Evenings at Donaldson Manor | Page 2

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EVENINGS
AT
DONALDSON MANOR;
OR,
The Christmas Guest.

BY MARIA J. McINTOSH,
AUTHOR OF
"TWO LIVES," "CHARMS AND COUNTER-CHARMS," ETC., ETC.

A NEW REVISED EDITION.
"Oh Winter! ruler of the inverted year, I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, homeborn happiness."
COWPER.
NEW-YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 200 BROADWAY, AND 16 LITTLE BRITAIN, LONDON. 1853.

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
In Miss McIntosh we fondly and proudly greet a transatlantic sister, and as delightedly introduce her, a "CHRISTMAS GUEST," to our own home circle. She is worthy of all honor and affection.
Miss McIntosh's writings are eminently pure in feeling--tender, graceful, and elegant in manner. Their moral, simply and unstrainedly developed, is invariably excellent--generously exciting, stimulating, encouraging all the noblest energies of our nature. To use her own words, addressed to her friends in America, and with equal propriety may they be accepted by the rising generation, and by every grade of society, at every period of life, in her unforgotten fatherland--"From the examples she will present to them, they may learn that to the brave and true and faithful heart, 'all things are possible'--that he who clings to the good and the holy amidst temptation and trial, will find peace and light within him, though all without be storm and darkness; and that in a right understanding and unfaltering performance of duty--not in the pomps and pleasures of a self-indulgent life, lie our true glory and happiness."
Not a tale, not a sketch, not an appeal to the heart or to the mind in any form, does our fair sister commit to paper, that is not pervaded, though unobtrusively, by a strain of the sweetest, gentlest, most cheerful and soul-elevating piety; it is hers at once to soothe, to charm, and to exhilarate.
Our "CHRISTMAS GUEST" well knows how to furnish forth a feast of infinite variety. Few, if any, will arise from a perusal of her delightful "word-painting" of life, incident, adventure, and character, without being wiser, better, happier; without enjoying a more entire confidingness in Heaven--in HIM, that God of love and goodness, whom Christians unite to worship.
LONDON, December 4, 1850.

CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY, 9
CHAPTER II.
"THE MAIN CHANCE," 17
CHAPTER III.
THE CRADLE-SONG; A FREE TRANSLATION FROM K?RNER, 35 THE BROTHERS; OR, IN THE FASHION, AND ABOVE THE FASHION, 37
CHAPTER IV.
LOSS AND GAIN; OR, HEARTS VERSUS DIAMONDS, 48
CHAPTER V.
THE BIRD'S RELEASE. BY MRS. HEMANS, 70 THE YOUNG MISANTHROPE, 72
CHAPTER VI.
LIFE IN AMERICA, 91
CHAPTER VII.
SUNDAY, 126 EVENING HYMN, 128
CHAPTER VIII.
THE WOLF CHASE, 133
CHAPTER IX.
THE HISTORY OF AN OLD MAID, 140
CHAPTER X.
THE FAMILY MEETING, 166
CHAPTER XI.
THE DYING HEBREW, 169 "ONLY A MECHANIC," 172
CHAPTER XII.
LOVE AND PRIDE, 196
CHAPTER XIII.
THE TEST OF LOVE. A STORY OF THE LAST WAR, 227
CHAPTER XIV.
THE FLOWER ANGELS, 266

THE
CHRISTMAS GUEST;
OR,
EVENINGS AT DONALDSON MANOR.
CHAPTER I.
The largest and the most picturesque country-house of all I know in America, is the mansion house of my friends, the Donaldsons. I would gladly inform the reader of its locality, but this Colonel Donaldson has positively prohibited, for a reason too flattering to my self-love to be resisted.
"You know, my dear Madam,"--I give his own words, by which I hope the courteous reader will understand that I am really too modest even to seem to adopt the flattering sentiment they convey--"You know, my dear madam, that your description will be read by every body who is any body, and that through it my simple home will become classic ground. If I permit you to direct the tourist tribe to it, I shall be pestered out of my life when summer comes, by travelling artists, would-be poets, and romantic young ladies."
I may not therefore, dear reader, tell you