of the wind, when there
was no apparent cause in operation to produce such an effect, a tall and
majestic trunk was seen to decline from the perpendicular, topple slowly
through the air, and then fall to the earth with a crash like the shock
of an earthquake.

The poet and the moralising philosopher may find food for contemplation
in such a scene and such a catastrophe. He may see, in the lofty and
decaying trunks, the hoary relics and representatives of a generation of
better and greater spirits than those who lead the destinies of his
own,--spirits, left not more as monuments of the past than as models for
the imitation of the present; he may contrast their majestic serenity and
rest, their silence and immovableness, with the turmoil of the greener
growth around, the uproar and collision produced by every gust, and trace
the resemblance to the scene where the storms of party, rising among the
sons, hurtle so indecently around the gray fathers of the republic, whose
presence should stay them; and, finally, he may behold in the trunks, as
they yield at last to decay, and sink one by one to the earth, the fall
of each aged parent of his country,--a fall, indeed, as of an oak of a
thousand generations, shocking the earth around, and producing for a
moment, wonder, awe, grief, and then a long forgetfulness.

But men in the situation of the travellers have neither time nor
inclination for moralising. The fall of the tree only served to alarm the
weaker members of the party, to some of whom, perhaps, it appeared as an
inauspicious omen. Apparently, however, it woke certain mournful
recollections in the brains of both little Peter and his master, the
former of whom, as he passed it by, began to snuffle and whine in a low
and peculiar manner; while Nathan immediately responded, as if in reply
to his counsellor's address, "Ay, truly, Peter!--thee has a good memory
of the matter; though five long years is a marvellous time for thee
little noddle to hold things. It was under this very tree they murdered
the poor old granny, and brained the innocent, helpless babe. Of a truth,
it was a sight that made my heart sink within me."

"What!" asked Roland, who followed close at his heels, and over heard the
half-soliloquised expressions; "were _you_ present at the massacre!"

"Alas, friend," replied Nathan, "it was neither the first nor last
massacre that I have seen with these eyes. I dwelt, in them days, in a
cabin a little distanc