PREFACE. Ill 



is cast aside, and the restraints which the thousand eyes 

 and reckless tongues about him fasten on the heart, are 

 thrown off', and the soul rejoices in its liberty and again be- 

 comes a child in action. The ludicrous incident, the care- 

 less joke, the thrilling story, the eager chase, are all in 

 place in the forest, and as harmless as the sports of the 

 deer. 



I hate hypocrisy in an author — writing not as he feels 

 but as he knows bigoted or narrow-minded men think he 

 ought to feel — moralizing on paper where he never thought 

 of it in fact, and giving us theological disquisitions on doc- 

 trinal points 



" When the bosom is full and the thoughts are high,'* 



with the floods of excitement and rapture which some won- 

 drous and glorious spectacle has awakened. Nature and the 

 Bible are in harmony — they both speak one language to the 

 heart — yet in the wilderness there is no formality in the ex- 

 pression of one's feelings. A man 



" Laughs when he's merry, 

 And sighs when he's sad," 



without thinking or caring how it would appear in the 

 saloon or grave assemblage. 



The engravings are from original drawings by the dis- 

 tinguished artists Messrs. Ingham, Durand, Gignoux, and 



