Page:Poems Sherwin.djvu/61

 my usual custom when alone, at that meal, I was much surprised on observing the following announcement in the list of marriages:—

"On Saturday last, at the parish church of C, Mr. Thomas Green, of Barnel, to Ruth, daughter of Mr. Brown, of C."

It then went on to say,—

"Immediately after the ceremony, the youthful pair set out for Australia, and were accompanied by several families from that neighbourhood, who had made previous preparations for emigration."

My thoughts naturally turned to Mary Edwards, and I some time afterwards learned that her disgraceful situation had become known in the village, and she was shunned by all her former companions. The trouble which her conduct had brought upon her parents so prayed upon the mind of her mother, that it brought on a nervous fever, from which she never perfectly recovered. Poor girl, she had cause to repent bitterly her folly, and it is to be hoped that her base seducer may yet be brought to repent the anguish which he inflicted on his victims.

Not long after this an event occurred in the village of Barnel which opened the eyes of the inhabitants to the frauds practised on them by the Old Man of the Mountain. A labourer of the name of John Groom was taken seriously ill, and on being visited by the pastor, expressed many