24 THE ADIRONDACK. 



straw bed for his baby- — queer occupation this, for a 

 ci-devant dandy. The next morning as he drove off to 

 the woods with his oxen, one would never have dream- 

 ed he had once sauntered up and down Broadway. 

 His wife, a refined and intelligent woman, at first sunk 

 under this change, but rallying her good sense, she has 

 adapted herself to her situation, and now makes butter, 

 &c, like a good house-wife. My friend seemed happy, 

 but I thought it must be assumed, and so I asked him 

 how this compared with New York. " I am happier 

 here," he replied, " I prefer this life to that of the city." 

 The delicate young merchant is spreading into the 

 broad-shouldered working man. I confess I admired 

 him, and the second day I told him I would help him 

 work, if on the succeeding one he would play with me. 

 He agreed to this arrangement, and so I doffed my 

 coat and went into the field with him. My appetite 

 for the plain dinner was a trifle beyond what is termed 

 good, and my slumbers that night deep as oblivion. 



The next morning I claimed the fulfillment of his 

 promise, and he shouldered his long limber ash pole 

 which he had cut from the forest, and peeled to make 

 it lighter, and we entered the dark hemlock forest that 

 overhangs the " trout-brook," and were soon in the 



