anter; on a nearer inspection, however, it
would not pass for that. There were no rows of negro cabins, no great
sugar-mills, nor tobacco-warehouses, such as are always to be seen near
the planter's dwelling. Nothing of the sort; nor was there any very
large tract of cultivated land contiguous to the house. The dark
cypress forest in the background cast its shadow almost up to the walls.
Plainly it was not the dwelling of a planter. What then was it, and
who were its inmates? It was the home of a _Hunter-Naturalist_.

CHAPTER TWO.

THE HUNTER-NATURALIST AND HIS FAMILY.

In 1815 was fought the famous battle of Waterloo, and in the same year
Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the island-rock of Saint Helena. Many
French officers, who had followed the fortunes of the great adventurer,
at that time emigrated to America. Most of these, as was very natural,
sought the French settlements on the Mississippi, and there made their
homes for life. Among them was one named Landi, who had been a colonel
of chasseurs in Napoleon's army. He was by birth a Corsican; and it was
through his being a friend and early acquaintance of one of the
Bonaparte family that he had been induced to become an officer in the
French army--for in his youth he had been fonder of science than
soldiering.

While campaigning in Spain, Landi had married a Basque lady, by whom he
had three children, all sons. Their mother died before the battle of
Waterloo was fought; so that when Landi emigrated to America his family
consisted of his three sons alone.

He first went to Saint Louis, but after a while moved down the river to
Point Coupee, in Louisiana, where he purchased the house we have just
described, and made it his home.

Let me tell you that he was not in any circumstances of necessity.
Previous to his departure for America, he had sold his patrimonial
estates in Corsica for a sum of money--enough to have enabled him to
live without labour in any country, but particularly in that free land
of cheap food and light taxation--the land of his adoption. He was,
therefore, under no necessity of following any trade or profession in
his new home--and he followed none. How then did he employ his time? I
will tell you. He was an educated man. Previous to his entering the
French army he had studied the natural sciences. He was a _naturalist_.
A naturalist can find employment anywhere--can gather both instruction
and amusement where others wo