The native American., 1838-04-21

constipated bowels of the dark and humid earth
was surprised, deep within its placid waters to
perceive the reflection of human fgure-ano-
ther, and not my own! In such place, remote
from the haunts OF men, at such an hour, when
the parting wing of darkness was still fringed
with the first smiles of the approaching god, in
such an attitude, for was STOPPING in nearly a
state of pristine nudity, my surprise may be ina
gined on seeing the figure of tall and reverend
looking individual standing quietly with his arms
folded across his breast and pipe of the very
shortest dimensions protruded placidy from the
rlght-hand corner of his mouth! The aromatic
smell Of the Virginian leaf saluting my olactory
nerves at the same time, assured me by the evi-
dence OF second sense of the reality Of the Wis
ion. | dried my brow with the sleeve of my in
nermost garment, and on turning round, said to
him
Hail, father! | am happy to have encountered
SO respectable-looking a gentleman in the heart
of this tremendous solitude
Solitude! replied the stranger, in deep Sc
pulchral tone. Call it solitude no longer. It is
populous-crowded- -crushed-squeezed with a
redundance of population
1Oh, stranger, your words are marvellous. Tell
me, | pray thee, where are the countless multi
tudes you describe?'
Here! said the old man, taking the pipe from
his mouth and pointing with the stalk Of it to his
breast 'Ay, here; in this Withered heart are
thoughts that would populate the universe with
their breathing creations, memories, hopes, feel
ings, agonies, woes disasters-aIl all are here in
their living, breathing, moving, speaking, walk
ing, wrthing hdeousness, horror, vitality, and
despair'
Father, said l. let me take thee by the hand;
at last have found spirit congenal with my
own. Let us retire to some grotto consecrated to
the muse of tenderest lamentation, and there let
us have delicious day of sobbing and sighing.
Agreed, said the admirable old man; and
having wiped from our eyes the drops Of sympa-
thy, we wandered deeper into the forest.
AS followed my mysterious guide, | could not
avoid taking more particular notice of his person
al appearance. He was tall, gigantically tall; up
wards, should say, of five feet seven. Broad
shoulders, which seemed adapted to support the
weight of mightiest monarchies, suspendng from
them brawny arms furnished at the extremities
with hands of prodgous size; legs Of extremely
muscular appearance, which would have been
eminenhy handsome had it not been that the
knees, through some unaccounable sympathy
with each other, had accustomed themselves to the
very closest proximity which is compatible with
the power of progression; and all surmounted by
head whose thick curling locks, now grizzled
with the first SHOWS of time, hung in wild pro-
fusion the collar of what had at one time evil
dently been a coat, completed the tout ensemble
of figure at once lordly and attractive, at once
homely and sublime!
Deeper and deeper did we advance into the
sylvan wilderness-hgher and higher rose my
|expectation of feast of tears could guess
with the clear-sighted certainty of sympathetic
soul, that my companion ordinary man;
that his innermost being had been harassed by the
most intolerable of woes; and that in silence, in
solitude, and in secret in the depths of caves, and
the umbrageousness of woods, he nursed the re-
collections of the severest anguish, the bitterest
distress. Nor was | mistaken in these expecta-
tions. The stranger suddenly paused and said
Here is the home which my miseries have
left me: Enter, and may such sorrows as | have
encountered never lay their weighty burdens on
the wild boundings of your young and gallant
BOSOM
Stranger!' I replied; my eyes are surely
blinded with the streams of sympathy, for see
not your home.'
Not see my home? Seest thou not this stone
ndented with the pressure of my aching head!
That is my pillow! Seest thou not this mossy
bank, where the rank herbage has spread its
wild luxuriance? That is my couch! Mark 81
thou not those Patagonian toad-stools stretching
lllclT Vast W IC lllOIHlIS sun! lucSe
are the furniture of my chamber? This we'll
thou seest it-bubbling in perpetual freshness
from the bosom Of the rock? That, oh, stranger
| is my cellar and my wash-hand- -basn!'
Simple furniture, exclaimed; amiable apart
ments. Here no intrudng landlord interrupts the
continuity of your sorrows, by rendering his week
ly bill no roof to require new stating; floor to
be repaired! If thou, oh stranger, wilt allow me,
/ shall be happy to be your neighbor, and to es-
tablish myself in similar lodgings to these, upon
the same melancholy and economical terms.
"Try it not replied the stranger; ''unless
your wo is equal in intensity to mine, your en-.
loyment in such scene as this would be tempo
rary as the morning dew!''
My wo, said, is pretty considerable
! But what is your wo to mine?' Here the
venerable recluse paused, aud, after groanine
deeply three times, proceeded in more collected
tone Of voice-'Your wo, whatever it may be, is
as dust weighed against a mountains gossa
mer, which weaves its fmy web from bush te
bush, placed in the opposite scale to the huges
whale that soothes the fever of its blood by rub
bing its prodigious back upon an iceberg in the
Polar Sea, when placed in competition with
mine! What is the loss of friends if death has
taken them in the ordinary way! What even the
fasehood of beloved one, if for her ickleness
/