rmed.

Belle, for an instant, felt the floor sinking away under her feet!

It was only for an instant.

With the readiness for which the sex are so remarkable, she at once gave
way to a most violent exhibition of temper. She walked up and down the
room, apparently in a transport of rage; she tore the note into a
hundred pieces, and _threw them into the grate_.

What was to be done? What would her father do to punish the miscreant
who had dared take such a liberty with her name? Boldly she stepped
before him, and asked the question.

During these exhibitions, Hiram stood smiling all the while. Belle was
very handsome, and never, as he thought, so brilliant as at that moment,
giving vent to her woman's passion.

It was really so. Her form, her face, her eyes worked so harmoniously in
the scene she had got up to cover what was below the surface, that she
did present, to any one whose senses were arbiters, a most beautiful
display.

'You are laughing at me, papa--I see very plainly you are laughing at
me! I will not endure it! I--'

'Belle,' interrupted her father, 'you little goose, what do you think I
care for the scribbling of any fool that chooses to disgrace himself?
What should you, my daughter, care? To be sure, I can understand why you
may suddenly give way to your feelings; but there is reason in all
things. Don't you think the miserable fellow who penned that scrawl
(by-the-way, you have very foolishly destroyed it, provided you did wish
to trace it out)--I say, don't you think the fellow who perpetrated the
ridiculous joke would be pleased enough to see how you take it?'

He took his daughter by the arm--a very beautiful arm--and gave her a
little shake--a playful, pleasant shake. Looking her in the face, he
said: 'Answer me, Belle--am I not right? Have you not sense enough to
see that I am right?'

'Oh, I suppose so, papa. You are always right. That is, I never can
answer your arguments; but--'

'That will do, Belle. Run off to your room, and come down quite yourself
for dinner.'

Belle gave her father an arch smile, to show how obedient she was, and
bounded away.

Hiram watched his daughter with delight as she ran up the staircase, and
his heart exulted in the possession of a child so charming and
attractive.

THE ANDES.

The Andes, like a vast wall, extend along the western coast of South
America. Woods cluster, like billows of foliage, around the feet of the
mountains. A vast netw