His duties all performed, — the highest prosperity attained, — his race and future generations fixed on a stable basis, and with a stately roof to shelter them for centuries to come, — what other upward step remained for this good man to take, save the final step from earth to the golden gate of heaven! The pious clergyman surely would not have uttered words like these had he in the least suspected that the Colonel had been thrust into the other world with the clutch of violence upon his throat.

The family of Colonel Pyncheon, at the epoch of his death, seemed destined to as fortunate a permanence as can anywise consist with the inherent instability of human affairs.

It might fairly be anticipated that the progress of time would rather increase and ripen their