Nor did it lessen the charm of his soft, familiar courtesy and
helpfulness that the mighty spirit, were opportunity offered him,
would run riot through the peaceful house, wrap its inmates in his
terrible embrace, and leave nothing of them save their whitened
bones. This possibility of mad destruction only made his domestic
kindness the more beautiful and touching. It was so sweet of him,
being endowed with such power, to dwell day after day, and one long
lonesome night after another, on the dusky hearth, only now and then
betraying his wild nature by thrusting his red tongue out of the
chimney-top! True, he had done much mischief in the world, and was
pretty certain to do more; but his warm heart atoned for all. He
was kindly to the race of man; and they pardoned his characteristic
imperfections.

The good old clergyman, my predecessor in this mansion, was well
acquainted with the comforts of the fireside. His yearly allowance
of wood, according to the terms of his settlement, was no less than
sixty cords. Almost an annual forest was converted from sound
oaklogs into ashes, in the kitchen, the parlor, and this little
study, where now an unworthy successor, not in the pastoral office,
but merely in his earthly abode, sits scribbling beside an air-tight
stove. I love to fancy one of those fireside days while the good
man, a contemporary of the Revolution, was in his early prime, some
five-and-sixty years ago. Before sunrise, doubtless, the blaze
hovered upon the gray skirts of night and dissolved the frostwork
that had gathered like a curtain over the small window-panes. There
is something peculiar in the aspect of the morning fireside; a
fresher, brisker glare; the absence of that mellowness which can be
produced only by half-consumed logs, and shapeless brands with the