Page:Ballantyne--The wild Man of the West.djvu/107

Rh he awoke refreshed, invigorated, and buoyant with a feeling of youthful strength and health. Starting up, he met the glorious sun face to face, as it rose above the edge of a distant blue hill, and the meeting almost blinded him. There was a saffron hue over the eastern landscape that caused it to appear, like the plains of Paradise. Lakelets in the prairies glittered in the midst of verdant foliage; ponds in the hollows lay, as yet unillumined, like blots of ink; streams and rivulets gleamed as they flowed round wooded knolls, or sparkled silvery white as they leaped over rocky obstructions. The noble river, on the banks of which the camp had been made, flowed with a calm sweep through the richly-varied country—refreshing to look upon and pleasant to hear, as it murmured on its way to join the "Father of waters." The soft roar of a far-distant cataract was heard mingling with the cries of innumerable water-fowl that had risen an hour before to enjoy the first breathings of the young day. To March Marston's ear it seemed as though all Nature, animate and inanimate, were rejoicing in the beneficence of its Creator.

The youth's reverie was suddenly broken by the approach of Theodore Bertram.

"Good morrow, friend," said the latter, grasping March's hand and shaking it heartily. "You are early astir. Oh, what a scene! What heavenly colors! What a glorious expanse of beauty!"