"
"Why," said Woodward, "what about that cabin?"
"I'll tell you that, sir, when we get into it. It's consarnin' coorsin'
too; but nobody ever lived in it since she left it."
"Since who left it?"
"Never mind, sir; I'll tell you all about it by and by."
It was certainly a most desolate and miserable hut, and had such an
air of loneliness and desertion about it as was calculated to awaken
reflections every whit as deep and melancholy as the contemplation of
a very palace in ruins, especially to those who, like Barney, knew the
history of its last inhabitant. It was far up in the mountains, and not
within miles of another human habitation. Its loneliness and desolation
alone would not have made it so peculiarly striking and impressive
had it been inhabited; but its want of smoke--its still and lifeless
appearance--the silence and the solitude around it--the absence of
all symptoms of human life--its significant aspect of destitution and
poverty, even at the best--all contributed to awaken in the mind that
dreamy reflection that would induce the spectator to think that, apart
from the strife and bustle of life, it might have existed there for a
thousand years.
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