the top; russet-colored boots expanded at the aperture and garnished
with spurs reached high up the legs, and a small cut and thrust sword,
suspended by a belt, which was also russet-colored, hung at his side.
The handle of the sword was exquisitely beautiful, worthy of being the
work of Cellini himself. It was mostly of massive gold, the hilt
smooth and shining, and the guard embossed with a variety of elegant
devices. But the part which first arrested attention and attracted the
most admiration was the head, whereupon was sculptured a gigantic
honey-bee, with wings expanded, as if about to fly from its perch; the
eyes were sparkling diamonds, the body was composed of different
colored metals, in imitation of life--and the whole so cunningly
wrought, that it seemed a living bee about to mount into the air. The
man rode and looked as if not anticipating, and incapable of fearing
danger, carelessly glancing round, while the noble animal he bestrode,
as if he had caught the spirit of his rider, stepped high and
gallantly along. But in truth there was little or no danger, the white
settlers being, at the time, at peace with the neighboring Indian
tribes.

It was a mere bridle-path the horseman was following, which wound
about in various directions, in order to avoid marshy ground, or
trunks of trees, or other obstacles, and appeared to be perfectly
familiar to the horse, who trotted on without any guidance from his
rider. As for the latter, as if to beguile the tediousness of the way,
he would pat at one moment the neck of his dumb companion, and address
a few words to him, and at the next, break out into snatches of song.
Thus he proceeded until he emerged from the woods, and an open space,
the site of the future city of Boston, once the cornfields of warlike
tribes, mysteriously removed by pestilence, in order as to the excited
imaginations of the early settlers it seemed, to make room for the