94 WHERE THE .Sl>UK'i\SMAN LOVES TO Ll.NGEli. 



on the south, aud Chcsuucook, on t\w west, (Mnbracini;' one- 

 thiicl of the State, and we were now to go througii the 

 center by way of the East Branch. 



What a game preserve that wouhl make I One hundred 

 and seventy-tive miles in length l)y seventy-live miles in 

 Avidth, inliabited by thousands of wihl animals, lish and 

 featlKM-ed fowl. On tlie borders of the preserve are tlie 

 postotitic(%s from whicli the dwellers of that vast wilderness 

 obtain their mail. Vou who find fault witli only one mail 

 a day, and kick if your morning ne\\'si)H]icr is not in the 

 vestibule before daylight, should have a dose the inliabitant 

 of that portion of the Tnioii gets. 



Chesuncook, or, as it is jM-onoiinced by the natives, "Sun- 

 cook,'' is the ideal frontier to\\n. As a general rule the 

 names of the lakes and streams of .Maine can stand crop- 

 ping off a syllable or two with a certainty that there will 

 be i>]enty left. As we try to find time to j^ronounce some 

 of the names, we do not blame the natives for dro]>i)ing 

 a syllable now and then. Their action reminds us of the 

 experience of a would-be dramatic writer who calbMl on a 

 manager with his newly written ])lay for the manager's 

 acceptance or rejection. The manager cut out portions of 

 it and finally rejected it. The author took it to another 

 manager, who cut out more of it and also rejected it. The 

 third manager cut out more of it, and, in returning it, 

 cruelly wrote the poor author that if he could tind another 

 manager who would cut out the rest it would be one of 

 the best plays ever written. 



Chesuncook is over sixty miles from the nearest rail- 

 road station — Greenville, at the foot of ]Moosehead Lake. 

 From Greenville the mail is carried forty miles by stc^amer 

 U]) the lake, two mih^s by wagon over Northeast Carry, and 

 then by canoe twenty miles to Chesuncook. As we passed 



