252 HILLS AND LAKES. 



fearless men } who could face danger, and battle with 

 hardships. They were God-fearing men, who brought 

 the Bible and the religion of their fathers with them. 

 They fell to work on the ancient forest trees, and 

 every blow they struck, told them of their own worth. 

 As those old forest trees, that the storm could not 

 bend, nor the whirlwind break, came crashin' and 

 thunderin' to the ground, before the strength of their 

 arms, each one, as it fell, told the story of their power. 

 The acres they cleared, and the crops planted by their 

 hands, as they waved in the summer winds, preached 

 to them of the dignity of human labor, and the value 

 of the men, who could change the wilderness into a 

 fruitful field. As years rolled on, and the fields 

 pushed back the woods further and further, they 

 looked, with a just pride, upon the victory they had 

 gained over nater. The very dangers, and trials, and 

 hardships they had to go through, made them rely 

 upon themselves, trustin' not to kings or princes for 

 protection, but to their own right arms, and the good 

 Providence that watched over 'em. The laws of Old 

 England were well enough for the cities and towns, 

 and thickly -peopled country, but they warn't fitted for 

 the woods and the forests, and the new clearin's of 



