As regards their social derivation, the settlers of New England were homogeneous in character to a remarkable degree, and they were drawn from the sturdiest part of the English stock. In all history there has been no other instance of colonization so exclusively effected by picked and chosen men. The colonists knew this, and were proud of it, as well they might be. It was the simple truth that was spoken by William Stoughton when he said, in his election sermon of 1688: "God sifted a whole nation, that He might send choice grain into the wilderness." This matter comes to have more than a local interest, when we reflect that the 26,000 New Englanders of 1640 have in two hundred and fifty years increased to something like 15,000,000. From these men have come at least one-fourth of the present population of the United States. -"The Beginnings of New England" (John Fiske). NIGHT AND THE STARS CHAPTER I. A SUGAR BUSH. The village of Intervale lies in the center of a territory upon which Nature has bestowed unnumbered charms. The country in every direction is broken with hills where farmers till their clay soil farms and with valleys through which rivers and brooks run over their rocky beds and where the richer loam lands lie. Well kept houses look out through the trees as if contented with their lot and proud of their position in the world. The country has not the rugged sublimity of the mountains or the tiresome commonplaceness of the prairies, but it possesses a charm that reminds one of the quiet beauty of the English lakes, and which the traffic and the trade of today cannot entirely destroy. It was settled in the 20s and 30s by the NYPL hardy pioneers from Connecticut and New. York, who brought with them intelligence and a dauntless courage. In all the years since then its men have been famous in the councils of the Nation and in many forms of service for the public good. At the time of which I write, the village was only a small trading point for the settlers for miles around. The scattered farmers lived in log houses with their small windows, bare floors and walls, and with fire-places that often furnished both light and warmth. Candles, run in old fashioned molds, were coming into use. They were a great improvement upon the old torch and were considered a badge of aristocracy. Books were scarce and the few obtainable were read and reread and digested by every member of a family. The farms were partially cleared and the crops of corn and oats, potatoes and vegetables were usually sufficient for the uses of the household. But the main pursuit of every farmer was dairying. The cream was made into butter and the milk into cheese. The old stone hand churn and long wooden tin-lined |