FARMING REMINISCENCES. 5 



town of Boscawen,N. H., was granted to a colony of emigrants 

 from the town of Newbury. Mark the language : — 



" That within the space of four years from the confirmation 

 of the plan, they settle and have on the spot eight3^-one families; 

 each settlor to build a good convenient dwelling-house, one 

 story high, eighteen feet square at least ; and fence, clear and 

 bring to, four acres fit for improvement, and three acres more 

 well stocked with English grass ; and also to lay out three 

 shares throughout the town, each share to be one eighty-fourth 

 part of the said tract of land, one of said shares to be for the 

 first settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the 

 school ; and also to build a convenient meeting-house, and 

 settle a learned orthodox minister, within the time aforesaid. 

 Dec. 8, 1732. In council, read and concurred." 



It was this constant care of the church and of the school- 

 house, with a due regard for the proper cultivation of the soil, 

 that made the Puritans superior to us of the present time. Their 

 social life stands the test of experience, while modern, rainbow 

 theories, vanish like morning clouds. Theirs was the true 

 philosophy of sylvan enjoyment, while our communities are 

 filled with crack-brained zealots, whose only occupation is a 

 constant endeavor to climb some visionary ladder of " reform," 

 then stand in the air on an unsupported " platform " and draw 

 the ladder up for a new " progress " into the clouds. Glorious 

 old yeomen. 



" Motion was in tlieir days ; rest in their slumbers ; 



And cheerfulness the handmaid of their toil ; 

 Nor yet too many, nor too few their numbers — 



Corruption could not make their hearts lier soil ; 

 The lust which stings, the sjilendor which encumbers, 



With the free foresters divide no spoil; 

 Serene, not sullen, were the solitudes 



Of these unsighing people of the woods." 



The martial spirit so carefully fostered by the Puritans, was 

 never suffered to decay, and the Pine Tree Flag of Massachu- 

 setts was sustained in triumph by her yeomen, at Quebec and 

 at Louisburg, at Ticonderoga and at Crown Point, Then came 

 the Revolutionary struggle ; but had we been a nation of cities 

 then as now, it is doubtful if Independence would have been 



