BROOKHOUSE VALLEY. 



ARTHUR MUNSON. 



" Do you see that wild grass coming up 

 out there?" said Uncle Lon, indicating 

 some rushes and shoots of sweet flag down 

 in the meadow fronting Brookhouse. , 



" Once that meadow was a lake, and the 

 Indians killed many a deer in and about it, 

 in the old days. I remember when it was 

 a swamp lot, full of flag and alders, and 

 unsafe for cattle. Only a little corner of 

 the lot was cleared of stone and brush, and 

 dry enough to be of any use. 



" See that mound out there, from which 

 we get gravel to repair roads? I fancy 

 it was left there by a great cake of ice away 

 back in the glacial epoch, when wind and 

 tide had things much their own way in this 

 region. The boys say the mound is an 

 old Indian burial place, but nothing has 

 been found to prove it. I think the ice had 

 more to do with its building than the 

 aborigines had. 



" I like to look backward to the time 

 when beavers built their warm houses 

 where the green flags now grow. Little 

 they knew — cunning as they were — that 

 with every tree they felled into the lake 

 they were helping nature to level up the 

 old marsh, that we in these later years 

 might be benefited. 



" Our furry friend, the muskrat, did his 

 share of house building out there, too; 

 and hundreds of his snug habitations have 

 settled and decayed to add their .mite to 

 the great scheme of making dry land. Au- 

 tumn's harvest of dry leaves, and spring- 

 time freshets contributed toward the same 

 end. 



" It would be idle to even guess at the 

 size or weight of pickerel or muskalonge 

 the Indians caught in the still waters of 

 the lake, or speared through holes in the 

 ice, in winter days gone by. The red hunt- 

 er-fishers were wont to camp in sheltered 



places under the hills and beside the water. 

 They, no doubt, had their winter homes 

 where Brookhouse now stands. 



' This was a great region for wolves, 

 just before my time. They were so trouble- 

 some that the early settlers had all they 

 could do to keep them in check. There 

 was a bounty on wolf scalps, and pits were 

 built in which to catch the ravening beasts. 

 The wolf pit was a low structure of logs, 

 with a hole in the middle of the flat roof, 

 so the varmints could get in but not out. 

 It was baited v/ich a live sheep in a' cage, 

 and fearful must have been the poor ani- 

 mal's experiences. Sites of old wolf-pits 

 are still pointed out near here. 



" The same boys who try to make an 

 Indian cemetery of my old glacial mound, 

 know of a genuine burial ground at Cos- 

 cob. There stone slabs yet stand in a 

 neglected corner, wihere whites as well as 

 Indians were buried. The ancestors of old 

 Chief Coscob, after whom the little hamlet 

 was named, spent many moons encamped 

 about the old lake that was. They brought 

 clams and oysters from the sound, a mile 

 or so to the South; for the ground is filled 

 with such shells. 



" Just North of Brookhouse and near 

 the upper end of the valley is historic Lat- 

 tan's rock. There, in revolutionary times, 

 a daring pioneer rode off the big rock and 

 escaped his 'red friends'; much as did 

 Putnam from the British at Greenwich. 



" Past Lattan's rock runs a tiny brook, 

 bearing to the sea eadh autumn, with it's 

 flotilla of frosted leaves, stories of the 

 grouse's drumming, of the quails' whistling 

 notes, of the saucy squirrels' scolding chat- 

 ter, and of the music of the birds. This 

 little brook, with its alders and cattails, 

 is all we have left of the old lake of other 

 days." 



" Well, Uncle Jim," said the lawyer, " the 



doctor says there's no hope for you." 



" Yes, suh, dey tells me I's gwine ter cross 



ober." 



" Have you made your will? " 



" Yes, suh, I done will ter go." 



" I mean," said the lawyer, " have you 



anything to leave? " 



" Oh, yes, suh! " exclaimed the old man, 



joyfully; " two wives an' de rheumatizj "— . 



Atlanta Constitution. 

 71 



