hite boy had ever seen before. It was
hard for him to realize that it was all so new. Behold a splendid grove
of oaks! he was its discoverer. Here the little river dropped over a
cliff of ten feet; his eyes were the first to see the waterfall. From
this high hill the view was wonderful; he was the first to enjoy it.
Forest, open and canebrake alike were swarming with game, and he saw
buffaloes, deer, wild turkeys, and multitudes of rabbits and squirrels.
Unaccustomed yet to man, they allowed the explorers to come near.

Ross and Henry were accompanied on many of these journeys by Shif'less
Sol Hyde. Sol was a young man without kith or kin in the settlement, and
so, having nobody but himself to take care of, he chose to roam the
country a great portion of the time. He was fast acquiring a skill in
forest life and knowledge of its ways second only to that of Ross, the
guide. Some of the men called Sol lazy, but he defended himself. "The
good God made different kinds of people and they live different kinds of
lives," said he. "Mine suits me and harms nobody." Ross said he was
right, and Sol became a hunter and scout for the settlement.

There was no lack of food. They yet had a good supply of the provisions
brought with them from the other side of the mountains, but they saved
them for a possible time of scarcity. Why should they use this store
when they could kill all the game they needed within a mile of their own
house smoke? Now Henry tasted the delights of buffalo tongue and beaver
tail, venison, wild turkey, fried squirrel, wild goose, wild duck and a
dozen kinds of fish. Never did a boy have more kinds of meat, morning,
noon, and night. The forest was full of game, the fish were just
standing up in the river and crying to be caught, and the air was
sometimes dark with wild fowl. Henry enjoyed it. He was always hungry.
Working and walking so much, and living in the open air every minute of
his life, except when he was eating or sleeping, his young and growing
frame demanded much nourishment, and it was not denied.

At last the great day came when he was allowed to kill a deer if he
could. Both Ross and Shif'less Sol had interceded for him. "The boy's
getting big and strong an' it's time he learned," said Ross. "His hand's
steady enough an' his eye's good enough already," said Shif'less Sol,
and his father agreeing with them told them to take him and teach him.

Two miles away, near the bank of the river, was a spri