the hills and forest land,
Where Nature spreads her loam and fertile sand;

Where seeds long-buried in the drifting snow
Spring forth in beauty when the south winds blow.
The sun, with golden beams and brighter rays,
Shines forth to warm the earth and lengthen out the days.

He there built his camp-fire, and reared a rude cabin to shelter his
family, until he could build a more permanent residence.

Here Mayall rested for a few days, charmed with the music of the woods,
and the water-fowls that had stopped along the stream to lay their eggs
and rear their young. Mayall then pursued his journey up the stream
until he reached its utmost spring among the distant hills, and then
bent his course eastward among the highlands of that region, where he
found the beautiful little lakes so graphically described by the Indian,
stored with fish, and covered with water-fowls during the summer season.
All the wilds of the forest appeared more beautiful than he had
anticipated.

After exploring the hills and valleys for a few days, during which time
he never saw a human being, Mayall resolved to return once more to his
wife and children. As he passed down the valley he stopped at the rude
cabin he had erected, and passed the night in quiet sleep. Mayall
declared that in his chosen bower Nature appeared fresh from the hand of
Omnipotence. He described one of the lakes he had seen as the most
beautiful sheet of water that human eye ever saw, surrounded with a belt
of white sand, where the buck, the doe, and the spotted fawn came and
slaked their thirst from the crystal waters of the lake, unmolested by
man, and fed tamely upon its grassy shores; where the wild rose, queen
of bowers, shed her perfume, and the lily displayed her spots of beauty,
as second in rank among the flowers; the third in magnitude and adorning
was the wild honeysuckle, with all her tints of beauty. These encircled
the snow-white sands upon its beautiful shores, whilst the low undertone
of its waves kept time to the music of the grove.

Mayall was enchanted with the beauties of Nature around him, and made
his bed at night under a low branching tree, covered with a wild
grape-vine, so nicely tied and coiled by Nature that it served every
purpose of a tent. Mayall made his evening meal on trout he took from
the lake, and laid down to sleep upon the wild, enchanted shores of an
earthly paradise. His sleep was quiet and undisturbed. He awoke wit