His knife was stuck in his belt his bullet-pouch and powder-horn hung at his side, and his rifle lay before him, resting against the high pommel of his saddle, which, like all his equipments, had seen hard service, and was much the worse for wear. He wore a white blanket-coat, a broad hat of felt, ​moccasins, and trousers of deer-skin, ornamented along the seams with rows of long fringes. Foremost rode Henry Chatillon, our guide and hunter, a fine athletic figure, mounted on a hardy gray Wyandot pony.
Meanwhile the party came in sight out of the bushes. All the trees and saplings were in flower, or budding into fresh leaf the red clusters of the maple-blossoms and the rich flowers of the Indian apple were there in profusion and I was half inclined to regret leaving behind the land of gardens for the rude and stern scenes of the prairie and the mountains. I rode in advance of the party, as we passed through the bushes, and as a nook of green grass offered a strong temptation, I dismounted and lay down there. It was a mild, calm spring day a day when one is more disposed to musing and reverie than to action, and the softest part of his nature is apt to gain the upper hand.
Looking over an intervening belt of bushes, we saw the green, ocean-like expanse of prairie, stretching swell beyond swell to the horizon. EMERGING from the mud-holes of Westport, we pursued our way for some time along the narrow track, in the checkered sunshine and shadow of the woods, till at length, issuing into the broad light, we left behind us the farthest outskirts of the great forest, that once spread from the western plains to the shore of the Atlantic.