Monmouth weekly herald. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1854-1860, 1858-03-25
yntuestinp Storg.
THE MYSTERIOUS
4 j n I 5 NJ A n.
TALE OF
BY PAUL GRAFTON.
CHAPTER I.

THE FAMILY ON THE RIVER DES PLANES
To him who has been pent up in the
walls of a city during a portion of his
life, or to him who has sailed for months
upon the ocean without beholding land
there can be no sight more beautiful
more refreshing. than the prairie, between
the months of May ard October.
We speak not of the prairie which has
been described as low, monotoneus, and
capable of giving root and nourishment
to naught but tall, coarse grass, but oil
the prairie as it really exists-broad,
fertile, undulating, covered with a robe
of the richest green, and ornamented with
a variety of the loyeliest wild flowers
in short, of the prairie which the first OF
American poets has so beautifully de-
scribed, and which we have wandered
over in person. day after day, with no
companion save our dog and gun.
Within a few years the population of
the p~rairies of Illinois has increased with
astonishing rapidity. The banks of all
the principal rivers, which are bordered
for the most part with thickets and heavy
oak trees. are now inhabited by emigrants
from utmost every portion of the world.
The timber is fallen, the deer is hunted
from his native home, and sQn the broad
prairies, which extend frd stream to
stream. houses, barns, and Of grain
appear.
Upon the banks of the Reviere DIES
Ptaines. several mAesssou@ the famous
Mount Juliet. whfcl S~chdoeraft has SO
ably described, tire dwelt, not many
years ago, a family #hich had emigrated
from Vermont. I'd population at that
time was somewhatslhinner tsan al pres.
ent, but still the neighborhoodsi in which
this family resided boasted of many re-
spectacle emigrants from the Eastern
States. OF these none were more highly
esteemed than the family in question,
and surely none possessed a finer locality
or richer lands. In short. Mr.. Austin
was an industrious, enterprising, and be
n~evolent man; his wife a fit companion
for such an individual. and the fair Ellen
the worthy offspring of an upright father,
and a once beautiful and still cookbook,
ing mother.
Besides Ellen, who was sixteen years
of age. Mr.. Austin had another child
a son-who had remained in the East to
finish his education, and who, at the time
our story opens, was daily expected by
his parents in the West. This young
man was of a fiery disposition, talented,
but s~elf.conceited. headstrong, and above
all. bitterly satirical.
No far from the residence of Mr.. Aus.
tin, which, as we have said, was on the
banks Of the Des PLANES. there lived a
young mar of an eccentric disposition
about hose existence a sort of a mystic
ry hung. He was about twenty-five
years Of age, tall, well-made, dark com
~plexioned, and possessed of a most strik'
ing and expressive cou~ntenance, which, il
not handsome. was at least digniied and
manly. He lived alone upon the edge oil
the prairie, dividing his time between
hunting, fishing, and cultivating a small
tract of land which he had purchased
He was afable to all; but there was only
enc being whose society he courted; and
that one was Ellen Austin. In fact
matters had been carried so far that il
was rumored that Clinton Grover and
Ellen Austin we're soon to be united by
bands which Death alone can sever. Il
is needless to say that Ellen's compan,
ions cautioned her against encouraging
the addresses of one she scarcely knew
and who was apparently poor and friend
less. However, there was something in
Clinton's appearance that dispelled al
her doubts, and won her hearth in spite Of
his poverty and mysterious course Of
life.