or shrouded in a
mask of dulness until another state of being. To our friend Drowne
there came a brief season of excitement, kindled by love. It rendered
him a genius for that one occasion, but, quenched in disappointment,
left him again the mechanical carver in wood, without the power even of
appreciating the work that his own hands had wrought. Yet who can doubt
that the very highest state to which a human spirit can attain, in its
loftiest aspirations, is its truest and most natural state, and that
Drowne was more consistent with himself when he wrought the admirable
figure of the mysterious lady, than when he perpetrated a whole progeny
of blockheads?

There was a rumor in Boston, about this period, that a young Portuguese
lady of rank, on some occasion of political or domestic disquietude,
had fled from her home in Fayal and put herself under the protection of
Captain Hunnewell, on board of whose vessel, and at whose residence,
she was sheltered until a change of affairs. This fair stranger must
have been the original of Drowne's Wooden Image.

ROGER MALVIN'S BURIAL

One of the few incidents of Indian warfare naturally susceptible of the
moonlight of romance was that expedition undertaken for the defence of
the frontiers in the year 1725, which resulted in the well-remembered
"Lovell's Fight." Imagination, by casting certain circumstances
judicially into the shade, may see much to admire in the heroism of a
little band who gave battle to twice their number in the heart of the
enemy's country. The open bravery displayed by both parties was in
accordance with civilized ideas of valor; and chivalry itself might not
blush to record the deeds of one or two individuals. The battle, though
so fatal to those who fought, was not unfortunate in its consequences
to the country; for it broke the strength of a tribe and conduced to
the peace which subsisted during several ensuing years. History and
tradition are unusually minute in their memorials of their affair; and
the captain of a scouting party of frontier men has acquired as actual
a military renown as many a victorious leader of thousands. Some of the
incidents contained in the following pages will be recognized,
notwithstanding the substitution of fictitious names, by such as have
heard, from old men's lips, the fate of the few combatants who were in
a condition to retreat after "Lovell's Fight."

. . . . . . . . .

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