were alike, with less of the
discrimination usual between the sexes, than is to be found between
individuals in larger associations. They approximated each other in
temper and disposition; and Henry might, in this regard, be said to be,
without disparagement to his manly qualities, a girlish boy; and
Mildred, on the other hand, with as little derogation, to be a boyish
girl. This home-bred freedom of nurture produced, in its development,
some grotesque results, which my reader has, doubtless, heretofore
observed with a smile; and it will, likewise, serve to explain some of
the peculiar forms of intercourse which may hereafter be noticed between
the brother and sister.

The news of the battle of Camden had not yet reached the neighborhood of
the Dove Cote; but the time drew nigh when all the country stood on
tiptoe, anxious to receive tidings of that interesting event. A week had
elapsed without bringing letters from Butler; and Mildred was growing
uneasy at this interval of silence. There was a struggle in her mind; an
unpleasant foreboding that she was almost ashamed to acknowledge, and
yet which she could not subdue. The country was full of reports of the
hostile operations, and a thousand surmises were entertained, which
varied according to the more sanguine or desponding tempers of the
persons who made them. Mildred was taught by Butler to expect defeat,
yet still she hoped for victory; but the personal fate of her lover
stole upon her conjectures, and she could not keep down the misgiving
which affection generally exaggerates, and always renders painful. In
this state of doubt, it was observable that her manners occasionally
rose to a higher tone of playfulness than was natural to her; and by
turns they sank to a moody silence, showing that the equipoise of the
mind was disturbed, and that the scales did not hang true: it was the
struggle of mental resolution with a coward heart--a heart intimidated
by its affections.

Such was the state of things when, in the latter fortnight of August,
the morning ushered in a day of unsurpassed beauty. The air was elastic;
the cool breeze played upon the shrubbery, and stole the perfume of a
thousand flowers. The birds sang with unwonted vivacity from the
neighboring trees; and the sun lighted up the mountains with a golden
splendor, the fast drifting clouds flinging their shadows upon the
forest that clothed the hills around, and the eagle and the buzzard
sailing in the high