A THIEF IN THE BACKWOODS. 



273 



should always be sufficient to defeat the cause of a 

 good man, and advance that of a bad one. 



Being so barbarous as to love simple justice, some 

 of their trials are conducted on a singular plan. On 

 one occasion, a little settlement of some half a dozen 

 families having discovered a thief among their num- 

 ber, without farther ado, assembled, tried, and con- 

 demned him. The nearest jail, however, was fifty 

 miles distant, through the forest : yet they resolved 

 to despatch him thither, and two men were appointed 

 as his conductors. 



The first day they made about twenty-five miles, 

 and then built up a fire and lay down for the night, 

 with their prisoner. In the morning, feeling rather 

 stiff and lame, they declared that the tramp of a hun- 

 dred miles was going to cost more than it would come 

 to, and so turned him loose in the woods to find his 

 way out as he best could. 



I was much amused at a method of voting adopted 



in another settlement composed of a few clearings — 



the only ones in the township — in which were some ten 



or a dozen voters. The candidate for their suffrages 



— I forget his name — lived in Glen's Falls, near 



Saratoga Springs. Having assembled together in 

 12* 



