equally the work of His hands!

Nevertheless, there is (at bottom) a motive for adoration, in the
study of the lowest fruits of the wisdom and power of God. The leaf
is as much beyond our comprehension of remote causes, as much a
subject of intelligent admiration, as the tree which bears it: the
single tree confounds our knowledge and researches the same as the
entire forest; and, though a variety that appears to be endless
pervades the world, the same admirable adaptation of means to ends,
the same bountiful forethought, and the same benevolent wisdom, are
to be found in the acorn, as in the gnarled branch on which it grew.

The American forest has so often been described, as to cause one to
hesitate about reviving scenes that might possibly pall, and in
retouching pictures that have been so frequently painted as to be
familiar to every mind. But God created the woods, and the themes
bestowed by his bounty are inexhaustible. Even the ocean, with its
boundless waste of water, has been found to be rich in its various
beauties and marvels; and he who shall bury himself with us, once
more, in the virgin forests of this widespread land, may possibly
discover new subjects of admiration, new causes to adore the Being
that has brought all into existence, from the universe to its most
minute particle.

The precise period of our legend was in the year 1812, and the
season of the year the pleasant month of July, which had now drawn
near to its close. The sun was already approaching the western
limits of a wooded view, when the actors in its opening scene must
appear on a stage that is worthy of a more particular description.