The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-11-12
Sleep; Hollow.

In the very heart of the town of Parsonsfield,
at the bottom of a valley completely shut in by
surrounding hills, lies the little old village of
Oalton's Corner. solitary as the last drop in a
;up Half century ago when Maine was
young and blushing State, the Corner was of
much local importance and had its stores and
manufactures which attracted business from
he adjoining Osspee towns. But for many
years the current Of trade has set in other d.
ections. and left the village stranded among
he hills, quite out of the busy world. 1t is
low the sleepiest of sleepy hamlets. Year
by year the spiders, upmoested, spin their webs
rom branch to branch OF the great trees, elm
ind maple and LON hardy poplar, which skirt
he roadside. These trees, by a centurys hard
abor have climbed up into the air many feet
md it is easy to believe the great patient leafy
Kings cherish dumb hope that by another
hundred years of honest industry they may be
able to look over the mountains and catch
lmpse of the busy world beyond. The houses,
dozen 10 number, were built while Maine was
District, and have scarcely known the touch
IF paint brush SINCE Their walls have been
urued to slate color by the action of rain and
sun. The woodbine chambers up their broad
;lapboards. Upon their shingled roofs the yell
DIV beads of moss have gathered like flakes of
;amboge upon the pestle-board of the grey-hair-
"a doctor who rides the circnt his father rode
fifty years ago. The very air is slumberous.
If anywhere in all busy New England can
De found ''the sleepy land of Drowsihead'' it is
surely here. One looks down the elm-shadow-
81 street and sees never a living creature, un-
ess it be some old man who has crawled out to
the wind sheltered side of the house. there to bask
in the pallid sunshineo of November. OF young
men there are none, for they are away to the
titles and large towns in factories and ma .hine
ihops and warehouses;
The village is shut in by hills which would
pe called mountains in any town where a
pot level enough for croquet ground could
De found. One of these hills, noted for its de-
,osits OF garnet and tourmane and iron pyrites,
,as its little story with an excellent moral
attached. Thirty summers ago well-to-do
armer found while cutting brush upon the
mountain side, a fragment of rock sparkling
With pyrtes. He took it that he had stumbled
lpon a veri.able gold mine. Pocketng the
:1ck he FASTENED down the hill and home
Jext morning he returned to the scene of his
reasure-trove and by dint of search found many
;reat Jumps which glittered ia the sun like gold.
soon became habit with him to seek the
mountain side every pleasant day and sit there
lcurs and gloat over his discovery. He was
Kindly, large hearted man, and the benevolent
chemes he projected and the good he proposed
do with his vast wealth made his life very
lappv one. He was the only man ever saw
whom riches did not spoil. The change in his
ortunes seemed not to puff up his pride in the
last. He was very affable in intercourse with
lis less favored fellow creatures, though tri-
lie patroniziug in manner because of the habits
re had fallen into of looking upon all men as
he possible objects of some great philanthropic
Undertaking. Buj then the world always gladly
onsents to be patronzed by many million
lire. For some reason he concealed his good
ortune. Perhaps he never perfected his benev-
dent schemes, perhaps he foresaw certain diff
;ulties necessary to be overcome before the
nine could be worked, or possibly he had
urking suspicion that his wealth was illusiona-
and would not bear the crucial test. How
yer all this may be he kept his secret we'll,
choosing unfrequented and ,circuitous paths to
he hillside, so no man suspected him. But QUE
autumn he sickened of fever and died, not as
poet would have had him, on the mountain
With his head pillowed in the golden Jumps,
)ut in bed in a most christian and commonplace
way On his death-bed he told his son and
heir of the gold-mne. Soon as ever the old
was decent'y buried the son FASTENED to
Cedar Mountain, gathered peck two of
,old, and not content, as his father had
,een, with the consciousness of plutoc-
acy, proclaimed his good luck abroad
ind fastened to realize. He sent a
'pecimen to an assayer, one of those
errible men who live by the SCATTERING
# air-casties, and was informed that the stuff
vas FOOLS gold and worthless Like the priu-
cess in the fairy story his treasure vanished as
soon as it became seen Of men. Since then he
mas been a disappointed man, feeling that fate
has done him d grievous wrong aud that in
some way he has lost great fortune, ightfully
his. People say the old treasure-fnder was
fool but to my mind the son was the more foolish
Of the two. Indeed the father was the wisest
man L ever knew. He had the rare good sense
to let well enough alone.
Behind the Parsonsfield hills the Conway
range lifts its ragged and barren peaks. At its
loot is Green Mountain, round verdure-clad
hill, bathed at sunset in purple mist which
would delight the heart of an artist. This
mountain is huge barometer, an inanimate
old Probabilities for all the country round, "a
light. feecy cloud on it's summit always betok-
rning the coming storm. 1t is famous for its
ice-cave, natural excavation which runs into
the very bowels of the mounta in, and is cut
into chambers rich with overhanging staIac-
tites. One goes in through a narrow entrance
and traversing many cells filled with fantastic
Shapes carved out of the limestone by that
greatest of sculptors, water comes at last to the
browning wonder of the cave the appropriately
named poets chamber. Here, seated upon
what seems to be a rude throne of rock, is the
sembance of a human figure, the face of
which bears a startling resemblance to the
Chandos portrait of Shakespeare. The dome>
like bead, the peaked beard, the Ezabethan
ruff are all there, 1t would be gratifying to
know how long this wonderful statue has been
in existence. and if mother Nature fashioned
it before Shakespeare lived. A strict regard for
truth impels me to say that this chamber has
never yet been visited by mortal man. But