patriots here, rebels, or whatever we were, on the lake tonight," jocosely replied Warrington.

"Patriotism," said Selden, following up the train of thought which the last remark suggested, "would seem entirely a relative term, and, like beauty, which consists of black teeth, thick lips, and large eyes, with one nation, and exactly the reverse with another, wholly dependent on the preexisting opinions of those who claim it for this action, and deny it in that. Besides this, as the world estimate actions, success would seem to be quite as essential to constitute the patriot, as the merits of his cause, or the glory of his deeds. Here, with the settlers, you are indeed called a patriot, and surely there is no one who better deserves from them the appellation; while with the people of New York, you are a rebel, outlaw, and hunted like a wild beast. And yet, if our cause prove successful, as Heaven grant it may, the world at large, coming in as umpire, will side with the settlers in establishing your name as a patriot; but if we fail, it will join with your foes in declaring you a rebel and reckless factionist."

"Names and definitions, Selden, may be sometimes vague and varying, but principles are immutable. The principles which actuate us in resisting these encroachments on our rights, are the same that have animated the bosoms of all those whom the world' agree in calling patriots, from the beginning of oppression to the present time. The disposition to defend our homes and property, besides being implanted in our bosoms as a law of our nature, indispensable to our self-protection, and even existence, in the world, seems to have been ordained by Providence also as the natural means by which the rapacity of tyrants should be punished. This, indeed, is the only protection ensured to industry and virtue — it constitutes the grand cement of society, and the main pillars of all government. This is the foundation of patriotism, which consists only in the defence of justly acquired rights against wrongful aggressions. In our case, the opinions of the world may indeed be various and fluctuating, till our rights become fairly understood, and the wrongs we have received as fairly developed. But should men of the intelligence to know, and the spirit to defend their rights, stand tamely still, and see those rights wrested from them, to be placed forever beyond their recovery, while hesitating to know whether the world will call their resistance patriotism or rebellion? It is not the name of patriot that I seek, or that of rebel or outlaw that I fear. It is results I am aiming to accomplish, and I will never rest, nor cease my exertions, till our heaven-favored cause shall triumph,

and these rapacious intruders shall be driven from our soil, Could you have witnessed, as I have, the dismay, want, and suffering, which these grasping and shameless tyrants have occa sioned in this settlement here, whole families turned from their houses in the midst of winter, with no human habitation within miles of them to flee to for refuge and shelter there, property,

acquired through the severest of toil, hardship, and privation, wantonly destroyed, houses set on fire and consumed to prevent the return of the owners and then again, females abused, and even the sick roughly ejected, and left to perish miserably in the night air, or storm, for all these ruthless aggressors could know could you have witnessed all this, you would not be surprised at the exasperated feelings of our people, or the indomitable spirit with which they have persevered in that cause, which brought you, till lately a stranger to our wrongs, among us to aid in sustaining. My personal interest, I know, suffers in consequence of devoting so much of my time to the service of the public. Indeed, I have, in common with my chivalrous superior, Colonel Ethan Allen, almost wholly neglected my own concerns, while guarding the interests of others. Even now I am the owner of a large tract of land on the borders of Champlain, a part of which, as I have lately been apprised, has been for several years in possession of one of the York patentees, while my duties nearer home have prevented me from ever looking after it, or taking, since making this discovery, any steps towards dispossessing the intruder."

"But you surely will neglect it no longer," observed the other; "since we are going into the vicinity, and on similar business ?” "We will consider the case after we have righted the wrongs of the houseless settlers at the Lower Falls, and fulfilled the other objects of our mission into this region. But let us drop this exciting subject for to-night, that we may obtain a little rest to prepare us for the duties of to-morrow,” replied Warrington, now rising to make such scanty preparations as might be required for their repose.

The two friends, after barricading the door, and spreading their blankets before the small fire they had kindled on entering the house, now laid down to repose on the floor, which to the hardy and tired woodsman is generally more grateful than beds of the softest down to the pampered sons of luxury and ease. Selden was soon lost in slumber. But his companion, whose mind was oppressed with more weighty cares, and whose feelings had become somewhat excited in recounting the wrongs of his countrymen,

courted the drowsy god in vain. And these causes, together with his attempts to account for the absence of the family, for whose safety he was not wholly without apprehensions, continuing for some time to render all his endeavors to sleep useless, he arose, unbarred the door, and, without waking his more fortunate companion, went out into the open air to try the effect of the cool breath of heaven in allaying the excitement of his feelings, and disposing him to slumber. The night still continued bright and lovely. Abroad, nature seemed sunk in death-like repose; while the deep and solemn silence that pervaded the wilderness, was broken only by the low, but far-sounding hoot of the sylvan watchman of the night, or the voices of the inhabitants of the neighboring pools, who were straining their tiny throats, in notes of seeming joy and jubilee at their recent release from a wintry thraldom. While contemplating the scene around him, and indulging in the moody reverie which the circumstances were calculated to create in the mind, the young outlaw unconsciously wandered nearly to the bank of the river, which was still bordered by a strip of forest, extending from the water back almost to the house. Here, leaning against the trunk of a large tree, which some heavy wind had broken off about twenty feet from the ground, he stood some minutes looking listlessly down upon the placid waters, as, sparkling, in the moonlight that struggled through the trees above, they moved ceaselessly along on their journey to the deep. Now his attention would become riveted for a moment on some light float of wood sweeping by in the noiseless current. And now he would turn a half listening ear to the sportive plunges of the otter, here once found in such numbers as to have naturally suggested to the hunters who first visited this stream the name which it bears. His meditations, however, were at length interrupted by some indistinct, and at first scarcely audible sounds, the nature of which he was for some time wholly unable to determine. At last, however, he became satisfied it could be no other than the distinct murmur of human voices; but from what quarter it came he was still unable to decide. He listened intently; and now the sounds became more distinct. Presently they began to swell on the air in the low, melodious voice of a female chanting a tune, which, though not recently heard by him, struck nevertheless familiarly on his ear, awakening in his mind reminiscences of persons, time, and place, which formerly occupied a prominent space among the objects of his peculiar interest, but which, in the cares and turmoils of the last few years, had been almost forgotten. Starting as from a trance,

he rallied his doubting senses, and made another effort to ascertain whence this mysterious music could proceed, but with no better success than before. Sometimes the sounds seemed to come from the earth, or some subterraneous cavern far beneath his feet. At other times the liquid notes appeared floating high in the heavens above. He now took another position, several paces distant from the one first occupied, to see whether any variation would thus be produced in the sounds. Here, however, they were scarcely audible. Several other new positions were then tried, but all with the same success; and he returned to the tree where he was standing when his attention was first arrested by these unaccountable sounds. Here he again tasked his powers of hearing to their utmost, when, to his increasing wonder, the same melodious notes fell upon his ear even more distinctly than before. Now, not only the tune seemed familiar to him, but there was something in the voice likewise which his bewildered senses seemed to recognize—something that seemed to touch a chord in his bosom that had never vibrated save under the sweet intonations of one whose words even were once music to his ears but still one, to heighten his perplexity, who, though her residence had long been unknown to him, could not yet be, he felt assured, within a hundred miles of this spot. Curiosity, surprise, and wonder had now raised his feelings to a pitch of almost frantic excitement. And, without scarcely knowing why, he struck his clenched fist two or three times heavily against the tree, which seemed so strangely the conductor of the sounds in question. A deep, hollow reverberation, indicating a large and extended cavity within, was apparently the only effect produced by the blows. On applying his ear once more, however, he found that the singing had ceased; and every sound was now hushed in silence. He listened awhile with suspended breath, in expectation of hearing the music resumed. But he listened in vain. He then renewed the experiment of listening from other positions; but being again unsuccessful, he returned to the tree, and fell to beating it again, in the absurd fancy that, if there had been any connection between his blows and the ceasing of the sounds, the same operation which had caused them to cease might revive them, though deeming it, at the same time, an utter impossibility that the cavity within the trunk could contain the invisible songstress. All his efforts, however, to gain a clue to the mystery proved wholly fruitless, and, after lingering some time near this spot of seeming enchantment, he slowly wandered back to the house, deeply pondering over the singular and incomprehensible

incident which had attended his nocturnal ramble. Was it within the bounds of possibility, he asked himself, that the person, the once loved and lost one, whose voice these mysterious notes so much resembled, could now be in this almost uninhabited wilderness? No, no! What other female, then, capable of such execution, could be near at such an hour of the night? Surely none ! Was it not, then, a human voice that he had heard? Was it the voice of an angel, of "visits few and far between," floating high in the heavens, and hymning the stars? What had he done to deserve such special revealment? Or was it, as the traditions of the superstitious would inculcate, the voice of a departing spirit, permitted to break on the ear of a distant friend at the instant of departure, for the purpose of apprising him of its exit from earth, or warning him of his own dissolution? Or was it not far more probable, he said, with an effort to shake off these intruding fancies, that his senses had deceived him; and that, after all, the whole was but the work of an over-excited imagination? It must have been so. And, as if determined to satisfy himself with this last solution of the subject, since he could hit upon no other which reason would not sooner reject, he quickened his pace, and, like one resolved to end a perplexing enquiry by the best argument he can give, and call it conclusive, bustled forward, now whistling a tune, or now affecting to run over to himself the intended business of to-morrow, till he had reached the house, secured the door, and thrown himself down beside his still insensible companion, when exhausted nature soon closed the scene in a profound slumber.