328 HILLS AND LAKES. 



where it stood. The flames, as if rejoicing in their 

 power, swept onward over the hill, to the north, leav- 

 ing desolation behind them, and paused only when 

 they found no dry thing to consume. Any other 

 man than the owner of the town, would have sunk 

 under the calamity. Some $50,000 of his property 

 was destroyed, and, with other embarrassments press- 

 ing upon him, the spirit of any other man would have 



been broken. Not so with P C . With a 



will that nothing could bend an energy unconquer- 

 able as destiny he rose up from the misfortune that 

 overwhelmed him, defiant of fate, and scorning the 

 power of the elements, he reared from those ashes of 

 desolation, a phoenix stronger and better than that 

 which destruction had swept away. Where the old 

 mill stood, stands a better one. Hundreds of thou- 

 sands of feet of lumber are piled along the road, for 

 half a mile, and great stacks of it surround the mill. 

 Thirty teams are drawing from these long rows of 

 piled-up boards, and as one pile disappears another 

 takes its place. Where the former tavern and store 

 stood, stands another and a better. Each dwelling- 

 house destroyed, is replaced by a new one, and a fe\v 

 charred fragments scattered about, are all that remains 



