The Prairie

hepherd, if th

sert place buy

we may rest our

ou li

hile nature had placed a barrier of desert to the extension of our population in the west, the measure had made us the masters of a belt of fertile country, which, in the revolutions of the day, might have become the property of a rival nation. It gave us the sole command of the great thoroughfare of the interior, and placed the countless tribes of savages, who lay along our borders, entirely within

e of its new proprietors. But the forms of the transfer were no sooner completed, and the new government acknowledged, than swarms of that restless people, which is ever found hovering on the skirts of American society, plunged into the

thus termed in several

a more just idea of t

to mind the fact, th

erly the same river.

ly short of fou

rom the east was a new and sudden out-breaking of a people, who had endured a momentary restraint, after having been rendered nearly resistless by success. The toils and hazards of former undertakings were forgotten, as these endless and unexplored regions, with all the

uest of that which might be termed, without the aid of poetry, their natural and more congenial atmosphere. The distinguished and resolute forester who first penetrated the wilds of the latter state, was of the number. This adventurous and venerable patriarch was n

dmitted to the Ameri

d New States, with th

e the war; which were

a late

atriarch of Kentucky. T

n emigrated to an esta

ppi, in his ninety-s

f ten to the square

ow

e emigrants were satisfied to establish themselves along the margins of the larger water-courses, content with the rich returns that the generous, alluvial, bottoms of the rivers never fail to bestow on the most desultory industry. In this manner were communities f

legend, occurred in the earliest periods of the enterpr

ld goods and implements of husbandry, the few straggling sheep and cattle that were herded in the rear, and the rugged appearance and careless mien of the sturdy men who loitered at the sides of the lingering teams, united to announce a band of emigrants seeking for the Elderado of the West. Contrary to the usual practice of the men of their caste, this party had left the fertile bottoms of the low country, and ha

the fact, that the surrounding country offered so little, that was tempting to the cupidity of specula

d as lightly as if they travelled on a beaten road; neither wagons nor beasts making any deeper impression, than to mark that bruised and

security in so remote and unprotected a situation, there was no visible sign of uneasiness, uncertain

as vast, and in reality of prodigious power. It was, only at moments, however, as some slight impediment opposed itself to his loitering progress, that his person, which, in its ordinary gait seemed so lounging and nerveless, displayed any of those energies, which lay latent in his

ilken sash of the most gaudy colours; the buck-horn haft of his knife was profusely decorated with plates of silver; the marten's fur of his cap was of a fineness and shadowing that a queen might covet; the buttons of his rude and soiled blanket-coat were of the glittering coinage of Mexico; the stock of his rifle was of beautiful mahogany, riveted and banded with the same precious metal, and the trinkets of n

. Though the youngest of their number could not much have passed the period, that, in the nicer judgment of the law, is called the age of discretion, he had proved himself so far worthy of his progenitors as t

kled mother of most of the party, and the younger was a sprightly, active, girl, of eighteen, who in figure, dress, and mien, seemed to belong to a station in society several gradations above that of any one of her visible associates. The second vehicle was covered with a top of

encountered on the highways of this changeable and moving country. But the solitary and peculiar scenery,

estless waters are heaving heavily, after the agitation and fury of the tempest have begun to lessen. There was the same waving and regular surface, the same absence of foreign objects, and the same boundless extent to the view. Indeed so very striking was the resemblance between the water and the land, that, however much the geologist might sneer at so simple a theory, it would have been difficult for a poet not to have felt, that the formation of the one had been produced by the subsiding dominion of the other. Here and there a tall tree rose out of the bottoms, stretching its naked

not irretrievably, into the haunts of the barbarous and savage occupants of the country. As the day drew nigher to a close, however, his mind, which was, perhaps, incapable of maturing any connecte

e, and cast a half curious eye, on either hand, in quest of those well known signs, which might indicate

tless examination, he suffered his huge frame to descend the gentle declivity, in the sa

both of beasts and men, that the time of necessary rest was not far distant. The matted grass of the lower land, presented obstacles which fatigue began to render formidable, and the whip was becoming necessary to urge the lingering teams to their labour. At this moment,

rawn against the gilded background, as distinctly, and seemingly as palpable, as though it would come within the grasp of any extended hand. The figure was colossal; the attitude musing and mela

s sons, so soon as the first emotions of surprise had a little abated, drew slowly around him, and, as they who governed the teams gradually followed their example, the whole party was soon condensed in one, silent, and wonderin

wife and mother, in a sharp, dissonant voice; "I warrant

esemblance to the first speaker, and who loosened the stock of his piece and brought it dexterously to the front, while delivering this

h was easily to be traced to the trembling lips of the younger

sullen eye. "Put by the piece, put by the piece;" he continued, diverting the other's aim, with the finger of a giant, and w

ed from his object. The sons turned their inquiring looks on the girl, who had so eagerly spoken, to require an explanation; but, a

s brilliancy, the proportions of the fanciful form became less exaggerated, and finally distinct. Ashamed to hesitate, now that the truth was no longer doubtful, the leader of the party

t were, between the heavens and the earth, the stranger's figure had neither moved nor given the smallest evidence of hostility. H

not disease, had laid his hand heavily on him. His form had withered, but it was not wasted. The sinews and muscles, which had once denoted great strength, though shrunken, were still visible; and his whole figure had attained an appearance of induration, which, if it were not for the well known frailty of hum

wl issued from the grass at his feet, and then, a tall, gaunt, toothless, hound, arose lazily from

as a little tremulous and hollow with age. "What have ye

," said the leader of the emigrants, "can you tell a

old man, solemnly, and without appearing to hearken to the other's que

ar in the choice," returned the emigrant; "but to my taste, it is getting crowdy. Wha

des, in the Mississippi, without tra

ou name the dis

nting significantly upward, "would you ca

ot comprehend his meaning, and who half suspected he

therwise you would not be backward in helping a traveller to some

bt that the old owe to the youn

as to bed and board; but, all old journeyers, like myself, kno

aster of both; and little more is it t

with a facility a little remarkable for his years and appearance, and wi