l his
decease, which took place just before that of Herbert. She then
removed to Coote-down, which had come into her possession, failing
nearer heirs--her father having been a cousin two degrees removed
from the late Mr Hardman, senior. There she had lived on for years,
without any attempt to improve the ruined property, and in the
seclusion in which I saw her at my visit.

Such is the history of the 'Home-wreck,' whose effects I witnessed in
my visit to Coote-down. Since then, however, things have materially
changed. A very short time ago, I received notice that the heroine of
the above events had sunk into the grave, leaving most of her
property to my cousin and fascinating cicerone, who is now happily
married. By this time the estate has resumed its former fertility,
and the house some of its past grandeur.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.

A TALE OF THE SIOUX INDIANS.

BY PERCY B. ST JOHN.

In the very centre of one of the thickest and heaviest woods of the
American continent, where now stands a busy manufacturing town, there
was, some forty years ago, an Indian camp occupied by a small band of
the wild and warlike Sioux. They were not more than fifty in number,
having visited the spot merely for the purpose of hunting, and laying
in a store of provisions for the winter. It chanced, however, that,
coming unexpectedly upon certain Assineboins, who also were outlying
in the woods, following the exciting duty of the chase, a quarrel
ensued, ending in a bloody contest, in which the Sioux were
victorious. With rude tents pitched, without order or method, in an
open glade of the forest, with horses tethered around, and little
dusky imps fighting with the lean dogs that lay lolling their tongues
lazily about, there was yet a picturesque air about the place and its
extraneous features, which would have captivated the eye of one in
search of nature's sunshiny spots. Deeply embosomed within the
autumnal tinted wood, a purling spring that burst from the green
slope of a little mound was the feature which had attracted the
Indians to the locality. Rank grass had once covered the whole
surface of this forest meadow, but this the cattle had closely
cropped, leaving a sward that would have rivalled any European lawn
in its velvety beauty, and that, falling away before the eye, became
inexpressibly soft as it sunk away in the distance.

The setting sun, gilding and crowning the tree tops in wreathed
glory, was gradually paling be