"I have seen the waters of the two seas! On one of them was I born,
and raised to be a lad like yonder tumbling boy. America has grown, my
men, since the days of my youth, to be a country larger than I once
had thought the world itself to be. Near seventy years I dwelt in
York, province and state together:--you've been in York, 'tis like?"
"Not I--not I; I never visited the towns; but often have heard the
place you speak of named. 'Tis a wide clearing there, I reckon."
"Too wide! too wide! They scourge the very 'arth with their axes. Such
hills and hunting-grounds as I have seen stripped of the gifts of the
Lord, without remorse or shame! I tarried till the mouths of my hounds
were deafened by the blows of the chopper, and then I came west in
search of quiet. It was a grievous journey that I made; a grievous
toil to pass through falling timber and to breathe the thick air of
smoky clearings, week after week, as I did! 'Tis a far country too,
that state of York from this!"
"It lies ag'in the outer edge of old Kentuck, I reckon; though what
the distance may be I never knew.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167