their cheerful view over the lake, were others, which
had been reserved for the exclusive accommodation of Miss
de Haldimar. This upper floor consisted of two sleeping
apartments, with a sitting-room, the latter extending
the whole length of the block-house and opening immediately
upon the lake, from the only two windows with which that
side of the building was provided. The principal staircase
led into one of the bed-rooms, and both of the latter
communicated immediately with the sitting-room, which
again, in its turn, opened, at the opposite extremity,
on the narrow staircase that led to the rear of the
block-house.

The furniture of this apartment, which might be taken as
a fair sample of the best the country could afford, was
wild, yet simple, in the extreme. Neat rush mats, of an
oblong square, and fantastically put together, so as to
exhibit in the weaving of the several coloured reeds both
figures that were known to exist in the creation, and
those which could have no being save in the imagination
of their framers, served as excellent substitutes for
carpets, while rush bottomed chairs, the product of Indian
ingenuity also, occupied those intervals around the room
that were unsupplied by the matting. Upon the walls were
hung numerous specimens both of the dress and of the
equipments of the savages, and mingled with these were
many natural curiosities, the gifts of Indian chiefs to
the commandant at various periods before the war.

Nothing could be more unlike the embellishments of a