THE ALLIS FAMILY. Mr. and Mrs. Allis lived away out West, on a broad prairie, where Mr. Allis was busily engaged in "making a farm." Perhaps some of my young readers, who have always been accustomed to see farms already "made," will not understand what I mean by "making a farm;" and I will try to tell them. First of all, let them try to fancy a large meadow, either perfectly... more...

RIGBY CORRESPONDENCE. [We are enabled, by the kindness of their possessor, to lay before our readers copies of the following characteristic letters from the well-known Richard Rigby, Esq., who was for so many years the leader of the Bedford party in the House of Commons. They were addressed to Robert Fitzgerald, Esq., a member of the House of Commons in Ireland, and Judge of the Court of Admiralty in... more...

CHAPTER I.—THE BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE. The time occupied by the events detailed in the three preceding chapters, had been passed by Antonio in a state of self-exile from his master's studio. Conscious of having disobeyed the earnest injunctions of Contarini, the weakness of his character withheld him alike from confessing his fault, and from encountering the penetrating gaze of the old painter.... more...

Under the title of Revolution of America, are comprised eight years of M. de Lafayette's life, from the commencement of 1771 until the end of 1784. His three voyages to the United States divide those eight years into three periods: 1777, 1778; 1779-1781; and 1782-1784.~[1] 1st. Circumstantial Memoirs, written for his friends after the peace of Versailles, and which were to have extended to 1780,... more...

On the Divide Near Rattlesnake Creek, on the side of a little draw stood Canute's shanty. North, east, south, stretched the level Nebraska plain of long rust-red grass that undulated constantly in the wind. To the west the ground was broken and rough, and a narrow strip of timber wound along the turbid, muddy little stream that had scarcely ambition enough to crawl over its black bottom. If it had... more...

CHAPTER ONE The Land and the Indian Among the motives for English colonization of America in the seventeenth century, the desire for free land occupied a prominent place. The availability of land in the New World appealed to all classes and ranks in Europe, particularly to the small landholder who sought to increase his landed estate and to the artisans and tenants who longed to enter the ranks of the... more...

ON COLOURING. How early, and to what extent, colouring may have attained the rank of science among the ancients, are questions not easily set at rest; but that some progress had been made, even at a very remote period, is proved by the magnificent tombs of the Egyptian kings at Thebes, where the walls of the royal mausoleum are described as being covered with paintings so fresh and perfect, as to... more...

LETTER I. THE MURDER. Washington, April 17. Some very deliberate and extraordinary movements were made by a handsome and extremely well-dressed young man in the city of Washington last Friday. At about half-past eleven o'clock A. M., this person, whose name is J. Wilkes Booth, by profession an actor, and recently engaged in oil speculations, sauntered into Ford's Theater, on Tenth, between E... more...

CHAPTER I THE FIRST ROUND OF THE LADDER NEW YORK, February 23, 1866. "Master Walter E. Stowe: "If you have not yet procured a situation, please call at my office, 45 Duane Street, and oblige. "Yours truly, "JNO. DERHAM,"Per T. E. D." This letter came to me in response to my application for a situation as an office-boy. I had replied to the advertisement in the Herald, without... more...

The Legend of the Bleeding-heart In days of old, when all things in the Wood had speech, there lived within its depths a lone Flax-spinner. She was a bent old creature, and ill to look upon, but all the tongues of all the forest leaves were ever kept a-wagging with the story of her kindly deeds. And even to this day they sometimes whisper low among themselves (because they fain would hold in mind so... more...