Princess

received with consternation and a perfect storm of disapproval. The young ladies, Norma and Blanche, rose as one woman-loud in denunciation, vehe

ows, and snakes, and beetles; the middle distance lurid with discomfort, corn-bread, an

e light at the proper angle, charmingly attractive behind the footlights, but in reality!-to the feeling of these young ladies it could be best appreciated by those who had been born to it. In their

ariably returned to her sodden with repinings. The young ladies set their grievances up on high and bowed the knee; they were not going to be comforted, nor pleased, nor hopeful, not t

n town" offered her sanctuary. She was obliged to stay at home and endure it all. Norma's sulks, Blanche's tears, the rapture of the boys-hungering for novelty as boys only can hunger-the useless and trivial suggestions of friends, the minor arrangements for the move, the decision on domestic questions presen

and planted her fig tree in the spot preferred by each one of her children, but as that was out of the question, in the mother's mind of course her sons came first. And this preference must be indulged the more particularly that Warner-the elder of her two boys, her idol and her grief-was slowly, well-nigh imperceptibly, but none the less surely, drifting away from

f pure air; panted for the invigoration of breezes freshly oxygenized by field and forest, and labored exhaustedly in the languid devitalized breath of a city. The medical fraternity copiously consulted, recognized their impotence, bu

ement the healing of nature, he set himself at once to discover a place which would fill all the requirements. To the old soldier, New England born and Michigan bred, Virginia appeared a land of sun and flowers, a country well-nigh tropical in the softness of its climate, and the fe

e breath of old ocean, so invigorating, the heat at noonday so dry, and the coolness at evening so refreshing. There were pines, too; old fields of low scrub, and some forests of the nobler sort; that would be the thin

ere "amorous ocean wooed a gracious land"-that when his fighting days were over, and the retired list lengthened by his name, it would be a p

soft starlit Virginia evenings would infold him with a subtle spell. In thought he would again sit smoking in the tent door, the gray shadows stealing out from their covert in the woods, reconnoitering all the country ere they swept down and took possession, in the name of their queen-the night. The air would grow cool with the frag

eran's calculations; he returned from the South with his purchase made, and his mind filled with anticipations of the joy the unlading of this precious honey would occas

ater is good, the air superb; there are excellent gardens and first-rate oyster beds. The house is old-

ebels. "They are used to society and admiration. They don't take interest in garde

es in the oldest state in the Union. Mr. Byrd, the former owner of Shirley, told me that the neighborhood was very thickly settled and sociable. I counted five gentlemen's houses in sigh

recognized the necessity of an infusion of the stron

rd knows! I saw a good many about in the little village near Shirley-Wintergreen, they call it. One young fellow attracted my attention particularly; he was sitting on a tobacco hogshead, down on the wharf, superintending som

arked, cheerfully; "it's a pity your memory is so bad. Why didn't you

or an unusually strong and retentive memory, as you know very well-but it isn't superhuman. At the lowest computation, I guess I've seen about a million men's fac

man, now, it seemed to her that if she could remember him at all, she could remember all about him. These hitches in recollection were provoki

o inquire, the name of this interesting person; but the knowledge that he

ace, whose days were given over to sloth, and their nights to armed and malignant prowling. For the colored people of the censured states, she had a profound and far-off sympathy, viewing them from an unreal and romantic

rner's health. To secure the shadow of hope for her boy, Mrs. Smith decided tha

Smith to her daughters, with some innocent exaggeration and unconscious e

terest, but Norma walked over to the window, and stood drummin

l?" she remarked, after an interval of silence,

now he will." Blanche always followed her sister's lead, and when Norma was cross co

lively lad of twelve, to whom the prospect of chan

or his shooting, instead of going down to North Carolina." Norma stopped her tattoo and turned her head slightly; the boy, observing that he had scored a point, proceeded: "Just the minute he gets back from Montana, I'm going to tell him all about Shirle

here he is now, coming up the street. If his opinion is a matter of such importance, you can call him over and get it. I don't

pavement, her brow clearing. He nodded gayly in response, and crossing, in ob