THE ADIRONDACKS 87 



jambs, the windows had but a few panes left, which 

 glared vacantly. The yard and little garden spot 

 were overrun with a heavy growth of timothy, and 

 the fences had all long since gone to decay. At 

 the head of the lake a large stone building projected 

 from the steep bank and extended over the road. 

 A little beyond, the valley opened to the east, and 

 looking ahead about one mile we saw smoke going 

 up from a single chimney. Pressing on, just as the 

 sun was setting we entered the deserted village. 

 The barking of the dog brought the whole family 

 into the street, and they stood till we came up. 

 Strangers in that country were a novelty, and we 

 were greeted like familiar acquaintances. 



Hunter, the head, proved to be a first-rate type 

 of an Americanized Irishman. His wife was a 

 Scotch woman. They had a family of five or six 

 children, two of them grown-up daughters, — mod- 

 est, comely young women as you would find any- 

 where. The elder of the two had spent a winter in 

 New York with her aunt, which perhaps made her 

 a little more self-conscious when in the presence of 

 the strange young men. Hunter was hired by the 

 company at a dollar a day to live here and see that 

 things were not wantonly destroyed, but allowed to 

 go to decay properly and decently. He had a sub- 

 stantial roomy frame house and any amount of grass 

 and woodland. He had good barns and kept con- 

 siderable stock, and raised various farm products, 

 but only for his own use, as the difficulties of trans- 

 portation to market some seventy miles distant made 



