XIX 

 OLLA PODRIDA 



THE backward look reveals many 

 isolated bits of experience in the 

 out-of-doors, not one of them im- 

 portant enough to form the 

 nucleus of a story of respectable 

 size, and yet to each one crying 

 out every time we glance in its direction : " Tell 

 about me ! " If the reader finds nothing of interest 

 in these odds and ends, he who writes may at least 

 hope to quiet the importunities of these clamorous 

 voices from out of the past. 



The Canasawacta Creek is usually a quiet, inof- 

 fensive stream, making its way between the low- 

 lying hills of central New York to its union with 

 the Chenango River. The rain had been falling 

 steadily all day and the creek was somewhat 

 swollen when the families in the little hamlet at 



255 



