In addition to the pack and the rifle which were slung at
his back, together with the well filled, and carefully guarded pouch
and horn, he had carelessly cast a keen and bright wood-axe across his
shoulder, sustaining the weight of the whole with as much apparent
ease, as if he moved, unfettered in limb, and free from incumbrance.
A short distance in the rear of this man, came a group of youths very
similarly attired, and bearing sufficient resemblance to each other,
and to their leader, to distinguish them as the children of one
family. 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 to have reared already his aspiring person to the standard height
of his race. There were one or two others, of different mould, whose
descriptions must however be referred to the regular course of the
narrative.
Of the females, there were but two who had arrived at womanhood;
though several white-headed, olive-skinned faces were peering out of
the foremost wagon of the train, with eyes of lively curiosity and
characteristic animation.
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