ally grew within the influence of its moisture.
Hither, then, the stranger held his way, eagerly followed by the willing
teams, whose instinct gave them a prescience of refreshment and rest.

On reaching what he deemed a suitable spot, the old man halted, and
with an enquiring look, he seemed to demand if it possessed the
needed conveniences. The leader of the emigrants cast his eyes,
understandingly, about him, and examined the place with the keenness of
one competent to judge of so nice a question, though in that dilatory
and heavy manner, which rarely permitted him to betray precipitation.

"Ay, this may do," he said, satisfied with his scrutiny; "boys, you have
seen the last of the sun; be stirring."

The young men manifested a characteristic obedience. The order, for such
in tone and manner it was, in truth, was received with respect; but the
utmost movement was the falling of an axe or two from the shoulder
to the ground, while their owners continued to regard the place with
listless and incurious eyes. In the mean time, the elder traveller, as
if familiar with the nature of the impulses by which his children were
governed, disencumbered himself of his pack and rifle, and, assisted
by the man already mentioned as disposed to appeal so promptly to the
rifle, he quietly proceeded to release the cattle from the gears.

At length the eldest of the sons stepped heavily forward, and, without
any apparent effort, he buried his axe to the eye, in the soft body of a
cotton-wood tree. He stood, a moment, regarding the effect of the blow,
with that sort of contempt with which a giant might be supposed to
contemplate the puny resistance of a dwarf, and then flourishing the
implement above his head, with the grace and dexterity with which a
master of the art of offence would wield his nobler though less useful
weapon, he quickly severed the trunk of the tree, bringing its tall
top crashing to the earth in submission to his prowess. His companions
regarded the operation with indolent curiosity, until they saw the
prostrate trunk stretched on the ground, when, as if a signal for a
general attack had been given, they advanced in a body to the work, and
in a space of time, and with a neatness of execution that would have
astonished an ignorant spectator, they stripped a small but suitable
spot of its burden of forest, as effectually, and almost as promptly, as
if a whirlwind had passed along the place.

The stranger had been a