It was necessary to make the remainder of the journey on horseback.  A large, untenanted estate lay between the highway and the valley, across which no public road had yet been made.  Foot-paths, however, abounded, and the rivulet was found without any difficulty.  It was, perhaps, fortunate for the privacy of the Knoll, that it lay in the line of no frequented route, and, squatters being rare in that day, Willoughby saw, the instant he struck the path that followed the sinuosities of the stream, that it had been seldom trodden in the interval of the nineteen-years which had occurred since he had last seen it himself.  The evidences of this fact increased, as the stream was ascended, until the travellers reached the mill, when it was found that the spirit of destruction, which so widely prevails in the loose state of society that exists in all new countries, had been at work.  Every one of the buildings at the falls had been burnt; probably as much because it was in the power of some reckless wanderer to work mischief, as for any other reason.  That the act was the result of some momentary impulse, was evident in the circumstance that the mischief went no further.  Some of the machinery had been carried away, however, to be set up in other places, on a principle that is very widely extended through all border settlements, which considers the temporary disuse of property as its virtual abandonment.

It was a moment of pain and pleasure, strangely mingled, when Willoughby and Maud reached the rocks, and got a first view of the ancient Beaver Dam.  All the buildings remained, surprisingly little altered to the eye by the lapse of years.  The gates had been secured when they left the place, in 1776; and the Hut, having no accessible external windows, that dwelling remained positively intact.  It is true, quite half the palisadoes were rotted down; but the Hut, itself, had resisted the ravages of time.  A fire had been kindled against its side, but the stone walls had opposed an obstacle to its ravages; and an attempt, by throwing a brand upon the roof, had failed of its object, the shingles not igniting.  On examination, the lock of the inner gate was still secure.  The key had been found, and, on its application, an entrance was obtained into the court.

What a moment was that, when Maud, fresh from the luxuries of an English home, entered this long and well remembered scene of her youth!  Rank grasses were growing in the court, but they soon disappeared before the scythes that had been brought, in expectation of the circumstance.  Then, all was clear for an examination of the house.  The Hut was exactly in the condition in which it had been left, with the exception of a little, and a very little, dust collected by time.