or-steps;
the door itself was fastened with a huge padlock; the windows were nearly
all beaten in, and every thing about it gave evidence that it had not been
inhabited for several years. The summit of the hill was smooth and level.
A few stumps grew around the edge; and the ground seemed to have been, at
some former time, a garden.

The situation was exceedingly fine, and the view on all sides very
beautiful. The eminence commanded on one hand three or four miles of the
river, and on the other an unlimited tract of prairie. At the particular
moment when I first visited it, the level sun-light came glancing over the
face of flood and field, tinging every thing that it touched with its own
mellow hue, and casting gigantic and ill-defined shadows of the hill, the
house, and myself, on the plain beyond. At the distance of a mile and a
half below, stood a couple of one-story houses, the logs of which they
were built newly hewed, evidently of recent construction. The inhabitants
of this old building, then, must have stood where I am standing, and gazed
over the vast extent of country that is spread out before me, without
meeting a single habitation of man, or any thing having life, except
perhaps a wolf or a buffalo. And it could not have been desire of wealth
that induced a family of refinement and taste, such as the little
decorations and ornaments show that this was, to select this solitude for
their home; for not more than an acre of land, at the foot of the hill,
had ever been invaded by the plough.

There were several circumstances like these, that were unusual and
unaccountable; but not being in a mood just then to be much perplexed
about it, I descended the knoll, remounted, and hurried on towards the
more hospitable dwellings below.

Of course, the traveller was received with a welcome, and his bodily wants
speedily and abundantly cared for. After this most important duty had been
satisfactorily performed, and quietude of spirit consequent thereon was
restored to my breast, it chanced that the host and his blue-eyed,
golden-haired, neatly-dressed, smiling-faced, half-matron, and
half-girlish young wife, who had lately set up business on their own
account, and I, seated ourselves without the door, to feel the cool air of
the evening. It chanced too that the door faced the east; and the old
house towered up darkly in the distance before us. In answer to my
inquiries, they were able to give but little information con