Summer on the Lakes, in 1843

ck river, in whose neighborhood we proposed to

finest region of Illinois, and the scene of some of the latest romance of Indian warfare. To these beautiful regions Black Hawk returned with his band "to pass the summer," when he drew

t make picture of the plain, all suggest more of the masterly mind of man, than the prodigal, but careless, motherly love of nature. Especially is this true of the Rock river country. The river flows sometimes through these parks and lawns, then betwixt high bluffs, whose grassy ridges are covered with fine trees, or broken with crumbling stone, that easily assumes, the forms of buttress, arch and clustered columns. Along the face of such crumbling rocks, swallows' nests are

an Irish gentleman, whose absenteeship seems of the wisest kind, since for a sum which would have been but a drop of water to the thirsty fever of hi

at of noon seemed long, though afterwards, in the cool of morning and evening, delightful, to the house. This is, for that part of the wor

you descended a ravine at the side to the water's edge, you found there a long walk on the narrow shore, with a wall above of the richest hanging wood, in which they said the deer lay hid. I never saw one, but often fancied that I heard them rustling, at daybreak, by these bright clear waters, stretch

aths, full of the most brilliant, also the most delicate flowers. The br

rries, we greeted also a familiar love, the Scottish harebel

have been assigned the place of a page in former times, but in the young west, it seems he was old enough for a steward. Whatever be called his function, he did the honors of

ral architecture of the country, in the edge of the timber. But almost always when you came near, the slovenliness of the dwelling and the rude way in which objects around it were treated, when so little care would have presented a charming whole, were very repulsive. Seeing the traces of the Indians, who chose the most beautiful sites for their dwellings, and whose habits do not break in on that aspect

mbol. Wherever the hog comes, the rattlesnake disappears; the omnivorous traveller, safe in its stupidity, willingly and easily makes a meal of the most dangerous of reptiles,

e grand thunder storm, which

of winged motion, more beautiful than anything of the kind I ever knew. Had I been a musician, such as Mendelsohn, I felt that I could have improvised a music quite peculiar, from the sound t

he childish m

isles amid

ed stretch the

shipwrecked sa

lay upon a

at all hope of

tient climb th

e glows beneath t

Eden boasted

tales seem re

dullness of

dent" settlers

feel we were "s

udden sight of

ovement" yet h

l-astonished

tected by th

kindly genius

ending in un

kets, with their

es, each in its

haunted by th

flights of birds

reezes here de

and star are emulou

Crusoe, we s

Crusoe we, a

d that reared th

mind of him

eace such as fe

ch, should he

such minist

childish days, su

the goods to

oods again is m

ck River, Jun

of poultry near the house, which I understood it to

, are never forgotten; young, yet touched with many traces of feeling, not only possible, but endured; spirited, too, like the gleam of a finely tempered blade. It was a face that suggested a

henever they should get entangled, also, to be himself the drag, to prevent our too rapid descent. Such generosity deserved trust; however, we women could not be persuaded to render it. We got out and admired, from afar, the process. Left by our guide-and prop! we found ourselves in a wide field, where,

following an Indian trail,-Black Hawk's! How fair the scene through which it le

k, waiting apparently for customers. He was not disappointed. We bought, what hold in regard to the human world, as unmarked, as mysterious, and as important an existence, as the infusoria to the natural, to wit, pins. Th

f will no

st still b

g would come, unless something would go; now, if we had been as sublimely still as the pedle

from their service, which had been performed in a rude house in its midst. It had a sweet and peaceful air, as if such words and thoughts were very dear to them. The parents had with them

e bluffs, three hundred feet high, their sharp ridges as exquisitely definite as the edge of a shell; their summits adorned with those same beautiful trees, and with buttresses of rich rock, crested with old hemlocks, which wore a touching and antique grace amid the softer and

ed, like a helmet above the brow of the country. It seems as if the water left here and there a ve

on has passed over and marked everywhere its course by a smile. The fragments of rock touch it with a wildness and liberality which give just the needed relief. I should

not long since they were driven away, and the g

h is full

e his house, they loved to stay, and, no doubt, enjoyed its lavish beauty as much as the myriad wild pigeons that now haunt its

k of its dirt, its brutality, I will ever believe that the men who chose that dwelling-place were able to feel emotions of noble happiness as they returned to it, and so were the women that received them. Neither were the children sad or dull, who lived so familiarly with the deer and the birds, and swam that clear wave in the shadow of the Seven Sisters. The whole scene suggested to me a Greek splendor, a Greek sweetness, and I can believe that an Indian brave, accustomed to ramble in such paths, and be bathed by such sunbeams, m

l starred with a mysterious-looking dark flower, whose cup rose lonely on a tall stem. This had, for

ek expresses under the form of Jove's darling,

E TO HI

A WORK OF T

called the Eagle's Ne

4th,

ky mountain

pure water

rm spoke him on

ant to sweet l

pain was writt

roughout his si

ies, "my destine

ts to-day thy

gotten that I

noon until thi

at least, from

oon o'er hill an

e vase which o

for thy sole

ent when thou s

ment might thy

gotten earth,

ondsman in a

he sadness

can know that

ch the flowing

dim fates to the

thee, I was

mmer that must

rning star tha

to its promise

ager fountai

f more strongl

sweet and full

it reverted

osebud seeks te

ld by the boy the

ing, for in m

where flowers

s the thought o

s the meanin

earth such life

from heaven, still a

est mountains

inions from thei

s the stars wou

eting from the

istent each in

re that there

m that I was

em, time an

he violet o

answer to my

births my nature

secrets of i

ssengers of h

ts that arm th

he sacred spire, and s

oment, in a

e, then left me

the thought whic

upon its cour

ation was bu

l leaving from

goal to which my ra

eyes, though tea

ure which my h

ubt my proper

ss, thy living

speck upon a

nce discerned i

nswer of that

the wing tha

form into the

we gained that

e monarch of th

he declared

ervants of h

messenger, a

or with ome

weight to the

e verdict of

t upon the l

thirst of bards t

ues of hopes d

eeded chain to

could be obta

arly home from Jove'

it, but not to

ows the burth

ng hast thou b

eary of their

the spring my tong

'st not, night w

a sad slumber

aught be spilt

at I am not

service to t

ake a Delphi

t too hard, tho

pling's hope, c

ervice in whi

often to the

were so prompt

owed the hig

live with br

oment he wishes to be so. With such hosts, pleasure may be combined with repose. They lived on the bank opposite the town, and, as their house was full, we slept in the town, and passed three days with them, passing to and fro morning and evening in their boats. (To one of these, called the Fairy, in wh

Nature had laid out before it grounds which could not be improved. Within,

pleasing fancies, did we not enjoy! May such never desert those

gentlemen from the river, and music and fireworks wound up the evening of days spent on the Eagle's Nest. Now they had prepared a little flee

llected beneath the trees, among whom many a round

t was received with much applause, and followed by a plentiful dinner, prov

IN AT R

d raised from a log-cabin, prettier than any president ever saw, and dra

of unspoiled tastes, the beauty alone would afford stimulus enough. But with it would be naturally associated all kinds of wild sports, experiments, and

without effort disproportionate to their value. But, where there is so great, a counterpoise, cannot these be given up once for all? If the houses are imperfectly built, they can afford immense fires and plenty of covering; if they are small, w

which a chicken could run over in ten minutes. He may have water and wood and land enough, to dread no incursions on his prospect from some chance Vandal that may enter his neighbo

n need of seeking bread; and where they are voluntary, it is no matter. To me, too, used to the feelings which haunt a society of struggling men, it was delightful to look upon a scene where nature still wore her motherly smile and seemed to promise room not only for those favored or cursed with the q

tivated minds and refined manners, all a varied experience, while they have in common the interests of a new country and a new life. They must traverse some space to get at one another, but the jou

est for affection's sake, but too often in heart-sickness and weariness. Beside it frequently not being a choice or conviction of their own minds that it is best to be here, their part is the hardest, and they

l tasks must often be performed, sick or well, by the mother and daughters, to

erns; but the ladies, accustomed to a refined neatness, feel that they cannot degrade themselves by its

as too generally been that given to women to make them "the ornaments of society." They can dance, but not draw; talk French, but know nothing of the language of flowers; neither in ch

ose prepared for it, we could not but look with deep interest on the little girls, and hope they would grow up with the s

m their own early life. Everywhere the fatal spirit of imitation, of reference to European st

, ready to fly about in the various ways that teach them so much, these ladies lament that "they cannot go to school, where they might learn to be quiet." They lame

instead of copying New York or Boston, will correct this mania. Instruction the children want to enable them to profit by the great natural advantages of their position; but methods copied from the education of some English Lady Augusta, are as ill suited to the daughter of an Illinois farmer, as satin shoes to clim

reams, a few studies, music, and the sincere and familiar intercourse, far more easily to be met here than elsewhere, would afford h

laces the guitar rather than the piano, a

ties. Even there, it is so merely from the habit of imitating Europe, for not one in a tho

, they never know how to tune their own instruments, and as persons seldom visit them who can do s

d be far more desirable for most of these ladies. It would give all they want as a household companion to fill up t

ctice it needs, after some good elementary instruction, is such as meetings by summer twilight, and evening firelight naturally suggest. And, as

h days of bright sunlight, varied by the purple shadows of large swe

hip a god of limits. I say, that what is limitless is alone divine, that there was neither wall nor road in Eden, that those who walked there lost and found their way just

he antidote survives the bane. Soon the coarser plant

n Indian girl afterwards told me the medicinal virtues. I doubt not those students of the so

, the most graceful stream, and on whose bosom rested many full-blown water-lilies, twice as large as any of ours.

iraculous times, accompanied visions of saints

the bones of the valiant. On these waved thickly the mysterious purple flower, of which I have spoken be

s and plagues of building and settling, found their first pastime in opening one of these

window a deer directly before the house. She ran out, with her hands covered with

the intellectual loafer, the walking Will's coffeehouse of the place. He told us many charming snake stories; a

county, where was the tomb, now despoiled, of Big Thunder.

journeying, we reached Chicago, and thus ended a journey,

spersed with cottages, groves and flowery lawns, through which a stately river ran. I had no guide-book, kept no diary, do not know how many miles we tra

life. But here courtesy restrains the pen, for I know those who received the stranger with such frank kindness would feel ill requited b

udied lore, the unwritten poetry which common life presents to a strong and gentle mind. It was a great contrast to the subtleties of analysis, the philosophic strainings of which I had seen too much. But I will not attempt to transplant it. May it profit others as it did me in the region where it was born, where it belongs. The evening of our return to Chicago the sunset was of a splendor a

oft and sumptu

tances, ye l

s like those th

s all gazers

f I never m

t in your enc

itself that

ng; thou hast

hat which matche

eetness of ful

hecked the bold

elled the lavish

sing lingers

other's thought,

life new-born ou

well,-a sad, a

ver must beh

ds I will not

here have n

d Hope will lend

ree him from th

ics, while the

r stony glance

h one echo fr

l,-a grateful,