The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-11-13
new TENANTS OF OLD HOUSES
BY ERNEST HAROLD BAYNEs.

n OWN here in New Hampshire. one
ii Of the first things TO impress a
newcomer is the great number of
deserted homes and abandoned farms.
II YOU were to ask how they came to be
abandoned. you would find that there
were about as many answers as there
are deserted houses: each house has
its own story though il many cases
this story viii never be told. Some
were deserted because of the harshneSs
Of parents: others because Of hayward
ness of children; others still because
the nigEard soil would not yield a liv-
ing. Here you will find a house whose
last occupant committed suicide and
there is one I know OF whose owner
was murdered years ago. and whose
body has not yet been found But it
is an iii wind which blows good to no
enc. and there are many who have pro-
flied by the desertion OF these old
houses.
7 have visited many sn-called desert
cd farms since ] came down here. and
almost all OF them have new tenants
nOw-tenants whose ancestors owned
this country thousands OF years before
Columbus was baby.
Among the first to take possession
OF these old places were the birds
There are few OF them indeed which
cannot boast at least one pair of
Phoebes in the summer Occasionally
these. genale little hycatchers will
build outside on some projecting bit of
woodwork under the caves perhaps.
but more often they go right inside
through a broken window or some half
open door. and build their home on the
mantelpiece or above a window frame.
Sometimes I find them in the cellar on
one of the beams, and on such a site
last summer ! watched a pair of
Phoebes rear two broOds of five.
The chimney swifts. too. We're quick
u note that there We're no fires in the
chimneys of these houses. and were
prompt 10 take advantage of the fact.
All summer long these stiff looking
birds We're TO be seen. wheeling in
wide circles over the old farm lands.
fitting bat-like above the houses. or.
with wings raised over their backs.
dropping like plummets to their sunless
homes.
One day about two weeks ago I was
hiding in one OF these deserted houses
to watch for deer, which often came
into the orchard for the fallen apples.
Hearing a slight noise behind me I
turned my head slowly and there was a
cEipmunk sitting on the top Of an old
wooden bin and looking straight at
me. His cheek pouches were full Of
what / afterward discovered were apple
seeds. He sat watching me for a few
minutes. and, as l didn't move ran to
a hole which had been gnawed in the
top Of the bin and into IT he whisked
Presently he was out again. with the
swelling gone from his face. and in "A
moment he was scampering across the
orchard. where he sat down on a stone
and began biting a small apple TO
pieces to get at the seeds.
In another ancient dwelling-this was
in the Blue mountain forest game pre-
seTve-I CHANGED to open an old closet
and found upward of a dozen white
footed mice which popped out of a large
and snug nest made entirely of buffalo
hair. ] have seen or heard mice in
many another OF these old buildings,
and there are brown rats in q few of
them at least I noticed a pair OF
wessels emerge from one old cellar. and
in the mud upon the floor OF another
there were the footprints OF large rae
coon. In cottage surrounded BY
woodland I found the floors Enawed by
the teeth of porcupines. The gnawing
had been done chiefly along the cracks
between the plankiug, possibly because
here, more than elsewhere. the boards
were soaked with salty grease, a deli
cscy much beloved by pOrcupines. Por-
cCpines are so fond OF salt in any form
that IL is no uncommon thing for them
to ruin oars paddles and other imple-