The Yale expositor., 1895-06-14


work. cold Fort" as this vestige of
once widespread semi-civilized people
who had inhabited nearly the whole of
the great Mississippi valley was called,
was distant from Cincinnati about
thirty-five miles. 1t was situated on
the eastern bank of the Miami, n few
miles to the eastward of the village of
Lebanon. Mr.. Gust had for some
time been trying to train Joe TO
'carry chain; and though he
had learned the boy to hold one
end of the surveyors chain and
cry, ''stick" when he had fixed
marking pin in the ground, he
could not be taught TO be sufficiently
trustworthy for an accurate survey.
But that Old Fort was not to be an ac-
curate, but only an approximate sur
vey; and Mr.. Gust resolved to take Joe
along as his only chain-carrier, chiefly
for the purpose of giving the lad the
pleasure and experience which would
follow. One morning bright and early,
therefore, Mr.. Gust and Little Joe
started for Lebanon in the surveyors
light wagon drawn by trained team
and equipped with surveying instru-
ments, tent and camp supplies, and
food for several days.
No present inhabitant of the Queen
City, born in more recent times, can
have any just conception of the scenes
presented to the boys wondering eyes
in that day. OF course there were no
railroads and "McAdam" then; and
even in the dry season it was two
days journey from Cincinnati to Lee
banon-thirty miles.
Shortly after leaving the city, the
road lay in the near vicinity of the mill
dam which had been so fatal to the
| boys father, and so momentous to him
self; and Mr.. Gust passed the spot with
some misgiving as to how the sight of
| it might affect Joe. But the boy did
not observe it at all; he only observed
the neighboring hills, and at
tended to the hoarse notes of
the jay in the heavy forest, occasion
ally initiating them TO the best of his
ability.
1t was spring; and though there had
| been no rain for three weeks, the
roads were. in places, very nearly inn
passable Ten miles from the city the
travellers found half mile of roadway
over which a dozen or more wagons,
loaded with country produce" were
compelled TO pass by''doubling teams"
At the beginning of the ''oak fiat
where the mud began to be nearly inn
passable, two or three teams would be
| Ia 10 crl
the tough mud-''up to the hubs" as
the drivers said-to where more solid
roadway was found, and the teams
then led back for another wagon.
Mr.. Gust rested his horses by the road
side while the first half-dozen passed,
and thus afforded Joe good opportunity
to see 1.-The fun" as he expressed il.
Slowly under whip and halo the
mud-be-spattered horses dragged their
precious burdens of bacon, game, fowls,
corn meal, butter, eggs, apple-butter,
cheese, maple sugar, and the hundred
varieties of food for the Cincinnati
markets, which were then a very
marvel of luxurious variety.
The muddy horses proved a special
1
despatched with clay as to make it diff
cult TO determine their original color.
One laboring vain equipped with bells
upon the horses afforded Joe special
delight. 1t was driven by bunker
with long flowing beard, which he had
not seen before; and as the heavy,
well trained horses dragged their load
and jingled their bells, he almost
screamed with delight.
During the day farm after farm was
passed, enclosed by zigzag fences of
split rails and still numbered with
hundreds of "deadened" trees, which
had been ''girdled" instead of cleared
off," to save labor. Among those
deadened trees men and women, boys
and girls, were at work planting corn;
the elder ones covering the yellow
grains with the hoe and the younger
dropping them by hand into the fur
rows. No complaining machines in
that day.
Farmers log cabins stood by the
wayside, with garden patch in front,
well with bucket and hosting sweep"
near the fence for the joint accommo-
dation of the family and of passing
travellers, and rude stables in the rear.
And the tow-headed children about
the door--why were those children
nearly always tow-headed were
always pleased to give the wayfarer a
drink of water from a convenient
gourd.
At nightfall Mr.. Gust pulled up his
tired horses at the Halfway House, kept
by Capt. Wiles. This 'Uncle Tommy
Wiles' was curiosity in his way. lie
knew the surveyor, who had often
stopped with him, and he gave him n
cordial welcome. He was fat, rubi-
cund, jolly and full of pleasant humor
He made friends with the boy from the
first by calling him Joe; not knowing
his real name. And AFTER supper he
toolx enecial Mains IN amuse the HOY