The Days of a Man 1856 



flanked by horse sheds. In their yards grew the 

 wild caraway, a spicy condiment which furnished 

 welcome relief to children during the long sermons 

 and congregational singing. 



Across the stream was the largest store, and near 

 by an inn which bore the conspicuous and sometimes 

 inaccurate name of "The Temperance House. " 

 Abutting on these was a small common running 

 steeply down to the creek, on the bank of which, 

 farther up, stood the big gristmill and still farther 

 on, the mill pond. 



Early My first clear recollection is that of a little object 

 recoiiec- j n a re( ] calico dress skipping down the path past 

 the first row of currant bushes on the way to the 

 well. A remarkable well, I may say, very clear and 

 cold, tapping deep streams from underneath glacial 

 deposits. For it we then used a chain pump, and 

 as the water leaked back over the valves in the chain 

 it seemed to me to keep saying, in a deep guttural, 

 "Red worm, red worm!" 



My next definite recollection is of being at the 

 house of my cynical uncle, Francis Jenison, and of 

 explaining to him that "yesterday I was four; 

 today I'm five!" At about the same time I dis- 

 tinctly recall shouting for Fremont and Dayton, and 

 asking my brother Rufus referring to the rival 

 candidates, Buchanan and Breckenridge what "a 

 brecken ridge" really was. 



A year or two later Rufus undertook to teach me 

 to handle a horse, and set me to leading one across 

 a field. But the beast traveled faster than I could, 

 and kept circling around me. Growing impatient 

 at my clumsiness, Rufus said to my mother: "That 



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