130 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
here. He cut seventy tons of English hay this year on 
this ground, and twenty more on another clearing, and 
he uses it all himself in lumbering operations. The barn 
was crowded with pressed hay and a machine to press it. 
There was a large garden full of roots, turnips, beets, car¬ 
rots, potatoes, etc., all of great size. They said that they 
were worth as much here as in New York. I suggested 
some currants for sauce, especially as they had no apple- 
trees set out, and showed how easily they could be ob¬ 
tained. 
There was the usual long-handled axe of the primitive 
woods by the door, three and a half feet long, — for my 
new black-ash rule was in constant use, — and a large, 
shaggy dog, whose nose, report said, was full of porcu¬ 
pine quills. I can testify that he looked very sober. 
This is the usual fortune of pioneer dogs, for they have 
to face the brunt of the battle for their race, and act the 
part of Arnold Winkelried without intending it. If he 
should invite one of his town friends up this way, sug¬ 
gesting moose-meat and unlimited freedom, the latter 
might pertinently inquire, “ What is that sticking in your 
nose ? ” When a generation or two have used up all the 
enemies’ darts, their successors lead a comparatively easy 
life. We owe to our fathers analogous blessings. Many 
old people receive pensions for no other reason, it seems 
to me, but as a compensation for having lived a long 
time ago. No doubt our town dogs still talk, in a snuf¬ 
fling way, about the days that tried dogs’ noses. How 
they got a cat up there I do not know, for they are as 
shy as my aunt about entering a canoe. I wondered 
that she did not run up a tree on the way; but perhaps 
she was bewildered by the very crowd of opportunities. 
Twenty or thirty lumberers, Yankee and Canadian, 
