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"Just now," said Mrs. Gray, "you have thought too long, Patty. We cannot go away to-day, for I must wait here for some papers papa is to send from Baltimore. Forget all about the portrait and the medicine man, go get your hat, and I will show you something pretty at the Capitol."

Patty lifted her eyes slowly. She saw that there was not a bit of reproach in her mother's loving face, and she darted up stairs in a mo

ment.

They went over the hill, and passed up the steps of the East Front, and, turning to the left, found themselves in a vestibule, or passage, just beyond the old Hall of Representatives. It was supported by marble columns, and Mrs. Gray made Patty look at them.

"What sort of columns are they, Patty?" she asked.

"I don't know," said Patty. "Dooric is just plain tree trunks, Ionic has the bark stripped down and curling over, and the Corinthian has the acanthus leaves. Mamma, those are leaves, but not acanthus. The acanthus is a long, ruffled leaf, like a narrow burdock. What are those, mamma?"

"They are cotton leaves," said Mrs. Gray, quite pleased to see how carefully Patty remembered. "I forgot to show them to you the other day, when we looked at the tobacco leaves and the cornstalks."

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They are so pretty!" said Patty, gayly. "We have a tobacco order, and a corn order, and a cotton order. Who did it, mamma?"

"I believe Mr. Latrobe first thought of it," said her mother; "he was the architect who had the care of the building for some years before Mr. Bulfinch. All his designs were beautiful. Mr. Bulfinch always spoke of them with great delight; and if he altered any of them, it was because he could not get the money to carry them out."

"What did Mr. Latrobe give up for?" said Patty.

"For the same reason. He could not get money to do the work as he thought it ought to be done. He brought some of the pupils of Canova from Italy to do the finest carving, and they made many beautiful models; but the two Houses would not grant money to put them into marble. He had a pretty plan of supporting the

gallery of the Senate on figures representing the different States; but after the work was modelled, he had to give it up.”

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Mamma," said Patty, eagerly, "I've thought of another pretty column."

"Have you?" said mamma; "what is it?" "Sugar-cane, mamma. Wouldn't its jointed stem make a pretty pillar? Its flowery plume of purple and gold would wave so nicely from the top."

"The flowers are rather small," said Mrs. Gray. "What would you do with the long leaves?"

"Bind them under the flowers, mamma. I thought of it when I saw it growing in the greenhouse the other day."

They had been moving while Patty talked. They had crossed the old hall, and now entered a lobby.

"Here is another of Mr. Latrobe's pretty ideas," said Mrs. Gray, pausing before a fireplace. "Come and look, Patty."

It was the old fable of Æsop adapted to a country's need. On the marble mantel the different States were represented by a bundle of

staves, which a giant was trying in vain to break. There was another fireplace at the other end of the lobby. On that the same chisel had cut the bands that tied the staves, and careless children played with them, or trod them under foot.

Patty remembered the story very well. She recollected the old man who called his children together when he was dying, and, after begging them to love each other, bound some small sticks into a fagot, to show them how strong union would make the weakest things.

She looked at the beautiful carvings for some time.

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'Why, mamma," she said, at last, "it seems as if he knew we were going to have a war!”

"Yes," said Mrs. Gray, "from the time of Washington down to the firing of the first gun at Sumter, every thoughtful person did know it, and knew, also, that just as surely as any one State was naughty, and wilful, and determined to have its own way, it would break the band that bound all the rest, and then our beloved country might become the plaything of tyrants and fools in a single moment."

"What tyrants and fools, mamma?" said Patty.

"Don't you remember," said Mrs. Gray, "how vexed you were once, to see in a Southern paper something about our having a prince to reign over us? Just as Austria sent a prince to Mexico, England might send one to us, if we were only a little weaker than we ever have been."

"That would be a tyrant!" said Patty, flush"who would be the fools?"

ing up;

"The fools would be the ambitious men here at home," said Mrs. Gray, "who would make the time of our trouble an occasion to intrigue for power. I think we had a few generals who did that in the rebellion, and certainly there were others in Washington; only this time the country was stronger than the fools."

"This time the South was poor," said Patty; "but, oh, how dreadful it would have been if she had been rich, and could have held out forever and ever!"

"Let us hope that our last war is ended," said

mamma.

They went out of the Capitol, and stood a

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