which most heroines
exclusively decorate their hair, was all she wore in her raven locks.

The Judge was the first to break the silence.

"Genevra, the logs which compose yonder fire seem to have been
incautiously chosen. The sibilation produced by the sap, which exudes
copiously therefrom, is not conducive to composition."

"True, father, but I thought it would be preferable to the constant
crepitation which is apt to attend the combustion of more seasoned
ligneous fragments."

The Judge looked admiringly at the intellectual features of the
graceful girl, and half forgot the slight annoyances of the green wood
in the musical accents of his daughter. He was smoothing her hair
tenderly, when the shadow of a tall figure, which suddenly darkened the
doorway, caused him to look up.

CHAPTER II.

It needed but a glance at the new-comer to detect at once the form and
features of the haughty aborigine,--the untaught and untrammelled son
of the forest. Over one shoulder a blanket, negligently but gracefully
thrown, disclosed a bare and powerful breast, decorated with a quantity
of three-cent postage-stamps which he had despoiled from an Overland
Mail stage a few weeks previous. A cast-off beaver of Judge
Tompkins's, adorned by a simple feather, covered his erect head, from
beneath which his straight locks descended. His right hand hung
lightly by his side, while his left was engaged in holding on a pair of
pantaloons, which the lawless grace and freedom of his lower limbs
evidently could not brook.

"Why," said the Indian, in a low sweet tone,--"why does the Pale Face
still follow the track of the Red Man? Why does he pursue him, even as
O-kee-chow, the wild-cat, chases Ka-ka, the skunk? Why are the feet of
Sorrel-top, the white chief, among the acorns of Muck-a-muck, the
mountain forest? Why," he repeated, quietly but firmly abstracting a
silver spoon from the table,--"why do you seek to drive him from the
wigwams of his fathers? His brothers are already gone to the happy
hunting-grounds. Will the Pale Face seek him there?" And, averting
his face from the Judge, he hastily slipped a silver cake-basket
beneath his blanket, to conceal his emotion.

"Muck-a-Muck has spoken," said Genevra, softly. "Let him now listen.
Are the acorns of the mountain sweeter than the esculent and nutritious
bean of the Pale Face miner? Does my brother prize the edible
qualities of the snail above that of the crisp and olea