e, and feels himself called on to become
the impossible knight-errant they describe,--nay, actually goes forth,
into the world to defend, the oppressed and avenge the injured, like the
heroes of his romances.

* * * * *

=_James Hall, 1793-1868._= (Manual, p. 510.)

From "Statistics of the West."

=_188._= DESCRIPTION OF A PRAIRIE.

Imagine a stream of a mile in width, whose waters are as transparent as
those of the mountain spring, flowing over beds of rock or gravel. Fancy
the prairie commencing at the water's edge--a natural meadow covered
with grass and flowers, rising, with a gentle slope, for miles, so that
in the vast panorama thousands of acres are exposed to the eye. The
prospect is bounded by a range of low hills, which sometimes approach
the river, and again recede, and whose summits, which are seen gently
waving along the horizon, form the level of the adjacent country.... The
timber is scattered in groves and strips, the whole country being one
vast illimitable prairie, ornamented by small collections of trees....
But more often we see the single tree, without a companion near, or
the little clump, composed of a few dozen oaks or elms; and not
unfrequently, hundreds of acres embellished with a kind of open
woodland, and exhibiting the appearance of a splendid park, decorated
with skill and care by the hand of taste. Here we behold the beautiful
lawn enriched with flowers, and studded with trees, which are so
dispersed about as not to intercept the prospect, standing singly, so as
not to shade the ground, and occasionally collected in clusters, while
now and then the shade deepens into the gloom of the forest, or opens
into long vistas and spacious plains, destitute of tree or shrub.

When the eye roves off from the green plain, to the groves, or points of
timber, these also are found ... robed in the most attractive hues.
The rich undergrowth is in full bloom. The red-bud, the dog-wood, the
crab-apple, the wild plum, the cherry, the wild rose, are abundant in
all the rich lands; and the grape-vine, though its blossom is unseen,
fills the air with fragrance. The variety of the wild fruit and
flowering shrubs is so great, and such the profusion of the blossoms
with which they are bowed down, that the eye is regaled almost to
satiety.

The gayety of the prairie, its embellishments, and the absence of the
gloom and savage wildness of the forest, all contribute to dispel