Then, reverting to the past, he reminded himself of his orphan condition, of the gratitude he owed his affectionate foster-mother, and of the kind and parental assistance she had offered him, although he was about to desert her. Often he felt the melting mood come over him so conqueringly, that he was all but resolved to tell the aged dame, in the morning, that he would remain with her, and try to comfort her old age. And then he thought of the many sensible lessons she had given for his future conduct in the world,--till, wearied out with the variety of his thoughts, and physically, as well as mentally exhausted, he sunk to slumber. Joe awoke early, after a dreamless and refreshing sleep, and again his mind laboured with its difficulties about Deborah's relation of the apparition; but its labour was vain. The more he reasoned the greater were his difficulties. The healthful effect of these baffled and perplexed thinkings upon Joe's intellect was, the deterring of its powers from precipitant and immature conclusions,--the throwing of its energies back upon fresh and deeper inquiry,--and the in-fixing of a humiliating consciousness that, after all his struggles in pursuit of knowledge, he scarcely knew any thing yet as he ought to know it. Thus, his conscious ignorance for the present was really beneficial to him; and when the voice of his affectionate mistress was heard summoning him to breakfast, he stept down the ladder, shaking his head at himself for a conceited puppy, and applying homeward to his own case the significant rebuke-- "There are more things in heaven and earth, _Joe_, Than are dreamt of in _your_ philosophy." Labour, the honest dame declared, should not be thought of, in her house, the day that Joe was of age,--according to her reckoning by guess,--and free. And she bustled about, as old as she was, to place her best earthen jugs, filled with mead and ale, in goodly array, on the white and well-scoured table, that every visiter might drink the young freeman's health; and she hasted to prepare a large plumb-pudding, and other homely eates, for dinner,--all the while holding up her head, and striving to look as blythe and merry as if she had been in her teens. At length, the hour of parting came; and when Joe rose and took up his hat,--and his fellow-apprentices that were,--but a few hours before,--took each a bundle to accompany him a few miles on the way,--Dame Deborah's aged frame shook violently, and the tears streamed, unchecked, down her time-worn face. "God speed thee, my dear bairn!" she cried,--"and help thee to take heed of thy ways, that no harm may befall thee!" Joe felt completely unmanned, and mingled his tears with those of his beloved and revered benefactress, while he bent to receive her parting benediction. * * * * *