PREFACE 



aspects anything he had ever seen at home, nestled 

 close to his mother, and asked with bated breath, 

 " Mither, is there a God here ? " 



Yet the Pepacton is a placid current, especially in 

 its upper portions, where my youth fell ; but all its 

 tributaries are swift mountain brooks fed by springs 

 the best in the world. It drains a high pastoral 

 country lifted into long, round-backed hills and 

 rugged, wooded ranges by the subsiding impulse of 

 the Catskill range of mountains, and famous for its 

 superior dairy and other farm products. It is many 

 long years since, with the restlessness of youth, I 

 broke away from the old ties amid those hills; but 

 my heart has always been there, and why should I 

 not come back and name one of my books for the 

 old stream ? 



