order to aid her parents and to procure, for herself, the means of purchasing the books she craved. Career Dufour had an early and earnest desire to travel; to witness, in other lands, the scenes and wonders of which she had read; and there to gather that varied knowledge and experience which at home, except through reading, was beyond our reach. But her wishes were not destined to be gratified. She grew up to adult age without having once left her native State. In 1842, she married Oliver Dufour, then of New Albany, Indiana, but formerly of Vevay, Indiana. Her husband was the son of John Francis Dufour, from Montreux near Vevey, Switzerland. This gentleman came to the West in 1801, when it was all a wilderness. In 1809, he settled on the spot where Vevay (Indiana) now stands, then a dense, unbroken forest; and he laid out the town in 1813, calling it after his beautiful native place, on the Leman Lake. He was the first settler west of the mountains who ever made wine. He sent a sample of the first vintage to Thomas Jefferson, then President. It so happened that about the same time, someone had sent to the President a bottle of water from the Mississippi River. The water and wine, both from the Western wilderness, were united, and were drank together. Oliver Dufour was elected to the Indiana Legislature in 1853. He was a prominent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having been Grand Master of the State of Indiana, Grand Representative from that State and also from the District of Columbia for eight consecutive years. He died in November, 1891. In 1854, he received from President Franklin Pierce an appointment in the General Land Office,in Washington, D.C., to which place he removed with his family. Until the removal to Washington, consequent upon this appointment, Amanda Dufour had remained a resident of Indiana. She was, therefore, a woman of the West, by birth, by education, by marriage, and by residence, and her poetical talents were exclusively of Western culture. Still, under every discouragement, she wrote, "Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh." Dufour composed verses from a young age. Her peculiarly sensitive temperament long kept her talents from being appreciated. Having no confidence in her own abilities, she shrank from criticism. She was fond of writing for children, and published