Excerpt from Stratton Hill, a Tale of the Civil Wars, Vol. 1 of 2 The close of a dull and cheerless day in the last lingering month of wmter, still gave a doubtful light to the sides of a savage and secluded dell, up which a single passenger slowly made his way. He had just landed from a bark that was seen tossing on the waves at a short distance beneath, and which the scanty crew were busily employed in mooring. His tranquil and careless progress along the pathless place, proved that he was no stranger there, though many and weary years had passed, and seas rolled far between, since his foot had been familiar with its ruggedness. This was broken by some small patches of cultivated ground, snatched here and there from the dominion of the rocks and fern coated soil; a few goats and shaggy-looking horses, in all their native wildness, picked up a scanty pasture between the thickets of fume and the straggling beech-trees. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.