A BUSINESS DAY AT CHEE-HA. 203 



talent for dispatch of business, 1 borrowed one, and 

 am here." 



We struck for the woods across a back-water dam. 

 The horse-path cut the preceding year was over- 

 hung with twigs of the summer growth ; and every 

 thing looked as still and unfrequented, as the lover 

 of nature or the lover of sport could desire. The 

 trout sprang from beneath the willow, as the little 

 insects, scared by our approach, or shaken from 

 the interlacing branches, fell into the smooth lake 

 below. The summer duck rose with a shrill cry, 

 from his woody screen ; and the teal, that with bills 

 beneath their wings, were quietly reposing and 

 digesting their last night's gleanings from the 

 rice-fields, shot off on whistling wing to seek some 

 less disturbed retreat. The woods now broke upon 

 us in all their autumnal glory. The sweet gum, the 

 maple, and the hickory spread their branches as a 

 canopy above our heads; and the bright hues of 

 their red or yellow foliage, contrasted" pleasingly 

 with the sombre verdure of the pine. Some lin 

 gering flowers, too were there; and the vanilla, 

 touched by the frosts, filled the forest with a frag- 

 rance exceeding even the perfumes of spring. And 

 then those coverts; so solitary, so undisturbed! 

 whose repose had not been startled for months, by 



the baying of a hound, or the echoes of the hunts- 



13 



