g flood of gold beyond an ocean of green; and often
have we beheld day's glorious orb looming above the soft blue waters of
the placid bay, while the joyous birds soared up the sparkling dome of
heaven, their little throats almost bursting with thrilling melody, and
the balmy south wind came laden with the perfume of ten thousand
ordorous flowers!

O, sweet land upon the tropic's glowing verge, what star-bright memories
we have of thee! How deeply treasured in our heart of hearts are all thy
joys and pleasures,--ay, and griefs and sorrows too! But as the spot
where this long-crushed and drooping spirit heard those first, low,
preluding strains, foretokenings that its long-enfeebled energies were
wakening from their death-like slumber to breathe response to the
thousand tones in sea and air that called so loudly on them to arouse
once more to life and action, it will ever be most truly dear. And when
again life's fetters clog with the ice and snow of those frigid lands,
we'll long to fly again to those climes of song and sunny ray, and
forget earth's cankering cares in the contemplation of Nature's
luxuriant charms. But we grow abstract.

Come with us, reader, if you will, over the prairies of Texas, gorgeous
with their many-colored flowers, dotted with the dark-green live-oaks,
and watered by pellucid rivers. To that log-house, standing under the
boughs of a wide-spreading pecan tree, let us wend our way.

There is a gray-headed man sitting in a deer-skin-bottomed chair, on the
rude gallery, and gazing with weary eye on the lovely scenery around
him. Two young ladies are standing near, their countenances wearing
sullen expressions of discontent and sorrow.

"So this is Texas, father," remarked the elder of the two, at length. "I
wonder how you ever expect to earn a living here, for my part."

"By tilling the soil, my child, and growing cotton and sugar; fine
country for that. Land rich as mud and cheap as dirt. Why, I have
purchased five hundred acres for a mere trifle. Zounds! I feel like
amassing a new fortune here in a few years," said the old man, suddenly
rousing from his stupor.

"Well, I'm perfectly disgusted," said the younger lady, "and wish I had
run off to Australia with brother Jack and Celestina's faithless
husband."

"I wish I was in that convent upon the Mississippi, where poor sister
Celestina is now," sighed the elder.

"Pshaw, girls! you'll both marry wild Texan rangers before two years,"
sai