I have attended to various kinds of labor, but never have I entered upon any half so pleasing as that usually performed in the "logging swamp." Although greatly jeoparding my reputation for taste, I will utter it. Positively, it is delightful. I have since had some years' experience in one of the professions, in the enjoyment of some of the refinements of life, yet, if it could be done consistently, I would now with eagerness exchange my house for the logging camp, my books for the ax, and the city full for those wilderness solitudes whose delightful valleys and swelling ridges give me Nature uncontaminated--I had almost said, uncursed, fresh from the hand of the Creator. To write of those things makes the bustling city seem dull and irksome. Fain would I hie away once more to those pleasant pastime labors. Happily, all tastes are not alike. Yet there are few who, on entering a beautiful native forest, would not experience delight; the varieties of trees set out by the hand of Nature, their graceful forms and spreading branches interlocked with neighborly affection and recognition; the _harmonious confusion_ of undergrowth; the beautiful mosses, the ever-varying surface--old age, manhood and youth, childhood and infancy--massive trunks and little sprouts; the towering Pine and creeping Winter-green, intermingled by the artless genii of these wild retreats, all combined, serve to explain the _attachment_ of the Aborigines to their forest abodes, and give to savage life the power of enchantment. CHAPTER IV. Tokens of Winter.--The Anticipation.--Introduction of Team.-- Difficulties attending it.--Uncomfortable Boating.--The Contrast.--Method of crossing Streams and Rivers.--The Docility of the Ox.--Facilities of Turnpikes.--Stopping-places.--Arrival. --An Adventure.--Ten Oxen in the Ice.--Method of taking them Out. --An uncomfortable Night.--The midnight Excursion.--Oxen running at large in the Wilderness.--Developments of Memory.--Logging.-- Division of Labor.--How to manage in the absence of a Cook.-- "Uncle Nat."--Anecdote.--Felling Pines.--Ingenuity of Choppers. --Preparatory Arrangements.--The Bob-sled.--Method of Operation described.--The Excitement.--Comparison.--Immediate Length of Pine-trees.--Conclusion. By the time these arrangements are made, serious indications of winter appear in cold, freezing nights and light falls of snow. It is now about time to look for the arrival of the team and extra hands. This event we anticipate with as much interest as voyagers are wont to feel when they meet upon the ocean after several months at sea. Letters and newspapers are expected, and, when received, perused with avidity. New acquaintances are to be made, new tools to be examined, and every thing foreign, however insignificant, is an object of interest.