s difficult to procure any one, and for
this reason he had decided in their favor. He further stated that he
should expect them to remain with him winter and summer, as he could not
go to the inconvenience of engaging clerks from such a distance, and
then have them away three or four months in a year.

On the whole, Mrs. Pratt thought the letter a very stern and
disagreeable one in tone, and shuddered as she pictured to herself the
character of the writer. What would her delicate and gentle Guly do, in
daily contact with such a cold, blunt-lipped man. Still, there was
nothing she could devise that would be well for them, and New-Orleans,
at that time, was considered an El Dorado, where industry and
perseverance soon brought the fickle goddess to bestow her glittering
stores. It was a long way to send them from her side, but she
experienced a pride which prevented her from applying for situations for
them nearer home. Thus, it was decided they should go. In the bright
anticipations of future fortune and happiness, which immediately filled
his busy brain, in the preparation for departure, and the prospect of
his approaching journey, Arthur in a measure forgot the calamity which
had over-taken them, and the attendant painful separation from his sole
remaining parent. He dwelt enthusiastically upon the fortune he was
confident he should soon win. He told how frequent his letters home
would be, and hinted that, as soon as practicable, they would contain
something more than mere words. His voice, when dwelling upon this
subject, was always loud and confident, and even in the midst of all
their troubles he sometimes laughed as merrily as of old, when picturing
their restored wealth and renewed happiness.

Not so Guly. He hovered round his mother like some gentle spirit; saying
but little, yet evincing in every glance of his expressive blue eyes,
and in every noiseless footfall, the deep sorrow which lay in the
recesses of his young heart. When he spoke it was in accents of
tenderness and sympathy for his mother; and though he never talked as
Arthur did of the approaching journey, and its results, there was an
expression of firmness and determination in his thoughtful face, which
more than once forced upon the mother's heart the conviction, that in
that distant land, this frail being, after all, might prove the stronger
of the two. Daily she warned them of the temptations and snares that
would beset their path, and taught them