lady with the gloves and jewellery is putting
Bridget, Mrs. Pendleton's nurse, through her
catechism. This morning, says she, ' Your
mistress is a widder, ain't she, Bridget?' 'If
she is,' said Biddy, ' she's got a husband that
any widdy might be proud of.' ' Where is
he, Bridget?' 'Across the say, he is, ma'am.'
' What's the name of the place where you
are to meet him?' ' It is somewhere
forenenst New York, but I can't remember, where
I have not been.' 'But you have heard the
name of the place?' ' Haven't I, now! And
I'll ask Mrs. Pendleton, and tell her you are
wanting to know.' ' Oh no, Bridget, she will
think I am full of curiosity.' ' But she likes to
be noticed, and to have the childer noticed.'
' No doubt of that, and she gets plenty of
notice. Do you think it's right, Bridget, for a
lady who is away from her husband to have so
much attention from gentlemen?' ' The bishop
is like a father intirely; and as to the captain,
we are all under his care.' ' But everybody is
attentive to her, Bridget. She has a crowd of
admirers. I've even heard some of 'em say she's
pretty.' ' When there is a crowd in the street at
night I always feel safe,' said Bridget. That girl's
a trump," remarked Jeremiah, for the second or
third time; and we adjourned to the deck.

It was a brilliant day; what Jeremiah called
"Yankee weather." The sky was intensely
blue, and the air seemed full of powdered gold.
We were sailing up the bay of New York, and
ought to have been in high spirits; but deeds of
darkness, petty and gigantic wrong, suffering,
death, widowhood, and orphanage, appeared to
lie a miserable weight on every heart. The
external world was grandly beautiful. The bay
one of the noblest on the earth; the country
on either side burdened with wealth and
brightened with beauty. Villages reaching
onward to cities, and cities melting into each other.
Beautiful Staten Island was on our left, with
its lovely cottages nestling in gardens, and its
castle-like villas surrounded by parks and grand
old trees. As we neared New York, Fort
Lafayette, the political Bastille, frowned before us.

I swept the horizon with my glass, wondering
and admiring, until I became conscious of a
little bustle on the deck. I looked around.
Mrs. Pendleton had fainted in the arms of her
maid; the bishop clutched a prayer-book in one
hand, and with the other sprinkled water in
her face. She revived after a little time, and
was supported into the cabin.

A group was left standing together. It
consisted of Avery and his wife, and Jeremiah.
They showed rebel colours, for Grierson was
red, Avery was white, and his wife was blue.

"Avery," said Jeremiah, in a low concentrated
tone, " you and I know one another. It
is of no use to threaten when you can stab, and
I shan't do it. You and your wife must haul
in your horns. For aught you know, this poor
lady has come over here to meet her husband
when the boat's nose touches the shore. But
suppose he is in Charleston, as you say, is his
wife to blame for it? Poor little English girl,
is she to be blamed or killed for our quarrels?"

"A wife has no separate existence from her
husband. She is of his country," said the spy.
"I know no difference between male and female
rattlesnakes."

"Not if they'll sell for just as much a
head," said Jeremiah. " But just you move
to sell her, Bill Avery, and I'll fix your flint!
I will! l am a Seward man, and Seward trusts
me. I hain't been his spy, and I hain't sold guns
and ships to the South while I was being spy.
If I can't send as much over the wires to-night
as you can, my name ain't Grierson, and I ain't
as honest as you are mean and double—"

"Do settle this dreadful business," whispered
the blue wife to her white husband.

"'Tain't my business, Saree. I did not look in
the prayer-book. I should never a thought on't."

"There's nothing to settle," said Jeremiah,
quietly, " only you will just both hold up your
hands, and swear that you will let that poor soul
go in peace, that you will not molest her any
more than if she was in heaven where she
belongs, and you in the place where you
belong. You needn't look around. Nobody
sees us. Everybody has got business of their
own. Now hold up your hands." They did so,
and Jeremiah swore them both. When the oath
was administered, he said, " Now, if you break
this oath, you will have me to deal with in
this world, and the devil in the next. I do
not think there will be much to choose
between us. He may have a cloven foot, but I
can kick as hard as if I had one."

The male and female Avery slunk away, and I
met Jeremiah by himself.

"What is all this?" I asked.

"It's all about a prayer-book and Jezebel.
Mrs. Pendleton had been making her
thanks-giving, I suppose, for getting safe over the big
pond, and that she-spy somehow got hold of her
prayer-book, and read, 'Mary Pitt Pendleton,
from her affectionate husband, Harry Lee Pendleton,
Charleston, S.C.' When Mrs. Pendleton
looked for the book, Jezebel gave it her, and
said, as spiteful as a wasp, 'Here it is, and I
only hope you ain't intendin to go where this
come from; if you be, I take it you may be
hindered.' The poor lady fainted away, and
when she came to, I saw her put her handkerchief
to her mouth, and it was presently stained
with blood. I have got off fugitive slaves more
than once, but I never pitied any one as much
as I pity this poor lady with her two babies;
and her husband may be in hospital, or may be
buried in a trench."

"What will Avery do?"

"Nothing while his hands are in my steel
trap; but there's work for me ahead, and
perhaps a most tremenjus muss. I shall stick to
the higher law, and you'll see who'll win. When
the devil is to pay, I always have pitch hot.
Where's my dorg?"