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266 self-respect have been lowered before she could have formed such an estimate of her self—fallen, or falling, as she already was! Perhaps it were best not to enquire what were the probable services this unprincipled woman expected in return for giving the false character. It is hardly to be supposed that she had sought the acquaintance of the friendless girl without some selfish plan or motive. They stood talking a few minutes longer, and then walked away in different di rections : the elder with the confident air of one who had carried herself successfully through many schemes of deception ; the other, trembling and abashed at the first breaking down of the barriers of integrity. Oh! ye thoughtless women, in your homes of ease —ye, whose breath can give or take away reputation—-be merciful in your judg ment of her. and pause well, ere, on some similar occasion, you drive a helpless female to desperation. Oil! it was pitiful, Near a whole city full, Friend she had none. Mary had no longer the means of returning to her family in Wiltshire: she was already reduced to poverty’s sad extremity, and had that very morning conveyed her warm cloak to the safe keeping of the pawnbroker. Be sides, how could she have borne to go as a disgraced pauper among the large poor fami ly to which she belonged ? among those who had looked with such pride upon their “ sis ter in service in London I” And yet, notwithstanding her many griefs, and the gaunt figure of absolute Want which loomed upon her, and was drawing nearer and nearer, she had refused assistance only the day before from her “ young master,” whom she had chanced to meet in the street, and who had accosted her, apparently with much sympathy. From him she had learned that Mrs. Dixon was as implacable as ever; yet, though he pressed silver, and even gold, upon her, let us be thankful she was still hedged round by the feelings of delicacy and feminine propriety, which forbade her ac cepting money from “an admirer.” Surely the world-hardened Tempters do not always know the dreadful work they are about! “ If you please, ma’am, do you know of a place I” was the inquiry of Mary, about an hour after she had parted with her new ac quaintance. She had entered a respectable looking baker’s shop, in one of the great tho roughfares. “ What sort of a place I” said the mistress, a good-tempered, good-looking young woman, of seven or eight and twenty, who was just then sweeping the counter with a hand-brush, with great activity. Mary, by the way, had observed at a glance that shop, and counter, and hand-brush, and all appurtenances, were what everything belonging to a baker’s shop should be, exquisitely clean and neat; and that the mistress herself, in her snowy cap, and light-colored cotton dress, was a pattern of neatness. “I could take a housemaid’s place, ma’am,” replied Mary, “or servant of all-work in a small family.” “Lor! I wonder if you would suit us I” said Mrs. Allen, the baker’s wife; “we sent off our servant in a great huff last night, and I have no one to do a stroke for me, except the nurse-girl, and she has enough to do with three children to mind. Could you come di rectly —to-day, I mean?” “Yes, ma’am, to-day, if you like.” Then followed the ordinary questions, and, of course, among them —*’ Where did you live last ?” “ With Mrs. Smith, ma’am, No. 20, street .” Alas, alas, poor Mary! “And can you have a good character?” “I am sure I can, ma’am. I only left be cause Captain Smith was obliged to go with his ship, and Mrs. Smith did not want two servants any longer.” “Well, wail here in the shop a bit, while I go and speak to my husband. James, James,” she continued, calling from some stairs which led to the bake-house, “I want you.” And up there came a portly-looking man, with shirt-sleeves tucked up, and his arms covered above the elbows with flour and dough. The Allens were a happy cou ple, well to do in the world, and in good-hu mor with it and themselves. An attentive listener might have heard something about “ tidy-looking girl: think she’d just do: hut here it is Finlay ; I am sure I never can get out for her characfer either to-day or to-mor row.” “ That’s a pity,” said the husbatUi* “If we could but be sure of her honesty, I wouldn’t mind taking her, and then going for her character next week. What do you say, James ?” “ My dear, how can we he sure ?” Ha ad?&IE AIE ¥ ©A SMITH* “ She wouldn’t be so stupid as to say she could have a good character, if she were not honest,” replied the wife, whose mind seemed veering very much towards trying her. “ Thai’s true,” exclaimed the baker, as if anew light were let in on the subject. “Come and see her,” said the wife. There were two or three customers waiting in the shop, but during Mrs. Allen’s short ab sence, her second child, a little girl of about three years old had “madefriends” with Ma ry, and was clinging to her hand, and look ing up in her face, as if she were an old ac quaintance. It may he that this was the fea ther which pleased the parents, and turned the scale. The feelings with which Mary learned that she was to be received in this unusual man ner, and that the Falsehood which was plan ned would not beaded for three days to come, at least, were something like those we may imagine a culprit to entertain, when he re ceives a respite of his sentence. A dim hope would make itself felt, a dim hope that some thing would occur to prevent it being carried into execution. With what wonderful activity Mary set to work, or how anxiously she strove to please, words cannot easily tell. But the Lie was a haunting Presence “that seemed to banish even the hope of happiness. The honest baker and his wife were evidently well satisfied with their new servant. The advantage, by which she had profited, of living in a family belonging to a higher station, enabled her to do many things in a superior way; and the Allens were people to appreciate all this. — And the neat and nice manner in which she served the Sunday’s dinner, of which a cou ple of friends partook, was duly commented on. Then the children “took to her” amaz ingly, and the circumstance of her discover ing a half-sovereign which had strangely es caped from the till, seemed to give them the most perfect confidence in her honesty; so that, when, on the afternoon of Tuesday, the appointment having been duly made with the fictitious Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Allen was equip ped in a handsome silk dress, ready to go “after Mary’s character,” she almost felt that it was a mere form, so certain was she of the girl’s acquirements and integrity. This was a dreadful moment to Mary.— She felt as if her quickly-beating heart sent the blood to the crown of her head ; and that the next instant it receded, and left her ready to faint; while all the events of her troubled career rushed in strange distinctness before her, even to the history she had learned of the baker’s former servant having been dis charged for telling a falsehood. “But then he had said— “ We would have forgiven her if she had not persisted in it!” By an uncontrollable impulse, as Mrs. Al len was leaving her parlor, Mary seized the skirt of her dress, and throwing herself on her knees before her, exclaimed, amid a pas sionate torrent of tears —“ It is ycur goodness that has saved me! oh, hear me, hear me!” And then, in broken phrases, she poured out the story of her trials and Temptations. Sad was it to see the altered looks of her benefactors, anJ to hear the cold.and mourn ful tone in which Mrs. Allen said, “So, you have deceived me after all: you would have cheated me with a False Character;” and the good and nalu ally kind-hearted woman sank on her chair, overcome with the surprise. “We cannot help you,” said the baker sternly. “Mercy! mercy!” exclaimed the poor girl, and, weak from recent scanty fare—for she had been too wretched to eat during even the few days that abundance had been before her —she fainted outright. When she came to herself, she was stretched on a sofa, with master and mistress both leaning over her. Thare was pity on their faces, and tears rob ed down Mrs. Allen’s cheeks. In loosening her dress, in their endeavors to restore bet, they had come upon a packet of pawnbroker’!-; duplicates, the dates of which, and the nature of the articles pledged, were a touching con firmation of her story. From the “ corneliai brooch,” so easily dispensed with, to the nd cessary cloak, and a prayer-book, the mourn ful chain was complete. “We will not turn you away,” said tic baker, “just yet: we will try you a little longer.” “ Your goodness has saved me !” was a l the stricken girl could utter. “ But,” continued he, “my wife will go immediately lo your real mistress, and hear her version of the story. Certainly your con fession is voluntary, and I do not believe you are hardened in deception.” Mrs. Allen set off! and the distance beirg considerable, she was gone upwards of two hours. What an eternity they seemed lo tie poor servant! “Well, my deflC)” exclaimed the baker, I when at last she returned, “what do you think ?” “ Why, I think, James, that a great many people who call themselves ladies, are no la dies at all. Would you believe it, this Mrs. Dixon has found the piece of lace she accu sed the girl of stealing—found it slipped be hind the drawer, or something of the sort; and except for her own regret at sending away a good servant, I don’t think she feels her wickedness a bit. Poor girl, I cannot help pitying her. It was very wrong to attempt to cheat us with a false character, but it’s my belief we none of us know what we should do if we were sorely tempted. And besides, you see she was not equal to carrying out the deception.” “ Let us keep her,” was the baker’s em phatic rejoinder. “Why, I don’t know that we can,” said Mrs. Allen. “Mrs. Dixon says she’ll take her back, if she likes to go, for the lady has had three housemaids since she left, and you know it is a much grander place than ours. At any rate, she promises to give her an ex cellent character.” “Did you tell this Mrs. Dixon about the intended false character?” “No, I didn’t; for I soon found out how matters were, and I felt I should have been wicked to do the girl a further mischief.” “Quite right, my love,” said the baker. Mary was called in, and the facts related. V\ Ith tearful joy, and amid thanksgiving to Heaven, she implored that her benefactors would allow her to stay with them, rejecting, with something like scorn, the idea of a “grander” place. Faithfully has she now served them for years; and promoted to the dignity of shopwoman, she is looked upon rather as a tried friend than anything else. But even in the sunshine of happiness she never forgets that it is the “goodness,” as she calls it, of the baker and his wife which have saved her. Alas, for the rarity Os Christian charity! how often would a generous trust save the sorely Tempted! Qomc (fTomsponirnuc. For the Southern Literary Gazette. LETTERS FROM CHEROKEE—NO.3. An Awful Explosion—Cave Spring Schoo’s. Do not believe that 1 am half through with Cave Spring. Come, go with me. Let us ascend this steep mountain on the east of the village, and look down upon the valley and beyond it. A succession of beautiful, culti vated vales lie before you, here and there (lotted with cottages, reposing amidst their groves of aboriginal trees, and apparently the very abodes of peace. A little beyond, your eyes rest on a dark mountain ridge, shaded with deep green pines; farther on, rises an other, overgrown with every variety of wood, exhibiting every variety of drapery, from bright yellow lo deep brown; farther on still, mountains rise over mountains, and peaks over peaks, till, stretching away far into the north, you see the pale blue outline of the Look-out Mountains of Alabama and Tennessee. Turn your eyes, now, on the southwest; just in the bosom of that circling ridge, composed of the spurs of the Talladega and Look-out, lies the Double Springs, and near it a rising town on the banks of the Coosa, dignified with the name of that good man and enterprising citizen, Col. James Gadsden, of Charleston. Did you hear of the awful explosion that occurred there a few days ago ? If not, prepare for a tale, whose lightest word will harrow thy young blood. &c. You know the rest of what Horatio, I believe it was, said to Hamlet. In that same town of Gadsden lives a black smith, y’clept Griffin. The said Griffin is a redoubtable Taylor man ; and Taylor men, in the Alabama portion of Cherokee, are few and far between. This said man Griffin had. for the purposes of his business and employ ment as a blacksmith, a certain machine or tool, or appendage, termed a Mandrel, which is described as a certain cast-iron affair, weighing about four hundred pounds, shaped like a sugar-loaf, hollow, and used for making bands. So, when Griffin heard of the elec ti°n of General Taylor, he determined to wake, for once, the sleeping echoes of old Cherokee, or the sleeping babies of his Demo cratic friends—he did not care which • 0 * he takes a day to drill a hole in said Man drel—and, having planted it near to his shop* loaded it well with some five pounds of pow ! der, and applied thereto a slow match. And now, the citizens of Gadsden, informed of his ! purpose, prepared for this Taylor gun of new construction, and dubious result. Some look ed round from corners; some ensconced themselves safely, as they supposed, behind a pile of boxes; and Griffin, himself, lay fiat upon the earth, some distance off. to take as he said, at ease, a Buena Vista of this Taylor earthquake. And now, behold, a dense smoke rises; the whole town is convulsed: a noise, as of the rending of the earth, deafens the amazed population. The lookers-on round the corners find themselves somewhere, but not at the places where they began to look. The men behind the boxes are tum bled over, heels over head into boxes, which are boxes no more. Griffin, from his recum bent position, is lifted up, and flies into the air without the aid of either wings, or Dr Davidson’s newly invented machine; and,as for the Mandrel, that is just where a man, according to Sambo's idea of one blown up in a steamboat, would be--where are ye ? One piece, seventy pounds weight, tearsaway one side of the blacksmith’s shop, enters a fine coach belonging to the Tuscaloosa and Blue Pond line, and makes mince-meat of that. The rest of it, supposing as, of course, every one was dead, it ought to be buried, digs itself into the ground some four feet deep. Old Coosa feels the concussion; the steamer, safely moored at her bluff, rolls and tumbles, as if under the influence of a hurri cane. Some twenty-seven miles off, in the quiet bend of the Coosa, a pious, church-lov ing congregation, had assembled to hear their beloved pastor discourse on things immortal. He had gotten through his introduction, his positions and argument, and arrived at that portion of his sermon, called by Quinctillian, and after him by Dr. Blair, the peroration, lie had described hell and the day of judg ment-spoken of the terrors of that time, of the last trump, and had just commenced de scribing the thunders, when the explosion of that terrible Mandrel broke upon the ears of his excited auditory. Never, for an orator, was sound so opportune. You remember the effect of the falling of Corporal Trim's haton the floor, upon the cook and scullion, when lie told of his young master’s death. All were mute; no sign of grief or terror ap peared. till that hat fell; then a burst of tears and lamentations rent the kitchen. Just so with this awful sound upon the parson’s hearers. He and they supposed that Mount Sinai was thundering for his benefit, and straightway the altar was crowded with mourners. As for Griffin, he only regrets that he has not one more to burst for Gen. Taylor’s inau guration ; which, if lie procures, and again touches off, may I be there to see, at some distance! The arrangements for Schools at Cave Spring are admirable. A permanent fund is devoted to the maintenance of the Male School; and, though now no teacher is em ployed, the place unquestionably will com mand teachers of ability. There are local advantages here which make it one of the most superior places in the whole Southwest for the education of youth. The exclusion by the charter, and the regulations of the Trustees, of every 7 thing like dissipation or immorality, makes it impossible that impro per influences of any kind can operate. There is a fine opportunity afforded, too, for the proprietor of a female school. The ex. cellent man who has heretofore conducted this department, it is understood, only desires a select school, and would be pleased to see another established. Would that another