Front matter

ON THE EASTMAN HILL CROSS-ROAD.

A NORTHERN COUNTRYSIDE

By

ROSALIND RICHARDS

Illustrated from photographs

by

BERTRAND H. WENTWORTH

NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1916

Copyright, 1916

BY

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

Published April, 1916

THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS

RAHWAY, N. J.

To

J. R., L. E. W., and L. T. S.,

without whose help this small record

could not have been written.

PREFACE

No one person can fitly describe a neighborhood, no matter how long known, how well loved. Yet records of what is lovely and of good report in a district should be treasured and preserved, however imperfectly.

My father’s name, not mine, should rightly be signed to these pages, for it is his intimate knowledge of our countryside, loved and explored with a boy’s ardor and a naturalist’s insight since childhood, which they strive to set down.

I have taken care to write almost wholly of two or more generations ago, and of persons who, with few exceptions, have now passed out of this life; and I have in all cases altered names, and shifted families from one part of the county to another, to avoid possible annoyance to surviving connections. It has even seemed best in some cases—though I have done so with reluctance—to change the names of villages, of hills and streams, as well.

Beyond this, I have striven only to record faithfully the anecdotes and memories that have come down to me. But no record, however faithful, can be in any way adequate. The rays will be refracted by the medium of the writer’s personality; and the best that can be done will be but a small mirrored fragment, before the daily repeated miracle of the living reality.

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE

PREFACEv

IA NORTHERN COUNTRYSIDE3

IITHE RIVER12

IIITHE BANKS OF THE RIVER25

IVTHE CAPTAINS40

VBY THE ACUSHTICOOK53

VISPRING63

VIITHE EASTMAN HILL CROSSROAD72

VIIIRIDGEFIELD, AND WEIR'S MILLS82

IXMARY GUILFOYLE94

XTRESUMPSCOTT POND103

XIIN THE TRESUMPSCOTT WOODS112

XIIHARVEST131

XIIIWATSON’S HILL141

XIVEARLY WINTER157

XVASSIMASQUA, AND MARSTON171

XVIOUR TOWN188

Thanks are due Mr. Bertrand H. Wentworth of Gardiner, Maine, for his very kind permission to illustrate this book with reproductions of his photographs.

ILLUSTRATIONS

ON THE EASTMAN HILL CROSS-ROADFrontispiece

FACING PAGE

THE WOODS JUT OUT IN ISLANDS ROUND AN OUTCROPPING LEDGE6

INTERVALE ALONG THE RIVER’S COURSE56

THE SOUTH WIND IN MARCH64

THE PEACEFUL, PRETTY HAMLET OF UPPER BRIDGE88

PLOUGHING MARY’S FIELD96

ON TRESUMPSCOTT POND103

THE TRANQUIL WOODS COVER THE RISE AND FALL OF THE RIDGES121

THE CORN WAS STANDING AMONG THE GOLDEN PUMPKINS IN STACKS THAT LOOKED LIKE HUDDLED WITCHES138

LONGFELLOW POND LIES IN THE HOLLOW OF THE WOODS154

ICE-CUTTING ON THE RIVER BEGINS IN JANUARY162

THE WIND CARVES OUT WAVE-LIKE SHAPES OF DRIFT181

A NORTHERN COUNTRYSIDE