A Marsh Island

stranger, and to make ingenious guesses at his past history, not omitting also his present circumstances and future plans. " He never was this way before. Think likely he thought he 'd come round and take a look at the heathen," said Jim Fales, who was best acquainted in the neighborhood, and who, by virtue of a four months' residence in the family, could speak with great authority. His employer commonly asserted that James was young, but willing, when it became necessary to allude to him, and the haymakers themselves treated him with a cheerful forbearance which might easilyhave degenerated into something less. Jim had taken the place of a middle-aged man who had been Mr. Owen's mainstay for many years; but Asa had been persuaded, against the wishes and warnings of his Eastern friends, to join a brother who had long ago settled in the West. The haymakers asked Jim for news of him. " Thought he 'd grow up with the country, I expect," remarked Mr. Jenks, who was sitting at the end of the grindstone frame. " Asa was well off," said Jim. " We think that his folks had an eye to his means, and expected, if they got him rooted up and planted out there, they could do as they were a mind to. I guess they '11 have to set him out in a new spot before he '11 shake down much of a crop of his dollars," the young man added smartly, much elated at his comparison. " Asa was snug," agreed Mr. Jenks, not appearing to notice anything peculiar about the preceding statement. "...