got tu be a poor old
man. if yu wil i wil cum fur yu on the fust bote. iv got a
leetle muny lade up fur a wet day. i hev allers ben stidy,
and never drunk anything in my hull life. if yu wil hev me
let me no as quick as lightnin figerative speekin.

your old flame,

philip Roarer

Chimney Rock. Minnesota territory."

"'Tween you an' me I reckon that ere is tu the pint, anyhow," said
Daddy, proudly folding the letter, upon which he had spent two hours
of hard mental labor. "I wonder what keeps the honey away so long; it
must be monstrous cold in the parlor. Tom Tinknor wont thank me fur
lettin the Honey git cold; bless her heart. That ere sled will git
fixed to-morrow, you may depend on't, Fanny, fur I shall feel fust
rate;" and Daddy capered out of the room as jolly as a half grown boy,
with a plum pudding in anticipation. But, we will do him the justice
to say, that there was a depth and earnestness of feeling in this
life-long devotion, to which the ebullitions of youth can bear no
comparison.

How to break the matter to Little Wolf was Daddy's next anxiety. He
stood in mortal dread of the ridicule of his young mistress, but still
felt that he ought to confide in her. After taking several fidgety
turns before the parlor door, he finally resolved to make the
_denouement_, and boldly face the consequences.

But the condition in which he found Little Wolf changed the course
which he had marked out. She had lain down upon the sofa where
fearfully pale and cold and still, she rested, utterly prostrated by
the events of the day. Daddy had never seen such a ghastly look upon
her face before, and the vague fear that life had fled horrified him,
as he stood gazing at her in mute astonishment.

At a movement of the slight little figure Daddy was reassured, and he
bent over her in tender solicitude, "O Honey, O Pet, be you sick? you
look awful pale?"

A groan escaped Little Wolf, and, with a long drawn sigh, she rose up
languidly. "I don't feel quite well to-night, Daddy," she said.

"O, Honey, you ought fur to have somebody to nuss you; old Daddy don't
know nothin about gals, and Sorrel Top don't know nothin about nussin
neither. Now here's the letter I've jest writ, if you feel able fur to
read it, Honey, you will see that I am tryin fur to git somebody here
fur to take care of you suitable."

Daddy watched