1^56.] Kate Oshorne. 



193 



Hudson ; much of the historic and the legendary in the associations con- 

 nected therewith. But, Mr. Clinton, if you would behold the mingled 

 beauty and grandeur of earth, you must gaze out upon the wide-rol?in<y 

 prairies of the West ; you must stand alone, like some sea-traversing 

 vessel, surrounded by those grassy oceans stretching away from horizon 

 to horizon, whose billowy undulations come rolling on, you know not 

 ■whence, and go rolling off, you know not whither— bearing on their 

 bosom an enchanting archipelago of timber-groves; and whose wavy 

 surface is clothed in a rich drapery of the softest verdure, and decked 

 with all the prismatic beauties of the floral world, that there beam, and 

 glow, and sparkle, like gems "of purest ray serene," yielded up to' sun- 

 light, from the unfathomed depths of fertility which those vast prairie- 

 oceans bear. Nor are they destitute of historic and legendary interest: 

 The frontier conflicts, the hidden ambush, the midnight attack, the 

 expert strategy, the heroic defense, the hand to hand struggles between 

 the savage and the civilized, for the possession of that ' promised land ' 

 of the Red Man, abound with all that is heroic in action or thrilline in 

 story ! " ^ 



Catching a glimpse of the admiring and self-forgetting gaze with 

 which Clinton was regarding her, Kate suddenly checked her°self ; and as 

 the thought of the enthusiasm, so unexpectedly kindled by her recol- 

 lection of her Western home, flashed through her mind, the lustrous light 

 in her kindling eye was veiled by a downcast lid, while the glow on her 

 cheek now mounted to temple and brow, and her fingers sought hasty 

 employment among the laces and lawns of her needle- work. 



Obsorving her niece's embarrassment, Mrs. Sinclair, smiling, remarked 

 that ' Kate is a zealous defender of the superior beauties of the West, 

 and hoped Mr. Clinton would excuse her enthusiasm.' 



The young man, roused from his absorption of thought by the widow's 

 remark, though but half comprehending its import, simply ejaculated, as 

 if to himself, " I must look upon that West ! " 



" Then I presume," said the widow, smiling archly, -that we shall in 

 due time, see 'Henry Clinton, Esquire, Attorney and Counsellor' at 

 Law, and Solicitor in Chancery,' converted into plain ' Farmer Clinton,' 

 holding, in fee-simple, houses, lands, tenements, and hereditaments (as I 

 believe you lawyers phrase it) on some such Western paradise as Kate's 

 fancy has just sketched before your imagination ! ' 



At this quiet sally of her aunt, Kate both blushed and smiled; but 

 the young man thoughtfully replied, -Indeed, Madam, nothing more 

 probable." 



Now, it must be known that this inclination of young Clinton's mind 



VOL. I., NO. IV. 13. 



