192 Kate OsboTjne. [April, 



were armed with needle and equipped with thimble, as though a general 

 charge upon the ranks of muslins and laces was about to be ordered. 

 An open book lay before Mr. Clinton, from which, it seemed, he had 

 been reading; but they were now engaged in earnest conversation, which, 

 from the hightened bloom on her cheek, and the lively light in her lus- 

 trous eye, seemed to interest Kate in an unusual degree* 

 — "But, jesting aside," said Mrs. Sinclair, as though in continuation of 

 some previous remark, " do you really mean to be understood, Mr. 

 Clinton, as saying that you would actually prefer for yourself a farming 

 life and agricultural pursuits to the professional career on which you 

 have just entered ?" 



" Such is precisely my meaning," said Clinton ; and, smiling a little 

 awkwardly, he added — " that is to say, were a suitable farm or planta- 

 tion within my control. But, since it so happens that the greater part 

 of my money-means has been spent in acquiring my education, collegiate 

 and professional, I might as well, perhaps, for all practical purposes, be 

 understood as expressiog an ideal sentiment rather than as sketching any 

 actual plan for my future years : for you know, Mrs. Sinclair, that farms 

 hereabout arc not "as cheap as dirt ! " 



The ladies' smiled at the young man's significant application of the 

 " low priced " proverb ; and, after a moment's hesitation from timidity, 

 Kate remarked — " But why deem it necessary, Mr. Clinton, to secure a 

 plantation on the Hudson ? Many young men, with but limited means, 

 though with a large capital of energy and industry, are yearly securing 

 for themselves handsome farms in our Great West, where lands are cheap, 

 and of unbounded fertility. I presume, nevertheless," she archly con- 

 tinued, " that the business of farming, with his plantation adjoining the 

 city of Troy, or of Boston, or of New York, would be quite attractive to 

 almost any disciple of Coke and Kent! " 



A hearty mellow laugh betokened the young lawyer's appreciation of 

 this delicate thrust at the fashionable folly of " fancy farming ; " and he, 

 good humoredly replied, " In truth. Miss Osborne, your sarcasm ii? keenly 

 pointed and well aimed ; and to the general count of your indictment I 

 can only plead ' guilty,' and throw myself on the mercy of the court 

 But, in extenuation of my fault, and for mitigation of my sentence, permit 

 me to state that my attachments are strongly linked to these historic 

 localities whose very legends have become classic. For, indeed, by its 

 connection with the leading acts of our revolutionary drama, the Hudson 

 with its mountain scenery, has been made as historic as the Ehine." 

 *' Certainly," said Kate, with a countenance a-glow, "there is much of 

 the picturesque and the beautiful in the rocky frame-work of the majestie 



