rnately smoking a
clay pipe and shouting profane instructions to her husband touching the
management of the boat. To this dual boatman the skipper of the packet
loudly appealed for aid, desiring him to "crowd along and give us a
swell."

"What in nater was ye sich a cussed fool as ter git stuck fer?" replied
the two heads; and in spite of the disapproval conveyed by the question,
the stranger boat was driven as rapidly as possible close beside the
packet, the result being a long wave or "swell," enabling that luckless
craft to float off into the deeper water.

"Now, gen'lemen, locate, if you please; please to locate, gen'lemen! You
capting with the specs on, ef yer don't sit down, I'll hev to ax yer
to," vociferated the skipper; and the passengers were nearly seated when
the boat grounded again, and was this time got off only by the aid of a
double team, a swell, and the shoulders of the captain and several of
the passengers, who walked in and out of the boat as recklessly as
Newfoundland dogs. After this style, the passage of five miles was
handsomely accomplished in six hours, and it was the gloaming of a
November day when Miselle, cold, wet, and weary, first set foot, or
rather both her feet, deep in the mud of Tarr Farm, and clambered
through briers and scrub oak up the bluff, where stood her friend's
house, and where the panacea of "a good cup of tea and a night's rest"
soon closed the eventful day.

The next morning was meant for an artist, and it is to be hoped that
there was one at Tarr Farm to see the curtain of fog slowly lifting from
the bright waters of the Creek, and creeping up the bluff beyond it,
until it melted into the clear blue sky, and let the sunshine come
glancing down the valley, where groups of derricks, long lines of tanks,
engine-houses, counting-rooms replaced the forest growth of a few years
previous, and crowds of workmen, interspersed with overseers and
proprietors on foot or horseback, superseded the wild creatures hardly
yet driven from their lifelong haunt.

Through the whole extent of Oil Creek, one picturesque feature never
fails: this is the alternation of bluff and flat on the opposite sides
of the Creek, so that the voyager never finds himself between two of
either,--but, as the bluff at his right hand sinks into a plain, he
finds the plain at the left rising sharply into a bluff.

It is in these flats that the oil is found; and each of them is thickly
studded with derricks a