12 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



highway and the stream to pass between the abrupt 

 masses of rock and forest, and now expanding into rich 

 basins of green meadow-land, the deepest and most fertile 

 possible — the hills of every shape and size — here bold, and 

 bare, and rocky — there swelling up in grand round masses, 

 pile above pile of verdure, to the blue firmament of au- 

 tumn. By and by we drove through a thriving little vil- 

 lage, nestling in a hollow of the hills, beside a broad bright 

 pond, whose waters keep a dozen manufactories of cotton 

 and of iron — with which mineral these hills abound — in 

 constant operation; and passing by the tavern, the de- 

 parture of whose owner Harry had so pathetically mourned, 

 we wheeled again round a projecting spur of hill into a 

 narrower defile, and reached another hamlet, far different 

 in its aspect from the busy bustling place we had left some 

 five miles behind. 



There were some twenty houses, with two large mills of 

 solid masonry; but of these not one building was now 

 tenanted; the roof -trees broken, the doors and shutters 

 either torn from their hinges, or flapping wildly to and 

 fro ; the mill wheels cumbering the stream with masses of 

 decaying timber, and the whole presenting a most desolate 

 and mournful aspect. 



"Its storj' is soon told," Harry said, catching my inquir- 

 ing glance — "a speculating, clever New York merchant — a 

 water-power — a failure — and a consequent desertion of the 

 project; but we must find a birth among the ruins!" 



And as he spoke, turning a little off the road, he pulled 

 up on the green sward ; "there's an old stable here that has 

 a manger in it yet! Now Tim, look sharp!" 



And in a twinkling the horses were loosed from the 

 wagon, the harness taken off and hanging on the corners 

 of the ruined hovels, and Tim hissing and rubbing away 

 at the gray horse, while Harry did like duty on the chest- 

 nut, in a style tliat would have done no shame to Melton 

 Mowbray ! 



"Come, Frank, make yourself useful ! Get out the 

 round of beef, and all the rest of the provant — it's on the 

 rack behind ; you'll find all right there. Spread our table- 

 cloth on that flat stone by the waterfall, under the willow ; 

 clap a couple of bottles of the Baron's champag-ne into 

 the pool there underneath the fall; let's see whether your 



