Sea-gift: A Novel

In the one picture he would see wide-spreading fields, with waving, luxuriant crops, worked by throngs of joyous light-hearted negroes, who sing, in a resounding chorus, as they...

ONE would hardly recognize in the tall youth the little boy that cried so when called away from the party, but times and persons change a great deal in seven years. Ned Cheyleig...

WE were yet at the table when Reuben came in to announce that Mr. Bemby’s son had come. We went out to the porch, where he was sitting, his elbow on the railing, his chin on his...

FATHER and Lulie have been gone an hour; father on his way to Havana, Lulie returning to Wilmington. Frank and Ned have gone with them over to town. I am lying on a lounge in th...

AT last we were fairly inducted into college life, and commenced a regular routine of daily duties. Our room was pleasantly situated, and all our neighbors agreeable. As new vic...

“Oh, ever so much!” I replied, eagerly, watching his face closely, to see if he was in earnest. “Ned Cheyleigh began last session, and I can read and spell as well as he can now...

I HAD been disturbing the centre of gravity of our globe for nine years, and had grown up into a mischievous, fun-making urchin—always out of the way when wanted, and in the way...

THE morning is misty and damp, as father, mother, Carlotta, Lulie and I stand under the great shed at the dépôt, waiting for the car doors to be unlocked. It is very early, and...

The fall session had closed that afternoon, and we had gone up to Durham’s to take the night train. DeVare was going home with me, and would remain till the 3d December, when we...

AT the close of the second session it was proposed that we give a party. We held a meeting in the Academy, and elected a Committee of Management. These important and business tr...

IF my pen alone, dear reader, could direct the scenes which must be presented to your view in drawing near the close of my narrative, rest assured they should be pleasant. I wou...

FATHER awoke us by coming into our room with the lamp and telling us that Horace was waiting with the carriage. We were up and dressed by the time William had carried down our t...

OUR accident formed quite a subject of sensation in Saratoga, and, in a small way, I found myself the hero of the occasion, and scores of the “fellows” echoed Monte’s sentiments...

I CONCLUDED, after all, to go North. What if father, mother and Carlotta had travelled while I was studying in a quiet little village? I felt equal to them in learning, and reso...

THE Spring session opened with pleasant prospects for us all. I was conveniently situated for study, and resolved to make the most of my opportunity. The great college office in...

After a smoke I hurried over to Congress Hall and found Carlotta and Herrara Lola in the parlor. She was looking perfectly lovely in a morning dress of India muslin, and with he...

“John, I saw Cheyleigh in town to-day, and we have arranged all the matters about bringing up your sister, as I suppose you will call her, to live with us. Your mother and yours...

From the corn fields in the distance a trembling haze was continually rising, and I could hear the occasional song of the negroes, as they moved behind their plows slowly up and...

THE sun had not been up long when I reached the spring, and found the little boys already busy with their long-handled dippers. I gulped down a glass of the water, which is a ba...

“Oh, the morning air is so bracing, is it not?” she said, as we left the hotel; “it buoys one up so; I feel so light-hearted and free early in the morning; I am as airy as a fea...

THE session and a vacation in the mountains passed, I commenced my studies as a Sophomore, and under this new dignity fresh trials of my moral courage every day arose. I was con...

SEVERAL days have passed, and I am still in dreamland with Miss Carrover. I manage to attend recitations, but that is all. The tutor’s instructions fall on an inattentive ear, a...

THE sun shining into my eyes next morning awoke me, and turning over I heard the rattle and rub of the brush as Reuben polished away on my boots, just outside the door.

I ROSE early next morning, full of good resolutions; and, to put the first in execution, found father, and asked his pardon. He granted it kindly, and said, with a smile:

Mr. MONTE was partner in a large dry goods house on Broadway, and from what I knew of his habits I judged that I would most likely find him in the store about two o’clock. Accor...

WHEN Frank and I entered the parlor of the hotel, after sending up our cards to Lulie and the other ladies from Wilmington, we found the room full of company. Strange faces amon...

THE first of October found us all again in Wilmington. Father returned from Havana the latter part of September, having completed all the necessary arrangements in reference to...

MY PRECIOUS HUSBAND—The little angel God promised us has come, and I am so happy. If you were only here, to see the little cherub nestling by me, I would be _too full_ of bliss...

NED and I are again at Chapel Hill, in our old room. We found our books and furniture dusty, but undisturbed, and a day’s preparation sufficed to get us in harness again.

THE sky was just reddening when I came down next morning and commenced to get my gun and accoutrements, to try my hand at hunting. Father called me as I was about to leave the h...

Madame DUBOURG’S was a grand brown stone building, with broad carved balustrades, and stone vases of cactus. I had chosen the hour of twelve for our visit, as the parlors would...

As we walked from alcove to alcove selecting books, reading an extract from one, examining the engravings in another, and I realized that we were all alone in the great silent h...

HOW strange those long days of insensibility now seem! How mysterious that vague consciousness of unconsciousness, when the mind closes all communication with the outer world, a...

PERHAPS there was never a betrothal made under more favorable auspices than Carlotta’s and mine. Perfect love and confidence towards each other, and the most entire approval of...

AS THE usages of society generally require an introduction between strangers before communications of any moment can transpire, I hasten now to introduce myself, that the reader...

THE morning after our visit I was in DeVare’s room, waiting for him to come in from lecture, when some one knocked, and, in answer to my invitation, Ellerton, a Sophomore, who h...

I WAS apparently expected, for, as I have been credibly informed, an extensive wardrobe had been prepared for me, and a whole drawer in the bureau appropriated for its storage....

THE year, growing old, began to feel ashamed of the jaunty green in which the spring and summer had decked him, and was laying aside his verdant garments, leaf by leaf, for the...

FATHER, mother, Carlotta and I are standing in the dim light of dawn, under the old shed at the depot. We lack only Lulie to be the same party who stood there five years before,...

HOWEVER pleasant may be the scenes to which we are going, we cannot repress a feeling of sadness as we leave those with which we have been long associated, and which have become...

OUR second day was spent in the ordeal of examination, in the selection and arrangement of our room, and engaging board at the most eligible place. Our room, at the suggestion o...

ABOUT the first of April I received a letter from father, saying that they had at last concluded to put in execution a plan that had been spoken of before I left home—namely, go...

APOLOGIZING for the prolixity of my last chapter on drunkenness only by the hope that a recital of my own ridiculous behavior may induce some slave of Bacchus, who may recognize...

CARLOTTA and I are standing in the balcony of our chamber, gazing in rapt admiration on the gorgeous beauty of a Cuban sunset. The home we have come to is indeed a lovely one; i...

WHEN I reached Wilmington I found everything in a stir. Everybody wore a cockade, a miniature flag, or a uniform. Officers, with waving plumes, rode furiously up and down the st...