dled trees which yet
resisted wind and weather. The meadow land was covered with grazing
sheep and cattle, the yard filled with stacks of hay and fodder, and
large convenient barns and stables stood where the little out-houses,
which once sufficed to accommodate all the emigrants' gear, had formerly
been; corn fields, and orchards of peaches and apples surrounded the
dwelling, which, with its flowergrown piazza and gay garden, presented a
pretty picture of peace and plenty.

But these changes had only been wrought by slow degrees and hard work,
nor had they been unaccompanied by many trials and disappointments.
Crops had failed, or been destroyed, when promising a bountiful harvest,
by fierce storms of rain and wind; and once the woods had caught fire,
and spread desolation over the country. Prompt exertions saved the
house, but the labors of the year had been lost, and the corn-fields
ready for the harvest, and the rich pastures left black and smoking.

Nor was the neighboring country less changed and improved: the narrow
blazed tracks which had formerly led to Mr. Watson's and to Painted
Posts had widened into well-travelled roads; and clearings visible on
hill-sides in the distance, and frequent columns of curling smoke rising
above the far-off tree-tops, gave evidence of the habitations of men,
and that our emigrants were no longer alone in the wilderness.

Change had also been busy with the family, as well as with their home
and its surroundings. Mr. and Mrs. Lee showed least its power; for
though ten years older, the time had passed too prosperously on the
whole to leave many wrinkles on their cheerful, contented faces. But
some of the children were children no longer. Tom, now a fine young man
of twenty-two, had married Jem Watson's sister Katie, and settled on a
small lot which lay on the banks of the river just below the Fall that
had once been so nearly fatal to him. Taking advantage of the facilities
offered by the situation for a mill, he had raised one near the rapids,
and as the neighborhood became more populous, he found increasing
profit, as well as employment, and was quickly becoming a thriving
miller. Uncle John, still good-natured and light-hearted, had
established himself near him on a comfortable farm, with a wife he had
brought from Cincinnati, and who was as cheerful as himself, and the
cleverest housewife of the whole country round. They had a little son
and daughter, one four, the other two y