228 ^(^(e Oshorne. [May, 



At this moment the voice of song came fall and clear, and gladsome, 

 from a distant room within. The voice was Kate's — the song was Clin- 

 ton's. Both father and stranger remained silent to listen, till the gush- 

 ing solo ceased. Then the stranger brol^e the silence, by asking, " Whose 

 is that patch of wheat, kurnel, deown the road by the timber, yender ? " 

 " It's mine," replied the ' colonel' 



" Yeou don't say ! But dew yeou call it good farmin' eout here in 

 Illinois, to let four legged critters be in the wheat-field; jist afore har- 

 vest, tew ? " asked Mr. Quirk. 



"No, sir-ee," the colonel emphatically replied; "I don't allow any 

 such thing." 



" Wal, I swan to man, kurnel, I seen a boss in that patch of wheat 

 o'yeourn, as I came along," Mr. Quirk seriously affirmed. 



" xV horse in my wheat ! " exclaimed the Col, " zangs and blitzen ! " 

 (The colonel never swore ; never used profane language ; never ! The 

 first word meant nothing, and the last he merely quoted from the vocabu- 

 lary of his man Peter, and being in Dutch, he didn't know what it 

 ineant — so farmer Osborne never swore ; never ! ) And with this ejacu- 

 lation the colonel sprang from his easy-chair, and going to the end of 

 the porch, shouted repeatedly, ' here Cato ! here Bose ! ' which speedily 

 brought into his presence two fine-looking Newfoundlanders, whose 

 nooning nap' in the shade of the lilacs was thus as unceremoniously 

 disturbed, as their master's had been by the stranger's ' hillo, the house.' 

 Seeing his dogs eager, and anxiously looking for their work, the colonel 

 called out, " Here, Kirk, Derk, Quirk ; what's your name ! see here, take 

 these dogs and run down to the field, and chase that horse out, quick ! " 

 " No, thank yeou ; I'm much obleeged to you, kurnel for your perlite 

 invitation ; but the artickle aint signed yit," quietly remarked the 

 imperturbable Mr. Quirk. 



" Confound the lazy yankee, and his article ! when the article is signed 

 111 make him move his boots for this ! " muttered the colonel ; and, 

 jamming his broad-brimmed Panama down on his head, as if fixing for 

 a race, sallied out toward the field with his dogs to rescue his premium 

 crop of wheat from the trampling hoofs of some trespassing horse. 

 " Keft thus unceremoniously alone, Mr. Quirk's curiosity prompted him 

 to make an examination of the inner adornings of farmer Osborne's 

 cottage-mansion, and he accordingly walked deliberately through the 

 open doors into the colonel's handsome parlor ; for the Farmer was not 

 one to reject the decencies, nor to despise even the elegancies of household 

 arrangements ; and therein he took delight in gratifying his own and 

 his daughter's tastes. So ¥r. Quirk was surpribed, and stood quite still 



