hat one spot until by
intervening trees all was hidden from her sight. Then her eyes
closed, and she leaned her head down against the side of the wagon,
while her arm tightened its hold of the babe that was sleeping on
her bosom. For a long time she remained lost to all that was around
her. Years afterward she said to a friend that the severest trial of
her whole life was in leaving her child alone in that wild, desolate
place. It seemed as if the little one must feel the desertion.

At the town of A-- Parker and his family obtained accommodations in a
poor tavern, where they remained for six weeks, during which time
every one suffered more or less severely from fevers, contracted in
the poisoned atmosphere in which they had been residing. During the
time that Parker remained at A-- he obtained more information in
regard to Western life, and the prospects of a man like himself
getting ahead, as a farmer on wild lands than he had ever before
had. He learned, too, some particulars about his own farm, of which
he was before ignorant. All along the river upon which it was
situated, the fall sickness swept off every new-comer, and was in
very many instances fatal to the oldest residents. He was assured
that if he went back there to live before frost set in, it would be
almost certain death.

The loss of his oldest and best-beloved child; the bad location of
his farm; and the new and more correct views he had received on the
subject of Western life, completely opened the eyes of Parker to the
folly he had committed.

"If I could make any thing like a fair sale of my farm, I think I
would let it go, and return to the East," he said to his wife, after
they had all recovered from the worst effect of the fevers from
which they had been suffering.

"If you could do as well at the East, Benjamin, I think we would all
be happier there," Rachel replied, in her usual quiet way. Her
husband did not notice that the tears sprang instantly to her eyes,
nor did he know with what a quick throb her heart answered to his
words.

A short time after this, Parker was fortunate enough to meet with a
purchaser for his land, who was willing to take it with all its
improvements at government price. With seven hundred dollars, the
remnant of his property, after an absence of eight months, Parker
returned to the East a wiser man, and his wife a more thoughtful,
pensive, absent-minded woman. The loss of little Rachel was a sad
thing for her. Sh