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meanwhile kept his stand unobserved, supposing the other had sprung some game at which he was endeavoring to obtain a favorable shot, continued, with a sort of listless curiosity, to watch his motions, till he had passed out of sight behind an intervening copswood of low firs, that thickly extended along the slope, some half dozen rods from the clearing. In a few moments, and as the former yet stood patiently listening for the report of the expected shot, the voice of a female, coming from the quarter to which his attention was directed, and uttering a slight cry, as of mingled surprise and alarm, reached his ear. The voice of the man was next heard in the earnest, though flurried tones of seeming entreaty, which appeared to be followed by a hasty movement towards the object addressed, and in a moment more a piercing shriek rose wildly from the spot. Grasping his rifle, and plunging into the thicket, Warrington bounded down the hill with the speed of a wild deer towards the scene; and in another instant the parties were revealed to his sight-a young lady of the most interesting exterior, with her hair loosened and falling in disorder over her neck and shoulders, and her flushed countenance eloquent with indignation and alarm, as with half averted face she struggled to free herself from the fellow, who, by a grasp of one hand on her garment, was endeavoring to detain her in her attempted flight. One glance at the victim of this rude assault sufficed to tell the unexpecting and astonished Warrington that the fair original of that picture, which had been so long engraven on his heart, was before him, requiring his instant aid and protection.

"Back! ruffian, back!" exclaimed he, as with levelled piece he rushed upon the soldier, who stood mute and confounded before so unlooked for an apparition; "back! I say. unhand the lady, or you die on the spot!"

Quailing beneath the stern and withering glances of the other, the abashed aggressor immediately relinquished his hold on the girl, and muttering a denial of any intentional wrong and a few curses at the interference of Warrington, shrunk away and disappeared in the woods.

66

"I am much indebted to you, sir," said the still agitated maiden, scarce audibly, her eyes timidly bent on the ground, as her protector now gently advanced to her side.

"Miss Hendee

said Warrington, hesitatingly, after an awkward silence of a moment; "do I not behold my former acquaintance, Miss Alma Hendee?"

"Mr. Howard!" exclaimed the girl, as with deep surprise she

now for the first time lifted her eyes to scan the features of her before unrecognized deliverer.

A slight flush passed over the face of the other, on hearing himself addressed by that name, and he opened his lips as if to correct his fair friend, but a second thought seemed to repress the expression of the first, and, quickly recovering from his hesitation, he observed, "I little thought to have met you here, Miss *Hendee. I could almost forgive the wretch who caused you this fright, since he has been the means of my meeting again with one whom I have never ceased to remember with pleasure. But you have companions near, surely?

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"No nearer than the house, from which I wandered down the run just now, and, tempted by these flowrets peeping up along the banks, extended my ramble, perhaps imprudently, thus far into the woods."

"And is this fair situation, then, your home the residence of your father?"

"Certainly, it is," replied Miss Hendee, resuming her natural cheerfulness; 66 why, surely, Mr. Howard, you did not suppose I had turned wood-nymph to wander in the forests, and house in the caves did you?

"I hardly knew what to think, for it never occurred to me that the father of Alma Hendee could be in possession of this beautiful opening."

"And why not, my dear sir? Why, we have been here these three years. And if we have not made the wilderness blossom like the rose, we have at least got so far as to make the rose blossom in the wilderness come, you shall attend me home, and see what a pretty flower-garden I have in progress."

"To the opening, at least," responded Warrington, obeying the motions of his fair companion.

"And now, sir,” resumed the latter gaily, as they proceeded on their way, "having answered your questions, let me be the catechist awhile, will you? And in the first place, from what cloud so opportunely dropped my gallant deliverer, just at the particular moment he was wanted?

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"I, too, am an inhabitant of the Green Mountain settlement, though not of this vicinity," answered the other; "and you see,' he continued, smilingly pointing to his rifle, "that my old propensities still hang about me; and for the present you must take this as an explanation of my wandering into this section of the country. I had just arrived at the border of the woods up

yonder, and was viewing your delightful situation, when your cries brought me to your side."

"I am half ashamed of the noise I made,” rejoined the lady, "and I presume it was unnecessary. He has occasionally been at our house; and how far he considered himself warranted on such an acquaintance to obtrude himself as he did, I know not. But being startled by the fellow's unexpected appearance, and uncertain, from his hesitating and equivocal manner, what might be the nature of the proposals, which he said he wished to make, and which at last he seemed determined I should stop to hear, I became much alarmed, I will confess; though I should feel excessively mortified to have any stir made about it. I hope you will not mention the affair to my father when we get home?” "Certainly not, if it is your wish that is, I would not, if I were to see him," replied Warrington, pausing, as they now came into the open field.

"But surely, sir, you will go to the house? My father will be very much pleased to renew his acquaintance with his Doctor Hunter, as he would always persist in calling you."

"Your kind invitation, believe me, Miss Hendee, is most gratefully received; but I think it would hardly be advisable for me at this time to accept it.”

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"And why not? so near, and not visit us? I know my father will be delighted to see you, and have you spend several days with us particularly so, I imagine, at the present time, when he is not without apprehensions of an attack from the Green Mountain Boys, as they call them. Why, did you know that a band of these men have, for several days past, been ravaging the settlement along Otter Creek, headed by that terrible fellow, Captain Warrington?

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"I heard," replied the other, confused and stammering at this unexpected question, and the commentary on his own character which he perceived it involved in the mind of his fair companion, "I heard that is, I was aware that the person you mention had come into this part of the country. But your father need be under no apprehensions on that account; "he continued, regaining his composure, "for I think I can very safely answer for Warrington, that neither he, nor any of his followers, shall ever disturb the father of Alma Hendee.'

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"You can! can you? But why couple my name so very oddly with that of this fearful man?—I do not fully comprehend I know there are two parties in this settlement, and I suppose he and his company pretend to be acting for the New Hampshire

party. Perhaps you belong to this party, and know him, and can influence him in our behalf? Oh! if you would! But come, do go to the house with me, and assure my father of this." "Not now another time—perhaps to-morrow, I may visit you that is if " and Warrington paused and hesitated, as if doubtful whether to proceed, while, with a waiting and wondering expression, the girl stood earnestly looking him in the face. "Miss Hendee," he at length resumed, somewhat pensively, 66 you left the place, which afforded me the pleasure of your acquaintance, unexpectedly, quite so to me. quite so to me. On my return, a day or two after our last interview, to my great disappointment, I found you were gone-whither, I was never able to discover." "We intended you no disrespect, however, Mr. Howard, in leaving thus unceremoniously," replied the girl, exchanging the free and cordial, for a more guarded and distant manner, as if she instinctively anticipated what was to follow. "My father, who as you was aware, had then become able to resume his journey, gained some information from a traveller, who called in your absence, which led him to determine on leaving the place the next morning. I certainly should have been happy at that time to see you again and apprise you of our departure.

"At that time," rejoined the other, catching the emphasis, and slowly, and with a tone of disappointment, repeating the expression, "at that time,”. and have Miss Hendee's feelings, then, changed since I last saw her?"

"I then esteemed you, Mr. Howard, much very much, indeed,” she evasively replied, looking down, while her fingers were busy in tearing a little flower that she had plucked by the way: "I thought highly of you - very; and I still know not why I should not regard you with the same respect."

66

Respect, my dear Miss Hendee, is a term that falls coldly on the ears of those who are looking, or at least hoping, for a warmer expression. You were sensible, were you not, that, at the time to which we have been alluding, I was cherishing for you a tenderer sentiment? "

"I had no right to understand so," tremulously replied the lovely listener, the quick heavings of whose bosom plainly told the tumult that had been awakened within; "you certainly made no professions that would warrant me in such a belief."

"Miss Hendee," resumed the other, after a pause, “you were, if I rightly understood your character, as I presume you are now, a frank and ingenuous girl. May I then not hope, that, in kindness

to me, you will give a frank answer to a question which I would ask you?”

"If a proper one.”

"If then a profession, which I intended to have made you, had opportunity been allowed, were to be made now, are there more obstacles now, than then, to prevent it being favorably received?”

She made no reply, and Warrington, stealing a glance at her averted face, perceived that her eyes were suffused with tears. "There is indeed, then, one between us," at length said the other sadly.

"There is," was the reply in a tone of regret, which should have satisfied even the monopolizing heart of a lover. But love with men, oftener than otherwise wholly blind to policy, is rarely content to rest satisfied with those indirect expressions and delicate intimations, which are a surer proof of its existence in the female heart than the most open declarations, and, absurdly craving more, is not unfrequently compelled to put up with less. It was thus with our lover as he rejoined

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May I not have the happiness to hear those lips declare that my affection has been in some measure reciprocated?"

Still there was no reply.

"Am I to understand," resumed Warrington, "that Miss Hendee has pledged her hand irrevocably? And can it be that she has pledged herself too for a union into which her heart can never enter?"

"What have I said, Mr. Howard," replied the girl, looking up with the air of offended pride, "to warrant such questions? With some, perhaps, I might not be slow to resent your intimation. And as it is," she continued with great dignity, "you will hold me excused, I trust, for declining to commune further on a subject, which should now be as uninteresting to you, as it is embarrassing, and even painful to me.”

"Surely, surely !`dearest lady, you cannot believe that I would intentionally offend?" said the disconcerted lover. "We will, however, dismiss this subject for the present, if so unpleasant." "For the present, and forever!"

"If it must be so and yet"

"No more, no more -I know not even that I have done right in listening to what you have already said, or remaining here so long. You will now receive my adieu, and excuse my immediate return."

"One moment yet - you will not deny me another interview ?"

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