Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1875-08-04
Che freeman.
Prom the Davenport Iowal Democrat.
East Orange.

From the Davenport [Iowal Democrat.
East Orange.
GROTON, June 50.
John harnessed up ''Spike" last Satur-
1,, and said he would take me over to
r..t Orange. The day was warm, the
l,.,v led UP through the higher attitudes,
.',.,',n,t the bush bordered roads which are
.u Frequently found among the less valua-
Biz. ftrminn diStricts-a road ever pleasant
I,, reason of a sort of unfrutful mulish-
ness of the country through which it runs.
Drive up Wells River piece, then
-trihe out for high ground, which you find
ali the way along for six or seven miles,
and then take down the other side of the
u;lI an hour or more till you gain the level
YOU started from. All the way along the
highway is narrow and generously stud
t.I with granite boulders, against which
IN. tires of thousands of vehicles have
ALTERED their faces for the best part of a
century. The wagons get the worst of
Not even the constantly travelled road is
free from the strenuous effort for complete
,jrtyrv-for wherever opportunity permits
.bn plants twin rows of wild grasses be-
,wren the horse path and the wheel-ruts,
,.ucourareu to crowd in upon the road SO
,,ucilv that they would soon close up the
driveway but for the annual cutting back
by the Inhabitants. Let that part of the
country but be deserted for Il few years.
and no farm land, nor pasture land, nor
rag,lwav would be visible. Nature would
,,rqucr, and wrap her naked and unseem-
j., shoulders in the rich, bright apparel Of
the early woodland, and it would be but
.l-,ice to nature and to man that this free
operation be permitted.
over to East Orange, Square Move I.
who lives out in Wisconsin, and had not
been back to Vermont for twenty years,
lad anrccd 10 meet me there. SO he did
The old friends and old neighbors were
.rlal to see the robust Square and his good
wife once more. and there was nothing too
rood for them The fatted calf-and num-
hrs of them were slain and the fatted
.,ao-r for that matter-and there was great
iov :.Il the welkin through. In II few
,slys Judge Dickey, of Humboldt, Iowa,
VII be here, and when the boys all get
around together there will be more down
l.yht visiting than you can crowd into Il
tHo acre lot.
Tea being dispensed at the hospitable
board of our old friend En-. Colby, the
square proposed Immediately to climb the
,.,.,.pc>t hill on the farm-a nearly perpen-
G!rular pasture back of the house, up full
two hundred feet in eighty rods. Twenty
wars # prairie life gives native Vernon
Ter 4 keen desire to climb q hill. He
wants TO see if his legs hold out
wants to get away up high where he can
~.t down and see hundred farms and
study them all over agaln-thlnk who
lived there and there a quarter OF century
ago: inquire after the men and women,
the bows and the girls that used to live
.here-it is all of the past-preclous little
If the present. 1t was n grand look out
We had up so high in the clear evening
Orange. Washington, Corinth, Topsham
Nrw!urv. Bradford-in full view, and in
the more dim background, noble olt
N3o>t hil lock the King of the White Noun
ttn r:nLc-a scope of country stretch
.ur thirty or forty miles away-mappeC
pu. in fields. pasturage, orchards, sugar
woods and timber lands; threaded will
>.rt.tms dotted about with farm houses
L~re and there village-the little citie
If the living, the bigger cities of the
L,al 1t was Il scene of rare gran
L-ur-one we had once been familiar with
Int whose real value had never before
A.cn 50 fully, so unSpeakably appreciated
Our old farms, our old homes, our ol,
school honscs and church. lay within ou
gaIr-the scenes of early happy days; th'
very graves beneath which rest the nea
and dear of earth, were within sight. II
is early twilight framing it was Il picture
ui rarcst splendor-of most magnltlcen
finish.
Sunday morning bells, the little bel
from the little white church, called tn
ucighbors together. Were you ever ava,
from home many years and then returned
to Your native village and seated yoursel
in the old church of a Sunday morning
with Your neiyhbors of long time ago
Then You can appreciate the situation
Il cannot be described, There is Il min
i>.cr. vou scarcely hear him. The choi
i abunimt-yOung people, of course OF n
earthly consequence for You know then
not; You hear the hymns perhaps. but no
heed them; they sing the same old tune
but are not the same old voices-no
tHe Young men Of the bass and tenor tia
}.I knew 50 well not the girl of the IL
anal cpntralto whom You once though
mo.r beautiful thln any other girls on lll
lir, Of the earth; No use to sing n
hear, chords are touched by the melod
u. the stranger volces-thc romance o
youth, the twitchy little snatchings ut TIL
heart strings come no more right down
tuI from the singers seats, because You V
.'nu zone So many years.
And the text and the sermon. 1t NIGH
'4yr been good. might have been of thl
father or that-but You can't preach to
Itu when the memories of decades ar
.ryvdiug in upon him,-where familia
homes and faces of long. long ago are rls
.- Jp i'll every corner, and from ever
l.N npon him; faces of parents who 81
i.,.c- faces Of brothers, and sisters nov
aot! or liying-iaces of playmates an
-t.",mat,>. forms and faces, bright eye
.u-y checks. familiar forms-you hav
",.i 1hrm all up around you again o
'..- -.,ir, that side. and the other-you AZ
Il ..I uncr more, among kind and kindre
'-an-only moment; then open yor
'tr~ ;o tind Yourself an old man, almo
a..a"-hnown only by report-seen mos
81. Strangers; knowing ten times MOI
tl.~ III the over crowded church var
-.~' y than of those about you.
Ks nothing ncw-a mere life plctul
'a,t most men sometimes have hung b
.'-" 'urm. Life and death; rich red bloc
Vim Inst again; forms and faces dcpar
g." village of the dead thrivcs on apac
i rowing smaller.
Thunder Showers.