20 P0RTY-F0CRYEAR80F 



All this being done, and breakfast over, we bid good-bje 

 to Little Crossings, and took the road again for the 

 " Blooming Rose : " this place is a large tract of land, so 

 called in consequence of the great variety of beautiful 

 flowers that adorned the whole tract ; and that part of 

 Alleghany county is still known by that name. We tra- 

 velled without halting, save to water our beasts, until 

 late in the afternoon, when we arrived at the residence of 

 my uncle's father. 



Here wc baited for a month or two, until uncle should 

 seek a home away in the glades of the Buffalo Marsh, 

 where I was to see so many beautiful sights. After a 

 long time of anxious delay, as I thought, and after two 

 or three different visits to the intended home, he at last 

 determined to make a start for it, much to my joy and 

 satisfaction. This day brought us to a home entirely 

 up to my greatest expectations ; for then, although late in 

 October, there was great abundance of pasture for our 

 stock, and uncle had cut plenty of wild grass, the summer 

 before, for all our stock through the coming winter ; and 

 we had an excellent log-cabin to live in. This cabin had 

 been the residence of an old hunter, whose name was 

 Augustian Friend, or "Old Teen Friend," as he was 

 called. He had squatted there, to hunt in those beautiful 

 glades and the surrounding mountains ; and he had left 

 here to go on the Cheat River, to settle on a new place, 

 where no other hunters would interfere with him. He 

 left a fine potato patch and garden, which we took pos- 

 session of as our own, and no person objected to our 

 claiming the premises. 



Here we were in the place I had so long been looking 

 for, with so much anxiety ; and I must say that what my 

 uncle had told me as a truth was fully realized ; for the 

 courtry abounded with deer, bears, panthers, wolves, 

 wild ats, catamounts, wild turkeys, foxes, rabbits, pbea- 



