The Days of a Man 



Cranberry 

 pond 



well. And I still remember vividly my first experience 

 there with my father; as he stepped into deep 

 water with me^ the little boy, clinging to his neck, 

 I said: "/ guess Mother better come!" 



Farther back was a noted cranberry pond, a huge 

 spring of pure, cold water without inlet or outlet, 

 covering nearly three acres, but with only a few 

 rods of clear space, the rest being covered by a 

 floating network of coarse water-moss Sphagnum 

 held in a firm grip by the entangled roots of the 

 two species of cranberries. Through the network at 

 intervals were holes kept open by muskrats. On 

 the Sphagnum grew abundantly two rare orchids 

 Calopogon and Pogonia with other unusual plants, 

 notably the beautiful little Swamp Laurel Kalmia 

 glauca while the whole area was surrounded by a 

 fringe of -"blueberries of two species, and the rare 

 Swamp Holly Nemopanthes. 



In 1874, my father having inherited a sum of 

 money from an uncle, Moses Jordan of West Chester, 

 Pennsylvania, we were enabled to build a new 

 house 1 and to purchase, as already implied, con- 

 siderable valuable land, including what was left of 

 the maple forest mentioned above, which adjoined 

 the original property. After Father's sudden death 

 on June 10, 1888, the whole place was leased for a 

 time to my nephew, Ernest R. Beadle, and later 

 sold by my mother. 



I was the fourth of five children. The eldest, 

 Lucia, who married James Beadle, a neighbor, was 

 a woman of high intelligence and noble disposition, 

 a graduate of the local "Female Seminary" there 

 being then no colleges for women and the author 



1 Burned in 1916. 



c 8 : 



