surely we must suppose that this gentle visitor was a good Calvinist, and would perform only the acts of necessity and mercy.  These she had done in so far as regarded necessity, and now they saw her go to the shelf on which the Bible was deposited—­a book which, alas! for seven years had not been opened by either of the guilty pair.  Having got what she wanted, she sat down by the table, opened the volume at a place well thumbed, and began to read aloud a chapter in the Corinthians, which Thomas Dodds, the more by reason that he had heard it read two hundred and fifty times, knew by heart.  This being finished, she turned up a psalm, yea, that very psalm which Janet Dodds had sung every Sunday morning, and, presently, the kitchen was resonant with the rising notes of the Bangor, as they came from a throat trembling with devotion—­

  “I waited on the Lord my God,
    And patiently did bear;
  At length to me He did incline
    My voice and cry to hear.

  “He took me from a fearful pit,
    And from the miry clay,
  And on a rock He set my feet,
    Establishing my way.”

The service finished, they saw her replace the book where she had found it; and by this time the kettle was spewing from the mouth thereof a volume of steam, as if it were calling to its old mistress to relieve it from the heat of the fire; nor was she long in paying due obedience.  The tea-pot was got where she seemed to know it would be found, so also the tea-canister.  The quantity to be put in was a foregone conclusion, and steadily measured with the spoon.  The water was poured in, and the utensil placed on the cheek of the chimney in order to the indispensable infusion.  Next the cup and saucer were placed on the table, then followed the bread and butter, and the sugar and the milk; all being finished by the words to herself, “There’s nae egg in the house.”  Having thus finished her work, she took down her plaid, adjusted it carefully, opened the door, and departed.

The effect produced by this second spectral appearance could scarcely be exaggerated, yet we suspect you will not find it of that kind which is most in harmony with human nature, except in the case of Mrs. Dodds the second, who lay, as on the former occasion, sweating and trembling.  It was now different with the husband, on whom apparently had fallen some of the seeds of the word, as they were scattered by the lips of the strange visitor, and conscience had prepared the soil.  The constitutional strength of character which had enabled him to perpetrate a terrible deed of evil, was ready as a power to achieve his emancipation, and work in the direction of good.  So, without saying a word of all that had been acted that morning, he rose and dressed himself, and, going into the kitchen, he sat down without the fear of poison, and partook of the breakfast which had been so strangely prepared for him, nor was he satisfied till he read the chapter and psalm with which he had been so long familiar.  He then returned to the bedroom, and addressing his wife—­