CHAP. XXXIII.] ROUGH QUARTERS. 181 



with no evergreens below them, and no grass ; but, instead of it, 

 a somber brown covering of damp and dead oak leaves, strewed 

 evenly over the ground. At one point I saw the rotting trunks 

 of several fallen trees, and near them an old oak, on the boughs 

 of which, near the base, a group of five turkey-buzzards were 

 perched, in perfect character with the rest of the scene. Twilight 

 was coming on, and the woods were silent ; but, as I approached 

 the river, the silence was agreeably broken by the varied and 

 liquid notes of a mocking-bird, and, at the same time, one of the 

 large woodpeckers, with its brilliant plumage, flew over my head, 

 as if to remind me that at other seasons the solitude is cheered 

 by the song and bright colors of birds, when the leaves of the 

 trees unfold themselves, and the sun s heat would then be so in 

 tense, that a traveler would gladly retreat into the shades of the 

 dense forest. 



When I took back my horse to its owner in New Madrid, I 

 received a pressing invitation to exchange our present homely 

 quarters for her comfortable house. Some of the other principal 

 merchants made us hospitable offers of the same kind, which 

 were exceedingly tempting. We thought it right, however, to 

 decline them all, as we might have hurt the feelings of our 

 German host and his wife, who, in their anxiety to accommodate 

 us, had purchased several additional household articles. Among 

 these was a table-cloth, and, when I entered the house, T was amused 

 at the occupations of my wife and her companion. The baker s 

 lady had accepted the offer of her guest to hem the new table-cloth, 

 in which task she was busily engaged ; while the settler in the 

 backwoods, having discovered that my wife had brought from 

 New Orleans a worked collar of the latest Parisian fashion, had 

 asked leave to copy it, and was intent on cutting out the shape, 

 thus qualifying herself to outdo all the &quot; fashionists&quot; of the sunk 

 country. 



A great spirit of equality was observable in the manners of the 

 whites toward each other at New Madrid, yet with an absence 

 of all vulgar familiarity. But what I saw and heard, convinced 

 me that the condition of the negroes is least enviable in such out- 

 of-the-way and half civilized districts, where there are many ad- 



