The whole country was
a wheat-field, and we now began to understand how America could feed
the world. Our road lay among the "Openings" much of the way, and we
found them undergoing the changes which are incident to the passage
of civilized men. As the periodical fires had now ceased for many
years, underbrush was growing in lieu of the natural grass, and in
so much those groves are less attractive than formerly; but one
easily comprehends the reason, and can picture to himself the aspect
that these pleasant woods must have worn in times of old.
We left the railroad at Kalamazoo--an unusually pretty village, on
the banks of the stream of that name. Those who laid out this place,
some fifteen years since, had the taste to preserve most of its
trees; and the houses and grounds that stand a little apart from the
busiest streets--and they are numerous for a place of rather more
than two thousand souls--are particularly pleasant to the eye, on
account of the shade, and the rural pictures they present. Here Mrs.
Boden told us we were within a mile or two of the very spot where
once had stood Castle Meal (Chateau au Miel), though the "general"
had finally established himself at Schoolcraft, on Prairie Ronde.
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