broke from the remainder.

And now to follow our mounted friends, who, having reached the park,
continued still at a walking pace to thread the greasy paths that
led through that pleasant tract; now hid amid the shade of ancient
thorn-trees, now gaining the open expanse of plain with its bold
background of blue mountains.

From the evident attention bestowed by the two sisters, it was clear
that Cashel was narrating something of interest, for he spoke of an
event which had happened to himself in his prairie life; and this alone,
independent of all else, was enough to make the theme amusing.

"Does this convey any idea of a prairie, Mr. Cashel?" said Miss
Kennyfeck, as they emerged from a grove of beech-trees, and came upon
the wide and stretching plain, so well known to Dubliners as the Fifteen
Acres, but which is, in reality, much greater in extent. "I have always
fancied this great grassy expanse must be like a prairie."

"About as like as yonder cattle to a herd of wild buffaloes," replied
Roland, smiling.

"Then what is a prairie like? Do tell us," said Olivia, eagerly.

"I can scarcely do so, nor, if I were a painter, do I suppose that I
could make a picture of one, because it is less the presence than the
total absence of all features of landscape that constitutes the wild
and lonely solitude of a prairie. But fancy a great plain--gently--very
gently undulating,--not a tree, not a shrub, not a stream to break the
dreary uniformity; sometimes, but even that rarely, a little muddy pond
of rain-water, stagnant and yellow, is met with, but only seen soon
after heavy showers, for the hot sun rapidly absorbs it. The only
vegetation a short yellowed burnt-up grass,--not a wild flower or a
daisy, if you travelled hundreds of hundreds of miles. On you go, days
and days, but the scene never changes. Large cloud shadows rest upon
the barren expanse, and move slowly and sluggishly away, or sometimes a
sharp and pelting shower is borne along, traversing hundreds of miles
in its course; but these are the only traits of motion in the death-like
stillness. At last, perhaps after weeks of wandering, you descry, a long
way off, some dark objects dotting the surface,--these are buffaloes; or
at sunset, when the thin atmosphere makes everything sharp and distinct,
some black spectral shapes seem to glide between you and the red
twilight,--these are Indian hunters, seen miles off, and by some strange
law of nature they are prese