lready gone before. He wanted to see deer and bears
and buffaloes, trees bigger than any that grew in Maryland, and
mountains and mighty rivers. But they left the settlements behind at
last, and came to the unbroken forest. Here he found his hopes
fulfilled. They were on the first slopes of the mountains that divide
Virginia from Kentucky, and the bold, wild nature of the country pleased
him. He had never seen mountains before, and he felt the dignity and
grandeur of the peaks.

Sometimes he went on ahead with Tom Ross, the guide, his chosen friend,
and then he considered himself, in very truth, a man, or soon to become
one, because he was now exploring the unknown, leading the way for a
caravan--and there could be no more important duty. At such moments he
listened to the talk of the guide who taught the lesson that in the
wilderness it was always important to see and to listen, a thing however
that Henry already knew instinctively. He learned the usual sounds of
the woods, and if there was any new noise he would see what made it. He
studied, too, the habits of the beasts and birds. As for fishing, he
found that easy. He could cut a rod with his clasp knife, tie a string
to the end of it and a bent pin to the end of a string, and with this
rude tackle he could soon catch in the mountain creeks as many fish as
he wanted.

Henry liked the nights in the mountains; in which he did not differ from
his fellow-travelers. Then the work of the day was done; the wagons were
drawn up in a half circle, the horses and the oxen were resting or
grazing under the trees, and, as they needed fires for warmth as well as
cooking, they built them high and long, giving room for all in front of
the red coals if they wished. The forest was full of fallen brushwood,
as dry as tinder, and Henry helped gather it. It pleased him to see the
flames rise far up, and to hear them crackle as they ate into the heart
of the boughs. He liked to see their long red shadows fall across the
leaves and grass, peopling the dark forest with fierce wild animals; he
would feel all the cosier within the scarlet rim of the firelight. Then
the men would tell stories, particularly Ross, the guide, who had
wandered much and far in Kentucky. He said that it was a beautiful land.
He spoke of the noble forests of beech and oak and hickory and maple,
the dense canebrake, the many rivers, and the great Ohio that received
them all--the Beautiful River, the Indians called i