cleared, as the hacked and ancient stumpage betrayed.

Here and there the lines of corn rows which had been plowed
when the last crop was laid by were plainly revealed to Hiram's
observing eye. Where corn had grown once, it should grow again;
and the pine timber would more than pay for being cut, for
blowing out the big stumps with dynamite, and tam-harrowing the
side hill.

Finally they reached a point where the ground fell away more
abruptly and the character of the timber changed, as well.
Instead of the stately pines, this more abrupt declivity was
covered with hickory and oak. The sparse brush sprang out of
rank, black mold.

Charmed by the prospect, Hiram and Henry descended this hill and
came suddenly, through a fringe of brush, to the border of an
open cove, or bottom.

At some time this lowland, too, had been cleared and cultivated;
but now young pines, quick-springing and lush, dotted the five or
six acres of practically open land which was as level as one's
palm.

It was two hundred yards, or more, in width and at the farther
side a hedge of alders and pussywillows grew, with the green mist
of young leaves upon them, and here and there a ghostly sycamore,
stretching its slender bole into the air, edged the course of the
river.