The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-16

thought the flames kept off witches
which they had been told abounded in
the new country.
The Caswell children had heard
much of te Blue Ridge. They fancied
it was sharp and steep. rising up and
falling down all at once, something like
a housetop. When they came in sight
of it, a dim blue lowering cloud, rim
ming the whole west, they could
scarcely believe their eyes. And when
the beautiful blue melted as they came
to it into hollows, hills ridges, glens
innumerable, a whole broad stretch Of
climbing and lifted peaks. through
whose maze the road crept tediously
they We're dumbfounded. But so many
other things had to be looked at and
spoken of they would have said nothing
any way.
The chiefest among these things was
the road itself. In places it was
sleeper than any roof-and there teams
had to be doubled and trebled and
often loads halved before the wagon
and carts would be got to the top. The
vexatious things Was-some of the
sleeps fell down instantly and almost
as sharply on the other side. At least
1t looked that way, until you came to
the ridges true top and began going
down westerly. Then you saw what
going down mountains really was. In
places trees were cut down and chained
with all their branches to drag at
the hind end of the wagon, thus keep
ing 1t from pitching over upon the
team. Smaller trees were fastened to
the gig. Mrs. Caswell drove it, and
kept the baby between her feet in spite
OF her husbands protest. The gig had
but two wheels and was further stayed
by the shafts, but Maj. Caswell put
two of the strongest and trustiest ne
groes behind it with orders to hold it
down whenever there was even a
chance of its tipping over.
At first, in the seaboard country, the
travellers had seen houses, many of
them fine and big, and met people a
plenty in every days journey. They
met people, indeed, until they were
well over the crest of the mountains.
After that they had the road mainly to
themselves. except for the deer which
glanced at them from the natural
meadows or the wild turkeys that burr
red across the way in the creek bot
toms. But here or there along the
trace-as the west country roads were
called-they came upon welcome road
side smithies, where they could get
norses and oxen shod. Toward the last
the cows got footsore, but if shod they
would infallibly have run away.
The first day of December found the
Caswells safely landed in the new
home. There were three cabins ready
Maj. Caswell had nired them built
the spring before. Manfully he set
about building others and clearing land
for next years crop. If moving had
been a tough job, maintenance for such
a famllY was tougher one. He was
200 miles from tidewater on the east.
a little further from New Orleans. the
outlet of the Southwest, and further
still from Pittsburg, where the Phil
adelphia post road ended. Money was
almost useless, Near neighbors ten
ana twenty miles off told him they had
1ot handled dollar in years. Flat
boats took stuff down to New Orleans
to sell, and rare keel boats, painfully
Doled up stream, brought in the few
things bartered for furs, hides. dried
venison, beeswax, wild honey and gin
Song.
Perhaps Maj. Caswell was a born
pioneer. Certainly he rose to the occa-
sion. Inside ten years he had planta-
ton open, sowed small grain, raised
corn and tobacco and had planted an
orchard. Beyond all this he made the
new plantation produce all absolute ne
cessities. save only salt and iron phe
sugar orchard tapped every winter gave
ABUNDANT sweets, home-grow wool.
cotton and flax were carded, spun,
woven, dried cut and sewed,
to give everybody three new
suits a year. Hides from
beeves Killed each fall were tanned
and made into shoes for black and
white, apples and peaches from the or
chard gave cider brandy, dried fruit
and preserves. More than all this, the
saw pit and the whip saw had fur
n1Shed lumber for a frame house
whose floors were neatly pegged down
and shingles pegged on. At first the
doors had wooden latches and hinges,
the windows board panes, but by and
by it became possible to buy wrought
iron and glass instead, The windows
had, further. home-netted curtains, the
floors homespun carpets, and every
room boasted chairs, tables, bedsteads,
chests of drawers and plain chests,
made in the home workshop from tim
ber cut in clearing land.
All this, though the master and NOV
ing spirit knew nothing of architecture,
carpentry, cabinet-making, tanning,
shoemaking or distilling. He and his
had only the American adaptiveness,
sharpened and developed by the neces-
stiles of primitive conditions. 1t is not
wholly strange that when there were
Caswell grandchildren they did not care
oYermuch about Robinson Crusoe. AS