224 
RURAL HOURS. 
ridges, half tilled, half wood, screening cultivated valleys, sprin- 
kled with farms and hamlets, among which some pretty stream 
generally winds its way. The waters in our immediate neighbor- 
hood all flow to the southward, though only a few miles to the 
north of our village, the brooks are found running in an opposite 
course, this valley lying just within the borders of the dividing 
ridge. The river itself, though farther south it becomes one of 
the great streams of the country, cannot boast of much breadth 
so near its source, and running quietly among the meadows, half 
screened by the groves and thickets, scarcely shows in the gen- 
eral view. 
The whole surface of the country is arable ; very little marsh 
or bog is found in the lower lands, and there are no barren tracts 
upon the hills. Rocks rarely break through the surface, except 
here and there where a low cliff runs along the hill-sides, and 
these are usually shaded by the forest. This general fertihty, 
this blending of the fields of man and his tillage with the woods, 
the great husbandr}^ of Providence, gives a fine character to the 
country, which it could not claim when the lonely savage roamed 
through wooded valleys, and which it must lose if ever cupidity, 
and the haste to grow rich, shall destroy the forest entirely, and 
leave these hills to posterity, bald and bare, as those of many 
older lands. No perfection of tillage, no luxuriance of produce 
can make up to a country for the loss of its forests ; you may turn 
the soil into a very garden crowded with the richest crops, if shorn 
of wood, like Sampson shorn of his locks, it may wear a florid as- 
pect, but the noblest fruit of the earth, that which is the greatest 
proof of her strength, will be wanting. 
Cross-roads occur frequently, and many more are seen in the 
