XXxvi INTRODUCTION. 
so unnatural, so useless, and, indeed, was no shade at all 
if compared with the cool depths of the forest. A blaz- 
ing sun overhead, a hot sand on the earth, and only a 
narrow strip of cloth between—that is not what the 
mountain man calls shelter. How often in those hot 
days did I long for the green mountains, mossy glens, 
and cool streams of the grand old woods where I was 
born. 
For four years I had lived on the plains surrounded 
by sage-brush and sand, never once seeing a mountain 
or forest. Then I was ordered east with troops, to Ken- 
tucky. We had been running very fast all night in the 
cars, and in the morning, just as I was washing in the 
sleeping-car, I heard the soldiers in the forward coaches 
cheering. I asked the conductor what was the matter, 
and he replied, “ The soldiers are cheering the trees.” 
We all hastened to the doors and windows, and there, 
sure enough, found we were running through a grand 
old Kentucky forest, and it was indeed a most beautiful 
sight. It had rained the night before, and the dripping 
trees shone like silver in the newly-risen sun. Grape 
vines hung in heavy festoons from the arms of giant 
oaks, woodbines wound about their trunks; the grass on 
the earth was green as an emerald, and so clean I longed 
to jump from the cars, lie down on it, and roll over and 
over and shout for very joy. 
“Thank God for noble trees, 
How stately, strong, and grand 
These bannered giants lift their crests 
O’er all this beauteous land.” 
The sight of a forest in the early morning, when the 
dew is on the grass and leaves, is at all times beautiful. 
Even those who have been used all their lives to such 
