s unfortunately incurred his
displeasure. What other reason can there be for the cessation of his
visits, but that he does not desire to see me?"

Ay, what other indeed, Alice? If you would have Wayland's love, there
could not be a stronger proof that 'tis yours, than this apparent
neglect and forgetfulness. Love joys in mystery,

"Shows most like hate e'en when 'tis most in love,
And when you think 'tis countless miles away,
Is lurking close at hand."

So, be not too sad, Ally, dear, when the brave steamboat bears you up
the majestic Mississippi, and far onward over the beautiful Ohio, amid
her wild, enchanting scenery, and the dashing railroad cars at length
set you down on a quiet summer evening at your mother's rural threshold.
Try hard to say, "I have forgotten Wayland Morris;" but your heart will
rebel; and try harder to say, "I shall never behold his face again;"
still "hope will tell a flattering tale;" and try hardest of all to
exclaim, "I'll fly his presence forever." But yet, away down low in your
beating bosom, a little voice will love to tantalize and whisper--"Will
you, though?"

CHAPTER VIII.

"Come, clear the stage and give us something new,
For we are tired to death with these old scenes."

Night after night, high up in the sky, the stars shone wildly bright,
but the heaven refused its grateful showers and the earth lay parched to
a cinder beneath the blazing sunbeams. The mighty Mississippi shrunk
within its banks to the size of a mere wayside rivulet, and the long
lines of boats lay lazily along the levees. No exchange of produce or
merchandise could be effected between the upper and lower regions of the
great Mississippi valley, and the consequence was universal depression
in trade and heavy failures. Esquire Camford went among the first in the
general crash, and his fair consort's nerves went also. The
nerve-reviver failed to produce the least soothing effect in this
dreadful emergency, and she sank into a bed-ridden ghost of hysteria,
with Thisbe for her constant attendant, to minister to her numerous
wants, and feed her with lobsters' claws and Graham crackers, which
constituted her sole food and nourishment.

As for the "belle and beauty," she, on a day, married Mr. Gilbert, in
pearl-colored satin, and that gentleman chancing to overturn a
sherry-cobbler on the fair bride's robe, the delicate creature went into
a nerv