their association. Indeed, this is a characteristic of the
gentlemen as well as the ladies.

These people may have a feud, and sometimes they do; but this rarely
remains long unsettled. No one will ever hear it publicly alluded to,
and assuredly they will never hear it uttered in slanderous
vituperation of the absent party. I may be permitted here to narrate an
incident illustrative of this peculiarity.

A gentleman, knowing of a dissension between two parties, was dining
with one of them, in company with several others. This guest spoke to
the hostess disparagingly of the enemy of her husband, who, hearing the
remark, rebuked his officious guest by remarking to him: "Doctor, my
lady and myself would prefer to find out the foibles and sins of our
neighbors ourselves." The rebuke was effectual, and informed the
doctor, who was new in the country, of an honorable feeling in the
refined population of the land of his adoption alien to that of his
birth, and which he felt made these people the superior of all he had
ever known.

No one has ever travelled upon one of those palatial steamers abounding
on the Mississippi, in the spring season of the year, when the waters
swell to the tops of the levees, lifting the steamer above the level of
the great fields of sugar-cane stretching away for miles to the forest
on either bank of that mighty river, who has not been delighted with
the lovely homes, surrounded with grounds highly cultivated and most
beautifully ornamented with trees, shrubs, and flowers, which come upon
the view in constant and quick succession, as he is borne onward
rapidly along the accumulated waters of the great river. This scene
extends one hundred and fifty miles up the river, and is one not
equalled in the world. The plain is continuous and unbroken; nor hill
nor stream intersects it but at two points, where the Plaquemine and La
Fourche leave it to find a nearer way to the sea; and these are so
diminutive, in comparison with all around, that they are passed almost
always without being seen.

The fringe of green foliage which is presented by the trees and shrubs
adorning each homestead, follows in such rapid succession as to give it
a continuous line, in appearance, to the passers-by on the steamer.
These, denuded of timber to the last tree, the immense fields, only
separated by a ditch, or fence, which spread along the river--all
greened with the luxuriant sugar-cane, and other crops, growing so
vigo