44 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
planed, which slope from the walls, and are sup- 
ported by brackets. The forms are split logs, with 
four diverging legs from the round side, the upper 
side being made tolerably straight with the axe. 
Some wooden pegs, driven into auger holes in the 
logs, receive hats, &c. A neat little desk, at which 
I write, and a chair on which I sit, are the only 
exceptions to the primitive rudeness of all our fur- 
niture, and the pupils are, mostly, as rude as the 
house, — real young hunters, who handle the long 
rifle with more ease and dexterity than the goose- 
quill, and who are incomparably more at home in 
‘^twisting a rabbit,” or treeing a ’possum,” than 
in conjugating a verb. But more of them when I 
get better acquainted with them. 
The situation of the school is singularly ro- 
mantic ; a space of about a hundred yards square 
has been cleared in the forest, with the exception 
of two or three lofty oaks which are left for shade. 
On every side we are shut in by a dense wall of 
towering forest trees, rising to the height of a hun- 
dred feet or more. Oaks, hickories, and pines of 
different species extend for miles on every hand, 
for this little clearing is made two or three miles 
from any human habitation, with the exception of 
one house about three quarters of a mile distant. 
Its loneliness, however, is no objection with me, as 
it necessarily throws me more into the presence of 
free and wild nature. At one comer a narrow 
bridle-path leads out of this yard,” and winds 
through the sombre forest to the distant high road. 
A nice spring, cool in the hottest day of summer, 
rises in another corner, and is protected and accu- 
mulated by being inclosed in four sides of a box, 
over the edges of which the superfluous water 
