where the cypress and myrtle
Are emblems of deeds that are done in her clime,
Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle,
Now melts into sorrow, now maddens to crime;
O, know ye the land of the cedar and vine,
Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine?"

Bright, balmy, beautiful southern land! Alas, that amid all your
luxuriance of beauty, where the flowering earth smiles up to the far
sparkling azure, and all nature seems chanting delicious harmonies, that
man should here, as elsewhere, make the one discordant note! Frail,
grovelling, passion-blinded man! The noblest imperfection of God! When
will he be elevated to the standard for which the Maker designed him?

It was early spring, and the "floating palace," Eclipse, had made many
pleasant trips between New Orleans and Louisville, since Alice Orville
stood on her guards and feasted her beauty-loving eyes on the delightful
river scenery.

The magnificent boat was now at the levee in New Orleans, advertised to
sail on the morrow. All was a scene of confusion in her vicinity.
Freight and baggage tumbled over the decks, passengers hurrying on
board, carts, hacks and omnibuses rudely jostling one against another,
runners loudly vociferating for their respective boats, etc. At length a
young man made his way through the crowd to the clerk's office, booked
his name, and engaged passage for a small town in Tennessee. The clerk
glanced at the name, and, instantly extending a hand to the passenger,
exclaimed; "Ah, Mr. Morris, happy to meet you! I look in so many
different faces, yours did not strike me as familiar at first. How has
been your health, and how have you prospered since I saw you last? Now I
recollect you were on the boat when we brought the pretty young lady
down; Miss Orville, I think was her name. Is she yet in the city?"

"I believe she is," answered Morris, in a tone meant to be careless.

"Surrounded by enamored admirers, no doubt," remarked the clerk. "So you
are bound up the river, Morris?"

"Yes, to visit my widowed mother in Tennessee; she is failing in health,
and sent for me to come to her."

"Indeed; 'tis like a dutiful son to obey the summons. Will you return to
New Orleans?"

"Such is my intention at present."

"Well, make yourself comfortable here, and the Eclipse will set you off
at your stopping-place in two or three days," said the gentlemanly
clerk, dismissing his fr