BIRTHPLACE OF PETE MEIGS. 287 



his whole life, that made him onlike other folks, a 

 solitary and a lonely man : 



" ' I was born,' said he, ' in the Mohawk country, 

 and I remember well my father's log house and 

 clearin', was back of the other clearins', along the val- 

 ley of a stream that came down from the hills. It was 

 about the close of the Ingen war, and a dangerous 

 place to live, tho' my father didn't think so. I re- 

 member my mother was a Christian woman, and my 

 two little sisters and brother, all younger than myself, 

 we'd sit around her of an evening, and hear her read 

 the Bible by the light of a fatwood knot on the hearth, 

 and we'd all sing the simple hymns that we knowed, 

 and then she'd kneel down, and pray for us, to the 

 great God that hears the prayers of his people, even in 

 the deep forests, and away in the lone woods. We 

 were a happy family then, all alone there by ourselves, 

 and I loved my father and mother, and those little 

 sisters and brother, the more because we were so 

 alone, and as I have never loved, and never can love 

 anything else. It's a sad thing to think that they all 

 passed away, in their brightness, and beauty, and 

 strength, all at once, to become victims to the 

 tomahawk and scalping-knives of the Ingens, and 



