The Good Natured Man With One Eye

About half way between two small towiis vvhose naiues are uuimportant, there is or was a wayside inn, called the Travelers Delight. lts niime was prob ably a mistake, or it might have been a satire, sitice the Traveler's Delight pre sented au aspect by no mcans deüghtful ; indeed a tiniid traveler would have been apt to turn froin it with a shudder, as iutoïerably desolate and glooniy ; and prefcr passing on at all risk, to making a trial of it. One evening, however, at dus.k, aliorse laboring under the weight of two persons a man servant, and a lady on a pillion - you raust remember that it is a long time since this happened- stopped befpre the door of the Traveler's Delig'ïit. !'We lust be wrong,' said the sersant "I don't remeiuber auy inn on the road;'1 whereupou he proceedcd to make some inquirios of the surly looking host, and then turned to the lady, " We have niissed the turning and are some miles from the riglit way. What is to be done?" The lady- we wil! cali her Mrs Bengon - lookéd ai, the dark.ening night, aud shivej-ed as a blaat fff wind weut bowling by.' "Is there aecom'j4ation for us bsre ? JJut'l thiuk we ha4 better go on." The servant, hoever, was notincUned to gp od. There was plenty of accomodation ior his mistress, and his horse was i dead beat. As for himself the landlord eaid there was an outhouse he could sleep in, and he was sure lus uiaster would uot like Mrs. Benscn to peri! her health p,n,i safety by goini out in the oold, dt.rk night. The lady suflered herself to bc persuaded, aud entered the house. A wo man with an utipleasant face came to meet her. When Mrs. Bensou aiw this woman, she looked again at the dark road hesitatiugly, 'out the horse had been taken to the siable, aud the servaut 'sas not to be seen. "Can I have a privatd room ?" inquired the lady. "A bed-room, of course. But there's no sittiug room, except the house place. You'U fiud it warm and cornfortable, aud can have .he best ?eat." By this time the putcr door waa shut and f'astened. a;id Mrs. Benson takiug j poui.ge ju tt;e thought thstat least her servaut was somewhsre '-ithin cali, made a virtue of ueceBsity and accepted the offered begt oeat wftfa seeniiog satisfaction. Supper was placed befpre her, w'aicli the landlord and his wife shared at her request. Duriug the meal there was violent Í kuocking at the outer dooi', and wbeo it was opeued, there entered a tall, broadshouldered mau, with one eye, and a shock head of red hair. "Can I have a bed ?" was his query. "Well, I suppose you can, if the missis and me gives ij'p pur room. It won't be ! the first time we've had to camp in the house-place, that's one thing." "Sorry to put you out. Thank you ; I tliiuk I will take a mouthtul. No one had invited the new comer to take a mouthful, uud as he helped hirn sclt bis oue eye tumed ou the strange lady, Mrs. BeDSon could uot help return ÍDg the look with interest, the man had sucli a comical f.ice ; and then bis head was the reddest she had ever seen, aud the whole man seemed jolly with an expressiou of grotesque good nature. At some surly remark of the landlord's, this queer oue eye looked at the lady agsin quickly ; its owner gave a eomioa!, sideloDg nod towards the host, and thn the eye twinkled as much :is to say, "He's a queer tempered ehap, you know ; but don't bc fiightened, Tl! proteet you." In fact, 5lrs. Beneou feit quite a sense of security iu the presunce of the goodnatured man, and was sorry when Lis huge supper came to an end. " Well, then, I '11 turn in," he said; puphingbis rlate away, " if the roaeter here will be good enough to show me the room, for I am tired. Good-night, niissis - servant ma'am." Then Mrs. Benson fancied that the sour face of the hostess grew sourer sti 11; it fairly scowled at her, but she did uot feel at all incliued to go to bed. There was no alternative, however; she could oot sit up all night where she was, because, the niaster and mistress bad expressed their iutention of remaiuing there. She bad askcd Lpr her servant, and was told that he had retired to his house, for the night. ; there was no further pretext for liugering, so she acoepted the repeated offer of the laudlady to show Jier to her room. When she gut inside tlie room, Mra. Bensoü'a first impulse was to look the door, and as she did so the key c-ime out in her hand. Not satisfied with the lock, which looked crasy, she proeeeded to pile every moveab'e articlf) flf fqrDitore against the door ; that done ske turned to the fire, whit-h was turued to the firo, which was burning cheerfully agaiust the door; that done sho turned to the fire wbich was buniing eheurfully. While she stood there meditating upon the in sufficieucy of llie furuiture for a barricade, the door-key, which was twistisg about her fingers, dropped into the ashes. Mrs Benson stooped to piek ït up, and as she stooped, with her face beut in an upside dowu position, a gleam of fire seut its light uuderueatli tlie bed behind her. Itflashed upon a shock head of the reddest hair she lad ever secn Mrs. ! Benson raised her head again rather . quickly. ïne first tangible idea that p'reaented itsslf in the dizziness that erept over her was to pull away the barricade and cali for help. 13ut long before a sound could be made audible low, her fate might, and doubtless would be, decided. ïben she thought of j fessing aloud to haveforgotten soniethicg which she must go to fetch, bnt, th nking of all the circumstances, she could not help believing the sour puople down gtairs to be in league witti the red headed mau so that certain death must tollow that. move, eveu it' the robber were net too wide awake to permit the ruse. She had beard of its being done, and so, no doubt had he, and he would uuderstand it. Bfsides all this she had Btit fourid the key, and somehow she shrank from bendin'g down again to scarch for it - Who knew what she might encounter the next time? A kuife, perhaps, or a pistol, or that one gleamiiig eye ; and startled raotion ruight cause the robber i to suspect her knowledge of bis preseuce. No, she could not lookfor the key. A üttle whilo longei tin. Benson stood warming lier hands at the fire, then ■ she turueJ round to examine the positign I of the bed, whieh had been drawn dowu so as to leave a sn,all space between its [ow head and the wall, aud it oceurred to her that this arrangcmeiit had beeu made by the robber wlio would doubtless prefer to eme:ge behmd, where i tliere would be least chance of the vietim eatehiüg sight ot' !;im. aud so unnecessary noise nnght be avoided. By reason of her little brirrisadu on ono fide, and the wall on the other, she would have to creep 'o at the footof the bed. Afrer thinking over her pqiiüon as ealmly as posoib.le undor the girenmStanees, she took a atrong, thick, woolen scarf of unusnal lcnath wbich had buen wrapped over her ehest for the joun;cy, aud tied be'uinJ, L-nd putting out the candle, she got into bed, yawning agaiu audibly. The fire burued low in the grate, and the room grew nearly dark. - If any ODe could havo looked into ir. they would have seen on the bed a croucbing figure, holdiug ia its two hands the two euds of a soaif - one of these ends beitig slipped througb a long loose knot on the other, and a pair of' large eager eyes training upon that falal spuee between thw bed-hsad aud the wall. A cloelv struck dowu below. Mrs Benson could hear llie duü, whirling sound of every stroke in the house, and a hysterieal desire to scre:im seJzed her; but just theo there was a siight dragging noise under the bod, and her eyeg were again fixed in diat strained watchfulness. The dragging came ncar the wall slowly The 5?atpher had vrell caloulated that the form of her terrible visitor must. pueh itself up head first, shoulders flat against the wal!, aud the arras comparatively pinioned. The hideous chance was that it raight come up on one side or the other of he big nooe wsibng for it. More draggiug, theii a shock Uead ayove the, pillow, a stifled gurgling cry, ;md the two hands of the wateher were tugging I away with all their might at the two ejids of the woolen scarf. Chaucing to pass by the scrange lady's door in tbe eafly tpofning, the sour laudlady was ttartled by tlie sound of a voiee utteriug strange sou:ids, a medley of talking sarenmino; aud chuokling. She cilled her husband ürst, then tho lady's servant; and afier sorae alteroation. the j latter insisted on breakicg open the door. rA clatter of falliog furniture followed ; and edsring thcinsolves iu with soine diffi ■ culty, tlioy found the lady stül in her ; croueliing position, aud still clutching with both hands at the ends of tho scarf about the ghastly, staring head At the sight of those three horrified faces, she burst into a fit of iiysterioal crying which ; (said my réciter) probably sayed Lp: rpflfinn. The suspicions whieh Mrs. Bonson had conceived that her hosts were in league with tLie robber (as the shock Ifetided traveler turned out to be) was .'asily dissipated ; and the real kiudocss uuder the land lady' sour faoe was prov'ed by her unspariug atteiition to the comfort of her guests ijntil the latter were ready ■ tor the jouruey home. ,.,.- ... A poor, thoughtless ok) gentleman ! sat down the other day, on the ppur of a motnont, His ecreuras were