916 BRAGGADOCIO.

desk. ‘* Here is the deed; Mr. Cramer had it
all made out in the right way, and handed it
to me the last time he was up here on busi-
ness.” |

“Sure enough,” said Tom; “I did not
think of being so soon a land proprietor. I
shall be monarch of all I survey, if I can only
buy the house of you, Howard.”

“The house is yours, Tom. I make you a
present of it.”

“Thank you, a thousand times. I shall
prize it as one of the most precious of my pos-
sessions. To think of my owning a house built .
by the celebrated architect (to be), Howard
Framingham, Esq.”

Supper was now ready, and the four sat
down together, and everything had the pecu-
liarly wholesome relish that seemed to belong
to all the meals at the brown cottage.

A letter, as Bessie suspected, had been sent
to Howard by Mr. Cramer, the day before he
sailed for Europe. Mrs. Cramer, he said, was
anxious that her children should be educated
in Paris, and he had yielded to her wishes.