When he was gone, I approached the window at which the boy was still standing, and leaning out, took a general survey of the moonlight scene which presented itself before the house. It was one which, at other times, or on any ordinary occasion, would have presented no single point of interest. The ground was very nearly flat, slightly undulating, indeed, towards the eastward, with a small lawn or field in front of the house, and an orchard of what seemed peach and plum trees, at about a hundred and fifty yards' distance. Sweeping all round the horizon, was a dense belt of forest-ground, dark in the shadowy moonlight, like evening clouds upon the edge of the sky, and the space within this barrier of wood was lighted up by the full, clear beams of the rising planet. It was one of those nights which, on this continent, are peculiarly beautiful; when the moon drowns, in her own effulgence, all the stars immediately round herself, but leaves the rest of the sky full of bright luminaries, which, large and full, seem to vie the one with the other in aiding her to make up for the absence of the sun. Fields which had been cultivated, and from most of which the crops had been reaped, to the extent of five or six hundred acres, lay around me within the belt of forest, and on the right extended, first, the stubble field, fifty or sixty acres in extent, and then the wide field of Indian corn not yet gathered in. The maize presents a somewhat curious appearance in the calm moonlight--an appearance, at least, to which we are unaccustomed in Europe, especially when it is ripe. It looks almost white, yet something tells you--I know not well what--that it is not snow which covers the land. Often is it so tall, that a man of full height could pass through it unperceived; but the spring this year had been backward, little rain had fallen, and the corn was considered stunted and deficient. Thus, when I had passed through that field, the long reed-like stalks, with their broad leaves, had not reached higher than my shoulder, and I could now plainly perceive a thick group of dark objects making its way towards the house, still at the distance of a quarter of a mile. All in external nature was very calm and still and pleasant; and the flat and somewhat monotonous scene acquired an aspect almost picturesque, from the accessories of light and shade, and the resplendent heaven above it. But there was that moving group of black objects, which, sometimes pausing for an instant, and always proceeding very slowly and cautiously, kept still advancing towards the house, and added a different sort of interest to the scene.