The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-10-08

! flOy'S a0lulaLlOu l6dNeS neE. III 10
what 1 can to make her life pleasant
one"
"I hope, Herbert, that your regard for
my welfare viii not exceed mine for
yours"
'If you don't take good care of my
brother, Floy, you and will quarrel as
Mrs. Gray and Mrs. Green used to-"
"What shall l say to you about taking
care of my worthy cousin, you sauey
sprite ?"
"PlI give you liberty to scold me
whenever you think I need it, Floy."
"pll remember that; but don't you
think that George Crandall and Fanny
Waters are on the high road 10 matri-
mony?"
"There'll be a double swapping of
brothers and sisters at Portland and Or
egon City, before long"
"Come, ladies'" said Herbert rising,
''Tom is out here with the horses, and
we can have ride"
Oregon ladies are generally practiced
equestrians. Ada left her children with
her father-in-law, and was as free as the
rest. Effie was mounted first.
"Good-bYe, Hubert ~ and waving
her pocket-handkerchief, her graceful
steed bounded away.
"You can't leave me-" said Ada, with
a peculiar chuck to Flaxy, who, though
getting old in years, was as young in
spirit as his mistress. In high glee she
darted past the company, and was soon
waving her handkerchief in Rockers
eyes, who exerted himself to do double
duty, not fancying Flaxy's near ap-
proach, and for fifteen minutes the
almost even race continued. At length,
the road left the prairie, taking course
through dense fir forest. They did not
wish to get lost from their would-be es-
corts, and reined up the horses to wait
for them.
"Here they are Why, ladies, what
circus have you left ?' said Hubert, as
he came up, in admiration of Efie's
skill in horsemanship.
"The circus of the prairies, at your
service, sir" she replied, pointing to the
plain through which they had almost
flown. "Where's Herbert and Floy ?"
'Here they all come" said Ada.
(Which way shall we go, Maurice ?"
'If we follow the road through the
timber, it will lead US to an exposed
mountain side, where we will have a
view that will repay us for the trouble" +"
Their progress through the timber
was necessarily slow. They rode more
than an hour before they reached the
mountains base, and the ascent was
somewhat difficult. When they reached
the table-land to which Maurice had
guided them, the sky had become so
completely overcast with clouds, that
the view of distant mountains they had
hoped to get, was obscured. A hard
shower came, however, to the rescue,
and when its half hours work was done,
the heaviest cloud bore away to the
east, leaving gorgeous piles of dark, pur-
pie and golden ones, boiling up majes-
tieally in the sun-illumined west. Her
bert, who, as the reader has already
seen, had great taste for repeating po-
etry, drew Florence to his side, under a
sheltering fir, and repeated, dramat-
ically:
Gland Of the forest and the rock,
OF dark ravine and rolling river,
OF mountains reared on high to mock
The storms career and nghtning's shock,
My own green land forever"
Florence replied:
'0h give me back my native hills,
Ny dashed meads and troubled rills,
And groves of pine.
Oh, give me too, the mountain air,
My youthful days without a care,
When rose for me mothers prayer,
In tones divine.D
"You have the mountain air. 'dasied
meads,' troubled riIls,' and groves of
pine in Oregon, dearie. But the days
that are gone, and your mothers fire.
side, you cannot recall, here or else
where. Do you really desire to go back
to your native home ?"
''Not now. 1 love somebody better
now than my native land, but L have
wished that vain wish a thousand
times"
Bnt where was Efiie? She had taken
a small book from Hubert's pocket, and
while the others were talking of the
storm, she was writing of it while sit
ting upon rock by Hubert's side, shell
tered by an overjutting cliff. Maurice
and Ada were standing little apart
from them, watching the changing
clouds and diversified scenery, in SYM
pathetic love of the beautiful.
"Well! well p' said Hubert. "Here
is married pair who have had oppor-
tunities to quarrel every day for more
than six years, and the honeymoon
hasn't waned yet T
"Yes," said Ada; tive are happy. We
have toiled together for our daily bread;
have known parents solicitude for pre-
cious little ones; have lived in adversity
and prosperity, and have never had an
angry dispute. We have pleasant
past to contemplate, and look forward to
the future with as much pleasant antic-