Year: 1871

n Eluutlb NhO iiuh bNillt'AbNN hio
studies, and was commencing his pro-
fessional life under very favorable aus
pices, was on his way home late in the
autumn to make a little visit to the
paternal roof 1t was in old times,
when the onl y mode of conveyance for
travellers was the stage coach. Among
his fellow passengers in the coach was
a young lady of very agreeable person
and manners, who first attracted his
notice by her kind consideration for
an oldwoman, who she assisted into the
coach at the wayside Inn. In the
course Of the day the gentleman be-
came pretty well acquainted with the
young lady, whose name he ascertain
ed was Mary W. He began to
feel strong interest in her, and it
would seem from the result that the in
terest was in some degree reciprocal.
In the course of the conversation that
they held together in the stage, and
also walking up certain long hills,
where such Of the passengers as were
so disposed got out to relieve the
horses, they learned mutually many
particulars of each others parentage
and history, so that as the day passed
on they began to feel somewhat like
old friends.


During the afternoon a rain storm
came on. The road became wet and
heavy, and the p ogress made was slow.
The sky was overcast, and darkness
supervened at an early hour, while the
stage was yet several miles from the
village where it was to stop. As the
wheels went on plowing through the
mud and ruts, the passengers became
uneasy, for the driver had no light.
The young lady, however, evinced so


much calmness and cOmposure as
greatly to increase the interest which


the student felt for her. The danger


was real as the event proved, for just


as the coach reached the top of the


hill, the wheels on one side went off


the edge of the road into ditch and


the coach overturned


The student called ont to the pass.


engers to lie as still as possible, and


to get out quietly, one by one, from


the openings in the side of the coach


which was uppermost. He was him


self near the door on that side, and


was the first to escape. He then assist


ed the othels by feeling, for it was Sc


utterly dark that nothiug could bt


seen. The young lady came next bu
E one. The road was so wet and muddy
he said, that she could not step in it
f ana she must let him carry her to tn,
bank on the side. She consented.
So he took her in his arms and be
gan to carry her across the mudd
road, feeling his way in the utter drak


ness, made more intense by the tree
, of forest that bo.dered the road. Sh
yielded herself so readily to his GRASP
E and reclned her head so conhdingl
, upon his shoulder that he was encoul
aged to whisper in her eur, "Mary, ar
you engaged to be married ?" She an


swered, No" "Are you willing to b
. my wife ?" "Yes." He seal ed the prom
ise with the usual little ceremony, an
then placed his prize on a fiat stone b
) the roadside, the white surface Of whic
, reflected the sky sufficiently to max
, its from just visible, after which b
! went back to assist the other passer
4. gers.


: They were married, and the lad


afterward often told her friends tina
she always had the most agreeable al
: sociations with the idea of the upsettin
l of stage-coach, though they coul
3 not imagine why.