MEN OF MAINE 



a nation was the real qualification for member- 

 ship. Many a silk-gowned matron of our cities 

 would give much if she could claim a genealogy- 

 showing such a host of colonial celebrities as can 

 that good woman of Insley who gains an honest 

 livelihood at the wash-tub, or by repairing a 

 watch or a clock at odd moments. Of course I 

 kribw she is not eligible as a Dame ; the wash- 

 tub may be at the other end of the line, but not 

 this. " Kind o' curious, ain't it? " 



Both the men and women of Insley show an 

 odd combination of thrift and shiftlessness. One 

 guide, when out of employment, simply sits down 

 in a corner and smokes, while his neighbor chops 

 wood and works in his garden from dawn until 

 dark, and then, lighting a lantern, picks up worms 

 for bait until bedtime. Passing through the vil- 

 lage almost any day in summer, and at almost 

 any hour, you will see a quartet of able-bodied 

 men busily playing croquet, though there may be 

 wood to chop or grass to cut. Like all Yankees, 

 they are keen on a " trade," and never willingly 

 let a dollar pass by without getting a percentage 

 out of it ; yet on one occasion a steamboat-captain, 

 having brought a party to the village from a hotel 

 at the foot of the lake, absolutely refused to take 

 3 33 



