ing their hands as soon as Alonzo's
professional term of study was completed.

The troubles which gave rise to the disseveration of England from
America had already commenced, which broke out the ensuing spring into
actual hostilities, by the battle at Lexington, followed soon after by
the battle at Bunker Hill. The panic and general bustle which took place
in America on these events, is yet well remembered by many. They were
not calculated to impress the mind of Melissa with the most pleasing
sensations. She foresaw that the burden of the war must rest on the
American youth, and she trembled in anticipation for the fate of Alonzo.
He, with others, should the war continue, must take the field, in
defence of his country. The effects of such a separation were dubious
and gloomy. Alonzo and she frequently discoursed, and they agreed to
form the mystic union previous to any wide separation.

One event tended to hasten this resolution. The attorney in whose office
Alonzo was clerk, received a commission in the new raised American army,
and marched to the lines near Boston. His business was therefore
suspended, and Alonzo returned to the house of his father. He considered
that he could not long remain a mere spectator of the contest, and that
it might soon be his duty to take the field; he therefore concluded it
best to hasten his marriage with Melissa. She consented to the
proposition, and their parents made the necessary arrangements for the
event. They had even fixed upon the place which was to be the future
residence of this happy couple. It was a pleasantly situated village,
surrounded by rugged elevations, which gave an air of serenity and
seclusion to the valley they encircled. On the south arose a spacious
hill, which was ascended by a gradual acclivity; its sides and summit
interspersed with orchards, arbours, and cultivated fields. On the west,
forests unevenly lifted their rude heads, with here and there a solitary
field, newly cleared, and thinly scattered with cottages. To the east,
the eye extended over a soil, at one time swelling into craggy
elevations, and at another spreading itself into vales of the most
enchanting verdure. To the north it extended over a vast succession of
mountains, wooded to their summits, and throwing their shadows over
intervales of equal wilderness, till at length it was arrested in its
excursions by the blue mists which hovered over mountains more grand,
majestic and lofty.[A] A riv