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Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes."
RICHARD III.

THE traveller who passes, during the summer or autumn months of the year, through the states of our Union that lie west of the Ohio river-Indiana and Illinois in particular-will often pause in his journey, with feelings of irrepressible admiration, to gaze upon the ten thousand beauties, which nature has spread through those regions with an uncommonly liberal hand. The majestic mountain, upholding the heavens on its cloudy top, does not, to be sure, arrest his astonished eye; and the roaring cataract, dashing from a dizzy height, and thundering down into whirling depths below, then rising again in upward showers, forms no part of the character of their quiet scenes. But the

wide-spread prairie, level as some waveless lake, from whose fertile soil the grass springs up with a luxuriance unparalleled in any other part of our country, the beautiful green, of which is besprinkled with myriads and myriads of flowers, ravishing the sight with their loveliness, and filling the air with their sweets-and, again, on either side of these immense savannas, standing arrayed "like host to host opposed," the leafy forests, whose silence has not often been broken by the voice of man, and through whose verdant recesses the deer stalk in herds, with the boldness of primeval nature-these are some of the scenes that call forth a passing tribute of praise from every beholder. Such is their summer aspect: but when winter “has taken angrily his waste inheritance," not even the painter's

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pencil can convey a just conception of the bleakness and desolation of the change. Then those extensive plains, lately covered with the infinitely diversified charms of nature, become one white unvaried waste of snow: through the vistas of the naked trees nothing meets the glance but snow; and if from the chilly monotony of earth, the wearied eye looks up to heaven, thick and heavy clouds, driven along upon the wind, seemed surcharged to bursting with the same frigid element. It was during the latter season that the incidents of the following story took place.

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About the middle of December, some twelve or fifteen years ago, before Illinois was admitted a sister state into the Union, on the afternoon of a day that had been uncommonly mild, and during the morning of which there had occurred a light fall of snow, two persons might have been seen riding along one of the immense prairies, in a northern direction. The elder seemed advanced in years, and was dressed in the usual habiliments of the country. He wore a cap, made of the skin of the otter, and a hunting-shirt of blue linseywoolsey covered his body, descending nearly to the knees, and trimmed with red woollen fringe. It was fastened round the waist by a girdle of buckskin, to which was appended a bullet-pouch, made of the same material with the cap. His feet were covered with buckskin moccasins, and leggings of stout cloth were wrapped several times round his legs, fastened, above the knee and at the ancle, with strings of green worsted. The horse he bestrode, was so small that his rider's feet almost draggled on the ground, and he had that artificial gait which is denominated racking. The old man's hair fell in long and uncombed locks beneath his cap, and was white with the frosts of many winters; while the sallowness of his complexion gave proof of a long residence in those uncultivated parts of the country, where the excessive vegetable decay, and the

stagnation of large bodies of water, produce perennial agues.

His companion was a young man, dressed according to the prevailing fashion of the cities of the eastern states; and his rosy cheeks and bright blue eyes evinced that he had not suffered from the effects of climate. He was mounted on a spirited horse, and carried in his hand a heavy looking rifle, the butt of which rested on his toe.

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"Well, Doctor Rivington," said the elder person, "I should no more ha' looked to see one of you yankees, toting about wi' you a rail Kentuck' rifle, than I should ha' thought I'd be riding myself without one. If I didn't see it in your hands, I could almost swear that it's Jim Buckhorn's."

"You have guessed correctly, Mr. Silversight,” replied the young physician; "I believe you know almost every rifle in this part of the territory."

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Why, I have handled a power of 'em in my time, Doctor," said the old man, "and there aint many good ones, atwixt Sangamo and the Mississip', that I don't know the vally on. I reckon now, that same rifle seems to you but a clumsy sort of a shooting-iron; but it's brought down a smart chance of deer first and last. That lock's a rail Kreamer, and there aint a truer bore-except mine, that I left down in the Settlement, to get a new sight to-no, not atwixt this and Major Markham's. It carries jist ninety-four, and mine a leetle over ninety-eight to the pound. Jim has used my bullets often, when we've been out hunting together."

"I was unacquainted with the worth of the gun,” resumed Charles Rivington; "but stepping into the gun-smith's this morning, I heard him express regret that he had missed a chance of sending it out to Jemmy Buckhorn's; so, intending to come this way, I offered to take charge of it myself. In this wilderness coun

try we must stand ready to do such little offices of friendship, Mr. Silversight."

""Twas no doubt kindly meant, Doctor, and Jim will be monstrous glad to git his piece again," said the hunter. "But my wonderment is, and I don't mean no harm by it, how that tinker would trust such a Kreamer as that 'ere, with a yankee Doctor. Do give it to me; I can't 'bide seeing a good rifle in a man's hand that don't know the vally on it."

Doctor Rivington resigned the weapon with a good humoured smile; for he had been some time in the country, and partly understood the love which a hunter always feels for a piece, of the character of that he had been carrying: he knew, too, though the old man's manners were rough, that there was nothing like roughness in his heart. Indeed, the very person who was loath to trust his young companion with a gun, intrinsically worth but a trifle, would nevertheless, as we shall presently see, have unhesitatingly placed in his charge, without witness or receipt, an uncounted or unlimited amount of money. The term yankee, which we have heard him applying, in rather a contemptuous manner, was then, and for years after, used indiscriminately in reference to all such as emigrated from the states east of the Alleghany mountains. Handing the rifle across his horse to the old hunter, Charles Rivington observed:

"I am glad you have offered to take it, Mr. Silversight, for there appears to be a storm coming up, and as I wish to reach Mr. Wentworth's to-night, I can make the distance shorter, by crossing through the woods into the other prairie, before I get to Buckhorn's." "Will you be going into town to-morrow, doctor?" asked Silversight.

"I shall."

"Well then, you can do me a good turn. Here, said the old man, handing a little leathern bag, "is

fifteen dollars in species; and the rest, four hundred and eighty-five in Shawnee-town paper, is, wrapped in this bit of rag. I want you to pay it into the land-office, to clear out old Richly's land: I was going to take it in; but you'll do just as well, and save me a long ride."

The physician promised to attend to the business; and they kept on together, conversing on such subjects as the nature of the scene suggested, until they reached the place where the path branched into two, and diverged in opposite directions.

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"This is my nearest way, I believe?" said Charles. It is," answered the old man. "This fresh track, that we noticed awhile ago, lies on my route; so I'll push my nag a little, soon as I load this rifle, and it may so be, that I'll overtake company, Doctor, look here, and you'll know how an old hunter loads his piece-it may stand you, in hand some day: I put on a double patch, becase my bullets are a leetle smaller than Jim's you mind I told you. There," said he, as he shoved the ball to its place, and carefully poured some priming into the pan, "it's done in quick time by them what have slept, year in and year out, with red Indians our every side of 'em. Good night to ye, Doctor; you needn't lift the sartificates the Register may as well keep 'em till old Richly goes in himself.”

So saying, the two travellers parted, each urging his horse to greater speed, as the night threatened shortly to set in dark and stormy. The old hunter, acknowledging to himself in mental soliloquy, that the Doctor was "a right nice and cute young fellow, considering he was raised amongst yankees," rode briskly along the path. He had proceeded about four or five miles further on his way, when he perceived that the track which he before observed, turned aside, towards a little point of woods, that put out into the prairie. "So, so," said he, "Slaymush has been out among the deer to day; I was in hopes 'twas some one going up to the head-waters:" and he kept racking along the

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