The stars came out in all their glory, and the
night was calm and bright, and all we had to try our patience was a
little frost. And there I slept; and there I often awoke; and in my
intervals of wakefulness I gazed on the magnificence of the outspread
skies, and mused on the dreariness of the surrounding wilderness, and
thought of the stirring scenes through which I had passed in days gone
by, and of the strange and death-like silent one in which I then was
placed. "And what will the future be?" said I. "And here is my son; in
the spring of life; on adventures so strange; in a universe so vast and
so mysterious; what will be his destiny? And what will be the destiny of
the dear ones we have left behind?" And then I lost myself in a world of
strange imaginings. When wearied with my restless musings, I sank to
rest again, and passed from waking into sleeping dreams.
Morning broke at length, and we arose, and started on our journey. The
deer were skipping gaily over the plains. The wolves were hiding in
their holes. We came at length to a stream. It was skirted by a grove,
into which we made our way, and there we kindled a fire, and prepared
our breakfast. We filled our coffee kettle from the brook. A hazel twig
served us for a toasting fork; and we were soon engaged in one of the
pleasantest parts of a hungry traveller's work.
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