[Illustration:  HOSPICE ST. BERNARD.]

When the power to write first dawned on Cooper’s mind there came also and grew with it the desire to serve his native land in the field of letters.  Love of country and countrymen guided his ardent, generous pen in “The Spy,” “The Pioneers,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” and “The Prairie,” written before he went to Europe.  European society he entered, and was courted as literary men of reputation are courted there, but always with the honest pride of being an American.  Under these pleasant conditions “The Red Rover,” “The Traveling Bachelor,” “The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish,” and “The Water Witch” were written.  But “The Bravo” was followed by such “a series of abuse in the public press” at home that when Cooper returned, November 5, 1833, these onsets greatly surprised him.  His nature was roused by attack; but “never was he known to quail,” wrote a famous English critic of him, and added:  “Cooper writes like a hero!” He believed the public press to be a power for life or death to a nation, and held personal rights as sacred; and challenged on these lines he became a lion at bay.  Excepting from his fine old personal friends, staunch and true, he had a chilling reception.  For saying, at an evening party a few days after landing, that he had been sadly jolted by the bad pavement and was surprised that the town was so poorly lighted, he was seriously warned by these warm friends:  “By the shade of Washington! and the memory of Jay! to be more prudent; not a syllable of pavements or a word of lamps could be uttered.”  Because he thought the bay of Naples of more classic interest than the bay of New York, he was voted “devoid of taste and patriotism.”  So hurt was he by public distrust that he thought seriously of writing no more; its injustice led him to criticise harshly many changes which had occurred during his absence.  The Indian trail had made way for canal-boats, connecting the ocean with the inland seas; the railroads had come, with other active commercial interests, to stay.

[Illustration:  THE BAY OF NAPLES.]

[Illustration:  NEW YORK HARBOR.]

After their return from Europe Cooper and his family passed some winters in New York City—­those of 1833-34 and 1835-36 in Bleecker Street near Thompson.  There he “first erected his household gods, French gods these, for the house throughout was equipped with furniture from France, and ministered solely by French servitors,” writes Doctor Wolfe.  But love for the old Hall on the shores of Otsego grew strong beyond resistance.  It was vacant and of forlorn appearance when the author returned to it in 1834.  From a simple, roomy, comfortable house it was made over into a picturesque country-seat, from designs, English in style, drawn by Professor Morse, who was at Cooperstown during alterations.  Some of these, without thought of the cold Otsego winters—­ice and snow on the battlemented roof—­made leaks frequent and disturbing.