was, in one of Jacob's habits, not at all improbable. The farm was now worth from $6,000 to $10,000, and even at the time referred to, the sum received by Jacob was scarcely a tithe of its value; nevertheless, such sales had, under similar circumstances, been made by others, and Rogers kept the farm. Little Jessie accompanied her father, and for a short period after their settlement in the States things went well with them Jacob denied himself the bottle, the change of life affected him favourably, and he often spoke to Jessie of some day returning to Canada. Jessie says that at this period he saved money, and sent some to Mr. Rogers, but she was too young to understand the transaction. Jacob's evil propensities again beset him; that is, his weakness for drink, for it was his only failing, and he at last died poor and almost friendless, leaving his orphan daughter to the care of strangers. His brother sent for the little girl, who had lived with him ever since, almost in sight of the old homestead, her birth-place and child hood's home-the now well tilled farm of Squire Rogers. "If every one had their rights," said Mr. Hermann, after recounting the fate of his brother, "I believe that the Rogers' place would belong to Jessie." "Oh! stuff, Uncle, that's what you have often said, but it is only putting nonsense into your little niece's head. It is gone, and it can't be helped, and it is too late now to think about it, it would be far better to forget it was ever in the family, though I, for my part, should find that a little difficult, as I sometimes catch myself peeping over the fences at some familiar tree or spot that calls up old times, but I intend breaking myself of the habit, as I know it does no good." "Well, nothing will ever persuade me your father intended to sell Rogers the place for some $300, he always told me he had mortgaged it to him, and you know he often spoke to you of returning to it." "That is true, Uncle, but you have yourself seen Mr. Rogers' deed for it, and a deed is a deed we all know, even without the aid of Edgar," she said, half playfully, but with a mixture of sadness in her tone, as she looked in his face. "Well, I wish you had it, it would only be your right.” "I wish so too, Uncle, for your sake, after all the trouble I have given you." "Tush, child, wish it for your own sake, or for some one else's." "Well, I do, Uncle," muttered Jessie, lowly, and blushing, but the words reached Edgar, and he thought he had found a clue to some little difficulties he had experienced in the course of his wooing. Mr. Hermann left the verandah to replenish his pipe, and Edgar's arm stole round Jessie's waist as they disappeared among the green vine leaves. "Jessie, there may be more in this than you seem to think, but I don't know whether if you owned such a property I dare ask you to be mine. You would be quite a little heiress." This was said jokingly, but there was something in the tone that induced Jessie to reply. "There you know you wrong me, Edgar, it is useless to talk about it, or distract our minds about what might be, in so improbable a case, but I do certainly wish it was, Edgar, just to be able to show you how little you understand me," and a tear stole from beneath the dark eyelashes. "Jessie, dear, you are far too wise, and too good, and too gentle. I understand your scruples now." "Hush, Edgar, let us talk about the wonderful farm that is to make me so rich." "Well, I really think the circumstances worth enquiring into. May I talk to your uncle farther about it, and have your sanction for anything I may deem it necessary to do?" "Certainly, if Uncle thinks it right." "And now my fee," said the young lawyer, as he drew fair Jessie closer to his side. "That will do, sauce-box!" "Oh! a retainer is a fee, a reward, a gift given and proffered by the client, now, that was not given me at all, I took it." "There! there! now say good night. I never will have anything to do with lawyers again."— And Jessie became Edgar's client. CHAPTER II. THE DEFENDANT. I'll tell the truth. He was a man Hard, selfish, loving only gold, THE Yet full of guile. Rosiland & Hellen. HERE was scarcely a prettier farm along the whole of the shore of the Bay of Quinté than the Rogers', or as some persisted in calling it, the old Jacob Hermann place. The old original homestead stood on a slight rise, a little inland. The ground fell in front of the house, and then ran out into a point of level land some distance into the Bay, and formed what is still known as Hermann's Point. The trees had been thinned away on this point, which had now the appearance of a fine park. An avenue of flowering acacias, of large size, led up to the house, which was surrounded by quite a wilderness of lilacs and syringas, and flanked by an extensive orchard. The old place had still a pleasant home-look about it, though long neglected. The park was kept clear of the fallen limbs and rubbish, for it made a capital sheep-walk, and the orchard was not entirely neglected, for it still afforded a fair yield, but the long avenue was grass-grown, and the lilacs and syrangas grew unpruned into a thick copse. The old place was uninhabited save occasionally by some farm-servant of the present proprietor, It and he had built himself a new residence on the portion of the property nearest the neighbouring village, and where the road ran near the bank, leaving him just room for his residence and garden between the road and the water. Here he had erected a large white house, with green venetian shutters, and surrounded it with a garden within a tall white picket fence, unornamented and unrelieved by shade or ornamental trees. The staring white building was conspicuous from land and water. was sprucely kept, and clean, and well painted, and looked new, and hard and bare like its owner, who now sat on the painted verandah in the enjoyment of the calm of an autumn afternoon. The view from Mark Rogers verandah was very fair-the waters of the Bay glinted in the purple rays of the declining sun, the distant woods and islands were clothed in the autumnal shades of changing yellow and red of the maple and other trees, the trading schooners spread their white sails that idly flapped in the falling breeze, the distant steamer left a snake-like ruffled wake behind her as she drew near on her trip up the Bay, and the late flowers that still bloomed in the somewhat trim garden around still linked the early autumn with the receding summer. eye rested on the pleasant scene, and fell on the well stocked barns around the old framehouse, and the numerous stacks of grain that filled the stock-yard, and he mentally calculated what their value would be before spring. The beauties of the evening did not distract Mark Rogers thoughts from that practical consideration-for Mark was not sentimentally inclined-a practical man was Rogers, and his practical character had stood him in good stead, for he was the richest merchant and landholder in the neighbourhood; that is to say, he kept a country-shop or store in the neighbouring village, which though very unpretentious in its outward appearance, made Mr. Rogers “a merchant" in local parlance; and the Government had Mark Rogers' earliest settlers, and owner of a good farm in the neighbourhood, who has adopted his present calling because he can make money at it. But Mark's brow darkened as he appeared, for somehow he connected his visit with the conduct of his boy. "Well, Mr. Lowe, what news?" the Squire asked. "Nothing new, Squire." "Has that stuck-up English doctor in Fredericksburg paid off his execution yet?" Can't say, Squire, it warn't in my hands; you'd best enquire at the office." "But what's up," resumed the speaker "you havn't got any writ agen me, I suppose." And Mark drew himself up in the dignified consciousness of owing no man anything. made him a Magistrate; and the Court of Queen's Bench had made him a Commissioner for taking affidavits; and nature and his own heart had made him a hard, shrewd, money-getting, unscrupulous, grasping man; and fortune and his own untiring energies and some not over-scrupulous mortgage and loan transactions had made him a rich one. Mark drove a good business in his dingy looking store, and would haggle over and perhaps cheat a farmer's wife in a deal over a basket of eggs with as much avidity as in his earliest days. Mark was not proud or above his business, not he, he looked after "Oh! well, I will. I know he's a longeverything himself—but still Mark was disturbed this evening; he had caught his eld. winded customer; and if I don't look after est boy robbing his till, and strongly sus- it, it will lie as long in your sheriff's office pected that sundry depredations that had as in the debtor's hands. You're a pretty been committed lately in the village Post-set, you all are.” office and elsewhere might be traced to the same source. It now occurred to him that whilst looking after everything himself he had found no time to inculcate in the boy's mind the necessity of honesty-it neverstruck him that his own example, and his boastful chuckling over some successful piece of "extra" shrewdness on his own part, might possibly have a somewhat opposite tendency to teaching the youth a high moral lesson. He was vexed and annoyed, and his pride hurt, lest the matter should get wind, and his own respectability suffer thereby, and he was muttering threats of what he would do to the young vagabond, when a horseman stopped at his gate. I have written horseman, for the man had a horse; but he drove him as every traveller here seems to do, in a buggy, or, as in this case, in a "sulky." The roads in the neighbourhood are good, and people appear to prefer this easier and lazier, but less healthy mode of locomotion to the saddle. The visitor was well known to Mr. Rogers, being the sheriff's bailiff from the neighbouring town, and had often been employed by Mark in the course of his numerous transactions. But no seedy-looking Israelite is he, but the son of one of the "Well, not exactly, Squire, but I was directed to hand you this. It is not a writ, but some paper out of Chancery." "Well, let's see," answered the Squire, as he took the document with feigned indifference, but with a good deal of secret misgiving. "What's all this? Hermann, plaintiff; Rogers, defendant; and who the devil is Edgar W. Paul who figures on the back ?" "Oh, he's the lawyer employed against you. Don't you know him, a young fellow, comes out to Frank Hermann's a good deal?” "Yes, I know the fellow; some pettyfogging scoundrel. He wrote me a letter ; I suppose this is about the same matter,the Jacob Hermann property. But I took no notice of him. I suppose they want to squeeze something out of me to buy them off; but they can't come that game over me. I've got my deed, and I've paid for the place, and the devil himself can't shake my title." "Who claims it, Mr. Rogers,-old Jacob's daughter ?" "Yes, I suppose so; and I guess the lawyer is spoonying after her or the place; for if I know Frank Hermann, he's not likely to fool away money in any such a way. I reckon he's enough to do to take care of himself. He mortgaged his farm to repair the old barn he lives in; and," A musingly continued Rogers, "I fancy the mortgage could be bought cheap. I tell you what, Lowe, you might do worse than look after old Jacob's daughter yourself, and not let that half-alive fellow come sneaking after her. If you can get her, I'll give her £50 to buy wedding fixings; and you can get her to confirm the old man's deed, and drop all this silly nonsense of a suit. It will all amount to nothing, as you can very well see by looking at the deed. You can call on Mr. Chooks, my lawyer, whom you know very well, and he will tell you the same." "I'm afraid that would not work, Squire." "What? — about the girl? Well, but whether or no, you could see Frank Hermann, and give him to know you've seen the deed, and what Lawyer Chooks thinks of the matter; and you can tell them that, just for peace sake, and out of regard to the Hermann folks, nothing else,-I'll give Jessie a hundred dollars to buy herself dresses. If you manage this, I'll make you a present of the other hundred dollars." "Well, Squire, I'll try, as you wish it; but I don't think we can come it. It strikes me they have taken good advice, and know what they're about. This same Edgar Paul is a smart man." "Hang him," muttered Rogers. "Take something, Lowe, before you go." "I don't care." And the spirit bottle was produced, and Lowe took a tumbler of whiskey and water strong, and departed. VERY nasty and disagreeable thing is a law-suit; and no law-suit can come in a more nasty and disagreeable shape than that of "a Bill in Chancery." The very name conjures up protracted miseries, endless litigation, interminable costs, and tedious vexations. This tribunal of Dame Justice is not a popular one evidently in Canada, any more than in England. Men like Rogers dislike it particu larly, they "don't see any necessity for the court at all. If a man is dragged into it, he don't know what may happen before he gets out. If a man pays for a place, and gets his deed, what more can be wanted? One can't even foreclose a mortgage in it without all sorts of questions cropping up, about usury, or the amount advanced, or something or other, as if a mortage did not show on the face of it what was due without all that fuss." Thus mused Rogers, as he sat alone at Lowe's departure, with the unopened paper in his hand. He sat sometime thus, but what his thoughts were none may say. At length he called for lights, and opened the document that had set him thinking. It was not very long nor very formidable-looking,—a few pages of manuscript, in a large, clear, clerkly hand, and a printed back, all neatly tied at the corner. But if the statements therein are true, it may cost Mr. Rogers Hermann's Point. What says it? Did the reader ever see such a document? Does he suppose it to be written in Norman-French, in bad Latin, or in incomprehensible legal phraseology, which none but the initiated can comprehend? If so, he is greatly mistaken. Jessie has preserved a copy of this (to her) inter esting document. It will help my story along to give it verbatim, and the reader can read it as a curiosity, and perhaps find interest in it too. We beg that he or she will not skip it. Apart from the entitling in a certain court, and the "style of the cause," this formidable bill simply "states" thus: "That some time in or about the year 1837, Jacob Hermann, then of the Township of Fredericksburg, since deceased, being seized in fee simple in possession of certain lands and premises known as (and here follows a brief description of the Herman Point Farm); and being indebted to the defendant Marcus Rogers in the sum of $300 for money loaned and advanced to him, the said Jacob Hermann, on the security of the said lands and premises, made and executed to the said defendant a deed of conveyance of the said premises, which said deed purported to convey the said premises absolutely, and the said defendant made and executed to the said Jacob Hermann a bond of defeasance, bearing even date with said deed of conveyance, whereby he undertook and covenanted to reconvey to the said Jacob Hermann, his heirs or assigns, the said above-described-premises, on payment by him, his heirs, executors, or administrators, of the said sum of $300 and interest, within years from the day of the date thereof. That the said defendant entered into possession of the said premises (on a certain date), and has since continued, and now is in possession of the same, and has received the rents and profits of the same to a large amount, and far more than sufficient to pay off the mortgage debt and interest. That the said Jacob Hermann left the Province on or about and resided in the U. S. of America, without the jurisdiction of the Court, until on or about the when he departed this life, leaving the plaintiff, his heiress at law, him surviving. "That said Jacob Hermann, in his lifetime, and plaintiff since, has frequently ap plied to defendant to be permitted to redeem said premises, and offered to pay the balance, if any, due on said mortgage; but defendant has always refused to allow the said premises to be redeemed, fraudulently claiming, and pretending that he has an indefeasible title in fee simple to the said premises, under the said deed. "That the said premises are now worth the sum of and were at the time of the execution of the said deed well worth. the sum of —.” "I And the plaintiff prayed to be allowed to redeem the said premises, on payment of what, if anything, was due to defendant, &c. ; and for certain accounts to be taken with that object. And that was all! Mark Rogers' face rather brightened as he perused this specimen of chancery pleading. guess," muttered he, "they don't know much about the matter. They can't prove it, anyhow; and if that's all it amounts to, I don't know that I would much care about investing that $200." And Mark took a glass of grog in apparent good humour, and went to bed considerably relieved. I don't intend to inflict on the reader all the details of the progress of Jessie's suit. We will only glance at the leading facts as far as it is necessary to the development of our narrative. A good deal of interest was evinced in the neighbourhood in the result of the case. Jessie, on the one hand, was a favourite, and had many friends who heartily wished her success; whilst, on the other, Roger's position and influence brought around him many who professed to sympathise with him under the vexation and annoyance of what they professed to look on as an unfounded and absurd claim; and many of these were very sincere, inasmuch as they had some cause to dread being defendants in similar cases. Edgar never had the slightest doubt of the strict justice of Jessie's claim. From what he had learnt from Mr. Hermann and others, he felt convinced that Jacob Her |