THE CHASE. 



No saint in the calendar has had more devoted or more pains- 

 taking disciples than Saint Hubert. In savage life, the pursuit 

 of wild beasts or the capture of fish has always been a necessity, 

 and in all ages, and in all civilized countries, many jiersons have 

 found their most exquisite enjoyments in the same pursuit. As 

 a general rule, these persons are lovers of nature unmarred by 

 the hand of man. They love to hear the rushing of mighty 

 waters, and they love the soft cadence of the murmuring brook. 

 They love the deep shade of the primeval forest, and they love 

 the broad expanse of the wild prairie, with its green, grassy car- 

 pet, gemmed all over with brilliant wild flowers whose fragrance 

 they inhale with a new delight. They love the rocky caiion and 

 the mountain crag, where the throes of nature have upheaved the 

 earth's deep crust and thrown all into a wild confusion, as if in 

 anger an Almighty hand had there dashed the debris of another 

 world. They love to sleep beneath the old pine tree, and listen to 

 the sighing of the wind as it softly creeps through its long and 

 slender leaves, or upon the soft grass by the side of the sweet 

 spring of water under the broad spreading oak, the rustling of 

 whose leaves soothes to quiet repose. They love to listen to the 

 raging storm, and see its wild work all around them; and so they 

 love the soothing influence of the quiet calm, when nature seems 

 in profound repose, and all is still as the infant's sleep. At 

 the break of day upon the mountain side they love to count the 

 stars, and witness the waking of animated nature, when the 

 birds fly forth to sing, and the beasts leave their lairs to seek 

 their food while yet the dew softens the herbage which they love 

 the best. They love to catch the sun's first rays as they dart 

 from beneath the distant horizon, feeling new life and vigor as 

 they shine upon them, and with swelling heart they watch him 

 rise, as if from a bed of rest, and cast his smile upon the new- 

 born day. Oh, it is a glorious joy to be where the defacing hand 

 of man has never marred the harmonious beauty which pervades 

 Nature's handiworks. There we look with reverence and awe 

 upon what God has done, and what God alone could do, and re- 

 joice, even in our insignificance, that we are permitted there to 



