The brother of the lady being apprised of | ing it for the future; he agreed with him what had passed, lost no time in sending an entirely with regard to the propriety of it, express to Bath, and by a very handsome and having assured the friends of the girl that gratuity induced a surgeon of great eminence he thought him a skilful and ingenious young to set out immediately for his house, who man, took his leave, being obliged to return arrived early the next morning. But in the directly home. meantime poor Main had like to have paid dear for his superior skill in his profession. The other surgeon had no sooner got home than he sent him a challenge to meet him that evening, in a field at some distance from the town. They met: Main had the good fortune after wounding to disarm his antagonist, but first received himself a dangerous wound.

The testimony of this gentleman, whose skill was undoubted and whose impartiality must be so too, having never seen any of the parties concerned in his life before, wrought so much on the brother of the lady that he did not hesitate to put his sister under the care of her lover.

Poor Main, though scarce able to leave his bed for some time, was nevertheless carried to his patient every day, at the hazard of his life. His skill, his tenderness, and his assiduity, were all exerted in a particular manner on the present occasion, and in less than five weeks he had the pleasure to see his mistress restored to perfect health.

This accident was kept from the knowledge of his mistress; but on the arrival of the surgeon from Bath, as he would not take off the dressings but in the presence of the person who put them on, it was thought proper that both Mr. Main and the other man should be sent for. The latter was not by any means in a condition to attend, but the former, though very ill and feverish, desired that he might be carried to the house. The Bath surgeon having in his and the brother's presence examined the case, declared it as his opinion that the complaint might be removed without amputa- | tion, adding that it was owing to wrong management that the grievance had gone so far. He consulted with Main in the presence of the family as to his intended method of treat- | pair united in marriage.

The consequence of this incident was very happy for them both. The brother, exceedingly pleased at his whole behaviour, told him he was an honest generous fellow, and since he was convinced it was his sister's person and not her fortune he was attached to, he would with all his heart bestow both on him; and accordingly Mr. Arnold and I had this day the satisfaction of seeing this worthy young

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

BORN 1728 DIED 1774.

[Oliver Goldsmith-the poet, dramatist, his- | farm of about seventy acres was rented, which torian, essayist, and novelist, who has left us afterwards brought in about forty pounds a models of style in everything he attempted-year. the author who above all others creeps into the hearts of his readers as a friend-was born on the 10th of November, 1728, at Pallas or Pallasmore, in the county of Longford. His father, with the amiable improvidence which seems to have belonged to the family, married very young, and, as Irving puts it, "starved along for several years on a small country curacy and the assistance of his wife's friends." Two years after Oliver's birth, however, a change for the better occurred. The uncle of Mrs. Goldsmith dying, her husband succeeded to the rectory of Kilkenny West, and the family removed to Lissoy, in the county of Westmeath. There also a

In Lissoy Goldsmith's youth was passed, and from it he drew most of his pictures of rural and domestic life. There can scarcely be a doubt it also furnished the original of "Auburn" in The Deserted Village. At six years of age he became pupil to the village schoolmaster, Thomas Byrne, an old veteran who had fought in the Spanish wars, and one likely to prove a capital tutor for a poet. From him Goldsmith acquired an extensive knowledge of fairy lore, fable, romance, and adventure, and by him was encouraged in scribbling verses, which he had generally the good sense to commit to flames. Some of them, however, reached Oliver's mother, who,