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The next morning, the leader of the Cherokee party advised me to take a southern direction, till we should arrive at the head waters of the river Sabine, from whence, proceeding either northward or eastward, we should, in a few days, reach the Red River, through the cane-brakes and the clearings of the new settlers.
Oliver, and now I have got one Twill go home, for I dont relish to see these wasty ways that you are all practysing, as if the least thing wasnt made for use, and not to destroy. Thou sayest well, Leather-Stocking, cried Marmaduke, and I begin to think it time to put an end to this work of destruction. Put an ind, Judge, to your clearings. Aint the woods His work as well as the pigeons?
After we had got some grass clearings, the next thing to do was to fence them in. A very necessary thing that; first, to keep the sheep in and, second, to keep the wild pigs out. Two most important reasons, besides other lesser ones. Fencing of many kinds has been tried in the colony, the question of relative cost under different circumstances mainly influencing settlers in their choice.
The good friar goes on to tell us that, through indolence, they have not even learned from the Indians how to protect their plantations from the fierce heat of the sun and avoid consequent failure of crops in time of drought, by making the plantations in clearings in the forest, so that the surrounding walls of verdure may give moisture and shade to the plants.
He stayed away till evening. He passed the two new clearings that had been started below Sellanraa, and talked to the men there; went right down to Maaneland to see what Axel Ström had got done that year. Nothing very great, it seemed; not as much as he might have wished, but he had put in some good work on the land. Geissler took an interest in this place, too, and asked him: "Got a horse?"
Cows and young steers were grazing there. She heard a tinkle of bells. Below her, down the mountain slope, were other clearings, broken by patches of woods. Fences intervened; and a mile or two down lay the valley, the shining Au Sable, and the peaceful farmhouses. That way also her hereditary enemies were. Not a merciful heart in all that lovely valley. She hesitated: it was only for an instant.
In the clearings the dwellings of these men were the "half-faced camp" open upon one side to the weather, or the doorless, floorless, and windowless cabin which, with prosperity, might be made luxurious by greased paper in the windows, and "puncheon" floors. The furniture was in keeping with this exterior.
The Swannanoa had become a silver thread of laughing, foaming spray and deep, still pools beneath the rocks. The fields were few and small. The little clearings made scarcely an impression in the towering virgin forests. "Great guns, Kiddo!" he exclaimed, "this is some country! By George, I had no idea there was such a place so close to New York!" She looked at him with uneasy surprise.
Hassim lost patience and one evening he declared to his sister Immada: "To-morrow we leave this ruler without a mind and go back to our white friend." Therefore next morning, letting the camp move on the direct road to the settlement, Hassim and Immada took a course of their own. It was a lonely path between the jungle and the clearings.
The trees break the wind that is so piercing in the clearings. Dec. 15 Milder; in the sun at noon almost warm. Got out ox-sled and went with Brodie along Yonge-street to buy pork. Bought three carcases. People are kindly. Have never called at a house where we were not invited to return and pay a family visit.
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