every
word, and his sense of hearing was as keen as that of a wildcat.

The scenery along the upper Ohio River is pleasing in any season of
the year; no wonder that, in early May, the travellers were enchanted
by its picturesque beauty. To this day, in many places, the hills,
vales, and woods on either bank, retain almost the original wildness
of primeval Nature. The river winds among high limestone hills, which
are carved in frequent deep ravines, by tumbling brooks, or trickling
rills. Low, green islands rise magically upon the forward view of the
voyager, then vanish in the receding distance, like fairy worlds
withdrawn.

The real and the imaginary became strangely blended in Arlington's
mind. He could hardly distinguish the substantial from the visionary,
while he gazed on cloudlike bluffs in Ohio and dim highlands in
Virginia. The boat drifted on without sound or jar, and he easily
fancied himself at rest on a surface of water, while the woody shore
swam by in slow panorama.

Chester Arlington was the son of a wealthy citizen of Richmond, and a
graduate of the College of William and Mary. He had studied law, and
was beginning life on his own account. Entrusted with a commission to
collect some claims held by his father against a merchant in
Cincinnati, he was on his way to that metropolis of the Miami country.
His acquaintance with Burr dated from a day in the middle of April,
when the two got into the same coach to journey from Philadelphia to
Pittsburg. A difference of twenty-five years in their ages was
cancelled by the art, which the elder possessed, of maintaining
perpetual youth. And Burr's genial conversation won his companion's
confidence and friendship before they had crossed the Alleghanies.
Thus it came about, that the Virginian had been invited to share the
conveniences of the flatboat, a courtesy which he had accepted, on
condition that he might share the expenses.

Toward the close of the fourth day of the voyage, as the two sat on
the top of their drifting domicile, smoking cigars, they fell into a
discussion concerning the Great West, and the prospects of new States
and Territories.

"To me," said the Virginian, in the slightly florid style habitual to
him, "this wonderful new country into which we are sailing is
attractive beyond my power to express. This river, the Oyo of the
Indian, La Belle of the romantic La Salle, excites my imagination and
recalls interesting legends and historic fact