ECONOMY. 
21 
in it, and lost my own breath into the bargain, running 
in the face of it. If it had concerned either of the po¬ 
litical parties, depend upon it, it would have appeared 
in the Gazette with the earliest intelligence. At other 
times watching from the observatory of some cliff or 
tree, to telegraph any new arrival; or waiting at even¬ 
ing on the hill-tops for the sky to fall, that I might catch 
something, though I never caught much, and that, manna- 
wise, would dissolve again in the sun. 
For a long time I was reporter to a journal, of no 
very wide circulation, whose editor has never yet seen 
fit to print the bulk of my contributions, and, as is too 
common with writers, I got only my labor for my pains. 
However, in this case my pains were their own reward. 
For many years I was self-appointed inspector of 
snow storms and rain storms, and did my duty faithful¬ 
ly ; surveyor, if not of highways, then of forest paths 
and all across-lot routes, keeping them open, and ravines 
bridged and passable at all seasons, where the public 
heel had testified to their utility. 
I have looked after the wild stock of the town, which 
give a faithful herdsman a good deal of trouble by leap¬ 
ing fences; and I have had an eye to the unfrequented 
nooks and corners of the farm; though I did not always 
know whether Jonas or Solomon worked in a particular 
field to-day; that was none of my business. I have 
watered the red huckleberry, the sand cherry and the 
nettle tree, the red pine and the black ash, the white 
grape and the yellow violet, which might have withered 
else in dry seasons. 
In short, I went on thus for a long time, I may say it 
without boasting, faithfully minding my business, till it 
became more and more evident that my townsmen 
