His nearest neighbor
was six miles away, and the nearest town nearly twenty; but the
Devinses were so happy and contented that the absence of company gave
them no concern.
It was a splendid place to live in. In summer the eye ranged from the
slope where the sturdy pioneer had built his house over miles and
miles of waving beech and maple woods, away to the dark line of pines
on the high ground that formed the horizon. In the valley below,
Otter Creek, a tributary of the St. Lawrence, wound its sparkling way
northward. When Autumn painted the scene in brilliant hues, and it
lay glowing under the crimson light of October sunsets, the dullest
observer could not restrain bursts of admiration.
Mr. Devins's first attack on the stubborn forest had been over the
brow of the hill, some four miles nearer Owenton, but his house was
burned down before he had taken his family there from Albany. He had
regretted that he had not "pitched his tent" on the slope of Otter
Creek; so now he began with renewed energy his second home, in which
the closing in of the winter of 1839 found him.
Pages:
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26