se of evergreens. The form and foliage of this plant are
beautiful, and the leaf, being bruised, extremely fragrant; but, as its
perfume indicates, it is a rank poison, containing a great portion of
prussic acid. It grows from cuttings rapidly and freely, and might be
formed into the most perfect hedge, being well adapted, by its close,
bushy growth, to that purpose.

After leaving Edisto, we pursued the same tedious, meandering course,
over turbid waters, and between low-lying swamps, till the evening
closed in. The afternoon had been foggy and rainy and wretched. The
cabin was darkened by the various outer protections against the weather,
so that we could neither read nor work. Our party, on leaving the
island, had received an addition of some young ladies, who were to go on
shore again in the middle of the night, at a stopping-place called
Hilton Head. As they did not intend to sleep, they seemed to have no
idea of allowing any one else to do so; and the giggling and chattering
with which they enlivened the dreary watches of the night, certainly
rendered anything like repose impossible; so I lay, devoutly wishing for
Hilton Head, where the boat stopped between one and two in the morning.
I had just time to see our boarding-school angels leave us, and a
monstrous awkward-looking woman, who at first struck me as a man in
disguise, enter the cabin, before my eyes sealed themselves in sleep,
which had been hovering over them, kept aloof only by the incessant
conversational racket of my young fellow-travelers.

I was extremely amused at two little incidents which occurred the next
morning before we were called to breakfast. The extraordinary-looking
woman who came into the boat during the night, and who was the most
masculine-looking lady I ever saw, came and stood by me, and, seeing me
nursing my baby, abruptly addressed me with "Got a baby with you?" I
replied in the affirmative, which trouble her eyes might have spared me.
After a few minutes' silence, she pursued her unceremonious catechism
with "Married woman?" This question was so exceedingly strange, though
put in the most matter-of-course sort of way, that I suppose my surprise
exhibited itself in my countenance, for the lady presently left me--not,
however, appearing to imagine that she had said or done anything at all
unusual. The other circumstance which amused me was to hear another lady
observe to her neighbor, on seeing Margery bathing my children (a
ceremo