Wild Western Scenes: A Narrative of Adventures in the Western Wilderness, Wherein the Exploits of Daniel Boone, the Great American Pioneer are Particularly DescribedJones, J. B. (John Beauchamp)
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Wild Western Scenes: A Narrative of Adventures in the Western Wilderness, Wherein the Exploits of Daniel Boone, the Great American Pioneer are Particularly Described
Jones, J. B. (John Beauchamp)
Boone, Daniel, 1734-1820 -- Fiction; Western stories; Wilderness areas -- Fiction
While Glenn rested upon his gun, attracted ever and anon by the
twinkling host above, a throng of unwonted memories crowded upon him.
He thought of his guileless youth; the uncontaminated days of enjoyment
ere he had mingled with the designing and heartless associates who
strove to entice him from the path of virtue; of the hopes of budding
manhood; of ambitious schemes to win a name by great and honourable
deeds; of parents, kindred, home; of _her_, who had been the angel of
all his dreams of paradise below: and then he contemplated his present
condition, and notwithstanding his resolution was unabated, yet in
spite of all his struggles, a tear bedewed his cheek. He felt that his
fate was hard, but he _knew_ that his course was proper, and he
resolved to fulfil his vow. But with his sadness, gloomy forebodings,
and deep and unusual thoughts obtruded. In the scene of death and
carnage that was about to ensue, it occurred to him more than once that
it might be his lot to fall. This was a painful thought. He was brave
in conflict, and would not have hesitated to rush reckless into the
midst of danger; but he was calm now, and the thought of death was
appalling. He would have preferred to die on a nobler field, if he were
to fall in battle. He did not wish to die in his _youth_, to be cut
off, without accomplishing the many ends he had so often meditated, and
without reaping a few of the sweets of life as the reward of his
voluntary sacrifice. He also desired to appear once more in the busy
and detracting world, to vindicate the character that might have been
unjustly aspersed, to reward the true friendship of those whose
confidence had never been shaken, and to rebuke, perhaps forgive, the
enemies who had recklessly pursued him. But another, and yet a more
stirring and important thought obtruded upon his reflections. It was
one he had never seriously considered before, and it now operated upon
him with irresistible power. It was a thought of things _beyond_ the
grave. The stillness of midnight, the million stars above him, the blue
eternal expanse through which they were distributed—the repose of the
invisible winds, that late had howled around him—the never-ceasing flow
of the ice-bound stream before him, and the continual change of hill
and valley—now desolate, and clothed in frosty vestments, and anon with
verdure and variegated beauty—constrained him to acknowledge in the
secret portals of his breast that there was a great, ever-existing
Creator. He then called to mind the many impressive lessons of a pious
mother, which he had subsequently disregarded. He remembered the things
she had read to him in the book of books—the words of prayer she taught
him to utter every eve, ere he closed his eyes in slumber—and he _now_
repeated that humble petition with all the fervency of a chastened
spirit. He felt truly convinced of the fallacy of setting the heart and
the affections altogether on the things of this world, where mortals
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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