ver would be, except
such as might be built to keep back the water from the only house in the
place--a sort of rough hotel, filled with swearing boatmen.

"I had landed, of course; and, after putting up at the hotel, proceeded
in search of my `property.' I found my town-lot in a marsh, which took
me over the ankles in mud. As for my farm, I was compelled to get a
boat to visit it; and after sailing all over it without being able to
touch bottom, I returned to the hotel, heartless and disgusted.

"By the next steamboat that came along, I embarked for Saint Louis--
where I sold both lot and farm for a mere trifle.

"I need not say that I was mortified at all this. I was almost
heart-broken when I reflected on my repeated failures, and thought of my
young wife and children. I could have bitterly cursed both America and
the Americans, had that been of any use; and yet such a thing would have
been as unjust as immoral. It is true I had been twice outrageously
swindled; but the same thing had happened to me in my own country, and I
had suffered in the same way by those who professed to be my friends.
There are bad men in every country--men willing to take advantage of
generosity and inexperience. It does not follow that all are so; and we
hope far less than the half--for it must be remembered that the bad
points of one country are more certain to be heard of in another than
its good ones. When I look to the schemes and speculations which have
been got up in England, and which have enriched a few accomplished
rogues, by the ruin of thousands of honest men, I cannot, as an
Englishman, accuse our American cousins of being greater swindlers than
ourselves. It is true I have been deceived by them, but it was from the
want of proper judgment in myself, arising from a foolish and
ill-directed education. I should have been equally ill-treated in the
purchase of a horse at Tattersall's, or a pound of tea in Piccadilly,
had I been equally unacquainted with the value of the articles. We
both, as nations, have erred. Neither of us can, with grace, cast a
stone at the other; and as for myself, why, look there!" said Rolfe,
smiling and pointing to his family, "two of my children only are
Englishmen; the others are little Yankees. Almost every Englishman can
say something similar. Why, then, should we sow jealousy between them?"

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE CARAVAN AND ITS FATE.

Our host continued:--

"Well, my friends, I