Year: 1879

Way down East ssin the State of
Maine," one cold, frosty day late in the
fall, when the dead leaves were drop
ping and the wind signing through the
pine trees, somebody stumbled over a
basket among the dead weeds in q
sandy lane. A CRY came from the bas-
ket; baby's cry, not a lusty yell, as if
the originator were ready to climb out
and begin his fight with the world, but
weak, discontented cry, suggesting
that its owner was anything but satis-
fed with existence. Perhaps, judging
from what we know of his further his
tory, and especially that of his numer-
Gus family, it was request to be
"moved." He could not have been
blamed if it had been, for he was bent
nearly double, and the person who
picked him out christened him Dub
ble'' from that day. Whatever his fur
ther adventures may have been does
not concern us; we have to deal with
his descendants-fours sons. l think
they never got over the idea that their
father began life in a basket, wholly
unencumbered by real estate. They
never could live long in one place, and
If, by any chance, one of them became
possessed of a few acres, he almost i'm
mediately sold or traded it for
something anything, SO he could leave
it and move. They drifted into the Big
Woods, in q very friendly fashion, one
would imagine, to come so far alto
gether; but they were never at peace
when once they had located" though
it must be acknowledged the wives
were often the cause of the wars.


They gloried in the names of John
"Ren," tom" and "Lije," and no
one ever thought of calling them by
any more dignified titles. All had the
same easy way of getting along in the
world, the same desire to move and the
same habit of building great air-castles
of the thinnest of thin air. Before the
Homestead law took effect, each man
pre-empted, cut out a few trees. built a
q small log-house or shanty, and then
swapped" with some one. When
they had no neighbors, they traded
among themselves, but when people
began to come among them they sold
out their rights. BY the time they were
we'll traded around that time they could
take homesteads, and they proceeded
to do so. But not one of them could
stay on his land long enough to hold it.
Five years, what long time to live in
one place! So they sold out the rights
to the homesteads.


One of them did manage to stay on
his till it only lacked two months of the
five years. He had been in the army
the most of the time, where he had had
plenty of moving, and the family had
for once lived more than two years
without packing" But he had go,
home from the army, and had been
there on that farm a year, a whole
year, and life had become q burden.
With q heavy heart he thought upon il
and planned fora move. Help came
in the form of shrewd old Dutchman,
who wanted the land. He wanted
that farm, but he was in no great haste
two months made little difference tC
him. But it did to bubble; he coulC
not wait two months before he had thai
place entirely off his hands. So ht
borrowed $500 of the Dutchman, and
making off to the Land Office. paid fol
the land which in two short month,
would have been his own. and pail
with money which, at the end of tha
time. would have been added to tht
price of the land which he received
and have gone into his pocket instead
of being sent to Washington.


The law allowing man to pre-emp


or take homestead but once, they thel
tried railroad land. Failing to maxi
the payments, they gradually lost tn
land. one after another, or sold ou
their L" improvements" for little an,
drifted off again; one into little, tum


bled-down house on a rented farm, an
other into a sod house on the vas


plains of the western part of the State
| Thtc ,Nonr1liorifu loft th


bubble Settlement" as it was called


dotted in every now and then with


small log house, shanty with q bar


roof and puncheon floor, or perhap


only little hole cut in the woods, dig


nified by being called clearing, an


which soon filled with sumachs and a


kinds of underbrush. One would hare


ly expect men who transacted bushes
in any manner have described to bt


come rich, but they were sure the


should on some day, always just littl


in the future, become immensel
wealthy, as they counted wealth, an


many and peculiar were their plans (
reach the desired end.


On Toms farm was an immens
marsh, perfectly impossible to man 9
beast. Reeds and tall grasses bordere


It for several rods, and in the cente
. was a black pond full of frogs and CO,


cred with buzzing mosquitoes. Unde
meath it all was q depth of black mu
which was apparently bottomless. A
: adventurous young man in pursuit of
deer had attempted to take a shorte


route after his game by crossing th
marsh. 1t was in the fall, and som,


what frozen, and he thought by takin


his way across the dryest portion an


leaping from one bunch to another {
.. the dry grass, he could cross. But sui
denly, happening to step where it ws


little frozen, down he went, and th
. soft, black mud closed over his heat
: and had it not been that his foo. touche
) | q sunken Tree trunk. deeplY buried