“A request so unusual, and at such a sultry season of the year (it being now the height of the dog days), and to all appearance occasioned by so trifling a circumstance as the approach of a few noisy bacchanalians, could not but give me some surprise.  I nevertheless accepted his offer, and we then walked on together westward, without saying a word, though not forgetting to kindle our pipes afresh at the first house we came to.

“We had no sooner entered the forest, than I began to be convinced, that all things around us were precisely such as nature had finished them; the trees were straight and lofty, and appeared as if they had never been obliged to art in their progress to maturity; the streams of water were winding and irregular, and not odiously drawn into a right line by the spade of the ditcher.  The soil had never submitted to the ploughshare, and the air that circulated through this domain of nature was replete with that balmy fragrance, which was breathed into the lungs of the long-lived race of men, that flourished in the first ages of the world.

“At last we approached the wigwam, as I discovered by the barking of a yellow dog, who ran out to meet us.  The building seemed to be composed of rough materials, and at most was not more than eight feet in height, with a hole in the centre of the roof, to afford a free passage to the smoke from within.  It was situate in a thicket of lofty trees, on the side of a stream of clear water, at a considerable distance from the haunts of civilized men.  A young indian girl was angling in the deepest part of the stream, whence she every now and then drew a trout, or some other inhabitant of the waters.  An old squaw sat at a very small distance, and, after cutting off the heads, and extracting the entrails, hung the fish in the smoke, to preserve them against the time of winter.

“The Indian and myself then entered the wigwam, and without ceremony seated ourselves on blocks of wood covered with fox skins.  The furniture of his habitation consisted of scarcely any thing besides.  The flooring was that which was originally common to all men and animals.  I thought myself happy, that I had been permitted to come into the world, in an age when some vestige of the primitive men, and their manners of living, were yet to be found.  A few ages will totally obliterate the scene.

“I now determined to teaze the Indian, if possible—­’But for a man of your education,’ says I, ’sachem Tomo-cheeki; to bury yourself in this savage retreat, is to me inexplicable.  You who have travelled on foot no less than one hundred and seventeen leagues, till you reached the walls of Havard college, and all for the sake of gaining an insight into languages, arts, and mysteries; and then to neglect all you have acquired at last, is a mode of conduct, for which I cannot easily account—­What! was not the mansion of a fat clergyman a more desirable acquisition than this miserable hut, these gloomy