not have been the first to suggest this derivation of the word
"Yankee." With himself, the suggestion is perfectly original, and
has long since been published by him; but nothing is more probable
than the fact that a solution so very natural, of this long-disputed
question in language, may have suggested itself to various minds.]

The "chiente'" or shanty of le Bourdon stood quite near to the banks
of the Kalamazoo, and in a most beautiful grove of the burr-oak. Ben
had selected the site with much taste, though the proximity of a
spring of delicious water had probably its full share in influencing
his decision. It was necessary, moreover, that he should be near the
river, as his great movements were all made by water, for the
convenience of transporting his tools, furniture, etc., as well as
his honey. A famous bark canoe lay in a little bay, out of the
current of the stream, securely moored, head and stern, in order to
prevent her beating against any object harder than herself.

The dwelling had been constructed with some attention to security.
This was rendered necessary, in some measure, as Ben had found by
experience, on account of two classes of enemies--men and bears.
From the first, it is true, the bee-hunter had hitherto apprehended
but little. There were few human beings in that region. The northern
portions of the noble peninsula of Michigan are some-what low and
swampy, or are too broken and savage to tempt the native hunters
from the openings and prairies that then lay, in such rich
profusion, further south and west. With the exception of the shores,
or coasts, it was seldom that the northern half of the peninsula
felt the footstep of man. With the southern half, however, it was
very different; the "openings," and glades, and watercourses,
offering almost as many temptations to the savage as they have since