prairie-wolves again, and that all the wolves that the officers bait
with their dogs used to be Frenchmen, once."

After a time, however, I ceased to straighten out these stories of Uncle
Ephraim, for I was gradually arriving at the conviction that my little
colored damsel was by no means so simple and unsophisticated as she
would have me believe, and that I was, after all, the one who was
imposed upon.

The snow this winter was prodigious, and the cold intense. The water
would freeze in our parlors at a very short distance from the fire, for,
although the "fatigue-parties" kept the halls filled with wood, almost
up to the ceiling, that did not counterbalance the inconvenience of
having the wide doors thrown open to the outer air for a great portion
of the day, to allow of their bringing it in. We Northerners should have
had wood-houses specially for the purpose, and not only have kept our
great hall-doors closed, but have likewise protected them with a
"hurricane-house." But the Florida frontier was not a climate in which
our Southern bachelors could have acquired the knowledge available when
the thermometer was twenty-five degrees below zero--a point at which
brandy congealed in the sideboard.

The arrival of Christmas and New-Year's brought us our Indian friends
again. They had learned something of the observance of these holidays
from their French neighbors, and I had been forewarned that I should see
the squaws kissing every white man they met. Although not crediting this
to its full extent, I could readily believe that they would each expect
a present, as a "compliment of the season," so I duly prepared myself
with a supply of beads, ribbons, combs, and other trinkets. Knowing
them to be fond of dainties, I had also a quantity of crullers and