Hardcastle, just arrived in his carryall, waiting for him, and exclaiming: “Just in time, my boy—and very welcome. Jump in! All right!” CHAPTER XXXIII. ELSIE IN THE LOG CABIN. It was a lodge of ample size, But strange of structure and device, Of such materials as around The workman’s hand had readiest found. _—Scott._ The place selected by Magnus Hardcastle as the field of his life labor was that grandly picturesque portion of Maryland now known as Alleghany County, but then called indifferently the Mountains, the Wilderness, or the Backwoods. The site chosen for his home was a wildly beautiful spot in the midst of a deep, narrow valley lying between two ridges of the Alleghany Mountains, and watered by a branch of the Potomac River. Although Magnus Hardcastle’s first idea of a home in the backwoods presented nothing but a log cabin, and although his young and lovely bride was quite ready to dare and share the unmitigated rudeness and privations of such a home and life, yet Providence, who “tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb,” mercifully ameliorated the hardships of the condition for the delicately nurtured girl, who, however willing, was, notwithstanding all her health and strength, scarcely able to bear the shock of such a sharp and sudden change. The contents of that casket—the bridal gift of Alice Garnet to her daughter—amounted to nearly five thousand dollars, and though the whole of this sum would go but a very little way toward supplying the superfluities of a fashionable bride’s trousseau, yet the half of it went very far toward completing and furnishing a comfortable backwoods home for our young couple. Their house was a log cabin indeed, but one of “ample size” and commodious appointments.