"All right; I am ready, for my eyes are shut tight," cried Joe with a laugh.
"Now, then. First you must notice the great forests that stretch over a large part of the land. Wild beasts are roaming about in the darkness of those woods. Wolves and foxes, bears and wildcats live a free and happy life, for the sound of a gun has never yet been heard.
"Turn your thoughts next to the great plains of the west. Thousands of buffaloes are wandering about. The herds are so vast that in some places the earth is fairly black with them.
"Here and there, over the country, stand the villages of the Red Men. They are usually built near the shores of streams or ponds so that fresh water may be plentiful.
"There are no stores, no factories, no churches, no roads, from one shore of America to the other.
"At first, it may seem strange to you that the Indians made no roads, for they were traveling a good deal of the time. They moved their homes whenever the game became scarce where they happened to be living. Besides that, they delighted in war and one tribe was continually taking some other one by surprise.
"They did not, however, go about in the way white people do. They journeyed on foot in single file and the narrow paths they trod through the forests can be seen to this day. Some of those paths are hundreds of years old. They are many miles in length. Such paths are called trails.
"I have traveled over one of the Indian trails. It was in the state of New York. It made me feel queer as I thought of the painted Red Men who so long ago made that path through the dark woods.
"The clothing and houses of these people were quite different in the different parts of this country. The games and festivals of one tribe were often unlike those of any other.