dozen chubby-cheeked children are scrambling | certain beautiful harmony in the qualities of both, into their seats. Gerald and Howard, two older that I have seldom seen in one so young-for Lucy sons of Mr. Morris, fill the remaining places. is not sixteen-the result, I doubt not, of Mr. AshKate glances timidly round the table, and encoun- | ton's judicious superintendance. ters the eyes of Gerald fixed on her with a free "But I forget that you care less about sweet Lucy and easy air of critical nonchalance that brings than about somebody else, who is not half so amithe warm blood to her cheek, and she is glad to able. Am I'happy?' Yes-no-yes, I believe so. turn, with some light remark, to the gentle girl at | Mrs. Morris says I shut myself up too much-that her side. Tea is served. Half a dozen colored young ladies should dress more, visit more, and be waiters present this thing and that; till Kate, per- less bookish. Perhaps she is right; but certainly plexed, knows not what to choose, and wonders she does not understand my motives in declining why they can not let people alone. She is glad | the invitations I receive. You know, dearest Mowhen supper is over and her quiet chamber again ther, and you appreciate my aims, motives, feelreceives her. Weary and heart-sick, she tries ings; and it is enough. I want no better society not to despond. Her mother's parting gift, a small than my books and dear Lucy. She is just the Bible, lies on the table. She opens it where a leaf companion for me-never obtrusive, instinctively is folded down, and reads, “The Lord loveth the reading my feelings, and adapting herself to them; stranger-love ye therefore the stranger!" A serious, playful, pensive, by turns, and always at grateful tear steals over her cheek. She feels no the right time. When we walk, she is at my side, longer friendless. With a trusting prayer to Him or gliding away, as I happen to be moody or social; who cares for the lone heart, whether of " the when we sit in the woods, listening with subdued widow, the orphan, or the stranger," and a resolu- | feeling to the ، voice of God among the trees, she tion to bear her weary exile with patience, and is absorbed in thought, so hushed, so retired within fulfil her new duties with cheerfulness, she lays herself, that I am alone as I love to be in the sodown to rest, while a thousand images of the past, lemn woods. present, and future, are fantastically blended in

her dreams.

. CHAPTER IV.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER.

Holly Wood, Nov.

"Lucy has a fine taste in drawing, and sketches admirably from nature. On one occasion, I caught her in the act of pencilling my pretty phiz on the cover of a book. I said nothing till the picture was complete. It took her a long time, I thought, to put the finishing strokes. At length she laid down the pencil, and contemplated her work in si"A year, a whole year has passed, dear Mamma! lence. An expression of sudden pain darted across since I wrote you my first letter from this room, her face, she glanced at me, and colored deeply, and here I am again, writing on the same table, but instantly became pale again, as she met my by the same cheerful fire-Lucy, gentle, dear eye, fixed on her with a look of inquiry. I begged Lucy, is at my side, reading Milton. I wish you to see the sketch. Very artistically drawn,' I could see this sweet favorite of mine-she calls herself my pupil, but is more a friend to me than a learner of me. She is so good, so gentle, so docile, that I can not but love her; while there is a latent energy, a half-revealed enthusiasm belonging to her character, that makes me admire as much as I love her. There is a something in her soul-like eyes that I can not fathom-the shadow of a hidden thought—a mystery-a sad, earnest meaning a memory or a half-defined hope, that is more fear than hope-in short, a je ne sçais quoi, as the French have it, which I can not make you understand-so I will not try. Her form is delicate, almost spiritual-her face pale, but ever-va- ، Now for the main subject of my letter, which, rying in its expression--her manners shy, yet | according to rule, must be put in a P. S. graceful as a timid fawn's--her heart, I have al- "Will you suffer me to remain another year! ready told you, kind as a sun-beam. Lucy's mother They all wish it, especially Lucy, who entreats died when she was not six years old; yet her image me with tears to stay, and for her sake I have proand her very tones are enshrined in Lucy's soul. mised to do so, if I have your permission." To the memory of her mother, and to the careful training of Mr. Ashton, she is more indebted for the excellence of both mind and heart, I believe, "It is thanksgiving eve. The parlor hearth is than to any other parental influence. There is a blazing merrily. A group of happy faces are

cried, delighted with the accuracy of expression in every feature; but who is this ? I asked, pointing to another face, which seemed the very embodied soul of Frank's noble-hearted Southron. Lucy was musing and did not answer. What does this mean?' I again asked, it is very like my brother's Southern friend, Stanton! Ah!' she exclaimed, but suddenly relapsed into her musing attitude, saying carelessly, 'Oh! I only wanted to see how you would look together!' I confess my curiosity was considerably excited; but as Lucy has never alluded to the little scene of that evening it has died of starvation.

FROM MRS. LEE TO KATE.

gathered round it.

There sits your dear father,

"P. S. Your brother has been elected 'Prinwho has 'renewed his youth,' since our beloved son cipal' of the Academy in our village, with a salary returned to us. Here he is, at my elbow, looking of $800 per annum.

So you see he is to be a

KATE TO HER MOTHER.

Holly Wood, May.

a foot taller, at least, than he did a year ago. Our pedagogue after all." hopes have not been disappointed. The highest honors of the class were his, or might have been, had he not voluntarily relinquished them in favor of his friend Stanton. This steady, generous friend, is now one of our circle, and will be, we "Alone, lonely, with no being to sympathize in hope, for some weeks, previous to his departure my joys or griefs, I now, for the first time, exfor the South. We already love and admire him perience a depression of spirits that quite unfits me as much as Frank could wish. He is the life and for the task of instruction. Task? it was hitherto charm of our social circle, that is, when he suf- a delightful one! but now my heart sinks, my coufers himself to be drawn out of the reserve so com- rage flags; I pine for the breezes of my native mon to those of his temperament. hills; for the dear familiar voices; for the old elms; "Our dear Rose has grown so that you would the rose-bushes; the stream where I used to play hardly know her; as for Hetty she seems to think in childhood! Do the wild flowers spring along its herself large enough. We are all here-but where borders as they used to? Dear Mother! forgive is our beloved Katy? Our hearts are yearning to- my childishness—I can not help the gushing tears! wards her we feel a vacancy, which only her My heart is sad, very sad, and I have none to say bright presence can fill. We say to ourselves and it to but you. 'Where is Lucy?' do you ask. to each other, she is the best! the dearest! she Gone. Her delicate health rendered some change has made us all happy, and will she not come to of air necessary. Mr. Ashton, in alarm, detershare our joy? Most reluctantly we grant you per-mined to set out immediately, and to spend the mission to remain, but for one year, remember! summer in journeying with his darling child. His for we long to clasp you to our hearts, especially love for her is unbounded. Poor Lucy pleaded Frank, who talks of nothing but you and gentle hard to remain with me. I shall be better soon,' Lucy! He is half in love with her, I do believe! she would say 'I am beginning to improve alBy the way, I can throw a little light on that ready. You do not understand my case, dear grand'sketch' of hers. I read aloud your description papa-dear Miss Lee-let me stay! I shall soon of Lucy, all but the scene, as you call it. Stanton be well !' Mr. Ashton shook his head however, and listened like one in a dream. "Lucy Morris! yes, so the preparations for a journey were made. it must be the same! I remember her well. My "On the evening before their departure, Lucy and mother had some friends residing in the vicinity of I sat together at my window, as we often did at Holly Wood, and used often to take me there. the calm hour of twilight; I gazing on her pale Little Lucy, just then bereaved of her mother, had face-she, as it seemed, communing with her own found a home for a time in the family of Mrs. thoughts; for though her eye wandered from obWest, the lady whom we visited. I used to spend [ject to object, she evidently saw as though she saw hours in contriving amusements for her; but she them not. I put my arm within hers. She turned was unlike other children, thoughtful, mature, far her soft, dreamy, mournful eyes on mine, gazed beyond her years. Her greatest delight was to lean earnestly and long in my face, and then, talking to on my knee, and listen to stories of wonderful herself rather than me, she murmured, 'I see it events gone by, and accounts of the wonderful men all now! yes! my vision is clearer than it once who acted in them; her questions and remarks was-she will be happy!-Well, she deserves to evincing an acuteness of observation, and depth be so! she lives to make others so!' After a pause of thought quite unusual in one so young. I re- she continued, 'It was so bright! I could have member to have had the feeling that she was des- wished it not a dream; but—I'm waking now, tined to an early grave. On one occasion I ex- after so many years! I shall live to some purpose pressed it to her, (unwisely perhaps, but I was yet!' She paused again, and I whispered, 'You do, then a mere boy,) when she looked up in my face Lucy! you do now! you make me at least happy! and asked 'would you weep for me, dear Eddy!'-Why talk so sadly? I love to see you cheerful, so I had taught her to call me."

dear girl

"And when did you see her last? inquired happy.' Frank, looking so like a jealous lover, that we could not forbear a little good-natured raillery.

6

and would do any thing to make you 'Any thing? repeated Lucy, raising her head with sudden animation; but it soon drooped again on my shoulder, and she went on talking to herself. She would do it! yes, I know she would ! but it is for me-not her! yet she will help me. "Here the subject rested, for the young men I was so lonely once! she came, she loved me, she both fell into a fit of abstraction that lasted till unfolded my own heart to me. She made me conbed time. scious of powers within of whose existence I had

،، Not since she was a mere child; two years old perhaps ! replied Stanton.

scarcely dreamed. I am weak-she knows not with the unconscious Kate Lee herself. He had how weak-but I can be strong-I shall be. I no intention of falling in love-indeed he thought already feel a new soul growing within me; my shadowy life is passed away! now begins the real, the earnest, the active!'

nothing about it; but the frank, intelligent, sprightly face of Kate insensibly interested him; while her manners, cordial, artless, and unaffected, like her guileless heart, made him feel at home in her presence, as he had never done in that of any other lady. Forwardness would have disgusted-affect

"Why! how strangely you are talking, dear Lucy!' said I, not knowing exactly what to think of this new development of character. "Am I?' she asked vacantly. Well, I am ed coyness repelled him--but the native simplicity a strange girl!'

666

.

and sincerity of Kate Lee, at once, interested and pleased. Her vivacity amused, her good sense instructed, and her cheerfulness made him happy. Day after day found him at her side, riding, walking, reading, singing, (both loved music,) and it was not long before Kate discovered that whether he read, or sung, or only talked, his voice was the finest she had ever heard. Something in its deep, flute-like tones, caused her heart to thrill with emotions it had never felt before. The commonest things, when uttered by that voice, seemed, all "Dear Mamma! I think of her, till I forget at once, to glow with life. Was it strange that myself. The impression is sometimes strong upon the daily tasks grew lighter, now that evening me that our destinies are interwoven-how I know brought its delightful rambles, its long conversanot-whether for good or for evil I can not tell-tions about home, and Frank, and Lucy? She bebut no storm shall fall on Luey, if I have power to lieved in her heart, that Stanton had some tenavert it."

"You are a dear good one, at any rate,' said I, folding her in my arms, but why not confide in me? Why not tell me all you feel?' I thought of Edward Stanton at the moment, but as she had never made any allusion to him, I dared not do it. "Not now, dear Miss Lee!' she replied, 'not now! but when I return, when I am older in the new life that just dawns upon me, then--not now.' "Mr. Ashton's voice upon the stairs, calling for Lucy, put an end to our conversation.

June 23rd.

"How happy I am to-night, dear Mother! Guess why! Mr. Stanton is here, and I have spent the whole evening in talking about you, and Frank, and home, and all the dear ones there! and it is almost like seeing you. I fancy you will ask if I have seen the original of the sketch.' Yes there was no mistaking the lineaments of that face; once seen, it is not soon forgotten at least, so it would seem from Lucy's experience. He has been asking after his interesting little friend,' and paid so fixed attention when I spake of her, that I really became quite flurried and could not go on."

"MY DEAR FRANK:

July.

derer thoughts of Lucy than he breathed in words, and once or twice Kate sighed when she thought of her near return, without well knowing why. Stanton, on the contrary, often spake of the pleasure he anticipated in renewing his acquaintance with her. Kate tried to feel as anxious for her arrival as she believed him to be-but she was surprised, and vexed with herself, to find how great was the effort required.

CHAPTER VI.

Month after month had rolled away. The "last rose of summer" lay faded and fallen,-Autumn, rich, sober, thoughtful Autumn had come, and with it Lucy and Mr. Ashton; the former evidently im proved in health, and with more elasticity of spirits than was usual with her. Kate observed that she was now more constantly employed than for"Your friend promises to become very neighborly. merly; and that she seldom indulged in dreamy, He has purchased an estate adjoining Mr. Morris', idle musings. Mr. Stanton continued his visits where he now resides, at least when he is not at at Holly Wood. Towards Lucy his manner was Holly Wood, and that is six days in the week. gay and playful; with Kate it became serious, and He comes over almost every afternoon to inquire he conversed in a tone of deeper feeling. The about Lucy, or to tell me something about his visit former was not long in marking the difference, and to you, that he had not thought of before. Some- assigning its true cause. In his presence she said how or other, he contrives to make me talk a great little, and withdrew whenever she could with prodeal, but I don't think he knows half I say, for he priety, to her books, or her needle, but seldom to sometimes asks the same question three times over. those solitary walks which she had once loved. Poor fellow! I hope Lucy will return soon, or he He did not urge her to stay, at which Kate wonwill evaporate into an abstraction. He must be dered--but innocently thought it was because he desperately in love loved to speak of her as he did frequently in her absence.

CHAPTER V.

Weeks glided on. Lucy became more and more And so he was, not with Lucy Morris, whom he industrious-Kate more and more observing. She remembered only as a very interesting girl; but studied Lucy's face and manner--her own heart

"And may I not accompany you ?" asked Lucy, when Miss Lee had communicated her intention; "I have always wished to see the land of the Pilgrims. May I not go with you?"

she closely questioned, and the result was a hasty | The shadow that haunted me so long recedes. A resolution to go home. something real stands forth in the distance. It beckons me on, it seems like the other soul which, united with mine, shall make a whole. It is not the image which memory used to present to my dreams. It is more like hers who awoke me to a better life. And can I say to it 'leave me?' Let me sink back to darkness, to weary inaction? Stay, dear Miss Lee; be my better angel, at least for a few months longer, till I become more like yourself! But yonder comes one that will persuade you, if I can not."

"Ah! you can not get away so easily! There are other voices to be heard, as well as mine. Wait, my pretty bird, till your wings grow : then come, and doubt not I will welcome you, even as I now fold you to my heart."

"But why must you go? Is it for my sake? It can not be for your own? There is no reason why you should fly from--from Mr. Stanton ?" inquired Lucy, suddenly looking up in the face of her friend, as if a new idea had just struck her.

“Is he not then a dangerous companion ?" asked inquired Stanton, in a tone that quickened the pulse

Kate, looking full in Lucy's eyes. 'Not to those whom he loves!" "Not to you then, dear Lucy!"

"You mistake, dear Kate! widely mistake the truth."

"It is you who are mistaken, Love! Does not Stanton evidently show his preference for you? With whom is he happy? For whom are his sportive sallies, his brilliant fancies, his smiles ? all for you, Lucy!"

،، But who cares for me," he continued, in a tone so melancholy that she involuntarily turned her "And because he thinks me a child-a too se- full, glistening eye on his-" who is then to bid rious one-and wishes to amuse me. He never me welcome home' when I turn from a weary trifles with the one he loves. Believe me, I am world? You have a home! a bright happy home! too sedate, too reserved, too like himself, it may and warm hearts there to welcome you; I am an be, to please him. He wants what I have not orphan-alone-homeless. Nay, should a passing an ever-bubbling fount of cheerfulness, to enliven memory of the stranger, whose path you have so the wastes of life, a vivacity just like your own, often cheered, should such a thought come to you, to beguile its weariness, and break up its monoto- in that distant home, say that you will not banish ny. Don't you believe in the harmony of con- the intruder, and my heart shall bless you!" trasts? I do--and from my own daily experience, " My brother's friend will surely not be forgotI feel a yearning for something out of, and unlike ten," answered Kate, so warmly, that a moment myself, to make up my completeness. A part of after she repented of it. myself is wanting

"Your worser half," suggested Kate.

،،

"Will you then think of me? Will you pray that I, too, may be happy? that I may have a home?"

“ No, no ! my stronger half! My soul is weak. It seeks a strength that seems to belong to it, and yet is not in it. From childhood, my hopes, my yearnings, my dreams, vague and half understood even by myself, ever shaped themselves into the form of one who had forgotten me, but whose be the light of that home?" image, tones, looks, had become interwoven with

The eyes of Edward must have seen the tears starting into our Kate's just then, or else it was by chance that he possessed himself of the little hand that lay trembling on his arm, asking as he did so, "and will you, dear Miss Lee, will you return to

The reply was so low, that Stanton was obliged

my very being; so that I seemed to have no exis- to bring his head very near Kate's in order to

tence separate from his. I lived only for him; hear it.

only in myself. You came-your voice awoke in me a better soul; I saw you sacrificing yourself

for others-I became conscious of a latent power

By

CHAPTER VII.

Holly Wood, Nov. 30th.

"Well, dear ones! another year is gone! joymy feet to the ark where my Next week I shall set out for And whom do you wish to see

to act-to live-hitherto I had only dreamed. slow degrees I awoke, I stretched out my arm, I tried to rise-then I felt my weakness, I looked fully I am turning around for help, I saw you, and I said I will rest loved ones dwell. on Kate! She will teach me to stand-she will in- dear New England. fuse her strong soul into mine. There is an ear- besides my ladyship? Not Mr. Stanton, though he nestness in her life, that shames me into courage. pleads hard to be my guardian angel; but grand

VOL. X-71

Frank says nothing. "And don't you love Miss Lucy, too?" innocently asked little Hetty.

papa and dear Lucy. Mr. Ashton will spend only than ever before. "And I," said Mrs. Lee, “have, a week or two with you; Lucy has promised to surely, cause to love her! Never was a child more stay till she has learned to manufacture dough-nuts attentive to the wishes of a parent than she to and johnny cakes-I guess that the pedagogue will mine!" "She is so gentle, so good, so child-like!" give her lessons. Whether she will pay him, re- joined in Mr. Lee, “and so affectionate,” said Katy; mains to be seen. Of course I have not hinted "and so artless!" said Edward. my guesses to her. You will find her an apt scholar, Mr. Frank! The gentle, pensive, dreamy girl is becoming almost as great a busy-body as myself. Her character is daily unfolding, changing, or settling itself, if I may use the term. She will make a charming woman. I used to fear for her. She was all ideality once-but the ideal now serves, in her, as a veil of enchantment about the real, not sufficient to disguise-just enough to soften and beautify.

"P. S. Mr. Stanton begs a remembrance, and signifies his intention to visit you next summer if Papa has no objection."

CHAPTER VIII.

"We will excuse you from telling," observed Mr. Lee, pitying Frank's embarrassment, “provided you go and find her."

ed his friend, slyly, as Frank passed out.
"And provided also, that you tell her !” whisper-

Lucy had stolen away for a lonely ramble. It led to a grove, where she had often, with Kate and her brother, sat under the trees, at sunset, and watched the crimson clouds, and listened to the low sighing breeze. She was there now-leaning against an old moss-covered pine, whose branches waved gently in the evening wind, giving forth a low, plaintive murmur, that seemed the echo of "Next summer" has come; the Lee's are in a her own thoughts. There she stood, and gazed state of unwonted commotion. Preparations for up into the deep blue sky-spirit-voices whispered some great event are going on; it is rumored in among the trees, and died away in soft cadences. the village that a wedding is approaching. I may Long she stood there, and gazed, and listened, till as well whisper in the reader's ear that "Papa the past, the future, the present, were all forgotmade no objection," and so Mr. Stanton is coming ten-life, its cares, its joys, its sorrows no longer to claim his promised bride. Frank has gone to existed. Nothing lived in the universe but hermeet him. The two friends have already embraced as brothers, and are hastening homewards.

And what of our Kate? She sits in her still chamber, looking out upon the streams, the walks, the flowers of her childhood, now passing away forever! Another home is hers! another path lies before her but the star of love beams brightly upon it; and though her dear ones may not walk with her there, yet the dearest one is at her side, and it is enough!

And Lucy what of her? she has found the other part of herself-at least, so it would seem, for there is a light in her eye, an elasticity in her step, a color in her cheek, that belonged not to them when we saw her last.

CHAPTER IX.

Let us look into the parlor! There are the father and mother, happy, but quiet and almost sad. There is Kate, looking tenderly from one to the other, the color coming and going on her cheek, so that Stanton, who sits in a recess, gazing upon her unobserved, thinks he never saw her so beautiful! Frank too is there, looking quite sentimental for a pedagogue!

self, and the great spirit of love breathing around her, its presence felt rather than seen. Absorbed in deep devotion, she scarcely heeded that one who had often worshipped with her there, had placed himself by her side. They spake not! they breathed not; but his hand was clasping hers, and both were happy! They had often wandered, hand in hand, among the groves, and over the hills; Frank had felt that he could traverse the rudest waste with the gentle Lucy by his side; and she had never known weariness when his strong arm sustained her.

and

"How sweet it would be to stand here thus for a life time!" whispered Frank.

"Methinks I never understood the mystery of life till now!" said Lucy. "Nature unfolds herself to me in a thousand beautiful forms, since I had your eyes to see them! With you I live another life-my soul expands; I feel capable by your side of rising to the height of all that is glorious and beautiful !”

"And why should you ever leave me, dearest Lucy?" cried young Lee, folding the enthusiastic girl to his heart, and kissing away the tears that trembled in her eyes. "Will you be my own, my Listen; they are all talking about Lucy. "I own sweet wife?" he asked, but most provokingly, am so sorry she is going away!" says Rose; "I got no answer, for Kate and Edward made their shall have nobody to dress my dolls!" "She is appearance just at this interesting crisis. Lucy so kind to help me in my lessons," chimed in Hetty. threw herself on Kate's neck, while Stanton joined "I am sure I shall never love any body else half his friend, and sobbed, and laughed as Kate wickso well!" Frank thought his sister more sensible' edly asked