“‘Are they ladies?’ I asked.
“‘Ay, and dear good sisterly girls at that,’ he answered.
“My savage nature rather rebelled against the society of ladies, Ben; bears and wolves were more in my line. But I could not offend my kind friend, so consented to go.
“‘We’ll take it easy,’ he said, ‘and have a look at the land as we go south.’
“We did take it easy. We visited all the lovely and enchanting scenery of the Adirondacks, then went slowly south and west; we lingered for weeks in the Yellowstone Park. It was summer, all the woods and forests were astir with life, the prairies gay with gorgeous flowers; there was joy all around us; we drank in health in every breath we breathed.
“I felt myself no longer an invalid when we arrived at the home of my captain’s cousins, an old-fashioned log mansion, with verandahs and porticoes around which gigantic creepers flower-laden trailed and twined, and cooled the sun’s rays that sifted through their leaves, ere they entered the beautifully-furnished rooms. There were wide, grassy, park-like lawns, terraces, and fountains, and everything that wealth could bestow or luxury suggest adorned this lovely spot. The owner was a retired planter. His servants were still slaves, but the master was kindness itself to even the meanest of them.
“I would now fain have resumed my old life, and gone with rod or gun in hand to the forest, the mountain, and stream. But I was not to be permitted to do so. I must still consider myself an invalid. Such were the orders of my captain’s cousins. So I became a willing captive, and did all that the dear kind-hearted girls told me.
“And, indeed, sitting under the shade of a cool and leafy orange-tree, the air perfumed with its delightful scent, with Letitia quietly sewing beside me, and Miriam reading ‘The Lady of the Lake,’ was as good a way, Ben, of passing a drowsy summer’s afternoon as any I ever tried.”
“Didn’t you fall in love?” asked Ben slyly.
“Don’t ask any questions,” I replied. “Stir the fire, my boy; just hear how the wind is roaring, and the hail rattling against the panes.”