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"I declare!" said Mrs. Haddock, "this must be a surprise party. Did you not pass others -- come now,' don't say you did not -- I shall hardly believe you if you do!"

"Yes, we saw one sleigh load," said Mr. Rodman.

"Why, husband!"

"I thought it quite likely, sir. Will it arrive soon?"

"Mrs. Haddock, it was Judge Fuller's sleigh, you know, going in the other direction," said Mrs. Rodman.

"Oh, ho! Well, I understand you. It is the same thing, though; for they, you know, preceded you."

"Yes, so they told us," replied Mr. Rodman.

"Well, is it not singular we should all meet here this afternoon?" he continued. "It does almost look like a concerted movement."

"So it does, sir," replied the aged Mr. Warren, "especially as I, who seldom leave home on any occasion, am of the party."

"Whether it be concerted or purely accidental," said Mrs. Haddock, "it is most pleasing to us."

"We were going out ourselves -- over to Judge Fuller's," said her husband; "but they came up here, just as we were leaving, and rode away only a few moments since."

The conversation was continued in this way for a time, and at length all parties began to feel a little restraint, as each one had come on rather private and special business, though, as it finally appeared, on substantially the same.

The allusions that were made to the Tuckers -- to their past and present condition -- brought the different parties so nearly to the point of interest in each mind present, that directly Mr. Warren said he had lately been reflecting on a subject which was of deep interest to him, and on which he thought his advanced age, and the whole nature of the case, made it highly important he should disclose his feelings, and that, indeed, in order to state the case to them, he had made the ride that afternoon,

"We are all friends," said Mr. Haddock, "if your communication is one that you can make to all of us, be pleased to speak -- if not -- if you would see the pastor, or any one of us "

"Oh! no, sir -- I think; George and Eliza, there is nothing I need withhold from those who are present."

"Just as you think best," said they.

"Twelve years ago," said he, "and it was more, I think -- certainly twelve years ago, a distant relative of mine came to me in circumstances of personal distress. She had passed through much family sorrow and change. Her father, and mother, and aunt were dead. Her husband had become a ruined man and left her, going far off to sea, where he soon perished, and she came to my house to die. You know to whom I refer, most of you?"

"Mrs. Sherman?"

"Yes, Mrs. Julia Sherman. Before she died, she gave birth to her third child, under my roof, and as we reside remote from the village, few knew of it. At about the same time, 'Annie Sue' lost a child a week old, and after Mrs. Sherman died, my wife and I gave her our little one to nurse, and he grew up under her care as her child."

The whole company betrayed the utmost sensation, although to most of them this was but a quickening of their memories of a certain portion of the history.

"But before Mrs. Sherman, my grand-niece, expired, she left in our care a paper, containing a note of the boy's parentage, and signed it with her own hand."

Mr. and Mrs. Phillips could hardly restrain their impatience, and did not attempt to check their absorbed attention.

"She folded the paper carefully, and calling for a small silver tobacco-box, with her husband's name on it, she pressed in the paper, and closing the box, gave it to us to preserve."

The Phillips and Haddocks were more than ever interested.

"I kept the box after my wife deceased, among some little mementoes of her, in an upper drawer of my bureau, in a small trunk, occasionally opening it to see if it was untouched -- for the Tuckers gave me -- these same wretched people -- gave me much annoyance, and have threatened to burn us down, if I ever revealed to any body the fact that 'Annie Sue,' their daughter, was not the true mother of the child. Of late, Polly has been very much about our house, prying in at doors and windows, and offering her services. Not long since she came one morning, and, as Eliza was very busy, she gladly accepted of her help. She made my fire, also, when I was asleep, and brushed up the room a little, and we have no recollection of seeing the box from that day to this. It is gone!

Hardly had he finished, when Mr. and Mrs. Phillips sprang from their seats, and Mrs. Phillips reaching out the box, exclaimed --

"We have it! We have found it again! See! see! Here, is not this the same -- the identical box?"

Mr. Warren was almost as much unnerved at the sight of his regained treasure, as he had been at discovering its loss. Both George and Eliza also were almost wild with joy.

"But," said Mr. Warren, "is not the paper missing?"

"No! it is all there, every thing appears safe, and as you have described it."

"In the name of truth and of God, my friends," said the old gentleman, "how did you come by it?"