father knew that the friendly hint meant to imply, "It's only once a year, Josh!"

At length the dinner was ended, grace said, and a button or two of the boys' waistcoats undone; and then the table itself was got out of the way, and the games commenced.

This, however, was a part of the entertainment that the seriously-inclined Josiah was but little given to; and, indeed, it required some more of Uncle Ben's good-humored bantering before he

could be induced to consent to it. Even then he insisted that the children should play at "Masters and Men," because there was a certain amount of knowledge to be gained from the representations of the various trades; for nothing annoyed him more than to see youth wasting its time in mere idle amusements.

But, the ice of propriety once broken, Uncle Ben and the children were soon engaged in the most boisterous and childish gambols: not only was "dropping the 'kerchief" indulged in, and the grave Josiah himself made to form part in the ring, but even the wild frolic of "jingling" was resorted to, and the father and mother, and Uncle Ben, and Zachary the ship-builder, and Ruth too, as well as young Abiah and her husband the trapper, and John and his young Quakeress wife, and, indeed, the entire company, were all pressed into the service, and every one of them blindfolded at the same time, while the part of "jingler" fell to the lot of Nehemiah, who ran about the keeping-room like a frantic young town crier, ringing the hand-bell to give notice of his whereabouts to the blind players, as they kept rolling continually one over the other in their eagerness to catch him.

It was at this moment, when the noise and

madness of the sport had reached their greatest height, and the father and Uncle Benjamin lay flat upon the floor, with a miscellaneous mound of children and grandchildren piled on top of them, that James Franklin-the young printer, who had gone to London for a stock of types and presses -burst into the room, fresh from the vessel that had just dropped anchor in the bay, and with his arms laden with packets of presents for the several members of the family.

"Here's brother James come back from Old England!" shouted Nehemiah, throwing away his bell.

In an instant the bandages were torn from all the faces, and the half-ashamed father dragged from under the bodies struggling on top of him, the newly-arrived son laughing heartily the while.

As the children, and the grown brothers, and the rest came scrambling up to kiss or shake hands with the printer on his return, he told them one after the other the gift he had brought them from the "old country;" and when he had greeted the whole of the company present, he stared round and round, and then glancing at Josiah, cried, "But where's little Ben, father ?"

Josiah averted his head, for he had no wish to mar the general happiness by again alluding to his boy's disgrace, while the mother shook her head significantly at the printer, and Uncle Benjamin gave him a secret kick.

James knew by the pantomimic hints that something was amiss; so he answered, "What! not allowed to be present on Thanksgiving Day? Surely, father, one outcast in the family is enough!"

"There, say nothing about it, lad," cried Uncle Ben; "it's all been looked over long ago, and the little fellow will be here to supper shortly. But

come, let's have the news, Master James. You went down to Ecton, of course ?" he added; and the young man had scarcely signified that he had made the journey, when the father and uncle, anxious to know all about their native village, and the companions of their youth, fired off such a volley of questions that it was more than James could do to answer them fast enough.

Had he been to the old smithy? inquired one; and had he got a slip of the "golden pippin"-tree in the orchard?

Was Mistress Fisher still living at the forge? asked the other; and who carried on the business now that their brother Thomas's son was dead?

"Dear! dear!" they both cried, as they heard the answer, "the smithy sold to Squire Isted, the lord of the manor,* and the old forge pulled down? Well! well! what changes do come to pass!"

Next it was, How was their new German king, George I., liked by the people at home? And did he go and have a mug of ale at the "World's End?" and did Dame Blason keep the old inn still? Did he go to meeting, too, at the Northampton Conventicle, and learn whether the "Brownists" were increasing in numbers round about? and was old Luke Fuller, who was "outed" for non-conformity at the time when they themselves seceded from the Church, the minister there still?

And when James had replied that the good man had departed this life two years come Mich

"My grandfather's eldest son, Thomas, lived in the house at Ecton, and left it, with the land, to his only daughter, who, with her husband, one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted, now lord of the manor."-Life of Franklin, p. 3.

aelmas, the old people hung down their heads as they sighed, "Hah! it will be our turn soon."

Then they wanted to know, Were the rebels in Scotland all quiet when he left? and had he been over to Banbury, and seen the dye-house, and had John Franklin still got the best of the business there?

Had he set eyes on their old schoolfellow, Reuben of the Mill? and was old Ned, the traveling butcher, still alive? And who held the "hundred-acre farm" of the young Lord Halifax now? And did the Non-conformists seem contented with the "Toleration Act ?" and was there any stir among them about getting the "Corporation Act" repealed? And was Squire Palmer's widow living at the Hall still? And had he been over and seen the folk at Earls-Barton and MearsAshby, and told them that they were all doing well in New England? Hah! they would give the world to set eyes on the old places and the old people again.

The gossip about their native village and an cient friends would have continued, doubtlessly, until bedtime, had not Jabez, who had a turn for that extravagant pantomime which boys consider funny, here danced wildly into the room after the style of the Red Indians that his brother-in-law the trapper had just been telling them about, and springing into the air with a cry imitative of the war-whoop, announced to the startled company that the Big Bear" and "Little Otter" were coming up the stairs to join the party.

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Whereupon Captain Holmes and the truant Benjamin entered the room.

CHAPTER V.

THE FATHER'S LECTURE.

"COME this way, Benjamin! I wish to speak with you below," said the father, gravely, as soon as the lad had gone the round of his relatives, and just at the interesting moment when the "carnal-minded" Jabez was making Ben's mouth water with a list of the many good things they had had for dinner that day.

The paternal command caused no little excitement among the youthful members of the family, who knew too well what the summons meant.

But scarcely had Josiah removed one of the lighted candles from the mantle-shelf to carry with him to the parlor, than the mother rose and followed close at the heels of the father and the chap-fallen boy; while Jabez and Nehemiah nudged one another aside, as they whispered, "Let's come too, and see what father's going to do with Ben."

To satisfy their curiosity, the anxious lads availed themselves of the darkness of the shop, where they stood, quiet as mutes, peeping over the curtain into the little back room, and watching the movements of their parents within.

"Father's lecturing him well, I can see," whispered Jabez, on tiptoe, to the brother at his side, "for he is shaking his head till his gray locks fly about again, and holding up his forefinger as he always does, you know, when he's talking very seriously."

"What's mother doing?" asked the brother.