y James Cooper, and in this way he wrote it until 1826. But in
April of that year the Legislature of New York passed an act changing
the family name to Fenimore-Cooper. This was done in accordance with
the wish of his grandmother, whose descendants in the direct male line
had died out. But he seldom employed the hyphen in writing, and
finally gave up the use of it altogether.

The early childhood of Cooper was mainly passed in the wilderness at
the very time when the first wave of civilization was beginning to
break against its hills. There was everything in what he saw and heard
to impress the mind of the growing boy. He was on the border, if (p. 004)
indeed he could not justly be said to be in the midst of mighty and
seemingly interminable woods which stretched for hundreds of miles to
the westward. Isolated clearings alone broke this vast expanse of
foliage, which, covering the valleys and clinging to the sides and
crowning the summits of the hills, seemed to rise and fall like the
waves of the sea. The settler's axe had as yet scarcely dispelled the
perpetual twilight of the primeval forest. The little lake lay
enclosed in a border of gigantic trees. Over its waters hung the
interlacing branches of mighty oaks and beeches and pines. Its surface
was frequented by flocks of wild, aquatic birds,--the duck, the gull,
and the loon. In this lofty valley among the hills were also to be
found, then as now, in fullest perfection, the clear atmosphere, the
cloudless skies, and the brilliant light of midsummer suns, that
characterize everywhere the American highlands. More even than the
beauty and majesty of nature that lay open to the sight was the
mystery that constantly appealed to the imagination in what might lie
hidden in the depths of a wilderness that swept far beyond glance of
eye or reach of foot. This, indeed, may have affected the feelings of
only a few, but there were numerous interests and anxieties which all
had in common. The little village had early gone through many of the
trials which mark the history of most of the settlements in regions to
which few travelers found their way and commerce seldom came. Remote
from sources of supply, and difficult of access, it had known the time
when its population, scanty as it was, suffered from the scarcity of
food. Sullivan's successful expedition against the Six Nations did not
suffice to keep it from the alarm of savage attack that never came.
The immense forest shut