THE EARLY SETTLERS. 251 



spoiled. The only people that were here, were the 

 savage Ingens, that lived in the woods like wolves, 

 and all the property they had to be plundered of, were 

 their bows and arrows. Tbe great forests stood just 

 where they were from the beginnin' of time, stretchin' 

 away and away, hundreds of miles from the sea. 

 Them great forests had to be chopped away, tree by 

 tree, and cleared off, for the growth of grain. That 

 was a mighty labor, Squire, that lay before the airly 

 settlers of this country. Weak men couldn't perform 

 it, and lazy men wouldn't. It was a job that men 

 who loved their ease, and didn't like work, wouldn't 

 undertake. It took stout-hearted men to face that 

 work, and the dangers and hardships of this country, 

 two hundred years ago, and courageous ones too. 

 The tomahawk and the scalpin' knife, were things that 

 had an unpleasant look in timid men's eyes, and they 

 kept out of sight of 'em. 



" The men that left their birth-places, and the old 

 homes they loved so well, and swung out on the ocean, 

 to seek on this side of the great waters, a dwellin' 

 place in the wilderness, were strong minded, workin 

 men. They were men of iron frames, and iron consti 



I 



tutions, and of iron wills too. They were courageous, 



