.

CHAPTER II.

In our wild and thorny region of the North a brave and toilsome
peasantry have long been engaged in victorious conflict with the barren
sleep to which nature seemed to have condemned the soil. They have
stirred up the sterile depths and watered them with their sweat; they
have summoned science and industry to their aid, drained marshes,
diverted the streamlets that descended toward the Meuse from the
highlands and put them in circulation through innumerable arteries to
fatten and enrich the land. What a glorious fight it was of man against
matter! What a magnificent triumph it has been to convert the unthrifty
Campine[A] into a fruitful and luxurious region! Indeed, our descendants
will hardly believe their own eyes when in future times they shall
behold grass-covered plains, flowery meadows, and fields waving with
grain, where the lingering patriarchs of our day may point out the sites
of burning sand-pits and barren moors!

[Footnote A: The Flemings have given the name of _Campine_ to the vast
uncultivated spaces extending in the north of Belgium from the vicinity
of Antwerp to Venloo. The improvement of the _Campine,_ undertaken on a
large scale within some years, has already produced the happiest
results.]

North of the city of Antwerp, toward the frontiers of Holland, there are
but few traces of this gradual improvement. It is only along highroads
that the traveller begins to observe the effect of liberal agriculture
on the sandy soil, while, farther on toward the heart of the region,
every thing is still bare and uncultivated. As far as the eye can
penetrate, nothing is to be seen in that quarter but arid plains thinly
covered with stunted vegetation, while the horizon is bounded by that
blue and cloudy line which always marks the limit of a desert. Yet, as
we journey over these vast spaces, it is impossible not to observe, from
time to time, that a clear and slender rivulet meanders here and there
over the moor, and that its verdant banks are studded with vigorous
plants and thrifty trees; while in many places the hardy sons of toil
who took advantage of the neighboring water, have opened their lonely
farms, built comfortable houses, and frequently gathered themselves
together in neat and thrifty villages.

In one of these spots, where meadow-land and pasturage have made
agriculture profitable, and by the side of an unfrequented road, there
is a farm of considerable size and value. T