unbroken by dreams.  Such were the primitive migrations of the early settlers of our country.  We love to meditate on them, for we have shared them.  We have fed from this table in the wilderness.  We have shared this mirth.  We have heard the tinkle of the bells of the flocks and herds grazing among the trees.  We have seen the moon rise and the stars twinkle upon this forest scene; and the remembrance has more than once marred the pleasure of journeyings in the midst of civilization and the refinements of luxury.

The frontier country in which the family settled was as yet an unbroken forest; and being at no great distance from the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, in the valleys of which game was abundant, it afforded fine range both for pasture and hunting.  These forests had, moreover, the charm of novelty, and the game had not yet learned to fear the rifles of the new settlers.  It need hardly be added that the spirits of young Boone exulted in this new hunter’s paradise.  The father and the other sons settled down quietly to the severe labor of making a farm, assigning to Daniel the occupation of his rifle, as aware that it was the only one he could be induced to follow; and probably from the experience, that in this way he could contribute more effectually to the establishment, than either of them in the pursuits of husbandry.

An extensive farm was soon opened.  The table was always amply supplied with venison, and was the seat of ample and unostentatious hospitality.  The peltries of the young hunter yielded all the money which such an establishment required, and the interval between this removal and the coming of age of young Boone, was one of health, plenty, and privacy.

But meanwhile this settlement began to experience the pressure of that evil which Boone always considered the greatest annoyance of life.  The report of this family’s prosperity had gone abroad.  The young hunter’s fame in his new position, attracted other immigrants to come and fix themselves in the vicinity.  The smoke of new cabins and clearings went up to the sky.  The baying other dogs, and the crash of distant falling trees began to be heard; and painful presentiments already filled the bosom of young Boone, that this abode would shortly be more pressed upon than that he had left.  He was compelled, however, to admit, that if such an order of things brings disadvantages, it has also its benefits.

A thriving farmer, by the name of Bryan, had settled at no great distance from Mr. Boone, by whose establishment the young hunter, now at the period of life when other thoughts than those of the chase of wild game are sometimes apt to cross the mind, was accustomed to pass.