James Haliday. After reading that name, it appeared as if half the
loneliness of the road was gone; for I knew from the freshness of the
track, that a human being was travelling on the same path, and that he
was, perhaps, not far ahead.

Not many minutes after this occurrence, whilst descending a slight
hill, I saw nine fine deer cross the road, within a short gun-shot of
the spot where I stood. I had no gun with me; for I thought, if I did
kill a deer, I should be obliged to leave it in the woods. Nothing
further occurred till within a short distance of Trifogle's, when a
large wolf bounded close past me: he seemed, however, the more
frightened of the two, which I was not at all sorry to perceive.

When I arrived at the tavern, I told Trifogle what I had seen. He said,
it was very lucky I had not fallen in with the pack; for only the night
before he had gone to a beaver-meadow, about two miles distant, to look
for his working oxen which had strayed, when he was surrounded by the
whole pack of wolves, and was obliged "to tree," to save his bacon. He
was, it seems, kept for more than three hours in that uncomfortable fix
before he durst venture down--"when he made tracks," as the Yankees
say, "for hum pretty considerably smart, I guess."

My solitary journey was performed in the fall of 1830: at the present
time (1853) you may travel at your ease in a stage-coach and four
horses, with taverns every few miles, and more villages on the road
than formerly there were houses. Such are the changes that a few short
years have produced in this fast-rising country!