TRE CHILDREN IN THE Woop, 65

words, he pressed his cold lips to his children ; the lady did the
same, and ina short time they both died. The uncle shed a
few tears at this sad sight, and then broke open the will; in
which he found that his brother had left the little boy, William,
the sum of three hundred pounds ar, when he should be
twenty-one years old, and to Jane, the girl, the sum of five
hundred pounds in gold, to be paid her the day of her being
married. But if the children should happen to die before
coming of age, then all the money was to belong to their uncle.
‘The will of the gentleman next ordered that he and his dear
wife should be buried side by side in the same grave.

‘The two little children were now taken home to the house
of their uncle ; who, for some time, did just as their parents
had so lately told him upon their death-bed ; and so he used
them with great kindness ; but when he had kept them about
a year, he forgot by degrees to think how their father and
mother looked when they gave their children to his care, and
how he himself had made a promise to be their father, mother,
and uncle, all in one. After a little more time had passed, the
uncle could not help thinking that he wished the little boy and
girl would die, for then he should have all their money for
himself ; and when he had once begun to think this, he went
on till he could hardly think of anything else. At last he
said to himself, “It would not be very hard for me to kill
them so as for nobody to know anything about the matter,
and then the money will be mine at once.” —When the cruel
uncle had once brought his mind to kill the helpless little crea~
tures, he was not long in finding a way to bring it about. He
hired two sturdy ruffians, who had already killed many tra-
yellers in a dark thick wood, some way off, for the sake of
robbing them of their money. These two wicked creatures
now agreed with the uncle, for a large sum of money, to do the

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