APTER VI.
LIFE IN AMERICA, 91

CHAPTER VII.
SUNDAY, 126
EVENING HYMN, 128

CHAPTER VIII.

THE WOLF CHASE, 133

CHAPTER IX.

THE HISTORY OF AN OLD MAID, 140

CHAPTER X.

THE FAMILY MEETING, 166

CHAPTER XI.

THE DYING HEBREW, 169
"ONLY A MECHANIC," 172

CHAPTER XII.

LOVE AND PRIDE, 196

CHAPTER XIII.

THE TEST OF LOVE. A STORY OF THE LAST WAR, 227

CHAPTER XIV.

THE FLOWER ANGELS, 266

THE

CHRISTMAS GUEST;

OR,

EVENINGS AT DONALDSON MANOR.

CHAPTER I.

The largest and the most picturesque country-house of all I know in
America, is the mansion house of my friends, the Donaldsons. I would
gladly inform the reader of its locality, but this Colonel Donaldson has
positively prohibited, for a reason too flattering to my self-love to be
resisted.

"You know, my dear Madam,"--I give his own words, by which I hope the
courteous reader will understand that I am really too modest even to
seem to adopt the flattering sentiment they convey--"You know, my dear
madam, that your description will be read by every body who is any body,
and that through it my simple home will become classic ground. If I
permit you to direct the tourist tribe to it, I shall be pestered out of
my life when summer comes, by travelling artists, would-be poets, and
romantic young ladies."

I may not therefore, dear reader, tell you whether this pleasant abode
be washed by the waves of the Atlantic or by the turbid current of the
Mississippi; whether it be fanned by the flower-laden zephyrs of the
South, or by the health-inspiring breezes of the North. The exterior
must indeed have been left wholly to your imagination, had I not
fortunately obtained a sketch from a young friend, an _amateur_ artist,
of whom I shall have more to say presently. As I could not in honor
present you with even this poor substitute, as I trust you will consider
it, for my word-painting, without Colonel Donaldson's consent, I have
been compelled, in deference to his wish, to divest the pictur