“Up the Rolling Fork we travelled, seeking where we might obtain
Precious plunder from the living, bleeding trophies from the slain.
“By a spring-branch in the bottom, near a clearing in the wood,
Hidden by the sombre hemlocks, Merrill’s low-roofed cabin stood.
“It was built of logs of white-oak, chinked, save loop-holes here and there,
With a door of heavy puncheons, made the axe’s blow to bear.
“At its end a good stone chimney reared itself among the trees,
And the smoke-wreaths, as we neared it, still were breaking in the breeze.
“Out we lay upon the mountain, till the midnight hour came on,
Till the darkness growing deeper told the summer moon had gone.