little lakes near this very place in his canoe, burning pitch-pine knots on the prow for the very purpose of bringing the deer to him, and now one comes when he would have preferred to have it anywhere else. The pleasure and keenness of the hunter all but overcame his prudence, for his fingers tingled with the desire of bringing those noble six-tined antlers to the ground; but merely giving a side motion he alarmed the creature, so that it ran past the place where the Indians lay. They both sprang up with an alacrity little short of the deer himself, rushing after him with an agility not surprising to one who knew their habits and modes of life. Their natural love of sport, and their appetite made keen by a whole day's travel, caused them to forget for the time the captive they had been watching over with so much assiduity all the night.

Martin felt that now was his time, and had already moved a few steps forward to seize the trembling maiden, who was herself in motion to rush, she knew not whither, when there stepped out from the dark cover a new actor in the scene, who placed himself before her, saying, with some excitement in his voice and manner, bending at same time on his right knee, as he seized her hand, "Dearest Margaret, I have fulfilled my promise made a year ago."

The lady drew her hand from the grasp of the intruder, as if she had been stung by a snake, and darted to the other side of the fire with the fleetness of the deer that had just passed that way. At the same time she gave a scream which echoed and reëchoed, among the rocks and hills, till it seemed as if a hundred captive damsels were shrieking to their friends for deliverance. She would have rushed on, but now the man, who had been put aside so easily, rushed with an equal ardor, exclaiming, "For the love of God, Miss do not go further or you will fall over the shelf and be dashed to pieces."

By this time he had hold of the exhausted girl, who gasped out, "O, why did I not know that I was so near to liberty, one leap and-and all would have been over. Let me go, touch me not with that foul hand; and if you will not, tell me why I am brought hither-for now I see who has been the cause of this wicked treachery. Let me die."

"Miss Margaret, you do me wrong, if you suppose that you are here through any desire to

injure you. I mean the best that man can do for woman; and if you be patient and calm, you will hear it all."

"No, I will not listen to your false tongue;" and with that she shook herself free of the hold of him who stood before the angry girl, as Martin had seen a strong dog, who having encountered a wild cat, is fain to stand off at a respectable distance, watching for a retreat. Abashed at the charge of treachery, yet mad at the epithet false, and afraid lest by some sudden movement the excited woman should rush into destruction, the man stood more like a culprit, than as the director in some daring enterprise, which had doubtless required great tact and decision to bring it to its present crisis. Some new occurrence, it was evident, might disappoint him in his plans. He had succeeded in his end so far; but he was utterly at a loss to know what to do with the prize for which he had played so high a part, up to this time. Martin seeing this, was measuring the distance between himself and the traitor-for so he already regarded the man who was so named by the lady -that he might disable him and then fall upon him; but it was too late, for there were the two Indians returning, and three against two, and one of these only a feeble girl, was an unequal combat.

"Away from my sight, hateful wretch," was the exclamation of the enraged girl, once more uttered, as the man approached nearer to take hold of her hand: "Leave me to these savages their presence is more agreeable to my eyes than the man who violates his honor as a gentleman, and his duty as a soldier."

It was now the turn of the man to show excited passion. The veins of his brow became swollen like cords, and his nostrils became wide as a war horse, when spurred to resistance, but with great effort suppressing his feelings, he said with trembling lips.

"My lady, urge me not to do what we both shall eternally regret, remember you are in my power at this moment."

motions, that the eyes of her captor for a moment were turned in the same direction as if in fear. “Kiskataam, Kiskataam, I throw myself under your protection. I will pardon all you have done and said to me, I will obtain you pardon and a reward from my father, if you only save me now from the company of that traitorous man. Clifford I hold you in scorn, and the daughter of an English soldier will bestow naught else on a a coward who has betrayed his friend, and would now spoil the peace of the family where he has been nursed, and confided in from boyhood. Oh, Bertram, why do you not come to me!"

With this effort, which was too much for her the excited lady sank down helpless on the ground presently she was lifted by her tormentor, as he would have lifted a child, and placed on the bed of laurel which had been prepared for her. As he laid her down, Martin saw that the man put out his lips as if he could have imprinted a kiss on the pale brow, but the weakened woman gained new strength at this insult offered to her modesty, and struck up her hand with such force that the insulter staggered back a step or two, while the poor captive hid her face and sobbed like an infant, calling out, "Oh, mother! mother! come to me."

The eyes of the inactive spectator melted at what met his senses, and groaning in his spirit, he longed again for Elsie. Then he set about imagining what would have been his own feelings had it been his own daughter who was going through such an ordeal as he now was witness to. "Ha!" said he to himself, "I only wish that the hand which smote that rascallious cheek had been as heavy as Elshie's. He would feel it warm now, and remember Pine Orchard to the end of his life. But, there now, these savages are skinning that deer, which fairly belonged to me; and which, if my heart tells me true, they shall not live to eat. Three shots in Peg would settle the question; but, unlike the Pegs of the Yankees, mine, like Anshela, can speak but once at a time, and I am slow at loading."

Apart from the place where the bower and the fire were built, the red men were busy skinning the deer which they had succeeded in killing; while the man who had appeared so suddenly, stood as sentinel near the lady. There was great nervousness displayed in his movements at times, and an uncertainty in his step, which could not be hidden

from any observer. All at once he came fore-1 to the side of the prostrate captive, calling urt a full name which Martin did not catch. "I izve a plan, Margaret, that I will lay before you, a* : choose."

"Kiskataam! Kiskataam!" was again skreked out by the feeble prisoner, with a vehemence whi brought to her that sedate chieftain, who, bike .. of his race, was not easily thrown from his selfpossession; "Indian, take me under your care Have pity on a poor helpless girl, take me back to the river, I will find my way to the ship. Go«£ Kiskataam, you have had young squaws of yr own forced away by the Senecas, and they were returned to you. You told me of them when yo sat beside me in the big canoe. Take me tok The red soldier will make you king of the S.x Nations if you release his daughter."

The Indian rose to his full height, showing more emotion than common in his countenance ard voice as he slowly said, "Does the Panther barg pity when he has the Fawn in his mouth ?"

There was evident bitterness in his words. Why should the Fawn seek pity from the Panther when the Lion has come to her protection?

"The Fawn, as you have been pleased to call me, would rather trust the Panther than the Well. The Lion I would trust. Alas! that I should see any bearing the emblem of the lion, becom g more cruel than the cowardly dog."

This last was said in an undertone which ev dently was intended for the one who took it up n anger, which shot from his eyes in flashes of revenge.

"The Lion," continued the Indian, "wod raise the Fawn in his hall of greatness."

"And then give me over to be devoured by the wolves. No, Indian, protect me or not, as you please; but hear me, I would rather have my pour body destroyed by the meanest reptile that lives in these wilds, than to be possessed for an hour by the Lucifer who has betrayed his friend."

The man, whom we shall henceforth call Chif ford, has stood with his arms folded during the conversation, wishing to be regarded as calm, but this last stroke made him turn himself aside as if he felt afraid of showing his feelings of growing passion.

“Indian has a beautiful wigwam," said Kiska taam, when he saw that the white man had moved out of earshot-"Indian built it for his squaw,

that would come from the rising to the setting sun. Wigwam beside the clear lake where the trees grow thick, and the leaves shine in the glittering light. The Fawn would hide in the darkest spot. Kiskataam would bring the flowers of the cloves to deck her hair, and the softest skins for her bed." The astonished lady could scarcely believe but that the whole was a dream, and her amazement was so great, that she could not make any reply otherwise than by her looks, which the quick perception of this other tormentor easily interpreted; whether he was sincere or not in his daring proposition will never be fully proven; but in the present instance turning his fawning tones into keen sarcasm he continued:

"Has not the Fawn said she wished to run upon the mountains, and along the streams that flow down their feet? Did she not sigh to see the brooks, that blue eyes never looked into until her own gazed therein, as she said the first squaw did in the white man's paradise."

"Oh! distress me not with my romantic folly. All was beautiful in fancy, but it is terrible in reality. Sad is my fate. The victim of both the red and the white man."

"But the Fawn has not yet seen the place where the milk-white deer run tame, led by the young squaws to the wigwam door. She has not fed the young eaglets fluttering in their nest. There are bird-songs too in the forest that the Fawn would love to hear. Soft skins of the bear and the beaver, of the fox and the catamount, which Kiskataam has tanned with his own hand. On these would the Fawn sleep, and dream; she would forget her troubles, and not be afraid of the Wild Wolf any more."

The Indian began this long description in the uncertain tones of half-reproach, but ended in the soft mellow sounds with which his race speak in their times of sadness or of entreaty. Nature is imitated by them, and is successful at times in

evil.

“Kiskataam," said the enraged lady, "do you mean what your words imply? Have you stolen me away for yourself or for another? Come forward Clifford, and tell me whether you mean me to be the wife of an English soldier or the squaw of an Indian chief? for it seems I must choose between being in Howard Castle, or plant corn beside the Susquehanna. Clifford ! Clifford !" and the rocks rang with the sound of his name. He was at her side in an instant.

66

"I was," said the lady, "a moment since ready to have trusted the Indian rather than you. I confide in none of you. Your minion there seeks to present a separate suit of his own. He is as mean as some white men are, and betrays his friend by seeking to carry off the victim."

By this time the two associates in guilt were confronting each other, with those looks of hate which traitors put on when found out. So long as each of these caitiffs could make an instrument of his companion, in accomplishing a selfish end, blandness and generousness were the features of their intercourse; but now the disguise had fallen, at least from the Indian, and the man Clifford felt mortified at being made the dupe of one he called a barbarian. With his ears still ringing of treachery, charged upon him by one that seemed fully to know him, and who so defied him, he was in no mood to take an insult from any third person. He was only too glad to find one object on whom to wreak his vengeance.

"You Indian dog!" was the first word he could utter in quivering passion through his teeth. "How dare you come between me and mine. Have I not pledged my word to pay you?"

Here Clifford stopped short suddenly, seeing that the lady was watching the coming word. She felt that she had gained a point in setting her two enemies against each other. Whoever lost, she could be in no worse hands; so rousing herself up, she stood prepared for the smallest chance of escape; and also, for knowing all that concerned herself. But the suppressed sentence which would have revealed something was lost; and the burst of passion ended as it began, with "Indian dog!" Clifford was choked with rage.

"English fox hold his nose to the ground," was the bitter retort of Kiskataam. At the same moment he was handling his tomahawk, which hung at his girdle, in rather a sinister manner. The Englishman showed nothing of the coward, but the sight seemed rather to swell him out to larger dimensions; and, without even yet discovering that he had any weapons of defence about him, he stepped up nearer to the red man, demanding the object of this show of fight.

"Does the Indian chief seek war? Blood is sweet to the Panther just now. Would he fondle the Fawn? would he carry her to the beautiful lake away by the Susquehanna ?"

All of this was uttered in that mingled bitterness of sarcasm and anger which the English peo

ple know so well how to give to any enemy when they wish to provoke him to do a desperate act. "The Panther loves to worry the Wolf," was the no less determined reply of the Indian, who stood his ground with equal courage to the other; and Martin, watching the result with an almost breathless interest, bent over the whole scene, without thinking for a moment that were his presence known, it would turn the anger of both these men upon himself. The lady, with an equal interest, forgot her captivity, waiting for the crisis of the present affair.

"The Panther would worry the Wolf-ha! and lick the Fawn's blood at his leisure: a dainty meal! He must fight first with long teeth. The Wolf, as you would have me to be, has got snapping jaws;" and with that the click of a large pistol was heard in the hand of Clifford; nor was his crest in the least degree, at this moment, like the wolf, but terrible as a real soldier appears in the time of danger.

Kiskataam seemed undecided, but it was not the indecision of fear, for his eyes glanced fire, though not a muscle of his face seemed to move, except in that nervous rapidity which is more like the stream of electric fire that runs over a cloud before the storm breaks, making the beholder wait timorously for the glancing lightning and the report, than anything in human action. The true savage stood with hand on the tomahawk, watching the eye of his opponent, and wheeling in a twinkling, he hurled the weapon in the direction of the lady, grazing her head, so that the knot which held her hair was cut asunder; but passing her, it lodged in the tree against which Martin was leaning, and by which he was watching the transaction so near to him.

The occurrence was the doing of a moment. All, with the exception of the actors, were confounded; and by the time they had recovered from their surprise, an event was taking place which diverted the attention from the design of the Indian.

CHAPTER III. A HARVEST FEAST.
"If Roger is my Joe, he kens himsel'
For sic a tale I never heard him tell,

He glowers and sighs, and I can guess the cause,
But wha's obliged to guess his hums and haws,
When'er he likes to tell his mind mair plain,
I'll tell him frankly, ne'er to do't again."
-Ramsay's Patie and Rogers.

ELSIE SCHUYLER was an only child, a rare thr among the Holland Dutch, which rendered t more the companion of her father than she wo otherwise have been, had he had sons to bring and lean upon in his old age. Of strong will. clear mind, and a pious spirit, her actions were prompt and fearless, as her father's were slow and uncertain. With his daughter beside him, Man 1 seemed as if her soul stirred and moved his Lo.7. He thought immediately as she did, and with all his strength he set to the fulfilling her desire. Y he never would have understood the man w: would have ventured to tell him he had no mind of his own, nor could Elsie have known anything of controlling the action of her parent.

In truth, even with her strong will, she had been all her life under great moral restraint. Her ed cation would have been regarded as deficient a New York; but such as it was, the grand end all education was gained by her in prudent se control, rapidity of thought in times of emergeres, and fearlessness of action when danger required to be met. All of these essential elements were the result of training, which had no plan in it, but grew out of the nature and habit of the worthy parents, who taught her the usual course of reading in the Bible and the learning of the real orthod.x Heidelburgh Catechism. Though she spoke the vernacular low Dutch of the region where she lived, yet it was the ambition of the parents that their daughter should also speak the English tongue, and she was accordingly sent to a schoo where the English Bible and other books were read. This, as she grew up, was of immense advantage to her on account of the intercourse she could have with other parts of the colony, where more could be learned than on the sides of the mountains. Elsie had every year since she was sixteen paid an annual visit to her friends Albany, and even New York; for the Schuylers and the Van Cortlandts were not too proud to have their country cousins visit them in the citres, when they had such fine opportunities of returning these courtesies among the hills and the vales of the Kaatskills.

It was in this school that the daughter of Martin Schuyler was fitted for life in any home where Providence might place her, though it suited the plan of both father and mother better, that some of the young farmers of the region should come in and be a son to them in their old age. There

were many qualities in Elsie which other circumstances would have developed, and she had already acquired habits of thought, of feeling, and of manners, which no new training could have possibly repressed. Her mind, and modes of thinking and acting, could have been polished to a superior power. She would have been more fascinating in her smile, softer in her voice, have had a smoother rhythm in language, have trod the soil with a daintier tread, and moved around her father's house with less noise. But then the rocks and the hills were rough on which she stepped, and the doors, the painted floors, and the big jambs of those rooms, were not after city patterns. It was rather the house of the Boerman than the palace of the Stadtholder of Amsterdam, that Martin had lived so long in, and where Elsie had been brought up. She was a true-hearted young woman, who had neither been allowed to waste her existence in the seclusion of a country life, where much ignorance and rudeness have so covered the genuine precious stone that its polish and beauty have never come out, nor had she been sent to the city and so ground down upon the wheel of fashion that not a streak of truth remained either on face or person. The man of the world possessed of tact and having an insight of human character, would have chosen her, like a learned lapidary, as a precious stone capable of the highest lustre, and had Martin seen his Elsie in the big halls of the Van Rensselaers, he would have wondered, after asking where that young vrow came from, to hear that she was the gem of his own mountain farm.

On the night of our history Elsie was down in the Bught-a peculiar piece of land which lies in a bend, or "bight" of the river-where there was a husking bee, which brought all the young people of the country together, from the West Camp to the Van Bergen patent. Fun and frolic were in full force. In the large sloped roof barn sat groups of lads and lassies, among bundles of corn stalks, out of which they were stripping the yellow treasure, and throwing it into bushel baskets, which some old men were removing as fast as they were filled. This active business did not hinder the tongues of all from going only as Dutch tongues can. But it would have defied the most learned philologist that ever studied at Babel to have followed that modern confusion. It was not the numbers, though there must have been a

hundred, nor was it the harsh guttural ughs that sounded underneath like the soughing of the wind in a storm, nor was it the sharp shots which flew so that the blood rose to the faces of some of both sexes, as red gleams pass between travelling clouds but it was all three, and in addition there was what no community in the broad continent can produce except on the North River, and only on the west side running for fifty miles, viz., a mixture of French, Low Dutch and German, so combined that it would have put either Frenchman Dutchman or German to utter confusion. It seemed literally as if jaw bones were thrown across the barn, till they struck against each other in the whirlwind which lifted them into the air.

. Still all was not uproar, and even that seeming confusion had nothing of the keen wiriness which other nations exhibit in their frolics when a man knocks his neighbor down through pure love of fun, when his over-good sweetness turns so suddenly into vinegar. Here and there among that busy throng were small quiet parties, who enjoyed themselves. Hearts were drawn nearer and lips followed, as a matter of course. Experience can sit anywhere, feeling composed and self-possessed, while the vulgar mind is sure to be attracted by the least sound or sight which may occur outside of themselves. "Ha ha! Jerry, are you there? Show your wrists to the folks here. What makes you look so red in the face, you spalpeen?"

"What should make me show my wrists any more than you an empty pocket. Mexican pillars can save a Sabbath-breaker's conscience. Ha! who is red in the face now?"

These rude allusions were made by two rough looking youths to some recent piccadilloes in which they had been both engaged, but the one having money could pay the fine imposed, while the other being poor, had to stand three hours in the stocks in front of the church door, a species of punishment which had been imported from the mother country, and which was regarded as a great disgrace. Sabbath-breaking is one of the crimes, no one is suffered to ride except to church only, "It shall be lawful for the Post, or any other person in his Majesty's service, or to bring a Physitian or Mydwife." Such is the law of the colony.

"Jerry had quite a crowd around him outside the kerke door, more than the Dominie had in