The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-04-10
JOHN TWISTS PURCHASE.
sc OH YES, sART1Nl Yes, yes--1


pipe, and then added Zone Of the
greatest speculations l ever went into
come of dream-a wonderful dream.
I'll tell you about It,"
And we listened to the old man Is story
as follows:
You remember, some of you, about
the great land speculations here in Maine
thirty years ago. Poor men-a very few
Of them-were made suddenly rich; and
rich men were made suddenly poor; /
was living then in Grey. One day old
Sam Whitney, OF Oxford stopped at our
place, and showed us map of new
town which had been laid out in Saga
dhoc. On the map 1t looked beautiful.
There were brooks, and lakes, and broad
plains of pine and oak, with streets all
laid out, and spots for churches and
school-houses marked in proper array.
had cousin living down that way and
/ concluded to go down and take look.
L found the town of Ellenville, which
old Whitney had shown me on the map
to be wild, worthless tract, all rocks
GNU bub VII btlC Cbkt vi tulS
tract, in another township, my cousin
owned piece of good land and bought
hundred and fifty acres of 1t, and made
me an excellent farm; and for that pur-
chase was never sorry.
Meantime ElleDville was nearly all
sold in ten-acre lots. The excite
ment was at fever heat, and people
bought without once thinking of coming
to look at the land they were purchas-
ing. But by and by the new owners be-
gan to look up their property, and you
can rest assured that they were a blue
set when they were assembled on that
territory. Within all the limits of the
mapped-out township there was not an
acre that could be cultivated. On the
side that bordered my farm it was a
craggy ledge of rocks and beyond that
to the eastward the land settled away
under the maud and water of sunken
slough. Some of these lots had been
sold as high as one pound an acre, and
few of them even higher than that. One
poor fellow, named John Twist, from
Vermont, had paid one pound an acre
for lot that bordered on my farm. On
the map it had been set down as q mag
nificent pine forest, with beautiful
river upon its border, on which was a
superb water-power. John Twist bought
it, and paid for it, and when he came to
look at it he found it to be mass of
ho ,.rnly xxy;tl lo,
of clump or scrub oak and few Nor
way pines, and for river he found
water-course which tumbled melted
snow over the crags in the spring, but
which was dry most of the year. L did
not see the poor fellow when he came to
survey his property, but 1 can imagine
how he felt.
After while, however, the excite
ment passed off, and the sufferers of El-
lenville turned their backs upon the
grave of their speculative hopes. On my
farm prospered. My land was of the
very best quality; my wife was true
helpmate, my crops were abundant: my
stock thrived, and / found myself at
length with goodly pile of money tied
up in my stocking.
One evening in early autumn, after
cur crops had all been garnered, a man,
riding sorry-looking nag, pulled upbe-
fore our door. He was q well-looking
man, with o sedate and solemn face, and
dressed in black. 1t was safe enough to
conclude that he was minister, and so
he announced himself He said he was
the Rev. Paul Meekmore he was mis-
sionary, on home circuit, and asked
shelter, for himself and his beast for the
night. OF course we welcomed him
cheerfully; and we were pleased with
him. He had travelled extensively, and
his conversation was entertaining and
instructive. Before he went to bed he
read a chapter in the bible and made q
prayer; and Betsey said to me, after he
had retired, that she never heard such a
beautiful prayer in her life.
The next morning, at the breakfast
table, Mr.. Meekmore was very sedate.
He asked blessing, and then only an
swered such questions as were asked
him. Finally Betsey told him she was
afraid he had not slept well. He smiled
and said he had slept well, saving the
spell of curious dream which had
visited him three seperate times during
the night. Betsey asked him if he would
tell what it was about.
"It was the old dream of hidden
I. 4