turnip; but the
most interesting of all was the wild potato, which we dug up--for, in
fact, it is only upon the table-lands of America where that plant is
indigenous. We should not have recognised it as an old acquaintance,
but for the botanical knowledge of my wife. Its roots were not larger
than wren's eggs, and we could find so few of them that, in its wild
state, we saw it would be of no use to us as an article of food. Mary,
however, had hopes, that by cultivation, we might produce larger ones;
so we collected all the tubers we could fall in with, and kept them for
seed.

"Out of the pods of the honey-locust, we brewed a very agreeable sort of
beer; but we were able to extract a still more generous beverage from
the wild or fox-grapes that grew in all parts of the valley. While
travelling through France, I had learnt how wine was made; and our
vintage succeeded to perfection. On the winter nights, as we sat around
our cheerful log-fire, Mary was accustomed to deal out to us a measure
a-piece of the exhilarating drink. It was only, however, after a hard
day's work or hunting, that we were allowed to draw upon this precious
store.

"About this time, a new idea entered into my mind, which I communicated
to the others, and with which they all fully agreed. It was this:--To
capture as many of the wild animals as we could, and endeavour to
domesticate them to our uses. I was prompted to this purpose by various
considerations. First, because I saw, although there were several kinds
of deer in the valley, there were but few of each kind; and it was not
likely that for many years they had been upon the increase. Nature had
so disposed it, that these creatures had been regularly thinned off
every year by the numerous beasts of prey that prowled through the
valley. Now, an additional enemy was added to the number of their
destroyers; and I foresaw that, unless some precaution should be taken,
the deer would soon become so scarce and wild, that we should find it
difficult to obtain enough for our uses. Could we only kill off the
fierce beasts--such as panthers, and wolves, and wolverenes--that preyed
upon them, then the whole valley would become our deer-park, and the
deer would soon increase to any number we wanted. This, however, we
could not do; and, in fact, the beasts of prey were as likely to master
us as we them--for none of us were safe in venturing into the thick
woods alone; and whenever the boys made