prefer fox? I know | ening to a few remarks in the Hebrew language. Kate, He cuts them off as on the lookout, caught the expression, and carried her friend off to the piano. Was it a shaft at random sent that made Dora sing There was a skein to be wound, and before Dick knew what he was about his arms were stretched in an imploring attitude, holding the hank, while Dora's pretty white fingers loosened a tangle here and there in the most charming manner possible. that the knitting had been her company work for a year. Crimson and cream-colored silk make little hands look so cunning and white. "You are not like the young lady I met at a ball in California," said Dick. "She said to me, 'Stockings I "Is this for a-a tidy ?" he asked, by way of being can do without, but earrings I must have.' I see you agreeable. "No. It is for my-my stockings," murmured Dora. "I always knit them myself," she added. You might have knocked Dick down with a feather. Knitting her own stockings! Economical little thing! wear no earrings." "I wear no ornaments except natural flowers, and this old shoe-buckle of my grandfather's." Then and there Dick made up his mind he would get her the biggest breastpin money could buy, the very next time he went to the city, and send it anonymously. A girl who did her own knitting, wore a black gown without any peaks or ruffles, and an old shoe-buckle for jewelry, deserved a breastpin. And that very night he reflected over his usual pipe, that even if a fellow had not a great deal of money, any man would do well to get a wife like that, and believed he would tell his friend Howard about her. And he dreamed pleasant dreams of Dora knitting socks, and patching the big hole he had that day torn in his corduroy trousers, though the stars, and cats with their tails cut off, came and bothered him some. "I'll do it now. Shall I shoot them first ?" he asked. "What do you mean? I'll run in and get my hat and go with you.' "Like as not they are on the roof of the house," muttered Dick, "and I don't know what Kate will do. But if Dora wants Mazeppa's tail it shall be cut off for her. What queer fancies girls have! To want a cat's tail !" Under that great furry black hat, with its wealth of soft plumes, any girl would have looked charming. Dora always looked so. "Come," she said, "they are down on the river. I want to scramble after them myself. It brings good Dick spent an hour with the brushes next morning, luck." trying to get his hair to lie smooth. He had a way of looking as if he were always in a high wind, even on a day when a feather would drop like a bullet. But his teeth were as white as Ponto's, and he looked you straight in the eye. "They'll scratch you fearfully." "I am not afraid," she replied, "with you at my side." "There is a tide in the affairs of men,” and Dick felt that his had flowed of its own accord right to his feet, and that if ever he intended to get Dora to knitting his socks, he must make the arrangements at once. He "You must eat yours became so excited, and appeared to have such a hurricane blowing around him, that he could scarcely keep his hat on his head. There was a broiled woodcock for breakfast. “Oh, Katie, stop !" cries Dora. from the plate I painted for you." She runs away for it, and comes down with a charming bit of Ceramic art. Ariadne was represented riding on a panther on a background of palest green, the color of a duck's egg. The nymph was in a most graceful attitude; her countenance beaming with love and hope, as the joyous bride of Bacchus. "This is a present for you, dear; I did it myself." "How utterly lovely! It must be hung up; it must! Look, pa, how beautiful." Mr. Harrington put on his spectacles, and examined it critically. Dora walked calmly and reacefully along under her big hat. Let us draw a vail over the love-making, which has been going on in about the same fashion ever since Adam said, "Miss Eve, I love you." They came walking back about dinner-time, with hands full of plethoric, brown, decorative cat-tails, and seemed to have very little to say to one another or anybody else. Kate, watching them from the window, felt so sorry Dick's bashfulness was such a hindrance to him. While "A very pretty Scripture picture! Very good, in- she helped Dora arrange cat-tails, she told her how mordeed!" Dick's wonder and admiration were too great for utterance. What could she not do? To make a plate actually? It was the last straw that broke the camel's back. He threw up the sponge. The others chatted on about the plate, but he saw only Dora, and gazing at her between morsels of food, ran great risk of injuring himself with his fork. When his friend Howard came next day with hot-house flowers, and another friend took her riding in the tightest, trimmest little habit, he despised his own sheepishness in letting the other fellows get ahead of him. And he wondered why they made such officious fools of themselves. He grew dissatisfied with the fit of his clothes, and promised to make it lively for that bootmaker who sent him number nines, knowing that he could squeeze into eights and a half. So many visitors kept on coming to see Dora that he grew gloomy and low-spirited, and fell away from his food, till Kate was quite uneasy about her brother. He wearied himself hunting woodcock because Dora was fond of them, and endangered his life climbing slim trees for deserted birds'-nests after she had begged him to bring her home one. His game-bag was stuffed with long mosses, like old men's gray beards, and dry seed-pods, and bunches of "trash" for Dora. He had caught a part of the tune of "Wapping Old Stairs," which in secluded spots he sang with great gusto; and he foolishly kissed the little glove more than once, a thorn in the side no longer. The week had nearly slipped away, and he was out washing his gun, when she came and watched him. 'You have not kept your promise," she remarked. "What promise ?" "To help me get cat-tails." tified she was that she and Dick got along so poorly, and hoped she would excuse his not being more attentive to her. Dora burst into a little ringing laugh. "Why, my dear little goose, as soon as Dick has time to ask papa for me, we shall be regularly engaged.” "Then may heaven bless you, my dear children!" cries Kate, dramatically. "And may you never wake to sorrow from 'Love's young dream.'" IN 1753 the French and the English were at peace by virtue of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed in 1748; but it was more than probable that this peace would not be of long duration, in consequence of events that were transpiring in North America. The limits of the French colonies of Louisiana, Canada and Acadia, as well as of the British colonies on that continent, were uncertain. Unfortunately they had not been settled by the treaty itself, but had been referred to commissioners, who were so far apart in their views and pretensions, that evidently they never would come to any amicable and final understanding. Meanwhile, both nations were respectively engaged in trying to encroach upon the vast territory which was the object of dispute between them, and which was still oc cupied by the aborigines, whose rights were but little respected by either English or French. Whenever the French sought to establish themselves on the land claimed by the Indians as their own, there came to the French commandant a notification from some colonial English Governor that he, the commandant, was on the territory of His Britannic Majesty. On the other hand, the English, whenever they attempted to act as the French had done, were officially informed that they were violating the sacred rights of His Most Christian Majesty, and were requested at once to withdraw. There was a frequent exchange of these paper bullets in the shape of protests and defiances, and it was foreseen that they soon would be followed by missiles much heavier and of metallic composition. This state of things produced commotion and irritation. The Indians, finding themselves between the hammer and the anvil, were alarmed, and the French and the English had assumed a reciprocally hostile attitude, although not actually at war. They certainly were preparing for it, and whilst at peace were marching and countermarching, plotting and intriguing with the Indians, and striving as to which of the two adversaries should occupy the best strategic points, the strongest positions, and sequre the aid of the savages, whom they endeavored to decoy into an alliance by presents, promises, and all the seductions of an artful diplomacy. 66 It seems that the French were considered more aggressive than the English by some of the Ohio tribes, whose chief, called the "Half King," repaired to a French post on the shores of Lake Erie, where he made the following complaint: Fathers, you are the disturbers of this land, by building towns and taking the country from us by fraud and force. We kindled a fire a long time since at Montreal, where we desired you to stay, and not to come and intrude upon our land. I now advise you to return to that place, for this land is ours. If you had come in a peaceable manner, like our brothers the English, we should have traded with you as we do with them. But that you should come and build houses on our land and take it by force, is what we cannot submit to. Both you and the English are white. We live in a country between you both; the land belongs to neither of you. The Great Being allotted it to us as a residence. So, fathers, I desire you, as I have desired our brothers the English, to withdraw, for I will keep you both at arm's-length. Whichever most regards this request, that side we will stand by and consider our friends. Our brothers the English have heard this, and I now tell it to you, for I am not afraid to order you off this land." me. The French commandant replied: "Child, you talk foolishly. You say this land belongs to you; there is not as much as the black of my nail yours. It is my land, and I will have it, let who will stand up against I am not afraid of fleas and musquitoes-for as зuch I consider the Indians. I tell you that down the River Ohio I will go, and build upon its banks. If it were blocked up, I have force sufficient to burst it open and trample down all who oppose. My force is as the sand upon the seashore. Therefore here is your wam'pum; I fling it at you.' The excitement became very great among all the Indian tribes. Some were friendly to the English, and others to the French. A spark might produce a general conflagration. All sorts of warlike and disquieting rumors were afloat. It was reported that the French were coming up the Mississippi River from Louisiana, and that their plan was to cement the connection of that province with Canada by a long chain of military hem posts, and the English within the Alleghany Mountains. Interested parties having addressed loud complaints to the Executive of Virginia, named Dinwiddie, of the aggressive encroachments of the French and their Indian allies, particularly on the Ohio, the Governor determined to send an envoy to remonstrate with these trespassers on the rights and claims of His Britannic Majesty. George Washington, although only twenty-one years old, was the person selected. Among his instructions* was a precise and minute recommendation to acquaint himself with the numbers and military force of the French stationed on the Ohio and in its vicinity; their capability of being reinforced from Canada; the forts they had erected; where situated; how garrisoned; the object of their advancing through these parts, and how they were likely to be supported and aided by the Indians. It is important to keep in mind these instructions in order the better to judge of subsequent events, of their consequences, and of the sharp controversy in which they were referred to by the French. On the 30th of October, 1753, the very day on which he received his credentials, Washington departed to accomplish his mission, and engaged his old master of fence, Jacob Van Braam-probably a Dutchman, from his name to accompany him as French interpreter. On the 14th of November, Washington, with the horses, tents and other traveling equipments, and with the companions he had selected, arrived at Will's Creek, which empties into the Cumberland River. There he secured the services of an additional escort, and departed the next day, traveling through the wilderness, studying the country according to his instructions, and examining with great care the localities where settlements might be made and forts usefully erected. On the 24th of the same month Washington reached the dwelling of the Half King, who was known to be favorable to the English, and who had addressed to the French commandant on Lake Erie the speech which has been reported. After a good deal of deliberation it was decided that the Half King and only two other Indians should accompany Washington to the end of his intended journey; it was thought that a larger number of Indians might excite the suspicions of the French. On his way Washington met a small French post commanded by a redoubtable warrior, Captain Joncaire, famous for his exploits in the wilderness, and whom Washington Irving calls the "veteran intriguer of the frontier." The English envoy was treated with generous hospitality and invited to supper, "during which Joncaire told me," writes Washington, "that the intention of the French was to take possession of the Ohio, and by G- they would do it; for, although they were sensible that the English could raise two men for their one, yet they knew their motions were too slow and dilatory to prevent any undertaking. They pretended to have an undoubted right to the river from a discovery made by one La Salle, sixty years ago, and the rise of this expedition is to prevent our settling on the river or the waters of it, as they heard of some families moving out in order thereto." Whilst the guest of Joncaire, Washington, according to his own account, availing himself of his opportunities of observation, and of the "bacchanalian convivialities" of. his host, from which he, of course, abstained-from temperament and from prudence-" took careful note of all their revelations, and collected a variety of information * Washington Irving's "Life of Washington," Vol. I., p. 68. concerning the French forces; how and where they were and mud, Washington reached the principal French setdistributed; the situations and distances of their forts; tlement and fort, commanded by the Chevalier Legardeur and their means and mode of obtaining supplies." de St. Pierre, Knight of the Military Order of St. LouisJoncaire had referred Washington for an answer to the old and silver-haired, but active as a young man, courtobject of his diplomatic mission to a superior officer at eous, but punctiliously ceremonious, and the true represome distance from the station he occupied. The youth-sentative of the polished gentleman of the old school ful ambassador thought that he had been purposely de- under the iron corselet of the precise and veteran soldier. |