A ROUGH COUNTRY. 6^ 



for we had not much more than twenty miles 

 to go over, and the snow which had fallen in 

 the night, and was still falling, rendered Fanny 

 very uncomfortable on her feet. 



There is little of interest upon the road, bleak 

 as it is in winter and scarcely less so in summer. 

 What brought our fathers to these inhospitable 

 shores is a question often asked, and generally 

 answered by attributing their coming to a 

 special dispensation of Providence. If there 

 ever was such a thing as a special Providence, 

 it manifested itself in the settlement of the colo- 

 nies of Plymouth and Narragansett Bay. Al- 

 though this part of the country was settled later 

 than the neighborhood about Boston, it now 

 has the appearance of a greater age. It was a 

 rough country to live in, and a rough country 

 to die in, as stony fields and grave-stones to 

 this day attest. To look at this ground now, 

 whose great crop is of rock — grass and pasture 

 land being exceptions to the general features 

 of the landscape — we can imagine its utter 

 desolation before any clearings were made. 

 Who of us would have taken such a wilderness 

 in this cruel climate as a gift, and would have 

 risked his life in fighting savages for the main- 

 tenance of such a possession ? 



