lily of
the valley."

"Describe her."

"I can't. It would be like attempting to paint a sun beam or doing what
no painter has ever done, sketch a rainbow."

"You are very poetical this morning, but I want you to do as our
President sometimes tells us, proceed from the abstract to the
concrete."

"Well, let me begin: she has the most beautiful little feet. I never see
her stepping along without thinking of Cinderella and the glass slipper.
As to eyes, they are either dark brown or black, I don't know which; but
I do know they are beautiful; and her hair, well, she generally wears
that plain in deference to the wishes of her Quaker friends, but
sometimes in the most beautiful ripples of golden brown I ever saw."

"That will do, now tell me who she is? You spoke of her Quaker friends.
Is she not their daughter?"

"No, there seems to be some mystery about her history. About ten years
ago, my father brought her to Josiah Carpenter's but he's always been
reticent about her, in fact I never took the pains to inquire. She's a
great favorite in the village, and everybody says she is as beautiful as
she is good, and vice versa."

"Well, I'd like to see this paragon of yours. I believe I'll go."

"Well, let us get ready."

"When do you start?"

"To-morrow."

"All right. I'll be on hand." And with these words the two friends
parted to meet again the next day at the railroad station.

The first of the speakers is the son of Josiah Collins, and his friend
is Louis Le Croix, Camilla's adopted brother. He is somewhat changed
within the last ten years. Time has touched the golden wealth of his
curls with a beautiful deep auburn, and the rich full tones of his voice
tell that departed is written upon his childhood.

He is strongly Southern in his feelings, but having been educated in the
North, whilst he is an enthusiast in defense of his section, as he calls
the South, he is neither coarse and brutal in actions, nor fanatical in
his devotion to slavery. He thinks the Negroes are doing well enough in
slavery, if the Abolitionists would only let matters rest, and he feels
a sense of honor in defending the South. She is his mother, he says, and
that man is an ingrate who will not stand by his mother and defend her
when she is in peril.

He and Charles Collins are fast friends, but [on the subject of slavery
they are entirely opposed?]. And so on that point they have agreed to
disagree. They often have animated and excit