CHAPTER FIRST 



TRAVELS IN A TREE-rOP 



PEARLY mist shut out the river, 

 the meadows, and every field for 

 miles. I could not deteft the ripple 

 of the outgoing tide, and the heartiest songster 

 sent no cheerful cry above the wide-spreading 

 and low-lying cloud ; but above all this silent, 

 desolate, and seemingly deserted outlook there 

 was a wealth of sunshine and a canopy of 

 deep-blue sky. Here and there, as islands in 

 a boundless sea, were the leafy tops of a few 

 tall trees, and these, I fancied, were tempting 

 regions to explore. Travels in a tree-top — 

 surely, here we have a bit of novelty in this 

 worn-out world. 



Unless wholly wedded to the town, it is not 

 cheering to think of the surrounding country 

 as worn out. It is but little more than two 

 centuries since the home-seeking folk of other 

 lands came here to trick or trade with the 



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