54 CHURCHES. SCHOOL-HOUSES. [CHAP. IV 



each other, the proportion of plants specifically common to the 

 two continents is constantly on the increase ; whereas in passing 

 to the more southern states of the Union, we find almost every 

 indigenous species to be distinct from European plants. 



Although the nights are cold, the sun at mid-day is very hot, 

 the contrast of temperature in the course of each twenty-four 

 hours being great, like that of the summer and winter of this 

 climate. 



We journeyed on over very tolerable roads without paying 

 turnpikes, one only, I am told, being established in all Maine. 

 The expenses of making and repairing the highways are defrayed 

 by local taxes, a surveyor being appointed for each district. We 

 went through the villages of Gorham, Standish, Baldwin, Hiram, 

 and Bloomfield, to Conway, and then began to enter the mount 

 ains, the scenery constantly improving as we proceeded. Here 

 and there we saw Indian corn cultivated, but the summer of 

 Maine and New Hampshire is often too short to bring this grain 

 to maturity. 



Usually, in a single village, we saw three, four, or five 

 churches, each representing a different denomination ; the Con- 

 gregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, and now and then, though 

 more rarely, the Unitarians. Occasionally, in some quiet spot 

 where two village roads cross, we saw a small, simple building, 

 and learned that it was the free or common school provided by 

 law, open to all, not accepted as a bounty, but claimed as a right, 

 where the children of rich and poor, high and low, and of every 

 sect, meet upon perfect equality. It is a received political maxirn 

 here, that society is bound to provide education, as well as security 

 of life and property, for all its members. 



One evening, as we were drawing near to a straggling village, 

 in the twilight, we were recommended by a traveler, whom we 

 had met on the road, to take up our quarters at a temperance 

 hotel, where, he said, &quot; there would be no loafers lounging and 

 drinking drams in the bar-room.&quot; We looked out for the sign, 

 and soon saw it, surmounted by a martin-house of four stories, 

 each diminishing in size from the bottom to the top, but all the 

 apartments now empty, the birds having taken flight, warned by 



