122 



&l)c jTarmcr's ilTontl)h) Visitor. 



wore off t lie stiff rope-halter with which she 

 was hitched to the carriage behind over the 

 vt heel in the first half mile, and luoke loose in 

 the road. Tliis was discouraging for a lead of 

 full one hundred and forty miles home ; but 

 catching the tame creature, the halter around the 

 neck of our old Charley was soon substituted, 

 and quiet as a kitten came along the animal, 

 whose instincts had probably before taught her 

 to adapt her gait to a loose string by walking 

 and trotting just so fast and no faster than the 

 carriage went before her. Our old friends (Dr. 

 Mason and his excellent wife) of thirteen years 

 ago — how quick the time has passed! — were 

 thought of for inquiry at Bethel. Across the 

 beautiful green fronting the tavern, their resi- 

 lience in a row of three other houses nearly sur 

 rounded by trees was pointed out ; and to lose 

 no lime in the journey onward, we made our 

 call while the dinner was preparing: the call 

 made us at once so much at home that it was al- 

 most difficult to break away for one bespoken 

 from another dinner at the moment tendered, 

 and this only under the promise to come back 

 after dinner for a longer tarry. Soon after din- 

 ner, the clouds not yet deepened down to the 

 discharge of rain, our friend's horse and gig 

 were in readiness for a ride further up the val- 

 ley : four miles more of Bethel to its westerly 

 post-office — all the way with the road nearly 

 level over the broad intervale along the southerly 

 side of this magnificent New England river 

 which discharges more water than the Connecti- 

 cut, came in as an addition to our accustomed 

 travel. Perched up the hills in the distance, the 

 owners of several valued farms were named as 

 we passed along. The father of Doct. Mason, 

 who died at an advanced age, came into this 

 country from Dublin, N. U. the birth-place of the 

 son, following after the latter opened his prac- 

 tice thirty-three years ago. So long in business 

 and ill public life as the Doctor has been, having 

 been since his retirement from Congress of ihe 

 Legislature and Executive Council of his State, 

 lie has yet all the activity of middle life, inter- 

 esting himself in whatever is useful to individual 

 and social comfort as well as in matters pertain- 

 ing to the more public interests of the State and 

 Nation, lie patronized a new settlement up 

 one of the valley gorges coming down to the 

 main river by the predion of mills useful for the 

 settlers' purposes; and they in compliment gave 

 bis name to their new town when prepared for 

 organization : with no children of his own, two 

 orphans of the wife's deceased sister are the 

 present adopted children of the family ; and of 

 these a beautiful young Aliss of thirteen with a 

 voice that might enchant angels, was taking les- 

 sons upon the piano of a volunteer instructress 

 of seventy years who hail taught hundreds in 

 her time to " discourse most excellent music," 

 and who was proof in her own person how 

 bright as a continued pastime of enjoyment, un- 

 der the influence of heavenly music and a cheer- 

 ed spirit, may wear the life of those who from 

 habit walk, talk and art as in the " concord of 

 sweet sounds." Scarcely alighting from the 

 ride ere the rain began to fall from the clouds 

 in torrents, the music, and the son-: — the old 

 fashioned nines and stanzas of forty years a»o — 

 coming from the fingers and the voice, at once 

 gave the mind that happy equilibrium, that high 

 reach into the harmony of thought, which may 

 be the foretaste of heaven. Is there not some- 

 thing in music that may on the instant cure a 

 physical disease of the body? may it not per- 



vade the whole system, entering not as to the 

 head or heart, but through all the pores of the 

 skin ? We have sometimes felt and believed as 

 if the fact was even so. The soldier marching 

 to the scenes of danger, stimulated with all the 

 affection which the native of every climate 

 should bear to the country of his birth, tires not 

 under the inspiring notes of the bugle, the drum 

 and the fife: so might the repetition of the glo- 

 rious music of years gone by adapted to words 

 both sacred and enlivening bring back to age 

 the vivacity of youth, restoring all the happy 

 impulses which are the foundation of sentiment 

 in realizing the present, or enthusiasm in antici- 

 pation of the future. Such was our foundation, 

 sheltered within while the rain without which had 

 but now risen in clouds upon theWhite Mountains 

 had come to discharge itself in torrents upon 

 the country below — a feeling of security that 

 the mighty Power of creation would restrain 

 the waters within due hounds, while he touch- 

 ed gently the chords vibrating to the highest 

 refinement of the human intellect. 



Quite happy were we fixed in this delay of our 

 journey at Bethel on the hill, the rain continuing 

 through the night and the greater part of the 

 next day. We found men and women there of 

 intelligence and good minds and manners both 

 in the family and neighborhood. The profes- 

 sional life of our friend beyond "six miles round 

 the country," had extended to [he State of New 

 Hampshire. Moose river comes down at the 

 foot of Mount Washington in Shelhurne: in 

 compliment to the first settlers in the mountains 

 ihe doctor said the most savory and tasteful 

 meal he ever sat down to was in a log house 

 high up on Moose river in the Granite State. He 

 was called there when the distance required 

 him to tarry under the shelter there afforded 

 overnight: the greatest concern of the house- 

 wife was that there was no meat other ihan salt 

 pork to offer for ihe doctor's supper. The man 

 at once went to the mountain stream with hook 

 and line, caught and brought in three or four 

 fine trouts: she knew how to cook them as an 

 early New England woman of a log hut general- 

 ly knows how to make the best of every thing— 

 the guest, welcome if his entertainers could satisfy 

 him, reposed with equal comfort and more grati- 

 fication in the solitary log house far in the wild- 

 erness than he might have done in the splendid 

 mansion of some heartless owner who can never 

 realize the joys of true hospitality. 



The doctor understood well our case, that an 

 open fire place with wood gives belter breath 

 than the saving-fuel close stove common to those 

 who feel obliged to sludy economy at the ex- 

 pense of health. The necessity for fireside 

 warming of feet introduced the company to the 

 parlor, and that introduction to the lady's albums 

 with the autographs of the President and his 

 officers with all the Senators at Washington 

 whose greatest efforts were enlisted from twelve 

 to twenty years since on one or the other side of 

 the two great political parties, but a majority of 

 whom have since retired to mingle with their 

 native dust, lo whom it can now make little dif- 

 ference which side, prompted by as much feeling 

 of pride as of patriotism, shall have been mosl 

 successful: our own name, of those who had 

 escaped with life until thi.s time, was found writ- 

 ten in one book with the satisfaction thai no 

 greater trembling of ihe hand had yet taken hold 

 of our own writing: in another, which was more 

 the record of compliment than sentiment, not 

 used ever and especially thus late in life to the 



mood of poetry, we wrote irregularly something 

 that as now in the recollection was nearly the 

 following : 



Impromptu on leaving Bethel hill after a tarry of 

 two days through a rain storm. 

 I've travelled o'er the plains — 

 I've strayed into the mountains — 

 I've seen the origin of rivers 

 Break from their crystal fountains ; 

 I've marked Ihe growing beauty 

 Of the great and mighty trees 

 Which form the lusly timbers 

 Of noble factories : 

 I've seen the natural grasses 

 .Near by the mountain side 

 Surpassing in luxuriance 

 Best cultivation widej 

 I've heard the rolling cataract 

 Hard by the Mountain Aim — 

 I've seen the beaver's meadow 

 Wear basalt column grand. 



Breaks open now down in the mountain valley, 

 Smooth the rich intervale with luxuriant fields, 

 Beside old Androscoggin on its way to ocean, 

 The village beautiful, Bethel on the hill, 

 fronting the green a row of dwelling mansions, 

 The residence fur years of three married sisters : 

 Our old acquaintance ofyears gone by one of them 

 So fresh and youthful yet lhal as of yesterday 

 Seemed thirteen summers past the last interview. 

 Since that time orphans have become children 

 To the childless parents. * * * 

 May heaven rest on husband, wife and children 

 Full fifty years to come ; all that concerns us then, 

 As shall become lives well carried through, 

 Meet and consort in heaven ! 



Bethel stands as it were at the foot of the 

 highest mountains of the United States: as in a 

 jet d'eaa do the frequent scuds fall upon these 

 towns round and near the mountains — in the 

 vernal season by crystal rain-drops and some- 

 times hail— in the winter frequently in dry snow- 

 flakes. Hurricanes and hail are perhaps more 

 frequent here than in the plains below further 

 off. Their sweep is generally in a contracted 

 width: one of them in a narrow progress along 

 the intervale valley at Bethel a few weeks since 

 had cut off the enlire leaves of the growing corn 

 and potatoes, leaving hailstones beside the fences 

 to the depth of five or six inches. Within a very 

 few rods out of the narrow range there were no 

 evidences of injury from either wind or hail. 



The travelled road out from this high point of 

 the Androscoggin valley at first went round by 

 the opening settlements on high hills. It is not 

 a little remarkable that a nearly level road in a 

 more direct line has been made in a natural val- 

 ley which commences nearly three miles south 

 of Bethel hill as the beginning of the waters of 

 the Presumpscut river discharging itself at Port- 

 land. The source of water power at Gorham 

 and Sacarappa nearer to Portland which has 

 made flourishing manufacturing villages, a suc- 

 cession of ponds or lakes fifty to sixty miles in 

 the country, follows the valley downwards. 

 Crooked river, bending round eastward of Har- 

 rison and Bridgtnn as it leaves Oxford for Cum- 

 berland county, enters the larger SebagO lake 

 below, while another beautiful long lake fed by 

 streams from other ponds further south-west, 

 unites its waters to the other, so that a steam 

 boat passage of more than thirty miles up to 

 North Bridgton is found in a single level. Above 

 ihis level timber and logs are floated down 

 to the successive falls where are mills for its 

 manufacture. 



A great part of this section of Maine first 

 cleared of its timber was covered originally with 

 the stately white pines: it has been closely 



