Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 3 September 1848Various
General
Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 3 September 1848
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
How Settler Jake's cabin will gleam those approaching winter nights
from the "sticks" that axe of his will give him out of the tree he has
just prostrated. It is really pleasant to think of it. There will be
the great fire-place, with a huge block for a back-log; then a pile
will be built against it large enough for a bonfire--and then such a
crackling and streaming! why the dark night just around there will be
all in a blush with it. And the little window will glow like a red
star to the people of the village; and then within, there will be the
immense antlers over the door, belonging to a moose Jake shot the
first year he came into the country, all tremulous with the light, and
the long rifle thrust through it will glitter quick and keen; and the
scraped powder-horn hung by it will be transparent in redness; even
the row of bullets on the rude shelf near the window will give a dull
gleam, whilst our old acquaintance, the axe, will wink as if a dozen
eyes were strewn along its sharp, bright edge. And then the brown and
tortoise-shell cat belonging to the "old woman" will partake of the
lustre; and the old woman herself--a little, active, bustling body,
will be seated in one corner of the fire-place, after having swept
clean the hearth; and "Sport" will have coiled his long body on a
bear-skin near her. Lastly, the settler himself will be sitting upon a
stool opposite "Betsey," with his elbows on his knees, smoking a pipe
as black as his face at the "spring logging." But stop--where was I?
Oh, in the woods!"
"Look! look!" cries Susan, the owner of the gray orbs, with an accent
of delight, "see that beautiful black squirrel eating!"
We all looked, and sure enough, there is the little object in a nook
of warm bronze light, with his paws to his whiskered face, cracking
nuts, one after another, as fast as possible. But he stops, with his
paws still uplifted, looks askance for a moment, and away he shoots
then through the "brush-fence" at our side like a dart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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