ntelligence. Every spot was solitary and deserted; not even the
trace of a recent fire, to cheer us with the hope of human beings within
miles of us.

Suddenly, a shout from the foremost of the party made each heart bound
with joy.

"_Une cloture! une cloture!_" (A fence! a fence!)

It was almost like life to the dead.

We spurred on, and indeed perceived a few straggling rails crowning a
rising ground at no great distance.

Never did music sound so sweet as the crowing of a cock which at this
moment saluted our ears.

Following the course of the inclosure down the opposite slope, we came
upon a group of log cabins, low, shabby, and unpromising in their
appearance, but a most welcome shelter from the pelting storm.

"Whose cabins are these?" asked Mr. Kinzie, of a man who was cutting
wood at the door of one.

"Hamilton's," was his reply; and he stepped forward at once to assist us
to alight, hospitality being a matter of course in these wild regions.

We were shown into the most comfortable-looking of the buildings. A
large fire was burning in the clay chimney, and the room was of a genial
warmth, notwithstanding the apertures, many inches in width, beside the
doors and windows. A woman in a tidy calico dress, and shabby black silk
cap trimmed with still shabbier lace, rose from her seat beside a sort
of bread-trough, which fulfilled the office of cradle to a fine, fat
baby. She made room for us at the fire, but was either too timid or too
ignorant to relieve me of wrappings and defences, now heavy with the
snow.

I soon contrived, with my husband's aid, to disembarrass myself of them;
and, having seen me comfortably disposed of, and in a fair way to be
thawed after my freezing ride, he left me, to see after his men and
horses.

He was a long time absent, and I expected he would return accompanied by
our host; but when he reappeared it was to tell me, laughing, that Mr.
Hamilton hesitated to present himself before me, being unwilling that
one who had been acquainted with his family at the East should see him
in his present mode of life. However, this feeling apparently wore off,
for before dinner he came in and was introduced to me, and was as
agreeable and polite as the son of Alexander Hamilton would naturally
be.

The housekeeper, who was the wife of one of the miners, prepared us a
plain, comfortable dinner, and a table as long as the dimensions of the
cabin would admit was set out, the end nearest t