THE LITTLE TOWN ON THE HILL 173 



lowed to know, and to love, and to wonder at it. 

 Settled j in the eighteenth century by adventurous 

 pioneers who pushed on up into the hills from Deerfield, 

 it must always have been remote, inaccessible, drift- 

 piled in winter, with a thin, rocky soil. Nor, without 

 artillery on either side, is it easy to see why such a 

 hilltop village was much easier to defend from a surprise 

 attack by the Indians than a village amid rich valley 

 meadows. The hills were too broken, the forests too 

 numerous, to afford an unobstructed view for any 

 distance. It may be that the Indians themselves 

 avoided the hills there is considerable testimony to 

 that effect, especially in the White Mountains. It may 

 also be that the prevalence of "summer fever" in 

 Colonial times (which, of course, was typhoid fever from 

 contaminated wells) caused our ancestors to seek the 

 hills, where they drank spring water and attributed their 

 health to the absence of "poisonous vapours" from the 

 lowlands. Then, too, in many cases it was easier to 

 maintain trails over the uplands than in the valleys. 

 But still more, I like to fancy, it was the pioneer urge 

 that brought the first settlers up the river gorges, and 

 then up the side gorges of the tributary brooks, till 

 some upland beaver meadow attracted their attention, 

 offering a ready-made clearing to start on, with superb 

 timber all about and unlimited water power for their 

 needs. These early pioneers lived a self-sufficient life, 

 and perhaps when you are entirely independent of the 



