Scenes in My Native Land

“This is a book that will have a permanent value as a traveling companion. It is written in a very plain and natural manner, and with good taste and feeling”

“I STOOD upon a breezy hight, and marked The rural landscape’s charms; fields thick with corn, And new-mown grass that bathed the ruthless scythe With a forgiving fragrance”

“Green Vine! That mantlest in thy fresh embrace Yon old, grey rock, I hear that thou with them Didst brave the ocean surge Say drank thy germ The dews of Languedoc?”

“Methought its broad leaves shivered in the gale, With whispered words. There was a gentle form, A fair, young creature, who at twilight hour Oft brought me water”

“Vine of Rousaillon! Tell me other tales Of that high-hearted race, who for the sake Of conscience, made those western wilds their home?”

“When Louis XIV, by the revocation of the Edict of Naniz, scattered the rich treasure of the hearts of more than half a million of subjects to foreign climes, this Western World profited by his mad prodigality.”

“By his virtuous and dignified deportment, he acquired great influence over the Indians, whose wigwams were thickly planted in the great meadows toward the south-east, and along the margin of Connecticut river.”

“It seems almost a wickedness, wantonly to smite down a vigorous healthful tree. It was of God’s planting, and in its veins is circulating the life which He has given.”

“Something of the kind is often seen in New-England among planted fields or loaded cherry trees, but not worthy to be compared with these in device or execution.”