worse than cheating one of his own class.  The old scoundrel was the reproach of the whole community; but no more formal indictment of the system of slavery, as established in the United States, is required than the fact that a former master could recall to slavery an emancipated slave family, the head of which had paid in hard cash for himself, his wife, and all his children, because his free papers had been burned, in a fire of which, moreover, the neighbors accused the former owner of being the incendiary.  While those papers were in existence the negro could legally sue and be sued; but without them he had no more legal rights than a dog.  The life which honest people lived in that primitive community was Arcadian, and it is probable that even in Arcadia they had slaves.  Certainly, in my experience of living in many countries and under various systems, I have not found that the most primitive system secures the largest personal liberty; rather the contrary.

I returned to my painting with the early summer, and, when the season came, to the organization of the Club and the inauguration of its club-house and grounds.  It was certainly the most beautiful site I have ever seen in the Adirondack country,—­virgin forest, save where the trappers or hunters had cut wood for their camp-fires, the tall pines standing in their long ranks along the shores of a little lake that lay in the middle of the estate, encircled by mountains, except on one side, where the lake found its outlet; and the mountains were cloaked to their summits in primeval woods.  In a little valley where a crystal spring sent its water down to the lake, and a grove of deciduous trees gave high and airy shelter, I pitched the camp,—­a repetition slightly enlarged of that on Follansbee Pond.  As usual I preceded the Club party, accompanied by S.G.  Ward and his son, and also the son of Emerson, to prepare the ground.  The solitude of the locality may be judged from the first hunt.  We had arrived late in the day, and had no food except the bread we took with us, and the next morning we had to kill our breakfast before we could eat it.  I took Mr. Ward and the boys in my boat and paddled down to the foot of the lake, where was a wide beach, on which we found a two-year-old buck grazing.  I paddled to within fifty yards of him, and, though I found that my rifle would not go off and had to change it for another, with considerable movement, the deer took no notice of us, and I dropped him in his tracks with a feeling of compunction only overcome by the fact that we had no breakfast if he went away.  So peaceful was our realm!  I have often paddled within easy shot of a deer on other waters, but only by remaining motionless when he was looking round, for the movement of a hand would send him flying in panic; but this poor deer might have been reared in Eden.