The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104,
June, 1866, by Various

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866

Author: Various

Release Date: August 22, 2007 [EBook #22375]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY ***

Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by Cornell University Digital Collections).

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

_A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics._

VOL. XVII.--JUNE, 1866.--NO. CIV.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by TICKNOR AND
FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.

Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved
to the end of the article. Contractions have been retained as they appear
in each story.

QUICKSANDS.

CHAPTER I.

"This is the seventy-fifth pair! Pretty well for us in so short a time!"
said the Colonel's wife.

"Yes, but we must give Aunt Marian the credit of a very large
proportion; at least ten pairs have come from her."

"I have nothing to do but to knit; none to knit for at home but my cat,"
I replied, rather shortly, to the soft voice that had given me credit
for such extraordinary industry. Afterwards I looked up at Percy Lunt,
and tried to think of some pleasant thing to say to her; but in
vain,--the words wouldn't come. I did not like her, and that is the
truth.

Thirty of us were assembled as usual, at our weekly "Soldiers' Aid
Circle." We always met at the house of her father, Colonel Lunt, because
its parlors were the largest in Barton, and because Mrs. Lunt invited us
to come every week at three o'clock in the afternoon, and stay till
nine, meanwhile giving us all tea. The two parlors, which opened into
each other as no others in Barton did, were handsomely furnished with
articles brought from France; though, for that matter, they did not look
very different from Barton furniture generally, except, perhaps, in
bei