Several hundred--perhaps a thousand people--were present, and more were rapidly coming.

Drawn about in a circle, forming a background of snowy whiteness to the dark masses of men and foliage, were the white tents, and back of them the provision-stalls and cook-shops.

When I reached the ground, a hymn, the words of which I could not distinguish, was pealing through the dim aisles of the forest.

I could readily perceive that it had its effect upon the multitude before me, kindling to higher intensity their already excited enthusiasm.

The preachers were placed in a rude pulpit of rough boards, carpeted only by the dead forest-leaves and flowers, and tasselled, not with silk and velvet, but with the green boughs of the sombre hemlocks around it.