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THE PIONEERS.
47

amid the loud cries of Richard, and the manly greetings of the gentleman. "I have always a kiss for my old friend Major Hartmann."

By this time the gentleman'on the front seat, who had been addressed as Monsieur Le Quoi, rose with some difficulty, owing to the impediment of his over coats, and steadying himself by placing one hand on the stool of the charioteer, with the other, he removed his cap, and bowing politely to the Judge, and profoundly to Elizabeth, he said with a smile that opened a mouth of no common dimensions—

"Ver velcome home, Monsieur Templ'. Ah! Mam'selle Liz'bet, you ver humble sairvant."

"Cover thy poll, Gaul, cover thy poll," cried the driver, who was Mr. Richard Jones; "cover thy poll, or the frost will pluck out the remnant of thy locks. Had the hairs on the head of Absalom been as scarce as on this crown of thine, he might have been living to this day." The jokes of Richard never failed of exciting risibility, for if others were unbending, he uniformly did honour to his own wit; and he enjoyed a hearty laugh on the present occasion, while Mr. Le Quoi resumed his seat with a polite reciprocation in his mirth. The clergy man, for such was the office of Mr. Grant, modestly, though quite affectionately, exchanged his greetings with the travellers also, when Richard prepared to turn the'heads of his horses homewards.

It was in the quarry alone that he could effect this object, without ascending to the summit of the mountain. A very considerable excavation had been made into the side of the hill, at the point Where Richard had succeeded in stopping the sleighs, from which the stones used for building in the village, were ordinarily quarried, and in which he now attempted to turn his team. Passing it-