The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90,
April, 1865, by Various

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Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865

Author: Various

Release Date: December 6, 2009 [EBook #30611]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE

ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

_A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics._

VOL. XV.--APRIL, 1865.--NO. XC.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by TICKNOR AND
FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.

ADVENTURES OF A LONE WOMAN.

"I will go and see the oil," remarked Miselle, at the end of a reverie
of ten minutes.

Caleb laid the "Morning Journal" upon the table, and prepared himself
calmly to accept whatever new dispensation Providence and Miselle had
allotted him.

"Whaling?" inquired he.

"No, not whaling. I am going to the Oil Springs."

"By all means. They lie in the remotest portion of Pennsylvania; they
are inaccessible by railway; such conveyances and such wretched inns as
are to be found are crowded with lawless men, rushing to the wells to
seek their fortunes, or rushing away, savage at having utterly lost
them. At this season the roads are likely to be impassable from mud, the
weather to be stormy. When do you propose going?"

"Next Monday," replied Miselle, serenely.

"And with whom? You know that I cannot accompany you."

"I did not dream of incurring such a responsibility. I go alone."

Caleb resumed the "Morning Journal." Miselle wrote a letter, signed her
name, and tossed it across the table, saying,--

"There, I have written to Friend Williams, who has, as his sister tells
me, set up a shanty and a wife on Oil Creek. I will go to them and so
avoid your wretched inns, and at the same time secure a guide competent
to conduct my explorations. As for the conveyances, the roads,