The Illegal Marriage — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ILLEGAL MARRIAGE. CHAPTER I. THE ECHACONNEE TRAGEDY. About the middle of autumn one can find few climates more agreeable than that of the middle counties of Georgia and Alabama. During the day the air is warm and pleasant; a soft, purplish haze hangs over the landscape; and the evenings are superb. Italy cannot boast of more gorgeous sunsets than those of the Georgian middle counties. The twilight is long, and blends slowly with the moonlight, which silvers the sandy soil and sets out the dark pines in bold relief. Near the swamps which border upon some creek, there is a peculiar and indescribable charm in these moonlight evenings. The senses steeped in the perfume of roses, mingled with the rarer odor of magnolias; while from the dark woods which skirt the silvered cotton-fields come the songs of the mocking-bird, as sweet and varied as those of the European nightingale. Rut here as elsewhere nature has various moods, Gomichboo “S (E(0) =}