Year: 1872

sob Yes, sartin Yes, yes-I be-
lieve in dreams, - said old Siias Tafton
He took another whiff at his pipe, and
then added: ''One of the greatest
speculations [ ever went into came of a
dream-a wonderful dream I'll tell
you about it." .s,.s.-


You remember, some of you, about
the great land specuIations here in
Maine thirty years ago. Poor men-a
very few of them-were made suddenly
rich ;and rich men were suddenly made
poor; was living then in Grey. One
day old Sam Whitney, of oxford, stop
ped at our place, and showed us a map
| of a new town which had been laid out
IN Sagadahoc. On the map it looked
beautiful There were brooks, and
lakes, and broad plains of pine and oak,
with streets all laid out, and spots for
churches and school houses marked In
proper array. I had cousin living
down that way and 1 concluded TO go
down and take a look I found the
| town of Ellenville, which old Whitney
had shown me on bis map, to be wild,
worthless track, all rocks and swan % :;
but on the edge of this track in another
township, my cousin owned a piece of
land, and l bought hundred and fifty
acres of it, and made me an excellent
farm land for that purchase I was never
sorry.


| Meantime Ellenville was nearly sold
in hundred acre lots, The excitement
was at fever heat, and people bought
without once coming to look at the land
they were purchasing. But by and by
the new owners began to look up their
property, and you can rest assured that
they were a blue set when they were
assembled on their territory. Within
all the limits of the mapped out town
ship there was not an acre that could be
cultivated. On the side that bordered
my farm it was craggy ledge OF rocks :;
and beyond that to the eastward the
land settled under the mud and the
water Of a sunken slough. Some of
these lots had been sold as high as one
pound an acre, and few of them even
higher than that. One poor fellow.
named John Twist, from Vermont. had
paid one pound an acre for lot that
bordered on my farm. On the map it
had been set down as a magnificent
pine forest, with a river upon its Dor
der, upon which was superb water
power. John Twist bought it and paid
for 1T, and when he came to look at it
he found 1t to be a mass of barren
rock. with here and there a clump of
scrub oak and a few Norway pines, and
for a river he found a water course
which tumbled melted snow over the
crags in the spring, and which was dry
most of the year. [ did not see the
poor fellow when he came to survey his
property, but [ can imagine how he
felt.


After while, however, the excite
ment passed off and the sufferers of
E1lenville turned their backs upon the
grave of their speculative hopes. On
my farm [ prospered. My land was of
the very best quality; my wife was a
true helpmate; my crops were abund-
ant; my stock thrived, and 1 found
myself with goodly pile of money
tied up IN my stocking


One evening or in the early morning,
after our crops had been garnered, a
man riding sorry-looking nag, pulled
up before our door. He was a we'll
looking man, with a sedate and solemn
face, and dressed in black. It was
safe enough to conclude that the man
was a minister, and SO he announced
himself. He said he was the Rev. Paul
Meekmore he was a missionary, on a
home circuit, and asked shelter for
himself and beast for the night. OF
course we welcomed him cheerfullv,
and we were pleased with him. He
had travelled extensively, and his con-
versation was entertaining and instruc-
tive. Before he went to bed he read a
chapter IN the Bible and made PRAYER
aud Betsey said to me after he had re-
tired that she had never heard such a
beautiful prayer.