arkling with wit and genuine humor:

"Oh! Mrs. Beall," he began, "what a beautiful gown you have got on, and
how handsome you do look! I declare you're the prettiest woman in the
room, and dance the handsomest."

"Indeed, Mr. A----," replied she, suppressing her love of fun and
assuming a demure look, "I am afraid you flatter me."

"No, I don't--I'm in earnest. I've just come to ask you to dance."

Such was the penalty of being too charming.

CHAPTER IV.

VOYAGE UP FOX RIVER.

It had been arranged that Judge Doty should accompany us in our boat as
far as the Butte des Morts, at which place his attendant would be
waiting with horses to convey him to Mineral Point, where he was to hold
court.

It was a bright and beautiful morning when we left his pleasant home, to
commence our passage up the Fox River Captain Harney was proposing to
remain a few days longer at "the Bay," but he called to escort us to the
boat and instal us in all its comforts.

As he helped me along over the ploughed ground and other inequalities in
our way to the river-bank, where the boat lay, he told me how
impatiently Mrs. Twiggs, the wife of the commanding officer, who since
the past spring had been the only white lady at Fort Winnebago, was now
expecting a companion and friend. We had met in New York, shortly after
her marriage, and were, therefore, not quite unacquainted. I, for my
part, felt sure that when there were two of our sex--when my piano was
safely there--when the Post Library which we had purchased should be
unpacked--when all should be fairly arranged and settled, we should be,
although far away in the wilderness, the happiest little circle
imaginable. All my anticipations were of the most sanguine and cheerful
character.

It was a moderate-sized Mackinac boat, with a crew of soldiers, and our
own three voyageurs in addition, that lay waiting for us--a dark-looking
structure of some thirty feet in length. Placed in the centre was a
frame-work of slight posts, supporting a roof of canvas, with curtains
of the same, which might be let down at the sides and ends, after the
manner of a country stage-coach, or rolled up to admit the light and
air.

In the midst of this little cabin or saloon was placed the box
containing my piano, and on it a mattress, which was to furnish us a
divan through the day and a place of repose at night, should the weather
at any time prove too wet or unpleasant for encamping. The boxes of
sil