th no bounds save the power
of its vision, was one wide expanse of varied beauty. The dark forest
hues were relieved by the rich tints of the waving corn; neat little
cottages peeped out in every direction. Here and there, a village, with
its taper steeples, recalled the bounteous Hand "that giveth us all
things richly to enjoy." Below my feet was beautifully undulating park
ground, magnificently timbered, through which peeped the river, bright
as silver beneath the rays of an unclouded sun, whose beams, streaming
at the same time on a field of the rich-coloured pumpkin, burnished each
like a ball of molten gold. All around was richness, beauty, and
abundance.

The descendant of a Wellington or a Washington, while contemplating the
glorious deeds of an illustrious ancestor, and recalling the adoration
of a grateful country, may justly feel his breast swelling with pride
and emulation; but while I was enjoying this scene, there stood one at
my side within whom also such emotions might be as fully and justly
stirred--for there are great men to be found in less conspicuous, though
not less useful spheres of life. A son who knew its history enjoyed with
me this goodly scene. His father was the first bold pioneer. The rut
made by the wheel of his rude cart, drawn by two oxen, was the first
impress made by civilization in the whole of this rich and far-famed
valley. A brother shared with him his early toils and privations; their
own hands raised the log-hut--their new home in the wilderness. Ere they
broke ground, the boundless forest howled around a stray party of
Indians, come to hunt, or to pasture their flocks on the few open plots
skirting the river: all else was waste and solitude. One brother died
comparatively early; but the father of mine host lived long to enjoy the
fruit of his labours. He lived to see industry and self-denial
metamorphose that forest and its straggling Indian band into a land
bursting with the rich fruits of the soil, and buzzing with a busy hive
of human energy and intelligence. Yes; and he lived to see temple after
temple, raised for the pure worship of the True God, supplant the
ignorance and idolatry which reigned undisturbed at his first coming.
Say, then, reader, has not the son of such a father just cause for
pride--a solemn call to emulation? The patriarchal founder of his family
and their fortunes has left an imperishable monument of his greatness in
the prosperity of this rich vale; and