372 
RURAL HOURS 
least that a remarkable tree stood for years after the settlement 
of the country on this hill, so tall and so conspicuous in its posi- 
tion as to be seen at some distance, and well known to all who 
passed along the road. Its fate deserves to be remembered more 
than its peculiarity. On inquirhig what had become of it, we 
learned the history of its fall. It was not blasted by lightning — 
it was not laid low by the storm — it w^as not felled by the axe. 
One pleasant summer's night, a party of men from another valley 
came with pick and spade and laid bare its roots, digging for 
buried treasure. They threw out so much eartli, that the next 
winter the tree died, and soon after fell to the ground. Who 
would have thought that this old crazy fancy of digging about 
remarkable trees for hidden treasure should still exist in this 
school-going, lecture-hearing, newspaper-reading, speech-making 
community ? 
" But it was probably some ignorant negro," was observed on 
hearing the story. 
" Not at all. They were white men." 
" Poor stupid boors from Europe, perhaps — " 
*' Americans, born and bred. Thorough Yankees, moreover, 
originally from Massachusetts." 
" But by whom did they suppose the money to have been 
buried ? They must have known that this part of the country 
was not peopled imtil after the Revolution, and consequently no 
fear of Cow-Boys or Skinners could have penetrated into this wil- 
derness. Did they suppose the Indians had gold and silver coin 
to conceal ?" 
" No. They were digging for Captain Kidd's money." 
