tive vitality, strong, and
usually just feelings, and a good-natured freedom of character, which
enlisted confidence, and seemed likely to acknowledge few restraints of
a merely conventional kind. Nor, in any of these particulars, did the
outward falsely interpret the inward man. With the possession of a
giant's powers, he was seldom so far borne forward by his impulses,
whether of pride or of passion, as to permit of their wanton or improper
use. His eye, too, had a not unpleasing twinkle, promising more of
good-fellowship and a heart at ease than may ever consort with the
jaundiced or distempered spirit. His garb indicated, in part, and was
well adapted to the pursuits of the hunter and the labors of the
woodman. We couple these employments together, for, in the wildernesses
of North America, the dense forests, and broad prairies, they are
utterly inseparable. In a belt, made of buckskin, which encircled his
middle, was stuck, in a sheath of the same material, a small axe, such
as, among the Indians, was well known to the early settlers as a deadly
implement of war. The head of this instrument, or that portion of it
opposite the blade, and made in weight to correspond with and balance
the latter when hurled from the hand, was a pick of solid steel,
narrowing down to a point, and calculated, with a like blow, to prove
even more fatal, as a weapon in conflict, than the more legitimate
member to which it was appended. A thong of ox-hide, slung over his
shoulder, supported easily a light rifle of the choicest bore; for there
are few matters indeed upon which the wayfarer in the southern wilds
exercises a nicer and more discriminating taste than in the selection of
a companion, in a pursuit like his, of the very last importance; and
which, in time, he learns to love with a passion almost comparable to
his love of woman. The dress of the woodman was composed of a coarse
gray stuff, of a make sufficiently _outre_, but which, fitting him
snugly, served to set off his robust and well-made person to the utmost
advantage. A fox-skin cap, of domestic manufacture, the tail of which,
studiously preserved, obviated any necessity for a foreign tassel,
rested slightly upon his head, giving a unique finish to his appearance,
which a fashionable hat would never have supplied. Such was the
personage, who, so fortunately for Ralph, plied his craft in that lonely
region; and who, stumbling upon his insensible form at nightfall, as
already n