time came for her departure we were living in the most approved Yankee style, with a smell of salt-rising all through the house, while inodorous Bohea had superseded our good Dutch coffee and fragrant Hyson. I think a longing for my favorite beverages had something to do with my calmness in bidding them adieu. I am glad Scott has so capable a wife. I took no notice of his flirtations till I heard of his escorting the same lady twice in succession. Such a remarkable proceeding needed an explanation, and not being very well pleased with the lady's connections, I thought proper to inform him of the fact. The impulsive boy was already plighted, and was irretrievably offended at the liberty I had taken. Instead of hindering, I think I hastened the event. Perhaps I was too proud and not democratic enough, and so can forgive his hastiness, but can never forget the carelessness with which he rent the ties that bound us. A merry little fellow, with bright black eyes, Horace in miniature, sometimes salutes me as Aunty, from which I infer that he is not so proud of his wife's genealogy as to forget his own. As a rule there is no family without its pet, and ours formed no exception. From the time of Percy's babyhood, when his precious little life was prolonged from day to day by generous infusions of catnip tea, till the last of his sojourn at the homestead every member of the family felt it a privilege as well as a duty to devote themselves to his service. Absorbed as he was in the care of his health, and the study of his symptoms, I had never once thought of Jerry, whose name comes after Joe's in the his marrying, though we sometimes teased him family register, was the next to leave us. As about needing a husband. I think a sight of a genial companion, good counselor, and everScott's happiness, conjoined with the disgust he ready chaperon, he had so endeared himself entertained for our new sister's innovations, to me that the thought of separation was as he termed them, had much to do with his always exceedingly painful. So many years my falling in love at the first opportunity with her senior, I mingled with my sisterly regard a complete antithesis. A tall, graceful blonde, feeling of reverence, while the fondness he with easy, almost indolent manners, and fair, evinced for my society, the interest he took in curling hair, I should much rather have placed my pleasures and pursuits seemed more loverher in a niche in the parlor wall as a beautiful like than fraternal. I was not searching for statue than seen her wedded to our fragile defects when I met his bride. I had too exPercy and intrusted with the care of his flan-alted an opinion of his taste and judgment to nels. Often as I had winced at the prospect doubt her superiority. Then there never was of my older brothers curbing their high spirits an inanimate thing, a bird, or flower that he to bend to the yoke of a woman, I ought to cherished but what was endowed with a sacredhave been well pleased that Mrs. Percy was ness to me. The fact that she was his was not disposed to take the responsibility of tying entirely sufficient to exonerate her from critia shoe-lace without appealing to Mr. H. for cism. But I do not think a disinterested peradvice and assistance. I grew melancholy with son could find much to blame in the happy the expectation of his early decease, and nursed being whose fair form and face, superior mental a growing antipathy to his easy, amiable wife. charms, and warm, loving heart has robbed me Instead of a decline, he looked so strong and of my idol. You will, perhaps, think me unmanly at his last visit to us I could but wonder reasonable, then, when I say I do not like at the change. I am convinced that attending her, I have no pleasure in her society. If to his lady's wants has been good exercise for this brother, the best and truest a sister ever him, and it is quite probable that confining had, were taken from me by the angel of death, himself to beefsteak and substantials while she whose sympathy might I not claim? Then munches his dessert with her own has greatly when the endearments that are taken from me relieved his digestion. After all my misgivings and lavished upon another remind me as effectI am delighted with his choice, and am quite ually as falling clods could do that he is lost willing that he should trot himself to health to me forever, why should I be reconciled? in her service if I do n't have to see him do it. As brother Horace was likely to remain in his native place, I felt very much interested in the choice he would make of a companion, and thought that if sisterly advice could avail she should possess all the virtues a mortal can attain. A merry, mischief-loving fellow he was, immoderately fond of the fair from the time he wore dessus" and was a dirl hisself." So " It is almost impossible for two persons reared in an entirely-different manner, each with a different mode of doing and thinking, to assume so close a relationship without a sharp clash of opinions. It is this collision of likes and antipathies in a majority of cases that prevents sisterly affinities. But where the parties are too sensible, amiable, or indifferent to raise it, there is still left this natural feeling, which I do not like to call jealousy, but can find no better word coined to express. I think this feeling corresponds with the instinct of the mother bird, who pecks her full-fledged birdlings from the nest, and the indifference that brother and sister birdies feel when pussy has a feast and do n't disturb their mates. A dreadful doctrine you may deem it, faithful sister, weeping over what you term your brother's alienation. Be comforted; it is only for a state of probation. There is a country where they are neither married nor given in marriage, and of course there are no sisters-in-law. Your minister has always forgotten to hold up this bright prospect in his exhortations to faithfulness. He might not know that it was more to you than golden pavements, crystal streams, or heavenly symphonies. Or, perchance, he thinks the consolation afforded in the text better adapted to those whose solaces for lost companions so far exceed the supports at their disposal as to excite serious alarm at the prospect of a continued relation in heaven. It is this view of the matter which has restored my equanimity with regard to my brothers' marriages, and also enables me to bear with composure the approach of Ben's. Never before have I experienced so much tranquillity of mind and body on the eve of a brother's weddingday. I shall not be present on that interesting occasion. I flatter myself the apology so carefully worded will install me further into the bride's good graces than my presence could, while I shall save her the trouble of instituting a comparison between "my sister and his." I have not worked myself into a fever in the getting up of his linen. She will not think the less of me for a missing button if it calls out a compliment for her deftness at my expense. The homestead is in its usual order, the clock ticks with a soothing sound, the cat purrs undisturbed on the rug. The quiet of the house and the pleasure of its inmates is not disturbed by the din I have heretofore thought proper to raise in preparation for such an event. Working so hard in getting every thing in readiness for an occasion frequently brings on a reaction which renders us quite stupid and unable to enjoy it. Then if the viands are not prepared till they are really needed, they will not only be fresher, but safe in my snug little pantry. I shall be secure from the sound of billing and cooing so delightful to the newlymated, so aggravating to the non-participant. I hope the sisterhood may be able to glean something for their comfort from my experience. To the brothers I would say, Let not the joy of a new relation render you quite oblivious to the good qualities of your sister; and if they have them they will impress themselves upon the mind of your bride without your assistance. Give her the same chance to show hers, and whatever may be the result your conscience is clear. I presume young wives will consider this a one-sided version, and be glad of a chapter devoted to husbands' sisters. I do not wish to become any more conversant with the subject than I am, and if I should enlarge my experience I should probably never find time to give it. I have had too many bright glimpses of connubial bliss to forego matrimony at the prospect of a new sister-in-law or a whole half dozen of them, but I confess to a partial feeling for nice, black-eyed men who have n't any sisters-poor fellows! SHADOWS. BY ELECTA L. DE WOLF. THE day has passed to other lands, FRONTIER SKETCHES. BY REV. WILLIAM GRAHAM, A. M. INDIAN CAMPS. language and were of the same original stock. There were also other reasons for this coldness between those who were jointly to occupy the country. The new-comers could not congratulate their old friends on the fortunateness of WHEN the Choctaws were removed by the the change they had made, for the new country Government from their country east of the Mississippi River to their new homes in the Indian Territory, portions of them remained behind. The majority of the tribe had been induced to emigrate for the consideration of annuities paid them for their possessions in the country left, with some other advantages promised, and the assurance that the new lands were superior to the old ones. A considerable number, however, under the leadership of some semi-sachems, were less tractable, and clung to the land which had given them birth, and which was endeared to them by a thousand associations, both pleasant and melancholy. For generations past this and other Indian tribes had ceased to be nomadic and wandering, and, although they delighted in the wilds of unbroken forests and roved over wide districts of country in their periodical hunting excursions, yet they had their villages and their homes along the streams to which they are fondly attached. To these they returned from their hunts and their wars with all the local feelings of home common to a more civilized people. These local tribes formed a connecting link between the roving tribes of the plains, and the pioneer white settlers who pushed their way into the primal forests of the frontier. Had the Government incorporated these peaceable aboriginals with the people of the States in which their country was situated, established schools among them, and extended the rights of citizenship to them, no one can doubt that their condition would have been greatly improved. In this way they would have been brought under the immediate influence of Christian civilization, would have been incited to emulation in the industrial pursuits of life, and gradually but surely their aboriginal customs and habits would have been displaced by those of civilized life. Most of those, however, who at first refused to accompany their brethren to their new homes in the far West were afterward induced to emigrate. Some six hundred of these laggards were brought into the territory while I was stationed at the New Hope Mission and camped in the vicinity of the Agency. Their arrival was marked by no mutual greetings between them and those who had preceded them to the country; many years of separation had made them strangers, though they spoke the same was every way inferior to that which they had left behind; nor could their friends welcome them to the new possessions with any heart, for they sadly felt that the exchange was for the worse. They seemed to regard them rather as intruders, who had come to witness and share the sufferings of their unfavorable change of fortune. The Indians of large tribes are divided not only into districts over which a chief presides, but also into smaller communities under the leadership of petty chieftains, each community managing its own local affairs. It was such separate communities generally which at first refused to emigrate with the main body of their tribe. Had the loiterers behind been composed of persons from different communities there would have been the mutual greetings of old friends and the renewing of former associations on their arrival; but it was otherwise, and the new-comers were more like a foreign tribe than a part of the same original one. And there was still another difference between the two parties. The new-comers were behind their old friends in civilization and general improvement. They had lived on less friendly terms with their white neighbors in Mississippi, whom they suspected of fraudulent intentions to gain possession of their lands, and from whom they lived aloof in sullen isolation; while, on the other hand, the new nation settled in the Territory had organized a representative government, and their school funds had secured for them considerable progress in education and general improvement. On this account, also, there was but little cordiality and good feeling between the old and new settlers in the Territory. The Government had stipulated to supply the recent emigrants with stated rations of beef, cornmeal, and beans for one year after their arrival, so that they might not suffer or plunder before they could prepare themselves homes and the means of subsistence. But with the usual Indian improvidence, instead of scattering and building cabins and opening farms, as they had been advised to do, most of them remained in camps within a short distance of each other. An Indian seems to have but little concern for the future, and with present supplies he literally "takes no thought for the morrow what he shall eat, or what he shall drink, or wherewithal he shall be clothed." Besides, finding the country so much less of a paradise than it had been represented to them, and their brethren less cordial and less prosperous than they had been told they should find them, they seemed to have no hearts to make homes among them. Indeed, a few of them, in spite of all remonstrances against it, turned their backs upon their brethren and their faces toward the rising sun, and took up the line of solitary march back to their cherished homes east of the great water. The poor Indian's fate is a sad and melancholy one, and with all his faults and savage cruelty his history will excite the sympathies of Christian hearts more and more as he wastes away and loses his distinctiveness, like the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians under the Aztecs and the Incas. The new camps had each its separate leader, and those who composed them had arranged themselves in the separate divisions according to their temper and character. One camp was almost entirely composed of religious persons; their leader or semi-sachem was a venerablelooking, gray-haired sire, who had a written license as a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He kept the paper in a tin box, and, though he was unable to read it, he was fond of exhibiting it to every white man who visited him, and he seemed to prize it above every thing else in his possession, and when told that it was all right he smiled, and tucked it away in its case with great care. He was reputed by his admirers to have been "much brave" in his vigorous days, and he was fond of telling that he "kill heap Injin" before he was converted. His palmy days, however, were gone, and he was now quite infirm. His camp was in sight of our mission, and he frequently attended our religious services on the Sabbath, but as they were conducted in English he could not enter into them freely. We treated him, however, with great attention and consideration, both on account of his great age and his religious character, and had him to dine with us, which abundantly made up in his feelings any lack of interest which he might have in our worship. He sometimes preached to his people, but mostly to his own camp, and even there he seemed to be superannuated. Having failed to attend our meetings for several weeks, I visited him in company with my wife one Saturday afternoon to stir up his pure mind by way of remembrance. He greeted us cordially, and hunted up his aged squaw by way of being equal with me. We had a pleasant "talk," mostly by signs, and I became greatly interested in this aged couple, who were about closing an eventful life far away from the graves of their ancestors and the homes of their youth. The younger members of the camp seemed greatly pleased at the respect shown their chieftain, but they were puzzled to understand why squaws should be made so conspicuous as to sit in council with us, especially as my wife seemed to take a very prominent part in the deliberations. I urged the old man to attend our meetings at New Hope, and also to preach Jesus to his people in the camps; but he shook his head despondingly, and said, "Injin no hear! Injin fool! Injin drink whisky! me no talk! me grow corn! heap beans!" The old patriarch had evidently become discouraged with the waywardness of his people, and was disposed to give them over to hardness of heart and reprobacy of mind. I tried to encourage him by telling him that Noah had preached a hundred and twenty years, and that he should preach while he lived, leaving results with God, but I doubt whether I made him understand me. However, he was at our meeting the next day. Another of these camps was a little over a mile from the mission; they were in the main well disposed, and some among them were religious. A third was only about half a mile from us, and was made up of perfect desperadoes, wholly given up to drinking, carousing, and fighting. They were in continual feuds among themselves, and frequently managed to become embroiled with the other camps and the settlers in the neighborhood. Their annuities were spent for whisky, which was smuggled in from the State line, and fights and murders were of frequent occurrence among them. They were very unpleasant neighbors to us at the mission, disturbing our rest by night with their hideous yells, which rang through the woods with a shuddering fierceness. I was the only male person attached to the mission premises, and as I make no pretension to the daring hero, I may be allowed to confess that this tumultuous camp sometimes severely tried my nerves. The Grand Council had enacted very stringent laws for the protection of missionaries and missions, but it might be too late to enforce laws after a few hundred intoxicated savages had made a murderous assault upon a bevy of defenseless young girls, a lone man who was not a "brave," his wife, and an old negro woman. The "Light Horse." a mounted police, were our only dependence in an emergency, but these were few and inefficient for a sudden summons and emergency. A kind Providence, however, protected us, and beyond a few petty annoyances we were un- feelings, believing that such friendly expressions harmed. I have spoken of Indian camps, but the reader must not suppose that those referred to mean any thing more than a motely assemblage of men, women, and children grouped about under the trees, intermixed with ponies and dogs, women at their brush fires amid pots, ovens, and tin-pans, men lounging on blankets and smoking, and children in a state of nature scuffling, wrestling, and racing. Their shelters consisted of here and there a booth of brush walls and bark cover, a tattered blanket or buffalo robe suspended from forks stuck in the ground or fastened to poles and lodged against the trunks of trees. would be the best guarantee against disturbances in the future, and yet I dreaded the ide of having the camps know that our picketfence could be passed at liberty: for once I felt inclined to keep a sort of nunnery, so far as the neighboring camps were concerned. So I conducted our visitor to the wicket, assuring him that he would never be in any danger from the missionaries, they being kindly disposed to every body. Really I became interested in the fellow after my first indignation at his conduct was over, and I desired to be of some service to one who wore so honest-looking a countenance. After warning him against whisky as tending to make a good Indian a fool and lead shake of the hand, which was the pledge of eternal friendship. On returning to the mission one Summering him into dangers, we parted with a cordial evening after a jaunt through the woods, my attention was attracted by a confusion and clatter in one of the buildings. One of our One dark, stormy Winter morning I was neighbors from an adjacent camp, a good deal awakened from my slumbers about four o'clock the worse for whisky, was chasing a bevy of by a singular groaning, which seemed to progirls with their matron from room to room. ceed from beneath our room, the building As he pursued them through one door they standing on stone pillars several feet high. escaped by another, and as in his swagger- The moaning was intermitted at short intervals ing condition he had occasionally to stop in and renewed with increased loudness, and order to recover his balance, the girls could seemed to come from one in distress. It could easily keep out of his way. He seemed to be not be from any of the inmates of the in high glee, wondering, no doubt, what fairy- mission, for it was evidently a man's voice. I land he had so unexpectedly been introduced felt unwilling to awaken my wife lest she to in this new country. A moment before I should be unnecessarily alarmed, but I was got up with him he had been brought to a soon relieved by her calmly asking what I sudden halt by the locking of a door, and was thought the grunting moan to be. We waited vigorously applying his shoulder to push it and listened till we satisfied ourselves that it open. He could not comprehend why he should was a real voice of distress, and not a wellbe so summarily interfered with in his high feigned attempt to deceive us, such as these career, and he was disposed at first to resist wary red men sometimes practice. But who my authority. He was of a good-natured, was the sufferer? where was he? and how could sunny countenance, and but for his drams would we relieve him? were questions revolved in my hardly have been caught in such a place and mind. It must be some wandering red-skin at so mean a business. His dress was slovenly who had lost himself in the darkness of the but good, he was unarmed except with the night, and who had crawled under the house tomahawk, and a flask of whisky protruded its to shelter himself from the storm. But how neck from one of his pockets, much after the had he passed our picket inclosure? The fashion of civilized customs. The indispensable rain was descending in torrents, and the wind aunt Hetty was summoned as interpreter, and howled among the trees; the night was cold and our uninvited and unwelcome visitor was made uncommonly dark. I resolved on exploring acquainted with the character of the place and the mystery, and on extending such relief as the legal penalty he had incurred in disturbing the case might require. On sallying out I a mission. A full pardon was offered him, found that the voice came from outside of the however, on condition that he would depart fence, which passed near the house we were without delay and not molest us again. As lodging in, and there I found a poor fellow soon as he learned the facts his anxiety to crouched down in a sheet of standing water, leave was stronger than ours to have him go, his head on his knees, and the cold rain and the danger of falling into the hands of the sleet beating on his bare back. He was withnational police, who dealt very roughly with out a stitch of clothing except a pair of bucktheir prisoners, being very much dreaded. I skin leggins well saturated with water, his long wished to give him some evidence of our kind | black hair hanging down over his face, and the |