he cook
and herself; and though she did not know what she was saying, I felt sure
that what she said _had been_. A very long time she was ill; then a sudden
change took place: and she was out of danger. Poor thing! how quiet, and
patient, and sorrowful she was: and how grateful for every thing that was
done for her! Mistress was so much touched by the many signs of sorrow
Mary had shown, that she allowed her to remain in her place. Though I was
so young, only just seventeen, my mistress, knowing that I was fond of the
children, trusted them to my care. She engaged another nurse for three
months to "put me in the way." At the end of that time she sent to the
school for another girl to fill the place which had been mine. Very great
was my delight to find that she was the one who had been my most favorite
schoolfellow; the very girl who had given me the handkerchief.

The cook was committed for trial; her sentence was six months'
imprisonment. What became of the nurse I never knew.

THE POINT OF HONOR.

One evening in the autumn of the year 1842. seven persons, including
myself, were sitting and chatting in a state of hilarious gayety in front
of Senor Arguellas' country-house, a mile or so out of Santiago de Cuba,
in the Eastern Intendencia of the Queen of the Antilles, and once its
chief capital, when an incident occurred that as effectually put an
extinguisher upon the noisy mirth as if a bomb-shell had suddenly exploded
at our feet. But first a brief account of those seven persons, and the
cause of their being so assembled, will be necessary.

Three were American merchants--Southerners and smart traders, extensively
connected with the commerce of the Colombian archipelago, and designing to
sail on the morrow--wind and weather permitting, in the bark _Neptune_,
Starkey master and part owner--for Morant Bay, Jamaica; one was a
lieutenant in the Spanish artillery, and nephew of our host; another was a
M. Dupont, a young and rich creole, of mingled French and Spanish
parentage, and the reputed suitor for the hand of Donna Antonia--the
daughter and sole heiress of Senor Arguellas, and withal a graceful and
charming maiden of eighteen--a ripe age in that precocious clime; the sixth
guest was Captain Starkey, of the _Neptune_, a gentlemanly, fine-looking
English seaman of about thirty years of age; the seventh and last was
myself, at that time a mere youngster, and but just recovered from a
severe fit of sickness