190 
RURAL HOURS. 
and swine fed in thickets whence the wild beasts h *d fled, while 
the ox and the horse drew away in chains the fallen trunks of the 
forest. The tenants of the wilderness shrunk deeper within 
its bounds Avith every changing moon ; the wild creatures fled 
away within the receding shades of the forest, and the red man 
followed on their track ; his day of power was gone, his hour of 
pitiless revenge had passed, and the last echoes of the war-whoop 
Avere dying away foreA^er among these hills, when the pale-faces 
laid their hearth-stones by the lake shore. The red man, who 
for thousands of years had been lord of the land, no longer treads 
the soil ; lie exists here only in uncertain memories, and in for- 
gotten graves. 
Such has been the change of the last half century. Those 
who from childhood have knoAvn the cheerful dwellmgs of the vil- 
lage, the broad and fertile farms, the well-beaten roads, such as 
they are to-day, can hardly credit that this has all been done so 
recently by a band of men, some of whom, white-headed and 
leaning on their staves, are still among us. Yet such is the simple 
truth. This village lies just on the borders of the tract of coun- 
try Avhich was opened and peopled immediately after the Revolu- 
tion ; it Avas among the earliest of those little colonies from the 
sea-board which struck into the Avildemess at that favorable mo- 
ment, and whose rapid groAvth and progress in civilization have 
become a by-word. Other places, indeed, have far surpassed 
this quiet borough ; Rochester, Buffalo, and others of a later 
date, have become great cities, while this remains a rural Aollage ; 
still, Avhenever we pa\ise to recall what has been done in this se- 
cluded valley during the hfetime of onp generation, we must needs 
be struck Avith neAv astonishment. And throughout every act of 
