en settled out there had sons; but they were away,
and at times the place seemed very lonely; but I fancy now that was only
just before a storm, or when everything felt strange and depressing. At
other times I was happy enough. Every morning I had three hours' good
study with my father, who very rarely let me neglect that. Then in the
afternoon there was always something to do or something to see and help
over. For, as far as my father's means would allow, he planned and
contrived endless things to make our home more attractive and
convenient.

One week it would be the contriving of rough tree-trunk steps down from
the bank to the water's edge, so that the boat was easily reached, and
ringbolts were driven into cut-down trees, which became natural posts
for mooring the boat.

Another time during one of our walks, he stopped by a lovely pool out
toward the swamp--a spot of about an acre and a half in extent, where
the trees kept off the wind, and where the morning sun seemed to light
up the bottom, showing every pebble and every fish as if seen through
crystal glass.

"There," he said, "that will be ten times better than bathing in the
river. I always feel a little nervous about you there. This shall be
your own private bathing-pool, where you can learn to swim to your
heart's content. That old fallen hickory will do for your
dressing-room, and there are places to hang up your clothes. I don't
think you can come to harm here."

Of course I was delighted, and at the same time a little disappointed;
for the fact that the pool was perfectly safe took away somewhat from
its attractiveness, and I began to think that there was no stream to
carry one along; no very deep places to swim over and feel a thrill at
the danger; no holes in the banks where an alligator might be smiling
pleasantly as he thought how good a boy would be to eat.

CHAPTER FOUR.

I am obliged to run quickly through my early unadventurous days,
skipping, as it were, from memory to memory of things which happened
before life became serious and terrible for us all at the plantation,
and storms and peril followed rapidly after the first pleasant calm.
For it seems to me now, as I sit and think, that nothing could have been
happier than the life on the river during the first days of the
settlement. Of course, everybody had to work hard, but it was in a land
of constant sunshine, of endless spring and summer days--cold weather
was hardly know