ther was the first who ever built a
sawmill on the river down there, and the frame-houses began to gather
about it shortly. Then he ventured into the grist line; and I'm the
owner of the biggest mills in the place now, with half-a-dozen of
others competing, and all doing a fair business in flour, and lumber
for exportation. You see in this land we've room enough for all, and
no man need scowl down another of the same trade. 'Taint so in England,
where you must knock your bread out of somebody else's mouth.'

'Not always, sir,' said Robert, 'nor commonly, I hope.'

'I forgot you were a fresh importation,' observed Mr. Holt with a
satisfied chuckle. 'You ain't colonized yet. Well, let's come and look
at something else.'

Meanwhile Arthur had measured the dimensions of the shanty, by pacing
along and across: sixteen feet one way, twelve the other. Narrow limits
for the in-door life of a family; but the cottage had somewhat grown
with their growth, and thrown out a couple of small bed-chambers,
like buds of incipient shanties, from the main trunk. A curiosity of
wood-craft it looked, so mossy, gnarled, and weather-beaten, that one
could easily have believed it had sprung from the ground without the
intervention of hands, a specimen of some gigantic forest fungus.

'I'll leave a charge in my will that it's not to be disturbed,' said
Hiram. ''Twould be sacrilege to move a log of the whole consarn. D'ye
hear, Sam?'

His son had just come up and shaken hands; for this was a matutinal
expedition of Mr. Holt and his guests round the farm. Being given to
habits of extreme earliness, the former was wont to rouse any one in the
house whose company he fancied, to go with him in his morning walks; and
the Wynns had been honoured by a knocking-up at five o'clock for that
purpose. Mr. Holt had strode into their room, flung open the window
shutters and the sash with a resounding hand which completely dissipated
sleep, and rendered it hardly matter of choice to follow him, since no
repose was to be gained by lying in bed. Sam's clear brown eyes sparkled
as he saw the victims promenading after his tall father at the Gothic
hour of six, and marked Arthur furtively rubbing his eyes.

'You're tremendously early people here,' remarked Arthur, when young
Holt joined them. 'I had a mind to turn round and close the shutters
again, but was afraid I might affront your father.'

'Affront him! oh no; but he'd just come again and again to rouse