328 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH. 



that j)eo23les every muddy pool, or makes a decayed tree 

 a miniature world. 



Yet, for all this, there is no race on whom the sweet 

 influences of the Pleiades fall who are more open to their 

 soothing — none to whose eyes the radiations of the flower 

 aflord a keener pleasure — none to whom the fragrance 

 of the woods opens a more vivid association, or who are 

 more observantly drinking in, night and day, those ^sop 

 lessons that man puts into a fable, but that God talks with 

 in letters of life. The constant silent observation of what 

 is around him makes his recognition quicker ; his natural 

 active life makes his senses keener, and the soft, damp, 

 fragrant wmd that touches his cheek in passing, may tell 

 him of a change of weather, of the wet swamp that he is 

 skii'ting, and may even whisper the kinds of trees and 

 plants there growing, and whether in bloom or no ; the 

 plants will tell the soil, and he may know the very ani- 

 mal life that lives in the woods before him, by what on 

 another cheek would be a passing wind, and nothing 

 more. 



Even the roughest hunters at the Fort could show 

 this observant taste. Mike had it to a great extent. 

 Potter had it, though burlesqued by the \vild, random 

 manner of an impulsive boy. "We would often get them 

 talking in order to lead them out. Evening was the 

 ordinary occasion of many tales and practical jokes. The 

 men would gather around the huge fires, sitting and 

 lying in every attitude. Negro interpreters, Indians and 

 soldiers, the volunteer hunters, that gained their living 



