irn tbe Moo&s wftb tbe 3Bow 



to make my headquarters. I noted with 

 delight that the cabins were far apart, sep- 

 arated by wooded hills and hollows, where 

 a fine vernal tenderness was spreading in 

 many shades of green. In places violets 

 grew so abundantly that the ground looked 

 as if a bit of sky had fallen so hard that 

 the impact had made froth of .it ; and these 

 spots were sometimes offset by beds of 

 rose-purple claytonias. The road dwin- 

 dled to a mere desultory cartway, which 

 finally led me to the cabin of one Thomas 

 Shamly, who took me in and entertained 

 me to the best of his ability, giving me a 

 little room on the end of a lean-to veranda 

 to sleep in ; and next morning he hitched 

 his little mules to his rickety wagon and 

 hauled me nine miles to the place of Simp- 

 son Jarvis, " over on the crick," as Mr. 

 Shamly remarked, " an' ye kin feesh ther' 

 consid'ble." He mistook my bow for a 

 fishing-rod, and yet was not satisfied to 

 rest upon that theory. While we jolted 

 along the dim, stony, root-matted road, he 

 made many indirect attacks upon my reti- 

 cence ; wherefore it pleased me at last to 



2IO 



