the district," continued the
matron, "who would take so long to write a short letter. You said it
was going to be short didn't you?"

"Yes--short and sweet; though I doubt if the dear old man will think it
so at first. But he'll change his mind when he gets here."

"No doubt we will convert him," said Aunt Temple.

"Eve will, at all events," said I.

There was not much more said at that dinner which calls for record. I
will therefore return to the attic-room and the letter.

After at least another hour of effort, I succeeded in finishing my task,
though not entirely to my satisfaction. As the letter was of
considerable importance and interest--at least to those concerned--I now
lay it before the reader. It ran thus:--

"My Dear Father,

"I scarcely know how to tell you--or how to begin, for I fear that you
will not only be very much surprised, but perhaps, displeased by what I
have to write. But let me assure you, dear father, that I cannot help
it! It almost seems as if the thing had been arranged for me, and as if
I had had no say in the matter. The fact is that I have left the
service of the Fur-Traders, and am engaged to be married to a dear
beautiful half-caste girl (quite a lady, however, I assure you), and
have made up my mind to become a farmer in one of the wildest parts of
Colorado! There--I've made a clean breast of it, and if that does not
take away your breath, nothing will! But I write in all humility,
dearest father. Do not fancy that, having taken the bit in my teeth, I
tell you all this defiantly. Very far from it. Had it been possible,
nothing would have gratified me more than to have consulted you, and
asked your approval and blessing, but with three thousand miles of
ocean, and I know not how many hundred miles of land between us, that
you know, was out of the question; besides, it could not have altered
matters, for the thing is fixed.

"My Eve's mother was an Indian. A very superior woman, indeed, let me
hasten to say, and an exceptionally amiable one. Her father was an
English gentleman named William Liston--son of a clergyman, and a highly
educated man. He was wild and wilful in his youth, and married an
Indian, but afterwards became a really good man, and, being naturally
refined and with amiable feelings, spent his life in doing good to the
people with whom he had cast his lot, and perished in saving the life of
his wife. Eve evidently takes after him.

"As to my Ev