and the day-star began to twinkle
in the east. Mayall kindled again his fire to prepare his morning
repast, that he might retrace his steps to the Valley of the Otego,
knowing that the hunter finds no deer in forests inhabited by panthers.
The day-king soon arose and dispelled the darkness of night. Mayall went
forward and circumnavigated the little lake in pursuit of the young
panthers. Not finding their hiding place, he sat down on a log for a few
moments to view that beautiful sheet of water, reflecting on its bosom
the surrounding forest. Eolus was slumbering. Not a breath of air played
over its surface, but lay like the mirror bright and fair. Mayall in his
excitement viewed it as one of the lovely dimples on the face of
creation, which held him for a time like a charm, until his thoughts
roamed over the forest hills to his loved ones at home. He then arose
and retraced his steps to the Valley of the Otego, considering the past
day and night one of the most charming incidents of his past life.

The war of the Revolution had now ended, and new adventurers began to
visit the Valley of the Otego. Charmed with the beauty of its forests
and crystal streams, they would return and soon appear with their
families.

And behold the green hills in distance laid,
Where the wild hunter often strayed,
Where through the forest swift as light
The wild deer shunned the bullets' flight.

CHAPTER III.

Summer had resigned her sway to Autumn in the green valleys of the
Susquehanna and her tributaries, which spread out among the hills like
the branches of some mighty forest tree, over whose curving and playful
waters the green plumes of the forest trees had waved during the summer,
now changed with the season; and Summer, the queen of flowers and
ripening fruit, had wrapped herself in a mantle of green, and laid down
to die as the sun gradually declined to southern skies and the Autumn
Queen put on her gorgeous robes of many colors. The squirrel was seen to
play on nimble feet through oak and chestnut groves gathering in his
winter store. The deer, with her fawn, wandered through the grove
unmolested, excepting at such times as Mayall needed venison for his own
table.

One day, while seated beneath the vine-clad porch of his cabin, where
the vines had been trained by his wife to tie in leafy coil over the
door, he saw a woman in homespun dress advancing with hurried steps,
weeping and mourning as she adv