ng them at a height
of six thousand feet, till the "tree line" interposes; thence the great
bare domes lift their stately proportions among the clouds. Along these
lofty perspectives the varying distance affords the vision a vast array
of gradations of color,--green in a thousand shades, and bronze, and
purple, and blue,--blue growing ever fainter and more remote till it is
but an illusion of azure, and one may believe that the summits seen
through a gap to the northeast are sheer necromancy of the facile
horizon.

In the deep verdant cove below, groups of the giant trees common to the
region towered above the stanchly constructed cabins that formed the
homes of the Indians, for the Cherokees, detesting labor and experts in
procrastination, builded well and wisely that they might not be forced
to rebuild, and many of the distinctive features of the stout frontier
architecture were borrowed by the pioneers from aboriginal example. Out
beyond the shadows were broad stretches of fields with the lush June in
the wide and shining blade and the flaunting tassel. The voices of women
and young girls came cheerily from the breezy midst as they tilled the
ground, where flourished in their proper divisions the three varieties
of maize known to Indian culture, "the six weeks' corn, the hominy corn,
and the bread corn." A shoal of canoes skimmed down the river, each with
its darting shadow upon that lucent current and seeming as native, as
indigenous to the place as the minnows in a crystal brown pool there by
the waterside--each too with its swift javelin-like motion and a darting
shadow. Sundry open doors here and there showed glimpses of passing
figures within, but the arrival of the strangers was unnoticed till some
children playing beside the river caught sight of the unaccustomed
faces. With a shrill cry of discovery, they sped across the square,
agitated half by fright and half by the gusto of novelty. In another
moment there were two score armed men in the square.

"Now hould yer tongue still, an' I'll do the talkin'," said one of the
white adventurers to the other, speaking peremptorily, but with a suave
and delusive smile. "If yez weren't Frinch ye'd be a beautiful
Englishman; but I hev got the advantage of ye in that, an' faix I'll
kape it."

He was evidently of a breeding inferior to that of his companion, but he
had so sturdy and swinging a gait, so stalwart and goodly a build, so
engaging a manner, and so florid a s