up in her own three children, whom Musidora loved with an enthusiasm that none but a morbidly sensitive child could have felt who had nothing else to love. She would get so angry when old Mr. M'Elroy switched them, that she was often punished for this impudence, as he termed it. One evening, Mr. Wyndham saw that a thunder storm-an autumnal gale, was coming up; which on the coast plantations of South Carolina is a fearfully grand phenomenon, especially at night. "The frequent balls of fire bursting from cloud to cloud - the forked flashes darting from the clouds to the earth, and from the earth to the clouds, alternately illuminating the whole surrounding atmosphere the continual mysterious muttering noise of thunder at a distancethe dreadful explosion on the right hand, the repercussive roar on the left, while the solid foundations of the earth shake, and the goodly frame of nature seems ready to dissolve. The beasts of the field retire from the thicket and show evident symptoms of silent awe and astonishment during the storm; and man's ultimate source of confidence is in the divine protection." Mr. Wyndham's negoes all rushed to their master's big house, for these childish creatures believed that he could protect them from the fury of the elements as well as from every other harm. The rain began to pour in such overwhelming torrents, that it seemed as if a new deluge was about to drown the world a second time. Every soul in Mr. Wyndham's house sat up in terror the whole night-the great centenarian oak-trees were wrenched up by the roots, and the pines, one, two, and three hundred feet high, were blasted by the lightning, so as frequently to produce the dread lest they would fall on the house and crush it asunder. Prayer to the great God of the universe would at such a time of awe and suspense force its naturalness even into the mind of an infidel. Mr. Wyndham called on several of his dignified old servants during this night of horror, to pray to God, who was the only hope and sometimes the negroes would sing above the howling of the storm, that hymn beginning with "This awful God is ours," Little Musidora, every now and then, would slip off from her father, and run to the windows to look at the magnificent lightning, and see the great trees fall with a tremendous crash. She fearlessly enjoyed the sublimity of the scene that almost demented her stepmother with alarm, and this superstitious woman would rush between feather beds, believing them to be a nonconductor to the lightning. The next morning the clouds cleared off, and the sun shone out as brightly as if nature had had no convulsion at all; but in every quarter you could meet with the blasted trees of the forest which wither and decay at the lightning's stroke. No earthquakes, such as are commonly known in the West India Islands, are felt here; but the whirlwinds sometimes make avenues through the forests, by levelling the loftiest trees, or sweeping them before them like chaff. These terrible blasts are generally confined to a narrow tract, and run in an oblique and crooked direction. Hurricanes have often visited the country, and through such low and flat lands have spread their desolation far and wide. A few days after this frightful storm, Mr. Wyndham's millionaire friend, who had paid his debt for him, died, leaving all his property to two young nephews. So that now Mr. Wyndham's debt to that estate must be paid immediately. Had that Christian man made his will to forgive the debt, or to allow ten years to pay it to his said nephews, he would have been a noble benefactor to a large family of refined, worthy, useful persons; whereas this property proved the utter moral ruin of his two nephews, and they died in the early meridian of life, drunken sots. "Now gaudy Pride corrupts the lavish age, And laughs at Honesty and trudging wits." This blow to all the hopes poor Mr. Wyndham had had, of time to pay what he owed, now was blasted, and the sheriff came and seized many of his negroes, that had been in his family from generation to generation. This broke his heart; and when he looked at that helpless, frail wife and her children, he gave himself up to despair-the "iron, indeed, entered into his soul." With his last expiring energy, he went among his rich friends to get them to buy his negroes that were seized for the debt, and he had the satisfaction of knowing that they had all obtained masters whose interest, and whose kindness, and conscientiousness would secure for them all the comforts they had had when he owned them. As soon as Mr. M'Elroy's house was finished, and himself and wife comfortably settled in it, the now penitent old man, with some presentiment of death, would rise at three o'clock in the morning, plunge into a cold bath, rub himself thoroughly dry with friction towels, and, after putting on his clothes, would repair to the garden, and dash himself prone to the ground, and there pray for hours against that ungovernable temper that had caused his good to be evil spoken of during his life-long profession of religion. "Bodily exercise profiteth little," says St. Paul; and if this mourning believer could have known the secret of those that fear and love God, namely, faith in Jesus Christ, as our purifier from sin, he would have proved in his actions a living epistle known and read of all men. He took cold from this fanatical exposure in the chill morning air, and died of pneumonia, rejoicing that the load on his conscience was at last removed. Mr. Wyndham's despair of mind so overwhelmed him at times, that he was perfectly unmanned; and when he would look at his uneducated, strong-willed, impulsive Musidora, and ponder over the destiny that awaited her chronic sensitiveness and fearful adhesiveness; when he glanced at his lovely, helpless young wife, soon to be a mother again, and then at her three. interesting, beautiful boys, he would fall down in a swoon, and lay insensible, till his dutiful son, Halcombe, would carry him to his bed and administer restoratives. His splendid hair had become as white as snow, and S he, at the age of only forty-eight, was an emaciated old man; for the spinal disease that had been caused by lifting a tree fallen on one of his negroes, now returned on him, and no doubt was the cause of his utter hopelessness of mind; for who has yet fathomed the sympathy between body and soul? One of his rich friends, who lived in a flourishing village, some ten miles off, invited him and all his family to spend a month with them, hoping thus to rejuvenate his prostrated strength, and finally gave an evening party, at which they induced Mr. Wyndham to play on his long-neglected flute, and sing a sweet accompaniment to his guitar About nine o'clock, without saying a word, he walked out of the piazza, (that encircled the house,) and proceeded to his chamber, where his younger children slept, and laid himself down beside them. In five minutes, little Musidora, seeing that her father did not return to the piazza, went in search of him, and, horror of horrors, there he lay, dead on the bed, surrounded by his three sleeping little sons. Musidora uttered a piercing scream, and all the company rushed into the room-some rubbing him, others trying to bleed him, others vainly urging restoratives; but that loving, suffering spirit had fled to its mansion in the skies. He died of disease of the heart. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." In the midst of the uproarious grief of the startled children, and servants, and friends, nobody noticed the overwhelmed wife, who, escaping from the room, ran out toward the woods frantic. Musidora, however, did not forget her step-mother, but ran after, and held on to her arms, till her cries brought assistance. She was |