The Young Trailers | Page 5

near the tree, said there could be no doubt that Henry had really seen
the panther, and had not been tricked by his imagination. The great
tracks of the beast were plainly visible in the soft earth.
"Pushed by hunger, an' thinking there was no danger, he might have
sprung on one of our colts or a calf," said Ross, "an' no doubt the boy
with his ready use of a torch has saved us from a loss. It was a brave
thing for him to do."
But Henry took no pride in their praise. It was no part of his ambition
merely to drive away a panther, instead he had the hunter's wish to kill
him. He would be worthy of the wilderness.
Henry despite his lack of pride found the world very beautiful the next
day. It was a fair enough scene. Nature had done her part, but his
joyous mind gave to it deeper and more vivid colors. The wind was
blowing from the south, bringing upon its breath the odor of wild
flowers, and all the forest was green with the tender green of young
spring. The cotton-tailed hares that he called rabbits ran across their
path. Squirrels talked to one another in the tree tops, and defiantly
threw the shells of last year's nuts at the passing travelers. Once they
saw a stag bending down to drink at a brook, and when the forest king
beheld them he raised his head, and merely stared at these strange new
invaders of the wilds. Henry admired his beautiful form and splendid
antlers nor would he have fired at him had it even been within orders.
The deer gazed at them a few moments, and then, turning and tossing
his head, sped away through the forest.
All that he saw was strange and grand to Henry, and he loved the
wilderness. About noon he and Ross went back to the wagons and that
night they encamped on the crest of a range of low and grassy hills.
This was the rim of the valley that they had selected on the guide's
advice as their future home, and the little camp was full of the liveliest
interest in the morrow, because it is a most eventful thing, when you
are going to choose a place which you intend shall be your home all the
rest of your days. So the men and women sat late around the fires and

even boys of Henry's age were allowed to stay up, too, and listen to the
plans which all the grown people were making. Theirs had not been a
hard journey, only long and tedious--though neither to Henry--and now
that its end was at hand, work must be begun. They would have homes
to build and a living to get from the ground.
"Why, I could live under the trees; I wouldn't want a house," whispered
Henry to the guide, "and when I needed anything to eat, I'd kill game."
"A hunter might do that," replied Ross, "but we're not all hunters an'
only a few of us can be. Sometimes the game ain't standin' to be shot at
just when you want it, an' as for sleepin' under the trees it's all very fine
in summer, if it don't rain, but 'twould be just a least bit chilly in winter
when the big snows come as they do sometimes more'n a foot deep. I'm
a hunter myself, an' I've slept under trees an' in caves, an' on the
sheltered side of hills, but when the weather's cold give me for true
comfort a wooden floor an' a board roof. Then I'll bargain to sleep to
the king's taste."
But Henry was not wholly convinced. He felt in himself the power to
meet and overcome rain or cold or any other kind of weather.
Everybody in the camp, down to the tiniest child, was awake the next
morning by the time the first bar of gray in the east betokened the
coming day. Henry was fully dressed, and saw the sun rise in a
magnificent burst of red and gold over the valley that was to be their
valley. The whole camp beheld the spectacle. They had reached the
crest of the hill the evening before, too late to get a view and they were
full of the keenest curiosity.
It was now summer, but, having been a season of plenteous rains, grass
and foliage were of the most vivid and intense green. They were
entering one of the richest portions of Kentucky, and the untouched soil
was luxuriant with fertility. As a pioneer himself said: "All they had to
do was to tickle it with a hoe, and it laughed into a harvest." There was
the proof of its strength in