erable stream rising quietly, running in no remark-, spokes, and Nelly, assuming a prim look, turned to able manner, and sneaking away. at last, through face the young countryman.

a number of little holes in the ground, with a noise no louder than a gurgle-this is all that Lost River really is. I need scarcely say, after this, that the historian of the valley, my old friend Mr. Kerchival-a rare lover of traditions, and as earnest an itinerant as ever hunted out natural curiosities-

"Is it thee, John?"

"I have some doubis as to that, Nelly."
"As to what, John ?"

"As to whether or no I am John Carper."
"Thee is in a gay humor this morning, John."
"No, Nelly, only out of my head with thinking

is a little hyperbolical in calling Lost River "a of you. But listen to me for a little while. I stupendous evidence of the all-powerful arm of left Broad-brim salting his cattle in the hills, and God." came down to have a word or two with you. This is what I have to say; I love you, and you love me"

"Thee is not overstocked with modesty to say as much as that."

On an instep, if I may so speak, of the mountains, west of Lost River, and within a few hundred yards of it, lived in the year 1781 a substantial Quaker named Joshua Blake. His house was a log cabin of one story, divided into two large rooms "Come, Nelly you know that I am only speakby a great central stone chimney. The roof was ing the truth. It is not so long since you gave me of clap-boards, held in their places by poles pinned to understand that you did love me; to be sure you across them. A long porch fronted the river. In did not say so, which, as an honest girl, I think this porch, hanging from pegs driven into the hewn you might do without doing any harm—but you did logs of the cabin, were generally ranged the Qua- enough, and I kissed you, which made it a bargain. ker's saddle, the side-saddle of his niece, Nelly Now Nell, I am as grave as the lean parson at Blake, sets of plough or wagon harness, linsey Morefield; so put off that pretty bantering humor, hunting-frocks, and other minor articles of house- and hear me like a true-hearted girl as you are. I wifery, or farm-thrift. Here, too, Nelly Blake's have tried to live without you, but I find it isn't spinning-wheel had its permanent summer-place. A few young and vigorous apple and other fruit trees flanked the house. A wide meadow lay in front, between the foot of the hill and the treeskirted river; and on the line between bill and low-ground, just within the yard enclosure, was a range of bee-gums, whose busy occupants, at the date of my story, were in full enjoyment of the apple-blooms. In the rear of his rude, but comfortable dwelling-house, Joshua had expended his entire stock of taste in the erection of a barn, with high blank gables, painted into a perfect blaze of Dutch red.

possible. Old Broad-bim has three hundred pounds of yours which he must give up when you are married, or come of age. Now he puts himself between you and me, and gives me the cold shoulder, because if we are married, the law will make him give up the money. You are hardly eighteen; three years are an age to wait; besides, something may happen to keep us from ever getting married. Now, Nelly, let Broad-brim have the three hundred pounds, and let me have you or you have me-it is the same thing. I will work for you, and we will never miss the money. It would buy cattle to bring money in again, but I and Sharpnose here can find you venison enough, and keep the wolves from the sheep, and yon can spin the wool, and sing at your spinning. How I should like to hear you singing in my cabin, Nelly!" The speaker had by this time left his position outside of the porch, and stood very near the Quakeress. " Nelly-dear Nelly," he said in a coaxing tone, as he took her hand, "do say yes-give up the money to Broad-brim, and be my wife at once: be my dear little wife. I will take such good care of you, and love you so much."

It was late in April, 1781, that Nelly Blake, the little Quakeress, worked at her spinningwheel on the porch, in the sunshine of a very pleasant morning. Whilst she worked away, intent only, as it seemed, upon her thread and the fitting of the coil to the spindle, a young countryman, dressed in homespun, came to the bannister at her back, and leaning an arm on it whilst the other held a rifle in its curve, looked at her for some minutes without letting his presence be known. A tall, brindled dog, with a sharp nose and feathered tail, stood at his heels, as motionless as if he had the "John Carper," said the girl, become now quite eue to be quiet. Forward passed the Quakeress grave, "thee knows very well that there is love bewith a spring of the instep, and a bend of her pretty tween us. If uncle Blake will take the money, and neck, back she came, her litle feet fairly twink- thee will take me without it-here is my hand. But ling as ankle passed ankle, her bust expanded, and John, uncle Blake will hardly do so wicked a thing. her dimpled chin thrown up; whilst the surly wheel, He will be ashamed to rob the child of his brother. shifting from a dismal groan to a furious roar, ac- He will be ashamed to take the money; and not companied with such variations her coming and generous enough to give it up before the end of going. In the midst of this din which her indus- the three years. I am afraid that thee will have try made, she heard her name called. The wheel to wait for me. Is that so hard to do John ?" stopped with a clatter of the check-stick upon its Hard yes, Nelly, impossible.

66

If you love

me, and Blake is such an old hunks as to refuse has not the skill to make moccasins like the slimthe offer to take the money, and give you up, run fingered lad. There is the difference between the away with me. We can ride in a night to More-track of Girty and such as thee would make, that field-be married-come back-beg Broad-brim's there is between the tracks of a buck and an ox." pardon-go to house-keeping, and be as happy as "Hum!" grunted John, not much pleased with the bees here in the apple blossoms. Say the word, the illustration. Nell, or if you mean yes, but can't say it for smoth- "But this is not all," continued Nelly; "I pickering the crying fit that makes your eyes looked up this knife at the spring." Here she pulled a away from me, turn your mouth a little, and let knife from the pocket of her dimity apron. "I me kiss you." knew it at once as Girty's knife. He bought it of the pedlar when he came on his rounds, last fall, a little before uncle Blake drove the lad away. What advice, John, does thee give in these matters ?"

It is a grave word, John, to speak between a kiss and a cry. Thee must not be so swift and peremptory with me. My duty is not clearly before me. The thread is tangled. Give me a little time, John. We can speak of this when thee has sounded uncle Blake upon the matter of giving up the money. Thee must leave me now.”

After some farther speech, and a kiss, John Carper called to his dog Sharpnose, who had gone off on a foraging expedition amongst the outhouses, shouldered his rifle, and was about to depart. Nelly, however, called him back.

66

'My advice, Nelly, is that you keep in-doors, unless it is pleasant to have the lad asking you to be his squaw. I can't see any danger of worse. The Indians have not come in on us for ten years; since the peace was made with the chiefs. They are killing and stealing on the Ohio again, but it is a long way from there here. Smith, the surveyor, is to be at my cabin to day; but I will take Sharp"John," she said in a low tone, “I have my trou-nose to-morrow, and scout in the hills until I learn bles to day; and thee seems to me to be a fitting something of the lad." person to communicate them to."

"Thee remembers the Indian boy, Girty ?" "To be sure. I remember all about hin, from the time that drunken scoundrel, old Girty, brought him in and bound him prentice to Blake, to the time Broad-brim gave him a beating and drove him off. Old Girty was the arrantest white rascal west of the mountains, and the boy's mother was a squaw; so that, if young leather-face didn't deserve the beating, there is nothing in blood."

"There is another matter, John," said the Quakeress, but then paused, and seemed to consider very busily for a minute.

Speak it out, Nelly, like an honest girl." "Does thee know anything of the movements up the river? Uncle Blake is riding to William Mace's, and elsewhere, in a very unusual manner. I heard him tell William Mace, who was here last night, that the young men must fight it out here, if they were interrupted, but that the movements ought to be very quiet, and the companies ought to get down over the Blue Ridge, and join the true men in some county there; that Cornwallis was in those parts. William Mace laughed and called uncle Blake the fighting Quaker,' but uncle said "He asked me to be his squaw, John," said that it was for putting down arms that arms were Nelly with a laugh and a blush.

"He did deserve the beating, John. But does thee not know the cause of it? The boy showed me disrespect."

"How? I never heard of that."

"The infernal copper-skin--the leather-faced rascal! Why didn't you tell me all about it, before he ran away? By the"-

"Thee should not swear, John, and there is no use to be so savage. But this is what I have to say: I think young Girty has come back, and is hiding in the neighborhood."

nose.

taken up, and besides, that he had no idea of fighting himself. What is the meaning of it all, John ?"

John Carper laughed. "For a knowing man, I must say that Broad-brim is working into a considerable difficulty. You remember the twelve Philadelphia Quakers that Congress sent to Winchester, because they were so hot in preaching against our fighting, that at last it looked as if they were

Carper pricked up his ears, as did his dog Sharp-ready to fight us for fighting?" The dog had shown a singular attention at the calling of the Indian boy's name. * Some of our politicians, when measures go against "Why I think that the lad is here," continued them, are as ready with their "protests" as notaries public. But the most extraordinary case of protesting on record is Nelly, "is this: I went this morning to the syc-furnished in the conduct of Mr. Fisher, one of these arrested amore spring, to fill uncle Blake's pitcher; I saw, Quakers. "Among the prisoners were three of the Pemin the mud the print of a moccasin." bertons, two of the Fishers, an old Quaker preacher named

"But I wear moccasins myself, Nelly, and was Hunt, and several others, amounting in all to twelve, and at the spring yesterday.

with the druggist and dancing master, fourteen. One of the Fishers was a lawyer by profession. He protested in his own name, and on behalf of his fellow prisoners, against being taken into custody by Col. Smith; stated that they had protested against being sent from Philadelphia; that

CHAPTER II.

John Carper gained his cabin, found Smith, the

"Yes," said Nelly, "Uncle Blake took me with him to Winchester, whilst they were there. Thee should have seen the respectable persons. John Pemberton was a grave, great-looking, elderly man. There was a Master Swift, a dancing mas- surveyor, there, spent the day in running the lines ter, came on with them, whom they admonished of his farm, to set at rest a dispute which had sharply for teaching the people frivolous things. arisen with a neighboring land-holder, slept from Master Swift was dressed in pink and blue, and dark to dawn in so hearty and sound a manner was a very light, frolicksome person." as to cast some doubt on the reality of that unhappiness which he had pleaded in his suit to his Quakeress, and by sunrise was well-advanced on his way back to the house of Joshua Blake. Sharpnose followed the long swinging walk of his master at a brisk trot, and was evidently greatly disturbed by something. Carper saw, without much observing, the whimsical passion of his dog; he was very intent on a speech which he intended to make to the Quaker. "First," said he to himself, "I must drop the Broad-brim and call him Mr. Blake; we Nelly Blake looked greatly surprised, and then must not set the old man horns foremost. Then I infinitely distressed. The word tory had in that must smooth down that matter of the money. It day, and indeed retains to this, a horror of its own would be barefaced knavery to take Nelly's poras a mere word, apart from the horrors of the tion just so. Blake is not a downright rascalbloody civil strife of which it was a type. An in- only too close to be always fair. I must propose a tense popular feeling will consecrate or desecrate loan of the money to him, without interest or sewords, until, from sounds, they become things-curity-something of that sort. What's the matsaving or fatal things, as the case may be. ter, Sharpnose ?"

"You were something of a little minx then, Nelly, and no doubt admired the dancing man very much. But it would have been much better if your uncle Broad-brim had put his slim shanks under the fiddle of Master Swift, instead of slipping his crafty head into John Pemberton's noose. He has been an evil wisher to the country ever since, and now, Quaker as he is, there is no man doing more than he does to stir up a tory insurrection."

"And is uncle Blake a tory, John ?" said Nelly,

with a pale face and unsteady eye.

"A sort of half-tory, Nelly; because he is principled against fighting with his own hands-which may mean that he is principled against being shot at. But he is doing his best to make full tories, and is likely to get himself into trouble. General Morgan is at home, down below Winchester, and there can be no rising here that he could not put down with a pile of stones at a cross-roads. At any rate the crack of his rifles would clear Lost River."

The hunter and his dog had approached within sight of Blake's house. No smoke issued from the pyramid of a chimney. There seemed to be no movement about the barn or stables. Joshua Blake was striding up and down on the long porch, his coat tails straightened by the rapidity of his motion. Sharpnose bristled, crept in front of his master, nosed the ground eagerly, gave a low whine, and looked up into his face.

"What are you telling me, dog?" said Carper, beginning to feel an alarm for which he could not account. The dog, in answer, moved away rap

'What would thee advise me to do in this, as in idly toward a gorge in the western mountain, evithe rest, John?" dently carrying a scent breast high. "To attend to your spinning, Nelly, until the him in and hurried to the house. day comes for running away with me."

they had again protested at the Pennsylvania line against being taken out of the State; had repeated their protest at the Maryland line against being taken into Virginia," etc., etc. Kerchival's History of the Valley, p. 191. It was a natural remark of one of the Pembertons-" Friend Fisher, thy protests are unavailing; thee should dispense with them." The stout-hearted Quaker, requiring to be lifted over state lines, and, clamoring out his protests, would make a good comic picture.

* General Morgan fought a great many battles after the Revolution with these homely weapons. "Peace hath her victories," etc. Battletown, a village within a few miles of this spot, acquired its name from Morgan's street-fights in it. He would take post at a central spot, with a pile of stones at his feet, and throw them with such effect as to put all hostile comers to rout. His residence, to which John Carper alludes, was Saratoga, six miles south of Battletown-at present the seat of Mr. N. Burwell, senr.

Carper called Joshua Blake gave him no time for the first question. "Thee is slow, John Carper-slow. Does thee know the truth? Fire off thy gun, and raise the country."

"What's in the wind, Broad-brim ?—Mr. Blake, I mean."

"The Indians have stolen away Nelly-killed old Abel in his loft--carried off the boy Tobe-killed my six fat beeves in the cattle pen-robbed chest--ruined me. Fire thy gun, John Carper, and raise the country."

my

The Quaker's speech told the truth, which Carper was slow to comprehend in its full force.

"Where have you been all night, Mr. Blake?" "Up at Mace's. But why does thee stay to question? Fire thy gun.”

"Carper roused himself, and rapidly, but with extraordinary calmness, made an examination of

Whilst the Quaker went to procure the beef, Carper cast about writing an agreement as to Nelly's hand.

Every thing of this sort," said he, "should begin with 'in the name of God, amen'-no, that begins a will. This should begin with a 'whereas' I think," and he wrote-realizing the prodigious

writing.

the premises. Nelly was gone. Her little closet, bringing a bit of dingy paper which he had torn boarded off in a corner of one of the two great from a blank book, and an ink horn from the adrooms, like a college dormitory, was empty, and joining room. "Whilst I am writing down the stripped of its few articles of ornament. Abel, an pot-hooks, do you cut me off ten pounds of jerked old working man, crippled with rheumatism, and beef in strips of a pound, as near as you can come bed-ridden, was certainly dead, and lay horribly to it. I filled my powder horn last night, and put mutilated and scalped, upon the floor of his loft, in four dozen bullets in my pouch. The beef will an outhouse. Tobe, his grandson was missing. make me ready." An oaken chest had been dragged from under Joshua Blake's bed, forced open, and rifled of its contents amongst the rest, Joshua said, of a bag of dollars. The wooden trenchers, and other utensils of the kitchen had been broken and tossed about. The servant girl, to whose province they belonged, had fortunately gone, the evening before, to spend the night with her mother, on the other difference, to men like himself, between talking and side of the river. Her brother, a half-witted lad, who had been in the house, and present throughout the visit of the Indians, had been spared, probably from the superstitious reverence, common amongst the tribes, for such unfortunates. He now sat in the kitchen, upon a wicker-chair, mending the broken trenchers and wooden bowls, with an awl and shoe-maker's thread. Carper gained no information from him, except that Girty was one of the party, that there were many others, and that Nelly and the boy Tobe were trudged off loaded Carper mused over this production, which he with bundles. He examined the cattle pen. Six wrote in a large, awkward hand, and for the punclarge beeves, culled from Joshua's herd, and penned tuation of which he is indebted to his historian, for and housed for grain fattening, were killed; pieces some moments as if not altogether satisfied with of flesh were cut from them, and from some sin- it. His countenance, however, presently became gular whim many of the colored spots had been carefully cut out from the skins, and carried off. The matted frontal skin and horns of one of the largest of the oxen had also been removed. The horses, except the Quaker's dun gelding, which he had ridden to Mace's, had been at pasture over the river, and were still visible, feeding quietly, kneedeep in the plentiful grass of the flats.

“Joshua Blake," said Carper, after making rapid but full examination of the premises, "I am about to set off after Nelly. You can raise the country and follow on. But before I go, one thing must be settled. If I bring her back, I must have her for my wife."

"Thee may surely have her, John, and an old man's blessing if thee bring the child back. But, John, whilst thee is up and doing, thee will do well to get back also the bag of silver dollars. Thee shall have a just portion for compensation of thy trouble.".

"D--n the dollars," exclaimed Carper rather irreverently; "this mixing up of your money bags with poor Nelly is not decent, and it makes me bold to ask for a word from under your pen giving her to me for my wife if I bring her back."

Blake assented to this, declaring, however, its unimportance, and suggesting to Carper that his suspicions lost him time and a mile of his journey. "I will make it up with my legs," said the hunter,

"Whereas, Joshua Blake and John Carper are wishing to get back my dear Ellen Blake from the felonious Indians, in whose blood-thirsty hands she is fallen, and whereas John Carper mistrusts in my mind, the said Joshua Blake of a promise he has made of Nelly to me for a wife, if I bring her back; now the said Joshua Blake binds himself and his heirs to said John Carper, to give my dear Nelly Blake to said John Carper for a wife."

assured.

"There is a mixing up," he critically communed with himself, "somehow of John Carper and me, and me and John Carper that makes it a little clumsy, but the meaning is pretty straight, and when Broad-brim signs it, all will be right enough."

Blake presently brought the beef, and after formally reciting the paper, signed it. Carper stowed the provision about his person, pinched the agreement into the corner of a pocket, enjoined on the Quaker, whom his own steadiness had almost restored to a clear state of mind, to collect the neighbors without losing an hour, and put them on the way to the head waters of the Youheganey, shouldered his rifle, gave Sharpnose a sign to go before, and struck for the mountain.

[To be continued.]

THE PURSUIT OF LETTERS.

The Germans for learning enjoy great repute;
But the English make letters still more a pursuit;
For a Cockney will go from the banks of the Thames
To Cologne for an O, and to Nassau for M's.

Hood.