horse, and carry it to those good souls; only, for
my sake, take the gardener with thee,--I have no groom now but he,--and
both well armed."

"What! go this very day?"

"Ay, this very hour. I can bear thy absence for a day or two more,--I
have borne it so long; but I cannot bear thy plighted word to stand in
doubt a day, no, not an hour. I am your wife, sir, your true and loving
wife: your honor is mine, and is as dear to me now as it was when you
saw me with Father Leonard in the Grove, and read me all awry. Don't
wait a moment. Begone at once."

"Nay, nay, if I go to-morrow, I shall be in time."

"Ay, but," said Mrs. Gaunt, very softly, "I am afraid if I keep you
another hour I shall not have the heart to let you go at all; and the
sooner gone, the sooner back for good, please God. There, give me one
kiss, to live on, and begone this instant."

He covered her hands with kisses and tears. "I'm not worthy to kiss any
higher than thy hand," he said, and so ran sobbing from her.

He went straight to the stable, and saddled Black Dick.

INDIAN MEDICINE.

Every one who has fed his boyish fancy with the stories of pioneers and
hunters has heard of the character known among Indians as the
"medicine-man." But it may very likely be the case that few of those
familiar with the term really know the import of the word. A somewhat
protracted residence among the Blackfoot tribe of Indians, and an
extensive observation of men and manners as they appear in the wilder
parts of the Rocky Mountains and British America, have enabled the
writer to give some facts which may not prove wholly uninteresting.

By the term "medicine" much more is implied than mere curative drugs, or
a system of curative practice. Among all the tribes of American Indians,
the word is used with a double signification,--a literal and narrow
meaning, and a general and rather undefined application. It signifies
not only physical remedies and the art of using them, but second-sight,
prophecy, and preternatural power. As an adjective, it embraces the idea
of supernatural as well as remedial.

As an example of the use of the word in its mystic signification, the
following may be given. The _horse_, as is well known, was to the
Indian, on its first importation, a strange and terrible beast. Having
no native word by which to designate this hitherto unknown creature, the
Indians contrived a name by combining the name of some familiar animal,
most nearly