Don't you?" he said disconsolately. "You forget that I am country born and bred. I should miss the sight of the fields and all the beasts and cattle about dreadfully."

"H'm! what is to be done, I wonder?" "Isn't there anything to be done here?" she asked. "They don't all seem to be so tremendously good, somehow."

The rector had

felt much less secure.
either no satisfaction to give, or he was
determined not to give it to her; and as
for Georgy, she could get nothing from
her but a continual "No, no."

It was quite refreshing to meet old Blunt, and together rail out against their two children.

Christopher and Robin had been gone nearly a month. They had left Sevenoaks, where they had first stopped, and were now at Whitby, hoping that Robin might be benefited by the sea.

"Into which she might fall, for all I should care," said Mr. Blunt candidly.

"It isn't that they're by any means good, but they're offended if you tell them so. They would think it presumptuous to feel secure of heaven, but you insult them by the mere suggestion of" By that marriage, ma'am" - he was hell. Hell is a place for those who outrage society who break the laws are sent to prison. The outcasts at Uplands are those whom you should speak to about hell, not to Wadpole and its respectable inhabitants isn't it true,

now?"

"Yes, I'm afraid it is; but then Uplands isn't a separate parish, you know."

"It might be made so at any time. All you want is somebody to rebuild the church, and give something to further endow it with the consent of the rector, of course that you know."

"And where's that somebody to come from, pray?"

"Ah, that's the question;" and he shook his head.

“Very well, then," said Georgy, by way of teasing him; they had come to the end of the cross-roads, the spot where they intended parting. "Then there's a thing for you to wish for; only bring that to pass, and I'll believe in you."

"And marry me at once, and work with me? All right; then you'll see."

"It will be all right when I do see," she said disbelievingly; and then, after a few words of good-bye, they turned away from each other Mr. Cameron to make some sick-calls, Georgy to return home and listen to those never-ending jeremiads and jobations, of which she was daily growing more and more weary.

imparting this information to Mrs. Temple- "I've lost a son and I haven't gained a daughter. Indeed, to tell the truth, what I have gained would be hard to say. She hadn't got no money; didn't come of, as you may say, anybody in partikler; and there's no sign o' family - no likelihoods of it neither, so far as I can see." Mrs. Temple agreed there was reason for his dissatisfaction. "They've taken themselves off from here, and I'm left all alone by myself, high and dry, with nobody to see and nobody to speak

to."

“Oh, that is really very hard on you, Mr. Blunt."

"Hard-it is indeed! it's more than I can go on putting up with, too. I haven't been used to live without company. I've had two wives already, and if they don't mind their p's and q's I shall be drove into taking another; and then Mrs. Christopher had better look out for herself, for matters might take a turn which 'ud end in putting her husband's nose out o' joint."

"Oh, it's terrible," said Mrs. Temple sympathetically, "the way children behave! You know, Mr. Blunt, I have a daughter."

"I know you have, ma'am; and all I can say is, I wish your daughter was mine that I do."

66

Oh, it's very kind of you!" and Mrs. Temple tried not to speak too condescendingly; "but my daughter is so very pecul iar, that I am not at all sure, if the Prince of Wales had made her an offer, whether she would not have said no. Young ladies who can refuse to make such a marriage as she might have made, I don't know what one may not expect of them."

Her mother let her have no peace. Jack's sudden departure served for the continual dripping on the stone. Unless it had been to propose, why, the morning of his departure, had he come up to seek Georgy? and if she had not refused him, what reason was there for his going away? With the view of securing the sympathy of her neighbors, Mrs. Temple, when before them, pointed all her "You don't think it's got in no way to famentations with certainty; but in pres- do with your curate, Mr. Cameron, do ence of her husband and daughter she | you?"

"No, I don't," said Mrs. Temple | said, regarding the letter wrathfully; "if sharply.

Mr. Blunt felt he had made a mistake, and hastened to say,

"Where might the squire be gone to?" "To Norway."

"Norway! h'm! There it is, you see; another man drove from his home. Oh, it's a very serious matter, I can tell you; for unless things can be arranged, and I can bring my son to his senses, I shan't be able to go on staying here neither.

they choose to chalk out their own way, let 'em take it. I shan't interfere."

So the letter remained unanswered. Later on, before going to Whitby, Christopher wrote again. No reply came. Only through Mr. Cameron they heard that Mr. Blunt had shut up the house and left for London.

From Blackwood's Magazine.

SON.

A CAREER OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

Mr. Blunt's mode of bringing his son to his senses rested entirely on the power LIEUTENANT-COLONEL PATRICK FERGUhe possessed of withholding the necessary supplies of money. Brought up in the certainty that whatever he wanted he could have, Christopher's expenditure had only been limited by his very simple tastes and habits. His father made it a matter of reproach that he wouldn't spend | money like a gentleman, and it was with a certain degree of satisfaction, that Mr. Blunt had noticed how greatly since his marriage Christopher's ideas had expanded.

"HAD Cleopatra's nose been but a trifle shorter, how different might have been the destiny of the world!" is a wellknown remark of Pascal's; and at least one incident in the experience of the almost forgotten individual whose name heads this article might afford food for somewhat similar reflections. The sword that menaced Damocles hung on a So long as they remained where their hair, and on the fate of comparatively obneighbors could be dazzled by it, nothing scure persons have sometimes turned the was too costly for them to have, to do, to fortunes of nations. Some years ago, wear; but away from Wadpole, Mr. Blunt the pages of "Maga" contained a sketch in one place, Christopher and Robin in of Sir Banastre Tarleton, the famous paranother, the whole circumstances were tisan, whose exploits furnished the negro changed. Not only did he derive no sat-nurses of the Carolinas with a name of isfaction from the money they were spending, but he had the knowledge that they enjoyed it the more because he had no share in it.

In a letter written on their departure, Christopher had firmly but most considerately told him, how impossible it was that they all should remain living under one roof together. On the score of his health he expressed the wish to leave England for the winter, and he implored his father to allow further arrangements to stand over until they came back; then they would meet and come to some final decision together.

But of late years, Mr. Blunt had not been a man to listen to reason. He who had made his fortune; who, by his own energy, had climbed rung by rung until he found himself standing on the top step of the ladder, be dictated to by his son, put down and set at naught by that Veriker's daughter- he no longer thought of Robin as his daughter-in-law - never! It was she who had dictated this; she who had put Christopher up to defying his father; and it was she who should be paid out for it.

"I won't take no notice of that," he

terror, as effective for quieting troublesome children as that of Richard Coeurde-Lion was found to be by the Saracen women of the days of the Crusaders, or the Black Douglas's by English mothers of the northern marches. That notice of Tarleton we now propose to supplement by a short survey of the career of his equally dashing companion, Colonel Ferguson, who, unlike him, laid down his life on the scene of their combined efforts and achievements. The story is an interesting one, for it gives a picture of the life which might be led by a younger son of a Scottish family in the eighteenth century, and shows that even in what we are accustomed to consider as the artificial age and jaded generation on which there shortly burst the deluge of the French Revolution, it was possible to illustrate the truth so well expressed by Lord Beaconsfield, that "to believe in the heroic makes heroes."

Patrick Ferguson, who was born in 1744, was the second son of an Aberdeenshire laird, James Ferguson of Pitfour, and Anne Murray, a daughter of the fourth Lord Elibank. His elder brother became in later years an attached sup

porter and boon companion of the younger Pitt, representing his native county in the Tory interest for thirty years. Their father had followed the legal profession, and after being for some time dean of the Faculty of Advocates, was in 1764 raised to the Scottish bench as Lord Pitfour. A good story is told of him, which manifests the same readiness of resource as was in widely different circumstances displayed by his son. When the unfortunate followers of Prince Charles Edward were put on their trial at Carlisle before an English jury, Ferguson and his friend Lockhart went up from Edinburgh for the defence. The panic in England had been great, and the severity of the jurors was commensurate. The tartan was a sure passport to conviction, and those who wore it got but short trial. The two advocates determined on a bold stroke, dressed up one of their servants in Highland dress, and sent him in with the next batch of prisoners. The case for the Crown went on as satisfactorily as in the other instances, but they were of course able to prove conclusively that the man had been attending to his duties with his master during the whole rising, and could not possibly have been "out." The artifice is said to have had a very salutary result in influencing all concerned to be more discriminating and merciful.

"I left orders to send Petty Ferguson to the accadamy at Wolich: I hope it was done. I mean to push him in my own profession. I am sure, if I live, I shall have it in my power; and if I die, it will not be the worse for him that I had the care of him." The auspices were good; and the time-that annus mirabilis in which the imperial policy of Chatham was illustrated by victories and conquests in every quarter of the globe was an inspiring one for a young soldier entering on his career.

--

Young Ferguson, according to his biog rapher, "having early chosen the life of a soldier, was sent to finish his education at a military academy in London, where he acquired the elements of fortification, gunnery, and other arts subservient to his intended profession. Of these he afterwards pursued the study in real situations in action as well as on paper; and was sagacious, original, and inventive in the application of expedients to actual service. . . . Those who associate ferocity with the military character will hardly believe in what degree a person so fond of of the military life was humane and compassionate to his enemies, as well as affectionate and generous in his friendships." He certainly proved himself in later life to be a scientific soldier as well as a brave officer; but one would scarcely think that he could have obtained much There is in existence a brief but inter- practical knowledge at this academy, as esting biographical sketch of Colonel he was only fourteen years old when he Ferguson, written by Dr. Adam Fergus- got his first commission in the Royal son, the eminent historian of the Roman North British Dragoons- the famous republic. It was originally intended for Scots Greys. With them he served the "Encyclopædia Britannica," but the through some of the German campaigns, editor thought it too long, the author and two episodes are recorded which would not curtail it, and it was not in-illustrate his spirit. The first occurred serted. A few copies were printed in 1817, and it is from one of them that we take most of the incidents we are about to narrate.

An interesting glimpse into the influ ences which helped to form his character, is afforded by a letter printed by Dr. Fraser in his work on the Earls of Cromarty. It is from a brother of his mother, Brigadier-General James Murray, who was known in after years as "old Minorca," from his gallant defence of that island against the combined forces of France and Spain, and who at this time had just succeeded the gallant Wolfe in command of the army which had triumphed on the Heights of Abraham. He dates from Quebec, Oct. 11, 1759," and after observing that he had too great a share in the battle to condescend to particulars, says:

in Germany before he had completed his
sixteenth year. He and another young
officer were out on horseback a few miles
in front of the army, when they fell in with
a party of the enemy's hussars, who gave
chase. In passing a ditch, Ferguson
dropped one of his pistols; "but thinking
it improper for an officer to return to
camp with the loss of any of his arms, he
releaped the ditch in the face of the ene-
my, and recovered his pistol." They
halted, and he completed his retreat in
safety and with honor. The next occurred
at Paris some years after. An officer in
the French service "spoke reproach fully
in his presence of the British nation. The
insult he not only resented on the spot,
but surprised his antagonist next morning
with a visit before he was out of bed.
"This is well, young man,' said the other;

'I have paid such visits-seldom re- | ties of action, he regarded with attention ceived them but it is fair to tell you that the aspect of affairs; and the outbreak of I am reputed one of the best swordsmen war with the revolted colonies found him in France. That is not the question intent on the invention of a new species now,' said Ferguson; 'you are in my of rifle, with which to counteract the sudebt-let us find a fit place to settle our periority as marksmen of the American accounts.' They accordingly went to the backwoodsinen. Curious, that a century Boulevards together; Ferguson consider- ago a breech-loading rifle, which enabled ing how he might deprive this swordsman those armed with it to seize every advanof the advantage of his superior skill, and tage of cover, should have been invented, the other regarding with security and con- brought into use, and then lost sight of. tempt so young an antagonist. As soon American writers note that, during the as they had drawn, Ferguson rushed with- Revolution war, Ferguson's rifle "was in his adversary's point, seized the hilt of used with effect by his corps;" and the his sword, and in the scuffle was so fortu- biographer of Washington says of its innate as to get possession of it. You are ventor: "The British extolled him as a brave fellow,' said the other; and I superior to the American Indians in the shall certainly do you justice whenever use of the rifle in short, as being the best marksman living." An account of our affair is mentioned.'", As, however, has been the case with its exhibition before Lord Townsend, more than one naval and military hero, then master-general of the ordnance, is Ferguson had to struggle with the disad- to be found in the "Annual Register " vantages of a delicate constitution, and he of 1st June, 1776. "Some experiments had scarcely finished his first campaign were tried at Woolwich before Lord Viswhen he was disabled by sickness, and count Townsend, Lord Amherst, Generals after being some time in hospital, was Hervey and Desaguiliers, and a number sent home when in a state to be removed. of other officers, with a rifle-gun, upon a He did not himself take so serious a view new construction, by Captain Ferguson of his condition, and was anything but of the 70th Regiment; when that gentleresigned to circumstances. Writing to man, under the disadvantages of a heavy a friend, he said: "I am now entirely rain and a high wind, performed the fol recovered, and might serve the next cam-lowing four things, none of which had paign with ease, had not the fears of my parents prompted them to apply for an order for my joining the light troop; by which means I am deprived for these many years to come of the only chance of getting a little insight into my profession." But though not in the field, he was by no means idle. "Being much at home," we are told, "from the year 1762 to the year 1768, he entered warmly into the question which was then agitated, relating to the extension of the militia laws to Scotland. He saw no difficulty in combining the character of a soldier with that of a citizen, so far as was necessary for the defence of a country in which citizens enjoy such invaluable privileges; and some of the ablest and most intelligent publications which appeared in the public prints of the time were of his writing."

In 1768, a company was purchased for him in the 70th Regiment, and he joined his detachment at Tobago, where "he was of great service in quelling very formidable insurrections of the negroes." In the West Indies, however, he suffered much from bad health, and after a short visit to North America, returned to Britain in 1774.

Always on the outlook for opportuni

ever before been accomplished with any other small arm: Ist, he fired during four or five minutes at a target, at two hundred yards' distance, at the rate of four shots each minute; 2d, he fired six shots in one minute; 3d, he fired four times per minute, advancing at the same time at the rate of four miles in the hour; 4th, he poured a bottle of water into the pan and barrel of the piece when loaded, so as to wet every grain of powder, and in less than half a minute fired with her as well as ever without extracting the ball. He also hit the bull's-eye at one hundred yards, lying with his back on the ground; and notwithstanding the unequalness of the wind and wetness of the weather, he only missed the target three times during the whole course of the experiments. The captain has since taken out a patent for the said improvements."

The invention attracted a good deal of attention, and before long was exhibited before the king at Windsor by some private men of the Guards. But in the presence of majesty the marksmen were shy, "They would not," said and shot wild. the captain, "be so embarrassed in the of presence your Majesty's enemies." Ferguson "then took a rifle himself; and

of nine shots which he fired at the distance of a hundred yards, put five balls into the bull's-eye of the target, and four within as many inches of it. Three of these shots were fired as he lay on his back, the other six standing erect. Being asked how often he could load and fire in a minute, he said seven times ; but added, pleasantly, that he could not undertake in that time to knock down above five of his Majesty's enemies."

wood in front of General Knyphausen's division.

"We had not lain long," he says, "when a rebel officer, remarkable by a hussar dress, passed towards our army, within a hundred yards of my right flank, not perceiving us. He was followed by another dressed in dark green or blue, mounted on a bay horse, with a remarkably large cocked-hat. I ordered three good shots to steal near to them, and fire at them; but the idea disgusted me. I recalled the order. The hussar in returning made a circuit, but the other passed again within a few hundred yards of us, upon which I advanced from the wood towards him. On my calling he stopped, but after looking at me proceeded. I again drew his attention, and made signs to him to stop, levelling my piece at him, but he slowly continued his way. As I was within that distance at which I could

dozen of balls in or about him before he was out of my reach, I had only to determine: but it was not pleasant to fire at the back of an unoffending individual, who was acquitting himself very coolly of his duty; so I let him alone. The day after, I had been telling this story to some wounded officers who lay in the same room with me, when one of our surgeons, who had been dressing the wounded rebel officers, came in, and told us they had been informing him that General Washington was all the morning with the light troops, and only attended by a French officer in a hussar dress, he himself dressed and mounted in every point as above described. I am not sorry that I did not know at the time who it was. Further this deponent sayeth not, as his bones were broke a few minutes after."

Now, however, he was to enter upon that scene of action where his greenest laurels were gathered, and where, in course of time, his life was to be laid down. He volunteered for service in America, and obtained special instructions to the commander-in-chief to have a corps of volunteers drafted from the various regiments, armed in his own way, and put under his command. He thus had an opportunity of independent action, so dear to every aspiring spirit, and particu-in the quickest firing have lodged half-alarly prized by the soldier, who, in ordinary circumstances, would see nothing before him for a long time to come but the weary routine of regimental duty. "He gave," it is said, "a signal specimen of the services of his corps at the battle of Brandywine, when, being advanced in the front of the column commanded by General Knyphausen, and supported by the Rangers under Colonel Wemyss, he scoured the ground so effectually that there was not a shot to annoy the column in its march." His practical genius and scientific study of the art of war led him to excel in these very branches of military skill on which most stress is laid nowadays in the changed condition of modern warfare. But although his "spirited conduct" was acknowledged in a special letter from the commander-in-chief, Sir William Howe was jealous of the rifle corps having been formed without his being previously consulted, and took advantage of Ferguson's being wounded, to reduce it and return the rifles to store. When, on receipt of the London Gazette, it appeared that Sir William Howe had, in his official despatch, ignored the services for which he had sent the letter of thanks, Ferguson immediately forwarded a copy of that document to the secretary of state.

But before leaving the battle of Brandywine, an episode of peculiar interest must be noted, which more than justifies the observation made at the outset. Ferguson, in a letter home, thus narrates an incident which took place while he lay with some of his riflemen on the skirts of a

What might have been the course of American and European history, had this captain of riflemen been less chivalrous or more practical, it is impossible to imagine; but the story is a romantic one, and the legal phrase which concludes Ferguson's narrative of it, is suggestive of old Edinburgh associations, and his father's conversation, who had died at Gilmerton scarcely three months before.

He had "received a ball in the right arm, which so shattered the joint of the elbow as to render it doubtful whether amputation would not be necessary. He was for some months disabled from service, and although he preserved his arm, never recovered the use of that joint; but with a spirit peculiar to himself, so assiduously practised the use of the sword and