blue, yellow, red, purple; and, more astounded than ever, the crowd presses to behold the miracle. Then the flames cease; the smoke thins; the crowd slackens and wavers back. But where is the conjuror? Where the woman that should have died? Where the Wyandot girl that had been. saved from death by her, and yet bound her death bonds? Did she bind them too slackly? Strong stands where he was; but the post of the woman is vacant.

It is evening of the same day; let us glance at two scenes and we are done.

At the spot where the two spies were to have been burnt that day, are gathered again a multitude. They come now, not with the torch, for they are yet doubtful as to the power that defeated them at noon, but with their rifles. Strong is bound to a tree; his body to the waist is bound; and, as the sun sinks towards the horizon, the young men of the Shawanese practise at a distance their hands, and eyes, and guns, upon the wretched sufferer; and inch by inch, minute by minute, cut his flesh and spill his blood, but shun the heart and the brain.

Round their camp-fire at the head of the Rapids, where they had just arrived, sat Litcomb, Pollock, Grant, and an officer connected with the artillery department. The latter is telling his companions of the wonders of pyrotechny, of the wonders that can be wrought by sun-glasses and means as simple as the kindling of a common fire. "And all this," says Litcomb, "you laid before him?

"For the year past," answers the artillerist, "Arthur has been using his quiet movements in the study of these secrets, little dreaming that he should ever use them as he has done, I trust, to-day."

The Lieutenant looks, however, more mournful than hopeful; he has faith, and so have his companions, in fire applied to a musket or a rifle, but smoke they make little opinion of, except when used to make bacon; and as for col

ored flames, they take those to be Satan's private property. So they sit, more and more mournful, when, like a thunderclap, Anthony himself bursts in, laughing till the tears run down his cheeks, and bringing with him the conjuror and the captive, the victim and the hypochondriac.

37*

A WEEK AMONG THE "KNOBS."

"BEFORE you leave us," said the Judge one morning as we were waging war against the corn-cakes and honeycomb,- "before you leave us," said he, "I reckon you 'd like to see a specimen of the Kentuck nabob; so, if you please, we 'll step over the first fair day to Colonel Marshall's, and make a call." "How far is it?" asked I. "Thirty-five miles," said the Judge. “And you are going thirty-five miles to make a call?" Ay, my dear fellow; what's your trouble? We'll call round and spend a week, make a Kentucky call; that 's the idea."

In the course of a couple of days the wind veered westward, and the young leaves of the surrounding forests, and the herbage of the knobs and valleys, came forth greener and brighter than ever. The thousand birds, whose names I know not, sung merrily; the calves in the meadow gambolled; the young colts frolicked, and the honey-bees hummed round the open windows in momentary idleness; the very swine that rooted and grunted in the orchard seemed to be more light-hearted, and to grunt with more gout. But though the little run at the foot of the garden, which had foamed and sputtered so two days before, was now quiet and civil again, yet the creek, we were told by old man Anderson, was still too high for a dry passage, and we determined to wait another day and let it run down. The

next morning in due season arrived, as bright and as merry as any young belle of the country round; and, our horses being brought to the block, we mounted and set off amid the shouts of twenty little negroes, whose hearts leaped for joy to think that "massa would be gone long while," and they escape "mazing deal o' work." The roads were somewhat deep, and our "leggins " became very much spattered, and my own feet soaked; but the Judge, more used to Kentucky riding, managed to cross the creeks dryshod. However, it was warm, and my blood was running swiftly, and I cared not a whit for wet feet. The Judge had a bottle of cherrybounce too, and that he reckoned was enough to thaw us out had we slept twenty years under an iceberg. As we journeyed, the Judge gave me a clew to the character of the Colonel. "He's a very fair specimen," said he, "of the noble Kentuckian, with all his faults and all his virtues. He was born here in a log fort, brought up with a tomahawk in one hand and a bowl of mush and milk in the other, until he was big enough to tote a rifle, and then he took to that. He fought the Indians while there were any to fight, and when they were gone turned to and farmed. He raised stock, and still does so, and receives ten thousand dollars cash for what he sends to market yearly. He was a colonel in our last war, and did wonders in some of the frontier skirmishes; for his courage is that of a lion, and his strength, too, for that matter. In high party times, when it was dangerous to go to the polls unarmed, Marshall did more than any man about to keep the rabble in order. They feared him, for if his word was not heeded, they knew his fist, foot, cudgel, dirk, pistol, and rifle were all ready to enforce obedience. He's a man of strong prejudices, and despises the Yankees; so you must mind and not let out that you 're one. For myself, he forgives my Yankee origin, and swears 'by Old Virginny' it was a mistake. His hospitality is unbounded; cheap as living is to a planter, all his

ten thousand a year goes to the winds in a mighty small time. In short, he's rough as a bear, noble as a lion, kind and faithful as a mastiff, and withal full of that wisdom which comes from men, and not books, from studying character and nature, and tracing for himself effects to causes.”

We spent the night at a little inn on the road, and the next day about noon reached the place of our destination. We entered through a very rusty and broken gate, which slammed to behind us, as if very much offended at being opened, upon a natural park. The greensward was short and velvety; the undulation of the surface and roundness of the declivities, almost, as it seemed, artificial; while the scattered clumps of trees, beneath which the cattle and horses stood in sleepy and solemn happiness, gave to the scene an English air, which was scarce destroyed by the worm-fences and droves of swine, both truly American accompaniments. Nearly a quarter of a mile from the road stood the mansion, half seen, half hidden by the mass of foliage which covered the trees and vines around it. It was a rather oldfashioned looking domicile, with large windows, having very clumsy frames and small glasses or lights, and with a long piazza or stoop upon the north and east sides. The main building was flanked by two smaller ones, and surrounded by an infinity of log-cabins, barns, stables, and I know not what all.

Soon after we entered the park, we started a whole covey of little woolly-headed fellows, who grinned, turned up their great eyes at us, and then set out for another part of the domain with all speed, tumbling now and then head over heels as they rushed down the hill-side. The pigs, too, half wild, would start as we came near them, look up, give a quick, sharp, angry grunt, and scamper away as their ancestors of the forests of Europe did before them. Presently, as we came near the white garden-fence, we were brought to by a voice from the right. "Halloo, Judge," shouted