some very bad things of lawyers. Mrs. Forbush went regularly to
Boston to get the fashions and attend the Lowell lectures; Mrs.
Forbush had written a religious novel for the "Olive Branch;" Mrs.
Forbush said, who would have thought of giving such a looking little
creature five dollars and his victuals for lecturing upon such a
subject

The cry of fire without, and the loud peals of an alarm bell,
suddenly threw the town and the tavern into a state of great
excitement. Giles Sheridan stopped short in his discourse, and the
inmates of the house rushed in great agitation into the street. The
alarm spread rapidly, and people began to run in every direction but
the right one. One declared it a false alarm. That it was set on
foot to afford recreation for the mischievous, another was quite
sure. A third was ready to swear he saw the incendiary run down "the
lane." People ran in opposite directions, crying fire. People,
wayward and confused, were endeavoring to persuade one another that
the scene of the fire was not in the direction they were going,
though neither smoke nor flame could be seen in any part of the
town. And while the people were thus confused, an harsh and grating
voice cried out that the fire was down the lane, a narrow pathway
that led from one part of the town to another. The confused figures
of men who had stood contemplating here and there about the square,
now rushed down the lane, and soon came in hearing of moans and
lamentations, which grew louder and louder, as of one in great
distress. "Oh! unworthy sinner that I am, let every man exert
himself to remedy this misfortune!" a stifled voice was heard to cry
out, as a crowd, having gathered round a pit, where some workmen had
been digging for a well, discovered no less a person at the bottom,
half buried in sand and water, than Major Roger Potter. "Peace, good