ng before equipped for a hunting excursion. He
returned home in grief and loneliness. His house no longer echoed to the
musical voice of his lovely daughter. His wife, who had been the most
anxious for her daughter to marry a farm instead of a man of worth, now
began to murmur and find fault with her husband for his unkindness to
Mayall, who had saved their lives and the life of their daughter, and
protected their property. She could then see how nobly he had acted, and
shielded them from the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the Indians; and
now their only daughter had flown to his arms for protection, and to
reward him for his noble deeds of humanity--flown from a man she was
determined never to marry.

"Has she not frequently told you she had rather have a brave and noble
youth without money, than to have a coward she hated with his land and
money--that, should his money be lost by misfortune, she would only have
the wreck of a man left? And now she is gone, perhaps we shall never see
her face again; and, what is worse than all, we have been the cause of
our own misfortunes by our own folly and blindness. Had we heeded her
warnings we might have enjoyed a pleasant life, with our daughter to
cheer us in our declining years; and the brave young man to defend us."

From cloudy turrets evening crept
To watch the day's retreating light,
Then o'er the heavenly pavement swept
The trailing garments of the night,
By God's own hand was quick unfurled;
Then came the mighty roll-call of the skies,
And Nelly, at her father's gate,
Quickly answered, "Here am I!"

On the appointed day the man possessed of land and money came to receive
his lovely bride--but, oh, what grief! the bird had flown to the
wilderness--there to dwell in some green valley, there to build her nest
and rear her young, far from the haunts of men, and cook the hunter's
savory fare, and wear the beaver's richest furs, when sullen winter
there may frown.

The day was turned into a day of sadness and mourning, and at evening
the guests returned home gloomy and disappointed. A month of grief and
loneliness passed away, and Nelly's father learned, from one of the
early settlers of Cherry Valley, that, on the day following the evening
that Nelly left her father's home, she was married at Cherry Valley, by
a clergyman of that place, to a young man by the name of Mayall, and had
not been seen or heard from since. A search was