HUNTING THE COUGAR. 237 



The quietness of the evening seemed in perfect ac- 

 cordance with the gentle demeanor of the family. The 

 wife and children, I more than once thought, seemed to 

 look upon me as a strange sort of person, going about, 

 as I told them I was, in search of birds and plants ; and 

 were I here to relate the many questions which they put 

 to me in return for those which I addressed to them, the 

 catalogue would occupy several pages. The husband, a 

 native of Connecticut, had heard of the existence of 

 such men as myself, both in our own country and abroad, 

 and seemed greatly pleased to have me under his roof. 

 Supper over, I asked my kind host what had induced 

 him to remove to this wild and solitary spot. " The 

 people are growing too numerous now to thrive in New 

 England," was his answer. I thought of the state of 

 some parts of Europe, and calculating the denseness of 

 their population compared with that of New England, 

 exclaimed to myself, "How much more difficult must it 

 be for men to thrive in those populous countries!" The 

 conversation then changed, and the squatter, his sons 

 and myself, spoke of hunting and fishing, until at length 

 tired, we laid ourselves down on pallets of bear skins, 

 and reposed in peace on the floor of the only apartment 

 of which the hut consisted. 



Day dawned, and the squatter's call to his hogs, 

 which, being almost in a wild state, were suffered to 

 seek the greater portion of their food in the woods, 

 awakened me. Being ready dressed, I was not long in 

 joining him. The hogs and their young came grunting 

 at tho well known call of their owner, who threw them 

 a few ears of corn, and counted them, but told me that 



