A RAINY MOENING. 165 



in the woods. It's a rich farming region now, and 

 railroads, and plank roads, and turnpikes, cross each 

 other every few miles." 



" Give me your hand, Squire," he replied ; "I 

 didn't mean to ask your history, but I'm blamed if I 

 havn't tho't all along, that you knowed more about 

 the woods and wild things than can be learned in a 

 city. I don't wonder that you want to get back, once 

 in a while, to your old friends, the trees, the lakes, and 

 the streams, and hear the voices of the things that you 

 heard in your young days. It makes a man young 

 again, and brings back the old thoughts and affections 

 of his boyhood. How curious it is to watch the 

 growth of a country that's young and wild. I ain't 

 talkin' now about the nations, nor governments ; I 

 don't pretend to know anything about what larned 

 people call the wealth of nations ; I ain't speakin 7 

 about the growth of commerce, or the spread of trade, 

 or the increase of manufactered things ; but I mean a 

 new country, where the woods stretch out every way, 

 and are occupied only by wild animals, and may be, 

 now and then, by a stray hunter, like old Pete Meiga 

 and me. 



" Some bold-hearted Yankee marches into thxi 



