady's pet,) lay down in calm and quiet happiness at her feet.

mate, and most indulgent friend! Oh! how they loved each other! And what a picture it was to see them together! He, at nearly

6

eighty, still upright, robust and vigorous in good hound, Oscar, bounding on before them. form, with a regular, oval countenance, high, He had an innocent pride in dropping in with noble features, hazel eyes, bright and keen as Jeanie in his hand at houses at a considerable a falcon's, a mouth of feminine sweetness, a distance, particularly at the residences of his fine open forehead, a magnificent bald head, daughters and grandchildren (for his daughters, and long curling hair, as white as the snow on older than my father, an only son, and early Ben Nevis, contrasting with his clear, ruddy married, had scattered his descendants over complexion, the very hue of a ripe peach. Oh, the country), and replying, with a chuckling what a sight it was to see that beautiful old glee, when questioned about horses and serinan, so full of health, and life, and glee, and vants, that he had walked; that he left such kindliness, tossing about that rosy, laughing effeminacies as coaches and flunkies to those child with the activity of youth! never weary who needed them, and was ready to dance a of humouring her pretty fancies, and even go-reel with the youngest lassie present; and it ing beyond her in innocent mirth, and fun, should go hard but he would tire her down: and frolic. How Jeanie loved him! How and Jeanie hersel' will keep it up with any we all loved him, the dear and venerable man! lad of her inches; won't you, Jeanie?' and so generous and frank, so open-hearted and the vaunt would end by the good old man guileless himself, so unsuspicious of guile in tossing Jeanie upon his shoulder, and cutting others; so full of honourable thoughts and the Highland fling to his own music. This disinterested and affectionate feelings! How was his delight: a ball was nothing without proud we all were of a relative, whose cheer- his presence. If you had but seen the nod ful and venerable age accorded so well with and the wink, the fulness of his glee, the his virtuous and active youth! The South- overflow of his good-humour, his archness in rons, estimating little except the conventional suspecting, and sagacity in detecting which benefits of wealth or station, are apt to sneer lad and lassie would like to come together for at our pride of ancestry; and perhaps we may the dance; ay, and sometimes for longer than a little overvalue that mere string of names, the dance! How he would reconcile old feuds, that long roll of parchment, a pedigree; but a and cement new friendships; ay, and how he progenitor like Sir Allan Macdonald, or as he would use the influence of age, and character, preferred to be called, Kilburnie,-a living ex- and property, even to the very stretch of his ample of all that is true, and just, and honour- interest, to smooth difficulties, and turn dim able, and kind, cannot be too highly appre- and distant wishes into present realities! ciated. His family, his clansmen, his very Many a hopeful youth has owed his prosperity, countrymen, were proud of the good old man, many a gentle maiden her happiness, to the whose sweet and genial temperament diffused unwearied benevolence of the kind and merry gaiety and happiness around him. He was a Sir Allan. blessing to the whole country. You will be a happy woman, Jessy, if my dear brother, the heir of his estates and his name, should (as Heaven grant he may) fulfil the promise of his youth, and inherit also the frank and winning virtues to which his grand father owed his extensive and remarkable popularity.

"Sir Allan being a widower, and my mother a widow, she and her three children, Allan, Jeanie, and myself, lived with him at Kilburnie; Jeanie, younger than either of us by ten years, and a posthumous child, being, as I have said, his companion; whilst Oscar, then in his prime, whom my grandfather, still a keen sportsman, valued above all greyhounds for his speed (if my venerable kinsman, in his universal candour and charity, had a prejudice, it was against the sleek, high-bred, fine-limbed dogs, which form the pride of the southern courser, and Oscar had won a cup from a round dozen of competitors from Newmarket, brought on purpose to oppose him), and whom Jeanie delighted in for his gamesomeness, was the constant attendant of their long rambles. In spring, summer, autumn, and winter, in every season, and in all weathers, would the active old man sally forth with the hardy little girl, sometimes holding him by the hand, or when weary carried in his arms, and the

"One Christmas he went to Glenmore, accompanied, as usual, by Jeanie and Oscar, to keep the birth-day of his favourite daughter, Lady Macleod. My brother was detained at home by a slight indisposition; and the weather was so severe, that my mother, always delicate, was afraid to venture, I myself being too young for parties of any kind. Sir Allan had fixed to return on New Year's Eve, the succeeding day being always one of high festivity at Kilburnie, the servants and neighbours dining in the great hall, and the whole castle being alive with feasting and jollity. It was an occasion on which we felt that he would be very unwilling to absent himself, and yet the day fixed for his return was so tremendous, that we took for granted Lady Macleod would detain her honoured guest at Glenmore. Snow had fallen during the whole of the preceding night, accompanied by a drifting wind, so that to send carriages and horses was impracticable; every vestige of the road, a wild mountain-track, at the best, was impassable, or my brother would have gone under pretence of fetching Jeanie; for we all knew well, that the only shade that ever crossed the brightness of our dear grandfather's countenance, was occasioned by his suspicion of being taken care of,-an affront which the