Page:Monthly scrap book, for June.pdf/9

Rh head bristled, and the perspiration stood on my forehead! A sigh escaped my lips. He started back, and, seizing the lamp, be placed it near the bedside on a table"he is dreaming," he whispered.

He now placed his left hand firmly on the edge of the bed, and, clasping the knife with the other, stretched it across me. My doom was sealed. I prepared for my fate, when, with an eye that watched every motion, although nearly closed, I saw his hand move from the bed-side and seize a large bacon ham that lay below it, whilst, with the other, he cut off several slices, which he took to the fire-place, and on which, after due preparation, his wife and he supped comfortably together.

After a profound sleep, I arose next morning, and enquired to what amount I was their debtor. "You owe us nothing," they replied, "we are too proud of a stranger visitor in our poor cottage." They, moreover, presented me with rather a bulky parcel, neatly sewed, which, they requested, I would not open, until I arrived at the place of my destination. This, afterwards, proved to be the skin of the snake which the kind couple had spent a great part of the night in preparing for me as a present. I left them with my best wishes, and learned, from my "day's sport in the woods," that, in all circumstances, we should judge charitably of the motives and intentions of mankind, especially when we have no cause to think unfavourably of them besides our own unfounded prejudices and aversions.