Chapter 6 - Page 2

is called refined to that which approaches as near barbarity as
connection with an intelligent people will readily allow, are to be
traced from the bosom of the States, where wealth, luxury and the arts
are beginning to seat themselves, to those distant, and ever-receding
borders which mark the skirts, and announce the approach, of the
nation, as moving mists precede the signs of day.

Here, and here only, is to be found that widely spread, though far
from numerous class, which may be at all likened to those who have
paved the way for the intellectual progress of nations, in the old
world. The resemblance between the American borderer and his European
prototype is singular, though not always uniform. Both might be called
without restraint; the one being above, the other beyond the reach of
the law--brave, because they were inured to dangers--proud, because
they were independent, and vindictive, because each was the avenger of
his own wrongs. It would be unjust to the borderer to pursue the
parallel much farther. He is irreligious, because he has inherited the
knowledge that religion does not exist in forms, and his reason
rejects mockery. He is not a knight, because he has not the power to
bestow distinctions; and he has not the power, because he is the
offspring and not the parent of a system. In what manner these several
qualities are exhibited, in some of the most strongly marked of the
latter class, will be seen in the course of the ensuing narrative.

Ishmael Bush had passed the whole of a life of more than fifty years
on the skirts of society. He boasted that he had never dwelt where he
might not safely fell every tree he could view from his own threshold;
that the law had rarely been known to enter his clearing, and that his
ears had never willingly admitted the sound of a church bell. His
exertions seldom exceeded his wants, which were peculiar to his class,
and rarely failed of being supplied. He had no respect for any
learning except that of the leech; because he was ignorant of the
application of any other intelligence than such as met the senses. His
deference to this particular branch of science had induced him to
listen to the application of a medical man, whose thirst for natural
history had led him to the desire of profiting by the migratory
propensities of the squatter. This gentleman he had cordially received
into his family, or rather under his protection, and they had
journeyed together, thus far through the prairies, in perfect harmony:
Ishmael often felicitating his wife on the possession of a companion,
who would be so serviceable in their new abode, wherever it might
chance to be, until the family were thoroughly "acclimated." The
pursuits of the naturalist frequently