A VISIT FKOM STRANGERS. 



on the other side of the lake, and had crossed over to 

 surprise us with the melody of human music. And plea- 

 santly indeed it sounded in the stillness and repose of that 

 summer night in that wild region. The echoes that dwell 

 among those old forests, those hills and beautiful lakes, had 

 never been startled from their slumbers by such sounds 

 before, and right merrily they carried them from hill to hill, 

 and through the old woods, and over the calm surface of 

 that sleeping lake, and with a joyonsness, too, that told 

 how welcome they were among those wild and primeval 

 things. 



After listening to their music for half an hour, we invited 

 our new friends ashore. We found them to be two young 

 gentlemen from Philadelphia, who had just graduated at 

 one of the Eastern colleges, and who had concluded to spend 

 a month among these mountains and lakes, before entering 

 upon the study of the profession to which they were to 

 devote themselves. They had been close friends from their 

 childhood, and room-mates during their collegiate course. 

 They had cultivated their taste for music, until few mere 

 amateurs could equal their skill upon their respective in- 

 struments, or in harmony of voice. They were highly 

 intelligent and courteous gentlemen, and if their future shall 

 equal the promise of the present, they will make their 

 mark in the world. We accepted, at parting, their invita- 

 tion to breakfast with them on the morrow, and at one 

 o'clock they left us to return to their shanty over the lake. 

 We sent one of our boatmen to row them home ; and as 



