ngled banner" of our country, giving to the early
settler an assurance of protection; proclaiming equality and freedom to
all peoples who come hither in search of new homes, and to each and all
a sense of increased dignity and importance as they stand underneath its
ample folds.

A short distance across the open prairie and up the river toward
Minneapolis--on the return--is the famed

MINNEHAHA FALLS.

Longfellow's exquisite picture--in words--of these falls seems so
perfect and complete that we cannot forbear to quote it. He says:

"Sweet Minne-ha-ha like a child at play,
Comes gaily dancing o'er her pebbly way,
'Till reaching with surprise the rocky ledge,
With gleeful laugh bounds from its crested edge."

And what can we say of them that shall be new or of fresh interest
either to those who have read of, or what is better, have seen them?
After viewing and listening to their laughing-leap we easily understand
the fitness of the name they bear--the "Laughing Waters."

The first sight of the falls is captivating, and there seems little of
praise which you could wish to withhold. They are the very antipodes of
those of Niagara--instead of volume and power inspiring awe, they win
your love and enhance your views of the beautiful and good.

The waters

"Flash and gleam among the oak trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley,"

and move gaily and gleefully among the maples, oaks, and vines which
line and wreathe its banks; rivalling in song the wild birds that linger
in the cool shadows of the embowering trees.

Minnehaha Creek has its rise in Lake Minnetonka, a dozen miles or more
distant, where it is quite a diminutive little brook; from thence runs
to and through Lakes Calhoun and Harriet, meandering along the surface
of the country, till it makes its graceful leap at the falls to the
chasm, some forty feet below, then empties into the Mississippi about
half-a-mile distant to the eastward. The width of the stream and falls
does net much exceed twenty feet.

We lingered long, and reluctantly turned our feet away from this
enchanting scene where both real and imaginary heroes and heroines have
dwelt, and in the bright waters of which their picturesque encampments
have been often mirrored.

St. Anthony--opposite Minneapolis--is one of the oldest towns in the
State, and was, in _ante bellum_ times, quite a fashionable resort for
the Southerners. The war ended that, while the latter city gave to it