How like a suppliant God he looked! His sweet,
Low voice, heart-shaken, spoke--and all was known;
Yet, from the first, I felt our souls must meet,
Like stars that rush together and shine on.

[Illustration: The Bridal Morning

J. Hayter A. B. Ross

Engraved Expressly for Graham's Magazine]

THE ISLETS OF THE GULF;

OR, ROSE BUDD.

Ay, now I am in Arden; the more fool
I; when I was at home I was in a better place; but
Travelers must be content. AS YOU LIKE IT.

BY THE AUTHOR Of "PILOT," "RED ROVER," "TWO ADMIRALS,"
"WING-AND-WING," "MILES WALLINGFORD," ETC.

[Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by
J. Fenimore Cooper, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court
of the United States, for the Northern District of New York.]

_(Continued from page 48.)_

PART XV.

Man hath a weary pilgrimage
As through the world he wends;
On every stage, from youth to age,
Still discontent attends;
With heaviness he casts his eye
Upon the road before,
And still remembers with a sigh
The days that are no more. SOUTHEY.

It has now become necessary to advance the time three entire days, and
to change the scene to Key West. As this latter place may not be known
to the world at large, it may be well to explain that it is a small
seaport, situate on one of the largest of the many low islands that
dot the Florida Reef, that has risen into notice, or indeed into
existence as a town, since the acquisition of the Floridas by the
American Republic. For many years it was the resort of few besides
wreckers, and those who live by the business dependent on the rescuing
and repairing of stranded vessels, not forgetting the salvages. When
it is remembered that the greater portion of the vessels that enter
the Gulf of Mexico stand close along this reef, before the trades, for
a distance varying from one to two hundred miles, and that nearly
every thing which quits it, is obliged to beat down its rocky coast in
the Gulf Stream for the same distance, one is not to be surprised that
the wrecks, which so constantly occur, can supply the wants of a
considerable population. To live at Key West is the next thing to
being at sea. The place has sea air, no other water than such as is
preserved in cisterns, and no soil, or so little as to render even a
head of lettuce a rarity. Turtle is abundant, and the business o