The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1861-01-10
TIE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
How 4 Came To buy "a Farm.
Er y T.Yb0E-

there i any law l believe IN. II i that Of the
hereditary transmission If trait, ~quaItI=-. Cd
pacIties. and I4s-IOn-- Ny father - q farmer
my granifather WGs, and h- father before him.
AMI liz, and hi again, % the seseuth aucez-1E.
who came over in one Of William PENN yes-=--,
and Immediately 1T about reducing the super
huOuz sylvanisIn Of that Apostles \yiraEIa- II
l could brush away The clouds which hang about
this portion Of the genealogical tr--, ! have
NJ doubt bat tn: / should find IL trunk striking
through cottages OF country halls fyr -,me c-u-
turi=s further and that Roger (I- IJI4-)
the son Of Thomas. the -Jn Of - Roger, who
wore the judicial eTmine upon his ezcutehe,a.
had his fayOri.s coCntEy-hOu-e n tie HeigA5oT-
hood Of London
The child that h4z sunbIei into q newly
pI0xed fUrrOw nevsT fOrg=tz the smell u the
fresh earth. He tLEiyss upon IL a. the butcher :
bow thriyes upon The steam Of blood but q
healthier apple-red comes int h= cheek, and
hs growing muscle i =ubdU-t 10 mOre innocent
uastimes. Almost my fret recollection ! that u
L swamp, into which | went bare-legge1a 10 nom
ing, and out Of which / came when driven =
hunger. with long stockings Of black mud ana
q mask Of tile same. II the child Wa missed
from the hJuse, tie first thing that =aggete- IL
self. vas . climb upon q mound which C'eT-J,H-
ID the swaup. ~>gmewhsre, among tue tuits u
alnrfeDr5wn' iai.j %ei-sdftru 81 &n moving.
now dipping out VI sight, now rising again, ike
q bit Of drift On the ripping green L. was M
head The treasures / there collected were black
terrapins, with orange spOts, baby frog. the
size Of a chestnut, thrush eggs, and stems u
purple phlox-
/ cannot say that my b5yi-h experience Of
far1n-wOrk was altogether attractive. / had =
constitutional horror Of dirty hands. and my
fret emplOyment-picking stones and wedding
eDrn-wsre rather q torture u this sUpertue
taste. But almost every field had Its walnut
tree, ard many o. the Ia; years nuts retained
their favor IN the spring melons were planted
among the corn. and the meadow which lay BE-
tween never exhausted It's store Of w0nder7-
Besides there were eggs 70 hide ~ Easter,
cherries and Strawberries IN Nav fruits all sum
mer fishing parties BY tOrch-IIght; lOb=lia and
sumac t. be gathered, dried, and sold for peck
money and IN the fall chestnuts- p-ersImmyns,
Wild craps, cider, and the grand : butcheriug -
after frost came-sO that all the pleasures | knew
were those Incidental 70 4 farmers life. The
books I read came from the village library, and
the task Of helping 70 Il" fodder on the dark
winter evenings was IIghtened by the antIcIIa-
ton or Sitting down u Gibbons Rome, OF
Thaddeus Of Warsaw. afterwards To be sure, !
sometimes enyied the s;OrekeePers boy. whom /
had once seen shoyelling sugar out Of = hogs
head, and who now and then s~tealthily Jedi his
hand into :he raisin-bOx but 1t l. not in the
nature of any child 70 De- perfectly satisfied with
his lot.
A life Of three years in i small country town
efsctuaIly cured me Of all such folly. When
1 returned - the homestead as q youth, | first
felt She delight and the refreshment Of labor in
the open air. I was then able o. take the plow-
lAA-AAT~ s&aAA n lNAAA 4~AAC NAAl 49, 4 ~ !
when my burrows were pronounced even and
weli-turned. Although IL was already decided
that l should not make farming the business Of
my life. | thrust inSp my plans u slender wedge
OF hope that | might one day own = bit OF ground.
for the luxury OF having, If not the profit Of
cultiyating it. The aroma Of the sweet soil had
tinctured my blood the black mud Of the
swamp still stuck TO my feet.
Ii happened that, adjoining my fathers prop
erty, there was an old farm, which was fast re-
lIpsing into i state Of nature. Thirty or forty
years bad passed since the plUw had touched any
part Of it. The owner, who lived upon another
estate at a little distance, had always declined ~
seII-perhaIs for the reason that no purchaser
could be found u offer an encouraging price.
Left thus to herself, Nature played all sorts Of
wild and picturesque pranks with the property
Two heaps OF stones were all that marked the
site Of the house and barn halt u dozen ragged
plum and peach trees lowered around the out
skirts of the vanished garden. the melancholy
survivors Of all is bloom and fruitage and =
mixture Of tall s-dge-gTass, sunacs, and black
berry bushes covered the fields. The hawthorn
hedges which lined the lane had disappeared, but
some elunps of prIyet still held their ground,
and the wild grape and scarlet-berried celastrus
clImbered all over the tall ~slssafras and tulip
trees
Along the road which bounded this farm on
the east stood 1 grove Of magnificent oaks, more
than a hundred feet in height Standing too
closely to permit of lateral bOughs near the
earth, their trunks rose like = crowded cOlOnnade
clear against the sky. and the sunset, burning
through took more gorgeous hues of orange and
angry crimson. Knowing that If the farm We're
sJld, those glorious trees would probably Be the
first to fall, and that the sunset would thereby
for me lose half it. spiendDr, | gradually anne
10 contemplate them with the interest which an
uncertain, suspended fate inspires. vt the foot
of the oaks, on the border Of the field, there
was an old, guarled mother-pine, surrounded by
her brood of young ones, who, always s%pringIng
up in the same direction, from the fact that the
seeds were scattered by the nOr'west winds,
seemed to be running of down the slope, a. If
full-heiged and eager to make their way into the
world The old pine had an awful interest u
me as q boy. More than once huge black snakes
had been seen hanging from It's coughs. and the
farm-hands would tel! mysterious stories Of an
old mother serpent, - huge - . ience-raIl and
a. swift A. Il hOrsc. In fact my brother and l.,
ON our way - tine peach-trees, which still pro-
duced some bitter-favored fruit had more shan
once seen snakes IN our path On = certain &C
clsiOn, as my memory runs. / chased the make,
while be ran away Hs story i, THAI he chased
and | ran-and the question remains unsettled
u this day.
In another wood Of e~hesnuts, beyond the
field. the finest yellow viOlets were 10 be found
the azaleas blussymed in their season, and the
ivory indEan-pipe sprLng up under the beech
tres Sometimes We extended our rlnbles to
the end Of the farm. and looked down into the
s-'l"d@i d4n- t-y""i ,h@ -'is- urhi"h n e'vered:
such glImTses were ike the discovery of I'M
known lands. How far OF the other people
lived How strange it must be 10 dweIl con-
tinually down IN that hollow, with no other
house in sight, But when l build a hOu>-. /
thought, ! shall build il upon the ridge, with a
high -teeple, from the top 0f which ! can see far
wide The deserted farm was u me like the
Ejuxria Of Hartley COleridge, but my day
dreams were far less ambitious than his. Ill
had known then what | learned long afterwards.
that a tradition Of buried treasure still fingers
about the garden. I should have no doubt dug
M millions IN my Imagination, rooted my house
with gold, and mad: the stecple thereof five
hundred feet high.
At last came the launch into heworId-a slide,