214 AT THE NORTH OF BE ARC AMP WATER. 
away together. Why is it ? Ask the W est and 
the great cities, which between them have 
drawn the young blood from New England’s 
rural families, leaving the old and feeble to 
struggle alone with life on the hills. A kind¬ 
lier region than this could be depopulated by 
such a process. 
The most remote and the highest farm in the 
North Division shone, as we approached it, 
like a brass button. Carpenters, painters, and 
home-makers had been at work upon it until 
the hills and trees knew it for its old self no 
longer. Nevertheless it was as empty and 
silent as the decaying farmsteads below. Gaz¬ 
ing from its terrace upon the far view of Ossi- 
pee Lake, the broad Bearcamp valley, and the 
semicircle of hills and mountains from Wake¬ 
field to Chocorua, I understood why its present 
owner came from the shores of Lake Michigan 
to spend his summer in its beautiful quiet. 
Behind this redeemed fragment of the North 
Division rises a granite ledge, from which 
matchless views of many mountains, lakes, and 
sleepy hollows can be obtained. I found the 
ledge covered with snow, and the spruce woods 
on its steep northern slope as full of snow as 
the thickets on Chocorua’s ridges. At this 
season a slight elevation and shade make all the 
difference between summer and winter. 
