Beadle's Dime Novels No. 96: Little Moccasin — page 33: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

TIT BACK WOODSMEN. 86 has been heard of them from that day to, this; fifough ft Has been whispered about, within the last year or two, that they are living by themselves, out of the white man’s reach, and far away from the haunts of the red-man. Are you satis- fied ?” re “Yes, indeed—I am—we all are—good-night !” CHAPTER III. . THH BULL MOOSE. By the end of another week there was a great thaw; heavy. rains had fallen, the snow had settled; the lumbering high- ways were all clear, and the by-paths were all sloppy with the continual passage of logs. Never was the prospect more encouraging; and all the teamsters and choppers and loggers were half crazy with expectation. The cattle, too, having been sheltered and cared for, as if they were a part of the family, were in the best possible condition. That “a merci- ful man is merciful to his beast,” seems to be a part of the New Englander’s belief, though it may not be found in his creed. Exceptions are to be found, of course—for the igno- rant and short-sighted starve themselves and their families, and leave their houses, like their barns, just above the freezing point; and the wretched, half-starved cattle they pretend to keep, with staring coats, lank bodies and lifeless tails, testify openly against their wicked and foolish masters, A strange people are the backwoodsmen of the Pine-tree State—a peculiar people, and zealous of good works, though not always of the best. Ignorant of their own strength, wholly unacquainted with themselves, and with their own capabili- ties, till some great occasion arises, when they undergo the most wonderful, and the suddenest transformations ever heard of. , Es The blacksmith, standing over his forge in the thick of the wilderness, tears off his leather apron, and flings down the littcd sledge, like General Greene; and the teamster, like commicbooks.conn