Then, while his monarch fingers downward held 

 Then rugged burrs wherewith his state was rife, 

 A voice of large, authoritative Eld 

 Seemed uttering quickly parables of life: 



How Life in truth was sharply set with ills; 

 A kernel cased in quarrels yea, a sphere 

 Of stings, and hedge-hog-round of mortal quills. 

 How most men itched to eat too soon i' the year, 



And took but wounds and worries for their pains, 

 Whereas the wise withheld their patient hands, 

 Nor plucked green pleasures till the suns and rains 

 And seasonable ripenings burst all bands. 



And opened wide the liberal burrs of life, 

 There, O my friend, beneath the chestnut bough, 

 Gazing on thee immerged in modern strife, 

 I framed a prayer of fervency that thou, 



In soul and stature larger than thy kind, 



Still more to this strong form might'st liken thee 



Till thy whole Self in every fibre find 



The tranquil lordship of thy chestnut tree." 



INDIAN TRAILS AND TRAIL TREES 



Long before the first white settlers had found their way to North 

 America, the native Indians had covered the continent with a network 

 of highways or ^trails over which they traveled great distances with 

 incredible swiftness. 



The Santa Fe and Oregon trails were much used routes, both 

 starting at Independence, Mo., and terminating, one in New JVlexico, 

 the other near the Willamette River, Ore. Another trail led from 

 Montreal, Canada, down the Ottawa River to Lake Huron and 

 Green Bay, Wis., and still another ran in a different direction from 

 Montreal through Lake Champlain into Lake George, and connected 

 by a portage with the Hudson River in New York State. 



Albany on the Hudson was connected by a trail with Rochester 

 and Buffalo, N. Y., on the Great Lakes. A trail known as the 

 "trading path" began at Richmond, Va., and the famous "Warriors' 

 Path" linked Cumberland Gap, on the borders of Tennessee and 

 Kentucky with the mouth of the Scioto River, in Ohio. Another 

 trail running from Philadelphia to Kentucky by Cumberland Gap 

 extended nearly eight hundred miles. 



As the Indians were accustomed to marching in single file, their 

 roads were narrow, those in the eastern part of the country rarely 

 exceeding eighteen inches in width. After the coming of the white 

 men, the trails were constantly traveled by them as well as by the 

 Indian traders, hunters and war-parties, since it was easier to follow 

 already beaten tracks than to blaze their own. It is an interesting fact 

 that most of the railroads in New York State, as probably elsewhere, 

 follow pretty nearly the route of the old trails. 



The Indians are said to have marked their trails by certain signs 

 either natural or artificial for the sake of convenience. 



88 



