"After all, the experiment has not been so expensive a one," said the Invalid, laying down the neatly-kept farm-ledger, which he had been examining. "The orange trees are a good investment--our one bearing tree has proved that--and as for the money our farming experiment has cost us, we should have spent as much, I dare say, had we lived at the hotel, and not have been one half as comfortable." "It _is_ a cozy little home," admitted the Pessimist, looking about the pretty room, now thrown wide open to the early summer and with a huge pot of creamy magnolia-blooms in the great chimney. "It is the pleasantest winter I ever spent," said Merry enthusiastically. "Except that dreadful evening when the account of the peas came," said Hope, drawing a long breath. "But I should like to try it again: I shall never be quite satisfied till I have made peas and cucumbers profitable." "Then, all I have to say is, that you are destined to drag out an unsatisfied existence," said the Pessimist. "I am not so sure of that," said the Invalid. And so we turned our faces northward, not without a lingering sorrow at leaving the home where we had spent so many sweet and sunny days. "Good-bye, Paradise Plantation," said Merry as the little white house under the live-oak receded from our view as we stood upon the steamer's deck. "It was not so inappropriately named," said the Invalid. "Our life there has surely been more nearly paradisiacal than any other we have known." And to this even the Pessimist assented. LOUISE SEYMOUR HOUGHTON. THROUGH THE YELLOWSTONE PARK TO FORT CUSTER. CONCLUDING PAPER. It was about 8.30 A. M. before the boat was found, some travellers having removed it from the place where Baronette had cached it. A half hour sufficed to wrap a tent-cover neatly around the bottom and to tack it fast on the thwarts. Then two oblongs of flat wood were nailed on ten feet of pine-stems and called oars; and, so equipped, we were ready to start. We had driven or ridden hundreds of miles over a country familiar to any one who chooses to read half a dozen books or reports; but, once across the Yellowstone, we should enter a region of which little has been written since Lewis and Clarke wandered across the head-waters of the Missouri in 1805, and had their perils and adventures told anonymously by one who was to become famous for many noble qualities of mind and heart, for great accomplishments and unmerited misfortunes.[A]