food into the waters of the bayou, and skulking around the trunks of the
cypresses. I saw the opossum gliding along the fallen log, and the red
squirrel, like a stream of fire, brushing up the bark of the tall
tulip-tree. I saw the large "swamp-hare" leap from her form by the
selvage of the cane-brake; and, still more tempting game, the
fallow-deer twice bounded before me, roused from its covert in the shady
thickets of the pawpaw-trees. The wild turkey, too, in all the glitter
of his metallic plumage, crossed my path; and upon the bayou, whose bank
I for some time followed, I had ample opportunity of discharging my
piece at the blue heron or the egret, the summer duck or the snake-bird,
the slender ibis or the stately crane. Even the king of winged
creatures, the white-headed eagle, was more than once within range of my
gun, screaming his maniac note among the tops of the tall taxodiums.

And still the brown tubes rested idly across my arm; nor did I once
think of casting my eye along their sights. No ordinary game could have
tempted me to interrupt the current, of my thoughts, that were dwelling
upon a theme to me the most interesting in the world--Aurore the
quadroon!

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

DREAMS.

Yielding up my soul to its sweet love-dream, I wandered on--where and
how long I cannot tell, for I had taken no note either of distance or
direction.

I was roused from my reverie by observing a brighter light gleaming
before me; and soon after I emerged from the darker shadow of the
forest. My steps, chance-directed, had guided me into a pretty glade,
where the sun shone warmly, and the ground was gay with flowers. It was
a little wild garden, enamelled by blossoms of many colours, among
which, bignonias and the showy corollas of the cotton-rose were
conspicuous. Even the forest that bordered and enclosed this little
parterre was a forest of flowering-trees. They were magnolias of
several kinds; on some of which the large liliaceous blossoms had given
place to the scarcely less conspicuous seed-cones of glowing red, whose
powerful but pleasant odour filled the atmosphere around. Other
beautiful trees grew alongside, mingling their perfume with that of the
magnolias. Scarce less interesting were the "honey-locusts"
(_gleditschias_), with their pretty pinnate leaves, and long
purple-brown legumes; the Virginian lotus, with its oval amber-coloured
drupes, and the singular bow-wood tree (_madura_), with