The Soldier's Bride and Other Tales (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1833. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE SOLDIER'S BRIDE. "Oh love love laddie, Love's like a dizziness, It winna let a puir boddy Gang about his business." A few years ago, that part of the state of New York which lies along the main route from the Hudson to the western lakes, presented an agreeable, but eccentric, diversity of scenic beauty, combining the wildest traits of nature with the cheerful indications of enlightened civility and rural comfort. The desert smiled--but it smiled in its native beauty. The foot of science had not yet wandered thither; nor had the ample coffers of a state been opened, to diffuse, wi.th unexampled munificence, over a widely spread domain the blessings of industry and commerce. The beautiful villages scattered throughout this extensive region, exhibited a neatness, taste, and order, which would have been honourable to older communities. Between these little towns lay extensive tracts of wilderness, still tenanted by the deer, and enlivened by the notes of the feathered tribes. Farms, newly opened, were thinly dispersed at convenient distances. The traveller, as he held his solitary way among the shadows of the forest, acknowledged the sovereignty of the sylvan deities, whose sway seemed undisputed; but from these silent shades he emerged at once into the light and life of civilised society. Such were the effects produced by an industrious and somewhat refined population, thrown among the romantic lakes, the fertile vallies, and the boundless forests of the West. The war of 1812, while it exposed the feeble settlements of the frontier to the danger of hostile incursions, produced life and bustle, where, before, all had been silence and repose. Multitudes of men penetrated the quiet recesses of the forest, and pitched their tents by the peaceful waters, whose mu...