and useful lessons.

In the meantime his new station in life called him to new
responsibilities, and a new field of action, unknown to him before,
presented itself, wherein he must act in many different capacities. He
was naturally of a domestic turn of mind, and had always declined
entering into the constant routine of engagements, to which the most
part of the fashionable world, more or less, subject themselves. He
avoided all excess and extravagance, in every respect, in which people
of this description lose the greater part of their time. He was
extremely fond of walking, as he considered gentle exercise the best
medicine of life, and he passed much of his time in strolling over the
fields or in the forest glen, amid the green wood shade, wrapped up in
solitary reflection.

When the sun was gilding the western hemisphere, and the day shone in
all the mildness of the season, enveloped in serious thought and
reverie, Albert walked forth among the surrounding shades. "Happy, ye
freeborn sons of Columbia," said he, "liberty and plenty now bless your
domestic retirements,--War, devastation and wide-wasting rapine have
fled your peaceful shores. No dread of destruction to disturb your
uninterrupted tranquillity; the exercise of laudable industry can again
bring home to each family competency and repose." The clear cerulean sky
added a soft beauty to the adjacent landscapes, as he listlessly
wandered along the beach. The idle murmuring of the waves upon the sandy
shore, the confused gabbling of the waterfowl, and the near view of the
full-spread vessel majestically advancing over the white-capped billows,
that advanced and receded in gentle monotony, tended to soothe the lone
bosom to calmness and quietude.

The day ended, and calm evening drew on. The silver rays of the
full-orbed moon shed a majesty on each surrounding object. The scene
appeared in solemn grandeur; the dusky forest reflected a yellow
radiance; and the rolling wonders of the heavens glittered over the
head, while awful stillness reigned, interrupted only by the strains of
the night-bird, whose melodious notes served to soothe the heart to
harmony.

Albert returned home with a leisurely step, his feelings were raised in
devotional gratitude to that beneficent Being, on whom we depend for
every present and future felicity, and who had surrounded us with so
many blessings, that conspire to compose the mind to calmness and
serenity.

CHAPTER XXX.