produce an instant effect on the hitherto sedate and listless
countenance of the latter; for, starting to her feet, she stood gazing
at the other with a flashing eye, and listening with the keenest
interest, as some further particulars were added to the communication.

"Are you sure he was not fooling you?" said the mother.

"Very sure," replied the daughter, significantly holding up the Canada
pin.

"Well, Vine," rejoined the former, with the air of one whose
resolution is taken, "you whip back to your post the same way you
came; and see that you keep him here till--say about midnight," she
added, exchanging a meaning glance with the daughter, whose hand was
already on the latch to depart.

No sooner had the intermingling tones of conversation in the other
room apprised the woman that her daughter had there joined the
unsuspecting suitor, than, hastily seizing bonnet and shawl, she
noiselessly left the house and glided out into the road. After
hesitating a moment here, respecting the course she should take,
apparently, she made up to the log-fence enclosing an adjoining field,
threw herself over it with the lightness of a boy, and, striking off
directly west, almost flew over the ground till she reached the
boundaries of their little opening; when she fearlessly plunged into
the dark and pathless recesses of the wood lying between her and the
main road, to which she was evidently directing her course.

"There! just as I told you," muttered Bart, who, inwardly vexed that
the secret he had been hugging, as exclusively his own should be