cept death and horror, would
be worse for us than hanging; it would eventually result in
strangulation by starvation. And besides, as my acquaintance informed
me, the woods are infested with wild animals; and if a fellow attempted
to venture out at night very possibly his carcass would be very soon
deposited in the inside of a dozen of wolves. He further told me that
the trees during summer rained down myriads of mosquitoes as large as
beetles, with stings like hornets and in the shape of a tube, by which
means a dozen of them could suck up a fellow's blood in a night; and
were by far a greater plague than the grasshoppers of Egypt. To prevent
them from settling upon himself he covered his head and neck with a mask
made from deer-skin, in which he cut holes to inhale air and see
through; but despite of such precautions they would sometimes force
their way through these orifices, and one dart, said he, into a fellow's
eye was sufficient to cause a myriad of stars to fly from his winker."

"Well, but that is really horrifying," exclaimed Mrs. Charlston.

"Awful, awful!" shouted Amelia.

"'Tis really so indeed," added Eliza.

"Oh! it is all bosh," ejaculated Fred.

"_Bosh!_ d'ye say!" exclaimed H. "Indeed, I have only told you the least
objectionable part. I assure you, he related things that would make a
fellow's blood to curdle into vinegar, and perspire from every pore of
the body. I credit everything he told me, for his word is as much to be
depended upon as the 'Law of Moses.'"

"That'll do for the present," said Amelia.

"Go on," cried George.

"What did he say about the climate?" inquired Mr. C.

"He told me, sir, that it was so hot during the dog-days in summer, that
the people had to lie upon deer-skins filled with water to prevent their
bodies from being totally dissolved into vapor, and, that at the end of
that terrible season they appeared only as living skeletons, as slender,
indeed, as to be incapable of producing even a shadow."

"Oh! but that is awfully horrible!" exclaimed Mrs. C. Mr. Charlston and
George laughed heartily. The girls shrugged up their shoulders,
expressive of nervous twitchings.

"And in winter," continued H., "it is so intensely cold that every river
to its foundation is frozen into ice. It snows sometimes for weeks
without ceasing; it is then generally followed by fierce winds which
drift the snow into heaps like mountains, frequently burying houses and
their inhabitants a hu