CHESUNCOOK. 
149 
forest-warden is the Public itself?) I heard of one man 
who, having discovered some particularly fine trees just 
within the boundaries of the public lands, and not daring 
* to employ an accomplice, cut them down, and by means 
of block and tackle, without cattle, tumbled them into a 
stream, and so succeeded in getting off with them with¬ 
out the least assistance. Surely, stealing pine-trees in 
this way is not so mean as robbing hen-roosts. 
We reached Monson that night, and the next day rode 
to Bangor, all the way in the rain again, varying our 
route a little. Some of the taverns on this road, which 
were particularly dirty, were plainly in a transition state 
from the camp to the house. 
The next forenoon we went to Oldtown. One slender 
old Indian on the Oldtown shore, who recognized my 
companion, was full of mirth and gestures, like a French¬ 
man. A Catholic priest crossed to the island in the same 
bateau with us. The Indian houses are framed, mostly 
of one story, and in rows one behind another, at the south 
end of the island, with a few scattered ones. I counted 
about forty, not including the church and what my com¬ 
panion called the council-house. The last, which I sup¬ 
pose is their town-house, was regularly framed and shin¬ 
gled like the rest. There were several of two stories, 
quite neat, with front-yards enclosed, and one at least had 
green blinds. Here and there were moose-hides stretched 
and drying about them. There were no cart-paths, nor 
tracks of horses, but foot-paths ; very little land culti¬ 
vated, but an abundance of weeds, indigenous and natu¬ 
ralized ; more introduced weeds than useful vegetables, 
as the Indian is said to cultivate the vices rather than the 
virtues of the white man. Yet this village was cleaner 
