THE HACKBERRY TREE TELLS HIS STORY 77 



cured and smoked just as the beef is cured and 

 smoked at the present tune, and for Thanksgiving 

 and Christmas dinners they would shoot wild tur- 

 keys out of this very tree. 



"Years went by quite rapidly, during which time 

 the country was developing. This road was ex- 

 tended many miles west, and people were all the 

 while driving on either side of me. Many stopped 

 here over night in their pilgrimages to the Far West 

 to allow their horses to rest for the next day's jour- 

 ney. 



"Later on, the second generation took charge of 

 the farm, and then conditions materially changed. 

 A great house was buUt, and barns to house the 

 horses and cattle were erected. More land was 

 acquired and put into cultivation, while thousands 

 of cattle were driven to market along this very road. 



"Then years later the third generation came into 

 being one day in the big house. I can see him now 

 as a small boy with his grandfather going along the 

 stream, the same streana and the same place where 

 the Indian warrior and hunter raced across the river 

 for the Indian maiden. The great pioneer and deer 

 hunter, aged and bent, carried the fish poles, while 

 the young fellow was trotting along behind with the 

 can of worms, stopping at the deep hole at the roots 



