The father conformed to, and learnt from, a character he could not change, and won the sweet from the bitter.
His account of his life at home, and of his late adventures among the Indians, was very amusing, but I want talent to write it down, and I have not heard the slang of these people intimately enough.

There is a good book about Indiana, called the New Purchase, written by a person who knows the people of the country well enough to describe them in their own way.

It is not witty, but penetrating, valuable for its practical wisdom and good-humored fun.
There were many sportsman-stories told, too, by those from Illinois and Wisconsin.

I do not retain any of these well enough, nor any that I heard earlier, to write them down, though they always interested me from bringing wild natural scenes before the mind.

It is pleasant for the sportsman to be in countries so alive with game; yet it is so plenty that one would think shooting pigeons or grouse would seem more like slaughter, than the excitement of skill to a good sportsman.
Hunting the deer is full of adventure, and needs only a Scrope to describe it to invest the Western woods with _historic_ associations.
How pleasant it was to sit and hear rough men tell pieces out of their own common lives, in place of the frippery talk of some fine circle with its conventional sentiment, and timid, second-hand criticism.
Free blew the wind, and boldly flowed the stream, named for Mary mother mild.
A fine thunder-shower came on in the afternoon.