tion Uncle Denis was so far recovered,
that my father announced his intention of returning home.

"Stay a few days longer; don't think of going yet," answered Uncle
Denis; "it seems but yesterday that you came, and I shall feel more
lonely than ever when you are gone; besides, you haven't seen the great
wonder of our part of the country, nor have I forsooth, and I should
like to pay it a visit with you."

"Of what wonder do you speak?" asked my father.

"Sure, of the big caves we have deep down in the earth, a few miles only
from this. It is said there are mountains, rivers and lakes within
them, and I don't know what besides."

"Oceans, forests, and valleys, perhaps," said my father, laughing, and
scarcely crediting the account my uncle gave him; for at that time the
wonderful Mammoth Caves of Kentucky were unknown to the world in
general, although the native Indians might have been acquainted with
them, and some time before, a mine of saltpetre at the entrance had been
discovered. My mother, more to please Uncle Denis than from any
expected pleasure to herself; agreed to accompany him, and to my great
delight, they promised to take me.

We were to perform the trip in two or three days, and Uncle Denis said
that in the meantime he would try and find means of amusing us. We went
all over the farm, on which he grew tobacco, maize, and other cereals.
He was a great sportsman, besides which he had a fancy for trapping
birds and animals, and taming them, when he could. In this he was
wonderfully successful; he had a large menagerie of the feathered tribe
as well as numbers of four-footed beasts which he had trapped and
contrived to domesticate. His ambition was to tame a panther, a bear,
and a wolf; but as yet he had not succeeded in taking any of them young
enough, as he said, to be taught good manners.

"Perhaps if you had a lady to help you, you would be more successful,"
observed my mother, "like Orpheus of old, who charmed the savage beasts.
She would with her voice produce a greater effect on their wild natures
than any man can do."

"I'll think about it," said Uncle Denis, looking up and laughing.

My mother's great wish was to see Uncle Denis married happily, though
where to find a wife to suit him, or, as she would have said, "good
enough for him," was the difficulty. There were no lack of excellent
girls in Kentucky, daughters of settlers, but they could seldom boast of
much education or refinement