50 Frederick Law Olmsted 



garden was not only open to me but I was everywhere wel- 

 come. With all their hard-working habits no one seemed to 

 begrudge a little time to make life happy to such a bothering 

 little chap as I must have been. Such a thing as my running 

 into danger even from bad company would seem not to have 

 been thought of. 



I remember very distinctly wandering off by myself in 

 the evening to the store and sitting there listening to such 

 talk as happened ; going to look in at the window of the Sun- 

 day house to see the drunken poor folks ; going w^ith boys to 

 smoke out woodchucks from their burrows, to get rabbits in 

 winter out of stone walls, to trap mink in steel traps and 

 quail in figure-four traps. I remember going with rye to the 

 grist mill, riding on the sacks behind some man or bigger boy; 

 going at night to see a charcoal burning and then eating po- 

 tatoes baked in ashes. I am often reminded of the odor that 

 filled the air. Spending a day and night at a distant sugar 

 camp and then sleeping in a wigwam of bark. Making 

 pastoral visits to sick people with uncle, — so I called him 

 though he was no family relation. I remember when a man 

 came to say that a sick child was dead, and to get the key 

 of the meetinghouse. I went with him and saw him strike 

 three strokes on the iron triangle which hung suspended 

 by strips of cowhide from the beams of the belfry by which 

 the tidings were sent to all within hearing ; and immediately 

 women began to come from all directions to show their sym- 

 pathy to the stricken parents. The loss of a single little child 

 stirred every heart in every household. We were dismissed 

 early from school next day and went to see the coffin 

 made. 



I remember seeing the boards stained with a red wash and 

 varnished. We saw the grave dug and helped to take out 

 the bier and dingy pall from the little house in the graveyard 

 where they were kept. We walked in the funeral procession. 

 I remember the parson's reading the usual notice in meeting 

 the next Sunday. "It having pleased God to remove by 



