Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-08-28


That husband home can bring;
Warming up the human stove,
Cheering up the hearts you love;
And only Tyndall Gun explain
The links between corn bread and brain
Gcta husband what he likes,
And save n hundred household strikes
- Lydia II. Millard,
THE BURIED TREASURE.
In the village of Mortified, Mass,
there stands, or once did stand, very old
house, built long before the Revolution,
and chiefly remarkable for hearthstone,
on which for d long time regarded as EN-.
bracing, III some hidden combination o
letters, peculiar and mysterious SEN
tence. What this sentence was had been
forgotten by the tenents of the house and
all the people in the neighborhood long
before the writer became acquainted with
the circumstances, though tradition as
gerts that it had been we'll known, years
and years ago. The house was built by
one of the first persons who came up the
valley Of the rivera sober, rigid Puritan
walking before God. and man, as all our
ancestors walked, in a hard, straight and
laborious path eff life. He had an only
daughter and an only son who were both
born in this house and brought up on
this farm, until the period at which my
story commences, which was when the
daughter was just eighteen years of age.
The house stands on one Of t. ose natur-
raj terraces that are often found in the val
ley OF the Connecticut. rising one above
another, for one or two miles from the
river; and large bend in the stream, as
it comes winding its way down from the
north, presented to the view from the door
OF g. house long sweep of meadow and
distant view Of the valley, which must
have had the same prominent feature that
it now. wears, and which the reader, if lie
has.ever ridden north out of the beauti-
full village, cannot have failed to remark
and TO remember. The house of Deacon
F., as have said stood with this view be-
fore it.; and directly in front Of the house
was place where the Indians often left
their canoes, in passing and repassiag the
the river, which has since become the site
Of a. ferry.
The summer Of the year 1899 had been
one OF the unusual prosperity and peace
to the whole settlement. The Indians
had been unusually welldisposed towards
the whites and, although large encamp-
ment of the savages had kept their
headquarters on a hill mile
below, on the other side of the
river, yet their warriors had found plenty
Of game in. the woods and fish in the
deep waters Of the Connecticut, to keep
them employed. The harvest promised
to be very abundant to the white man,
and that beautiful part of the autumn,
to which our ancestors gave the name Of
Indian Summer, had been protracted so
far through the month of October as to
warrant the hope of mild winter. The
minds of the good people had been, how
ever, not little excited by the various
and contradictory rumors which came up
the river, from time to time, concerning
the sudden appearance Of q vessel in
Long Island Sound, supposed to be that
Of the noted Captain Robert Kidd. But
when, in the course of that summer, the
news came of his having been actually
taken, brought into Boston and then sent
to England to receive his trial, the tales
and wonders of the gold he had buried
with it to keep it safe-which tales and
wonders had been doubted by some
were now fully established in the faith of
all. Every person who appeared in any
part of the country and moved about with
anything of a mysterious air was at once
set down as Il follower of Kidd, come to
search for the treasure buried in the hur-
ry OF. their flying visits to the coast. This
was not without reason, for there were,
undoubtedly, vast quantities of treasure
concealed by that desperate pirate and
his band, in various places.
1t was IL beautiful afternoon in the
year 1909 that Mary F--was sitting
with her mother in front of the house,
spinning flax thread. The deacon and
his son were in the fields, gathering the
rich harvest of their summers work. AS
the old lady and her daughter looked to-
wards the river, on hearing the splash
made by canoe thrown in off the other
side, they saw three persons descending
the steep, and an Indian engaged in right
ing and preparing the light bark which
he had tossed into the stream from the
top of the bank. Very soon they all en-
tered the boat, and the Indian began to
paddle towards the opposite shore. AS
soon as they landed, the three white men
stepped On shore and made their way to-.
wards the house; two of them bearing a
small trunk, which seemed very heavy,
while the third led the way. They ad-
vanced toward Mrs: F., and the fore
most of the strangers, who seemed young
CT than the others as we'll as of some au-
thority with them, desired to know If he
could be permitted to remain, with his
followers until the next day. lie was a
very fair-spoken young man, and had a
pleasant countenancc, though the old lady
by no means liked the appearance of the
two despcrate-looking, coarse and out
landish men who carried the trunk. She
babe them to oo seated, however, until
the deacon should come to supper, fo1
Mrs. F---never did anything without
consulting the deacon's pleasure, at least
after it was done. In the meantime she
and Mary went in to prepare fer the even
ing meal. ''..'
The deacon and Mcdad returned at
shutdown, and the stranger renewed his
solicitations to be allowed to rest there
for the night, stating that he was going
north INTO Canada. Deacon F--was a
stern, iron-heartcd man, and had heard
so much Of late concerning Kidd's pirates
that he hesltated some time, whether tc
receive these men who came from nobody
knows where, and were evidently going
to a much worse place, However, he
told the young man that his followers
might sleep in the barn, and they would
try and find a bed in the house for him
The stranger, whom have represented
as the youngest Of the three, was a tall
dark complexioned man, Of about sever
or eight and twenty, with strong marks
of resolution and daring countenancc
but very pleasing in his address,. Ht
seemed to have seen many chimes and t
have done many great deeds, if one were
to Judge from the capacity and energy
that were craven in his handsome face
Whether he was an Englishman, a French
man, a native Of the Colonies, or s'only
citizen of the world,n did not appear