My beautiful—my beautiful! I would not call thee back; I joy that thou hast fled the storms That beat upon life’s track; I love to know thy sinless soul Has burst its bonds of clay, And watch thy spirit as it glides So pleasantly away. And when I gather up the folds Around thy pale, cold face, And when I weep to see thee laid In thy last resting-place, I’ll mind me that the fearful storm By which my soul is riven, Has borne my dove an olive branch, And wafted him to Heaven. * * * * * MARY WILSON. BY D. W. BELISLE. CHAPTER I. “She never told her love, but deep Within her heart concealed there lay The worm that prey’d upon her cheek, And stole her bloom away.” Mary Wilson was an only child. Her parents were exceedingly wealthy; and, though possessing extended landed estates, they were as parsimonious in hoarding up riches as though they were only in moderate circumstances. Mr. Wilson was rather aristocratic in his manners, yet, in many respects, he was quite liberal to those of his neighbors who were not as fortunate as himself in accumulating property. He was a gentleman of great influence, around whom gathered the elite of Cincinnati—whose favor was courted and sought by the wealthy and great. In his earlier days Mr. Wilson had laid out the rules which were to govern him through the world, and, in whatever circumstance in life, he fully resolved to abide by the course he had adopted for his guidance. He had retired from the active capacity of a business man; and yet, whenever he found an opportunity for speculating, he was just the man to engage in it. About the time our story commences, the fever of speculation in the Western States raged to a marvelous extent. The excitement was great, and many had invested their whole patrimony in the speculation, with the ardent assurance that they would become immensely wealthy. But, alas! their expectations were but “castles in the air;” for the excitement soon subsided, and those who had invested their all in purchasing land, now found, to their great astonishment, that they had lost all they possessed. Many who were independent one day, and had the brightest anticipations of the future, the next were penniless and destitute, not knowing where or how to procure a sustenance for their families.