old ones were to be seen. In fact, time had rendered me a stranger in a strange place, though I had imagined that all would be as familiar to me as my own fireside, and that my welcome would have been as cordial.

With feelings of disappointment, I extended my walk to the commons beyond the skirts of the village, where the school house stood. That had undergone no change; it was still the same, but it struck me that time had materially diminished it in magnitude. It is remarkable how our optics deceive us at different stages of life. I looked around with delight, for every thing was familiar to me; but the picture was now in miniature. Objects that I had considered remote were near at hand, and mountains had dwindled away to comparative mole-hills.

and a

While enjoying the recollections that the scene awakened, the door of the school house opened, man approached. He would have been known among a thousand, by his step and air, for a country school master. After an awkward bow, he said,

"A pleasant evening, sir. A charming landscape, and you appear to enjoy it."

"Yes; it is delightful to look upon familiar faces after a long separation."

He gazed at me earnestly, and muttered,

I have surely seen that face before !!'

"Faces!

"Very possibly! but not within twenty years."

"At that period I was a pupil in this school," said

he, “and if I mistake not, you were also." I answered in the affirmative. He grasped me immediately by the hand, and, shaking it cordially, called me by my name. "But," continued he, "you appear not to remember me !"

"True; the human countenance is a tablet upon which time is constantly scribbling new characters and obliterating the old, and his hand has been busily employed upon your front?"

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'Yes; another story has been written there since the time when we used to lie in wait by a salt lick, at midnight, for the coming deer, or glide over the surface of the river, with a fire in the stern of our canoe, to light us to the hiding places of the salmon trout."

I knew him now to be the same who had been my constant companion in the excursions of my boyhood. "But how is this?" I exclaimed: "have the duties of the school devolved upon you? Where is our old pre

ceptor ?"

"Debemur morti nos nostraque !"

"Dead!"

"So his tombstone informs us; and in this instance it speaks the truth, contrary to the usual practice of tombstones. He took a cold by exposing himself, when overheated by the labour of a severe flagellation inflicted upon the broad shoulders of a dull urchin. You may remember that his manner of teaching was impressive, for he rigidly pursued the ancient system of imparting knowledge."

"O! I remember. And doubtless you are as great a terror to the rising generation as he was to us and our companions. Well, I might have foretold your destiny. Our inclinations are early developed: and it was a prime joke with you, as soon as the school was dismissed, to put on the teacher's gown, cap and spectacles, and seating yourself in his large oaken chair, call upon us, with mock gravity, to go through the forms we had just finished.”

“You may also remember," said the school master, "that upon one of these occasions you clambered up behind me, and gave me a libation from an inkhorn, while the master was standing in the doorway, the only one present who could not enter into the spirit of the farce we were performing."

"Nor did we highly applaud his epilogue to our entertainment. But where are they now, who joined in our thoughtless amusements on that day ?”

"Scattered as far apart as the four corners of the earth! A small room there contained them, and they found happiness in it; but grown to man's estate, they roamed the wide world in pursuit of the phantom, and it eluded their grasp."

"What became of little Dick Gaylove, who, on that occasion, was detected making a profile of our old preceptor on the door? He was a promising lad, the pride of his father's heart, and a universal favourite in the school."

"He was indeed a boy of fine talents: but judge not

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