led the way over the acclivity into the adjacent bottom.
 

                                   Chapter II

 »Up with my tent: here will I lie to night;
 But where, to-morrow? - Well, all's one for that.«
                                                        Richard III, V.iii.7, 8.
 
The travellers soon discovered the usual and unerring evidences, that the
several articles necessary to their situation were not far distant. A clear and
gurgling spring burst out of the side of the declivity, and joining its waters
to those of other similar little fountains in its vicinity, their united
contributions formed a run, which was easily to be traced, for miles along the
Prairie, by the scattering foliage and verdure which occasionally grew within
the influence of its moisture. Hither, then, the stranger held his way, eagerly
followed by the willing teams, whose instinct gave them a prescience of
refreshment and rest.
    On reaching what he deemed a suitable spot, the old man halted, and with an
enquiring look he seemed to demand if it possessed the needed conveniences. The
leader of the emigrants cast his eyes understandingly about him, and examined
the place with the keenness of one competent to judge of so nice a question,
though in that dilatory and heavy manner which rarely permitted him to betray
precipitation.
    »Ay, this may do,« he said, when satisfied with his scrutiny, »boys, you
have seen the last of the sun; be stirring.«
    The young men manifested a characteristic obedience. The order, for such in
tone and manner it was, in truth, was received with respect; but the utmost
movement was the falling of an axe or two from the shoulder to the ground, while
their owners continued to regard the place with listless and incurious eyes. In
the mean time, the elder traveller, as if familiar with the nature of the
impulses by which his children were governed, disencumbered himself of his pack
and rifle, and, assisted by the man already mentioned as disposed to appeal so
promptly to the rifle, he quietly proceeded to release the cattle from the
gears.
    At length the eldest of the sons stepped heavily forward, and, without any
apparent effort, he buried his axe to the eye in the soft body of a cotton-wood
tree. He stood, a moment, regarding the effect of the blow, with that sort of
contempt with which a giant might be supposed to contemplate the puny resistance
of a dwarf, and then flourishing the implement above his head, with the grace
and dexterity with which a master of the art of offense would wield his nobler
though