Over the prairie, with its abundant blossoms; along the high bluffs upon which St. Paul is built; through a long busy street; a pause at the door of a gentleman whom Mrs. Lester had known in her old home in the East, and they were once more on the Grey Eagle. And there was the lady whom they had left at the Winslow House, just getting out of the stage. Her face brightened as she heard of Fort Snelling, the lovely Minnehaha, and Carver’s Cave; but then she had had a very satisfactory view of St. Anthony’s Falls, and had been able to verify, in the truth-telling daylight, the vague and indistinct impressions of a moonlight drive. CHAPTER IX. DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. Thus our idle fancies shaped themselves that day, Mid the bluffs, and headlands, and the islets gray, As we travel’d southward in our gallant ship, Floating, drifting, dreaming down the Mississippi. MACKAY. The gentleman whom Mrs. Lester had called to see, and who was out driving at the time, came to the boat to see her, and promised her many lovely drives if she would prolong her visit. There were many things to say of old friends and scenes, and he sat talking in the saloon till Norman ran in to say that the boat had left the wharf. Good-by was hurriedly said, and Mr. —— hastened to the captain to ask him to put him ashore, as he was not prepared for a voyage down the Mississippi. “That is the way,” said the captain; “people do not mind their own business, and then I have to attend to it.” He good-humoredly, however, gave the order to arrest the course of the proud steamer, and direct its prow to the opposite shore. It was the work of some minutes, for they are obliged, in stopping at a landing going down stream, to turn the bow up the current. “Well, captain,” said Mr. ——, as he sprang on shore, “I promise you to go down twice in the Grey Eagle for this.” There were some curious caves on the eastern bank of the river, walled up and with windows in them. In one of these the owner keeps his vegetables, as it is perfectly protected from the frost. Going down the river was the going up reversed, and yet the same scenery became new, seen under different aspects. The broad sunlight that now lay on land and water was not so favorable to artistic effect as the softened light and the lengthening shadows of the previous evening. After dinner the Rev. Mr. Maynard asked Mrs. Lester to go into the bow of the boat, where there was a cool breeze, most welcome in that sultry summer day, and a fine view of the scenery. Norman would not go; he was tired, and preferred reading in the saloon, where his mother left him. Nearly an hour passed away, and as they were, approaching the St. Croix River, Mrs. Lester said: “I must show Norman this beautiful sheet of water; he did not see it when we went up.”