CHAPTEK XXVIII. 



TRIALS PREPARATIONS FOR THEM TRIAL OP THE FALCON- 

 OP NEVER MIND. 



PRECEPTOR. You will perceive I have come in time this 

 morning, and have been well repaid for my break-of-day 

 drive by the beauty of this bright opening of the dawn. 

 You have been giving fervid descriptions of your Western 

 scenery, and the dry air that enabled you to see distinctly 

 at distances that would require the aid of a telescope in a 

 less favored clime; but I think you will have to aknowledge 

 *hat even the grand prairie was never enveloped in a 

 purer, more odoriferous, ambient mantle than this. Your 

 Ohicago friend would be troubled to find any of those 

 deleterious vapors, that he thinks are always brooding on 

 '3ie ocean's shore, and if his eye is as quick for detecting 

 >eauty, as his palate is nice in discovering the exquisite 

 flavor of wines, as shown by his selection, he would be 

 greatly delighted at the prospect presented this morning. 

 Look at the sun rising from its waveless bed, making a 

 glowing pathway, a flooring of radiance glorious in its 

 brightness ! The vessels in the offing, which a few minutes 

 ago only caught the refulgence in their topmast sails, now 

 stand out in full relief, a pyramid of whiteness, contrasting 

 finely with the black pennon streaming from the passing 

 steamer. Notice the steamer that is lying by how the 

 smoke rises in a grand column, with a capital more grace- 

 ful in its curves than the fluted, acanthus-leaved glory 

 that crowns the elegant Corinthian shaft ! And when we 



