dreadful?--But what's that?"

Somebody was knocking at the door.

"What's wanted?" said ANN.

"It's your minister as has come, mum," said TEDDY, from the outside.
"What word shall I give him?"

"Tell him I shan't want him," said ANN.

In a few minutes TEDDY came back.

"He says, mum, as he won't go without marryin' somebody, or a gittin'
his pay anyway, for it's a nice buryin' job as he's lost by comin'."

"But," said ANN, "I can't--" She hesitated, and seemed to form a sudden
resolution. "Tell him," she continued, "tell him--"

(To be continued.)

* * * * *

BIOGRAPHICAL.


There was an agriculturist, philosopher, and editor,
Who thought the world his debtor and himself, of course, its creditor;
A man he was of wonderful vitup'rative fertility,
Though seeming an embodiment of mildness and docility,