Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-03-11

pasture, just clear Of the
 %ESI woods. When the sun rose VSE3 one could see it's taper shad- ow stretching away to the foot of Woody ledge and at sunset it lay like a fallen mast athwart the COW paths, it's long top arm flying pennant on the side of Bowman's hill. In summer this bar of shadow moved like clock hand on the green dial of the pasture, and the help could tell the time by the slant of it. Lone pine had a mighty girth at the bottom, and it's bare body tapered into the sky as straight as an arrow. Uncle ED used to say that its one long, naked branch that swung and creaked near the top of 1t, like a sign of hospitality on the highway of the birds, was 200 feet above ground. There were few stubs here and there upon its sha :t-the roost of crows and owls and hen hawks. 1t must have passed for low resort in the feathered kingdom because it was only the rob- bers of the sky that halted on lone pine.
 This towering shaft of dead timbet commemorated the ancient forest through which the northern Yankees cut their trails in the beginning of, the century, They were tall, big listed, brawny lot of men who came across the Adirondacks from Vermont and be. gan to break the green canopy that for ages had covered the valley of the St. Lawrence. Generally they drove COW with them, and such game as they could kill on the journey supplemented their diet of pudding and milk" Some settled where the wagon broke or where they had buried member of the family, and there they cleared the for. ests that once covered the smooth acres of today.
 Gradually the rough surface of the trail grew smoother until it became Paradise road, the well worn thorough. fare of the stagecoach, with its ''inns and outs," as the drivers used to say, the inns where the men folks" sat iu the firelight of the blazing logs after supper and told tales of adventure until bedtime, while the women sat with their knitting in the parlor and the young men wrestled in the stable yard The men of middle age had stopped and massive shoulders and deep furrowed brows. Tell one of them he was grow sfngs elsls,and-he might answer you by holding hfs whip in front of him dnd leaping over it between his hands.
 There was a little clearing around that big pine tree when David Browei settled in the valley. Its shadows shifting in the light of sun and moon like the arm of compass, swept the spreading acres of his farm, and he built his house some forty rods from the foot of it on higher ground. David was the oldest of thirteen children His father had died the year before he came to St. Lawrence county, leaving him nothing but heavy responsibilities. Fortunately his great strength and his kindly nature were equal to the burden Mother and children were landed safe " in their new home on Bowman's hill the day that David was eighteen.
 have heard the old folks of that country tell what splendid figure of a man he was those days-six feet one in his stockings and broad at the shoul der. His eyes were gray and set un der heavy brows. have never forgot ten the big man that laid hold of me and the broad. clean shaven. serious face that looked into mine the day came to Paradise valley. As write can see plainly his dimpled chin, his large nose. his firm mouth that was the key to his character. "Open or shet.'' I have heard the old folks say, it showed he was DO fool"
 After two years David took a wife and settled in Paradise valley. He prospered in a small way considered handsome thereabouts. In few years he had cleared the rich acres of his farm 10 the sugar bush that was the north vestibule of the big forest. He had seen the clearing widen until he could discern the bare summits of the distant hills. and far as he could see were the neat white houses of the set. tiers. Children had come. three of them. the eldest a son who had left home and died in a far country long before we ca.Ie 10 Paradise valley. the youngest baby.
 could not have enjoyed my new home more if I had been born in it. I had much need of a mothers tender. ness. no doubt. for I remember with what a sense of peace md comfort I lay on the lap of Elizabeth Brewer that first evening and heard her singing ae she rocked. The little daughter stood at her knees. looking down at me and batting my bare toes or reaching o-er to feel my face.
 God sent him to us. didn't he. moth sr;- said she.
 Maybe" Mrs. Brewer answered "We'H be good to him anyway
 Then that old query came into my mind I asked them If it was heaveb where we were
 No" they answered
 "'Tain't anywhere near here. is itY' I went on
 Then she told me about the gate of death and began sowing in me the seed of Gods truth. as I know now the seed of many harvests- I slept with Uncle Eb in the garret that night and for long after we came to the BroxeTs- He continued to get better and was shortly able to give his hand to the work of the farm