HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 8/ 



cab spelled the word "Tahanto." But this evokes no memories 

 — it is a name but it is no more, and may as well be that of a 

 cloud at midnight. The roar of iron and the rush of steam have 

 supplanted the war-cry of the savage, but to-day the path of the 

 shining steel follows northward the ancient trail to the home of 

 the Arosagunticooks. 



FAMOUS SQUAWS. 



It is not from choice that we have spoken slightingly of the 

 Nipmuck squaw. She may have filled her place, and there is no 

 doubt that wherever her home it was humble. But she must be 

 put without prejudice in the column of silent factors — passing 

 away without sign. Record, journal, memoir, narrative or his- 

 tory, shed little lustre upon her life or character ; fiction and 

 poetry have alone befriended her. The eldest daughter of Pas- 

 saconaway, by her marriage with the great Nobhovv, became a 

 queen, but not even her name survives. Her younger sister, 

 the fair Wetamoo, became the bride of a seven-syllabled son of 

 Paugus and has been apotheosized in Whittier's verse. The 

 wedded life of Wetamoo was not a happy one ; the youthful pair 

 soon separated and she went back to the paternal tie-up in Der- 

 ryfield, where she held court for many years as a grass-widow. 

 These are the facts — the rest is fancy. 



After all, it is but a step from the dawn of tradition to our 

 own times ; with a stroke ot the pen, the turning of a leaf, we 

 pass to the century of base ball and cotton batting. 



