52 AMEEICAN GAME. 



own skill and manhood ; then, with the splendor of the 

 American autumn weather, and the gorgeous woodland 

 scenes which you must penetrate, these alone would pay 

 you for your toils ; cares there are none in the woods, 

 nor anxieties, nor ailings, nor sorrows for these, with 

 the ringing of door-bells at unseasonable hours, and the 

 advent of matutinal duns, not to bo satisfied save with 

 the uttermost farthing, these are the growth of cities, 

 and the tormenters of the civilized and cockney gentle- 

 man, unknown to the forest, and set at easy defiance by 

 its hardy, happy inhabitant. Oh ! give to others who 

 will it, the luxuries of city life, the costly banquets, the 

 rich wines, the fascinations of women, the maddening 

 excitement of play, the " venerem, et plumas, et coenam 

 Sardanapali," but give me my hemlock shanty for my 

 palace, my hemlock-bed for my couch of down, my rifle 

 for my mistress, and my trusty Indian for my comrade 

 and my guide ; and, winter or summer, scorching sun or 

 deep-piled snow, the wilderness, give me the wilderness. 

 " The life in the woods for me." 



When winter sets in cold and stern, then it is not the 

 Moose's paradise rather it is his anti-paradise, and the 

 winter of his discontent made glorious summer to his 

 adversaries, who then hug hope to run him down by 

 their strength of wind and limb, and to conquer him by 

 open force and no unmanly fraud or base deceptions. 



"Well aware that he cannot travel safely or feed easily 

 and plentifully, when his goings to and fro are converted 



