During the rest of the journey Ellen assumed a gaiety of tone little in keeping with her real feelings. She made no confidant of her cousin, for it was a part of her self-willed and imperious nature to rely wholly on herself. But when they reached Boston he accompanied her to her residence, and on taking leave, said laughingly in reply to a retort of hers.
"Adicu, my sweet coz, and remember, when you are as a sort of remarried, to buy the old inn in membrance of old times."
The shot struck home. Ellen had renewed the struggle in her breast betwixt love and pride, and the former had almost come off conqueror, when this unlucky retort of her cousin, aroused all her haughtiness. She had many good feelings, but she had lived so long in the world that she had become a believer in the truth of its maxims. What would her young friends say- she thought-if she married a landlady's son ? She went into the house, and on the spur of the moment, wrote a dismissal to her lover.
And how did he receive it ? More in sorrow than in indignation. He sat down and wrote a reply, in which he coldly notified the receipt of her letter. No unworthy regret did he breathe- no attempt did he make to change her determination. His love hitherto had blinded him to this trait in Ellen's character, but now it appeared in all its glaring deformity before him, and he renounced her, certainly not without pain, but without regret.
And years passed, and he saw and wooed another and a fairer bride. But Ellen never married. She repented too soon of her conduct. Perhaps others avoided her on account of her heartlessness toward Stanley, but from the hour of their separation she faded away as if some secret sorrow was at her heart. She lived to become what she most dreaded-an old maid.
LAKE DUNMORE . BY JESSE E. DOW. THE timid deer in Dunmore's flood, When dies the chase in hazle glen, No longer fears the cry of blood, The tramp of steed, or shout of men, No tear of terror dims his eye, His heart that beatto bursting sinks, He listens-'tis the bittern's cryAnd in the mountain shadow drinks. Embossed in giant mountain peaks, Wild Dunmore's crystal lake is seen Where lilies bathe their pallid checks, And blushing roses fondly lean, The eagle marks his speck'led prey From jutting rock or withered tree, And there the night-hawk cuts her way, And homeward hies the humming bec.
How beautiful ! the moon looks down Upon a spirit's mountain home, Bald Hoosick wears a silver crown , And far Au Sable shrouds her foam ; From isle to isle the ripples break, When leap the golden trout on high, And where the verdant rushes shake The glossy otter loves to lie. The eye is lost in sweeping vales, And strives to grasp the scene in vain, It marks Lake George's snowy sails And rests upon thy waves Champlain ; Now wanders to the north away And falls upon a silent land, Where leagues on leagues dark Chateaugay Thy waving trees like giants stand. Around how calm-above-belowIn mountain gorge and dimpled dell, Bright hamlets in the distance glow, And faintly sounds the shepherd's bell. The red man's grave unheeded lies Beneath the leaves of countless moons ; And thro' the trees the night bird flies, And airy flutes breathe forth their tunes. Sweet mountain lake unknown to fame Where Nature in her wildness wrought, No classic tongue has named the name The Tuscarora chieftain taught ; No sickly host e'er came to wake Their dying harps to life by thee ; But far away by Seruas Lake They fall like leaves on autumn's Ica. The blushing daisy, wet with tears, At morning's prime looks up and smiles, So hope amid a thousand fears Might bloom amid thy mountain isles ; For there, amid the flowery dell, Beside the crystal waters shore Kanathos veils her fabled well , And maidens loved grow old no more. I stood in boyhood's happy hour Upon thy guardian mountain height, And saw below the summer's shower Upon thy waters spend its might; And when the sun in splendor shone Upon thy wild and glittering shore, Oh , fain was I fair lake to own That earth had naught like thee, Dunmore.
EDUCATION. The great business of education is to eradicate what is evil, and cultivate what is good ; it is equally true in the world of mind as in the world of matter, that thorns and briers are a spontaneous growth, while useful plants require careful pruning and diligent cultivation. The analogy may still further be continued, for as with the culture of the earth, so with the mind, this process must begin in the spring of life.
