Oh, Squire!" said Verty, smiling, "what a chase I had! and what a fight with him! He nearly had me under him once, and the antlers you see there came near ploughing up my breast and letting out my heart's blood! They just grazed--he tried to bite me--but I had him by the horn with my left hand, and before a swallow could flap his wings, my knife was in his throat!" As Verty spoke, his eyes became brighter, his lips more smiling, and pushing his tangled curls back from his face, he bestowed his amiable glances even upon Miss Lavinia.
Mr.Rushton scowled.
"What do you mean by saying this barbarous fight was pleasant ?" he asked.
Verty smiled again:--he seemed to know Mr.Rushton well.
"It is my nature to love it," he said, "just as white people love books and papers." "What do you mean by white people ?" growled Mr.Rushton, "you know very well that you are white." "I ?" said Verty.
"Yes, sir; no affectation: look in that mirror." Verty looked.
"What do you see!" "An Indian!" said Verty, laughing, and raising his shaggy head.
"You see nothing of the sort," said Mr.Rushton, with asperity; "you see simply a white boy tanned--an Anglo-Saxon turned into mahogany by wind and sun.

There, sir! there," added Mr.Rushton, seeing Verty was about to reply, "don't argue the question with me.

I am sick of arguing, and won't indulge you.

Take this fine little lady here, and go and make love to her--the Squire and myself have business." Then Mr.Rushton scowled upon the company generally, and pushed them out of the room, so to speak, with his eyes; even Miss Lavinia was forced to obey, and disappeared.
Five minutes afterwards, Verty might have been seen taking his way back sadly, on his little animal, toward the hills, while Redbud was undergoing that most disagreeable of all ceremonies, a "lecture," which lecture was delivered by Miss Lavinia, in her own private apartment, with a solemnity, which caused Redbud to class herself with the greatest criminals which the world had ever produced.

Miss Lavinia proved, conclusively, that all persons of the male sex were uninterruptedly engaged in endeavoring to espouse all persons of the female sex, and that the world, generally, was a vale of tears, of scheming and deception.