BY FRANK I. WILSON.

CHAPTER I.

THE western portion of the State of North Carolina is by no means
densely populated even at this day, though much more so than it was half
a century ago, the time at which the principal incidents I am about to
relate occurred.

This part of the State is remarkable for the beauty and grandeur of its
mountain scenery, its fertile soil, and the salubrity of its climate.
The bracing mountain air has brought back the bloom of health to the wan
cheek of many an invalid; and rock, and stream, and waterfall have
filled many a heart with rapturous delight. The wild deer bounds through
the forest, and the hoarse bay of hounds, the encouraging shout of the
huntsman, and the shrill report of the deadly rifle are sounds that
frequently meet the traveler's ear. As in all mountainous regions, the
inhabitants are hospitable and generous almost to a fault. Their doors
are ever open to the stranger, and, in many cases, they take the offer
of payment for their accommodations as an insult. Most of the nobler
virtues are shrined in their honest bosoms; but such is the fertility of
their valleys, that very little labor is sufficient to procure them the
necessaries of life, and, as the quantity of labor is everywhere
proportioned to the necessity for it, we find them, in general, indolent
and careless--rich in that best of Heaven's gifts, contentment. The
facilities of this region for manufactories are, perhaps, unsurpassed by
any portion of the globe, and, with an energetic and industrious
population, it would soon become one of the most flourishing sections of
our Union.

But enough of this. I did not intend to enter into a minute description
of the country, and almost unconsciously penned the above. I proceed
with my story.

Among the mountains, not far from the line which separates North from
South Carolina, but on the side of the former State, stood, at the
period of which I write, a house built after a fashion still prevalent
in that region, and which is called a "double cabin." Two cabins, built
of logs, are erected ten or twelve feet apart, and generally two stories
high, and then connected under one roof, forming pleasant rooms, and
also a cool passage between the cabins, where the members of the family
usually spend their evenings during the summer months. In the house
above mentioned lived Amos Kelford, a hardy mountaineer, with a wife
and several children, of which Daniel, the hero of my t