The young pioneers of the North-west

As the fair-browed maiden skipped to the other side of the fort building, and gazed from the window upon the scene, she drank in its wondrous beauty with a wild delight.

PONY appreciated the tender herbage, and the grateful shade of the wildwood, for he was "a dear lover of nature," after his manner, and perhaps would have voted, if admitted to...

WHEN Alice McElroy awoke to consciousness, and to find herself in the canoe with the savage, two opposite states of mind and feeling were induced. Overpowering terror and grief...

"HUSBAND, ar'n't you coming to get some rest? We've had a long journey, and we've a great ways to go yet. And you know we land before morning. You will be all tired out; and I c...

"Fearing, from your conversation on the boat with the porter," he continued, "that a serious calamity had befallen you, I succeeded in getting off at this landing to aid you, if...

It was early morning. A heavy mist enveloped the river. But her eager eyes, piercing the fog-curtain, recognized, in the foremost passenger descending from the steamer, the youn...

There was a full load aboard, albeit every public conveyance can always accommodate "one more." A merry company they were, too. All men—journeying from various quarters for vari...

FORTY miles north-east of the landing, where Tom parted from the Willards, was a wide belt of woods, through which, down in its dim depths, ran a foaming river. The irregular li...

THE capacious immigrant wagon was packed over night, Mrs. Willard's, aunt Esther's, and the boys' trunks put in first, side by side, back of the second seat; for there were two...

THERE was no moon, but the blue vault above was brilliantly studded with stars. The little Hunchback lay on the mattress beside the wagon, his great thoughtful eyes turned skywa...

WHAT a familiar aspect nature wore to Tom as he journeyed frontierward! Stonewalls, ledges, boulders, rocks, gravel, stumps, stunted corn, swarming, suffocating cities, "east."...

"I THINK we had better settle down somewhere," said the dwarf, "and not wander over the prairies forever. This is not just where I meant to stop; but Tom's chart was lost, and w...

THE cabin which the Willards had appropriated was built of massive logs, through which was an occasional loophole. For when the first pioneers took possession of the soil, the l...

THE Willards rested undisturbed, save that, semi-occasionally, a climax snore from the attic lodger caused momentary disquiet. But thunder does not kill, neither does snoring; a...

"I shall never believe that Mr. Simmons is tricky and dishonest," affirmed the charitable Mrs. Willard. "Why, I have been much instructed, and benefited,—I hope I have a right t...

"About this Mr. Simmons," he replied, coming directly to the point. "I believe he's a bad fellow, and will do us some mischief yet, if we don't get rid of him."

PICTURE to yourself a man of fifty, of medium height, stoutly built, square shoulders, black hair and eyes, long, hooked, knowledgeable nose, solemn physiognomy, grave step—Mr....

"SIR," said the waiter at the Winneshick Hotel, in Decotah, putting his head in at the door of Mr. Parsons's, (the missionary) room, "a gentleman below wants to see you. Shall I...

"LITTLE HUNCHY" tracked Simmons, otherwise Grimes, to the town of L—, saw him enter the village store, come out from thence; pass northward along the main street, and, just over...

IN this wayward world, it is easier to lose the right path than to recover it. Indeed, each subsequent step is apt to lead the wanderer more widely astray. This is true in creed...

AUNT ESTHER was troubled. Evening was falling, and the dwarf had not returned. A score of times had she peered anxiously from the cabin window, a score of times donned sun-bonne...

IF the dwarf wondered, at first, why the Indian maiden persuaded her father to deliver him from the savage rabble, a week's tarrying in the chief's wigwam did not solve the prob...

"He's fine at bossing," retorted Ferdie, "and that's about all he is good for. Georgie and I work from morning till night. We don't sit round directing other folks—do we, Georgie?"

"YEES'LL niver find him there. My Dennis isn't drowned at all, at all. I wouldn't belave it if ye saw him fall into the strame wid yer own eyes. Sure an' he'll turn up safe an'...

Her father's soldiers were within call. A moment more, and, environed by those brave-hearted men, she would have been secure against a hundred Indians. But by one of those unacc...

TOM and Charley lay in the shadow of the wood, intently listening. Save the liquid lullaby of the gently-flowing stream, and the whisper of the trees stirred by breath of zephyr...

THE lad that goes from the old homestead to seek his fortune, but of whom nothing is ever heard afterwards; the dear ones who set sail in the ship that makes no port, and concer...

IT is related of an artist, who, secluded from observation, was working on a masterpiece, which it was for his interest not then to make public, that his bosom friend begged per...