ilder
breeze, made music not unlike the dash of Ocean on his winding shore.

They were far from the abodes of men. The fashions, the vanities and
the pleasures of life, held no despotic sway in their breasts. They
pursued "the even tenor of their ways," rising before the sun, and
retiring almost with his sinking beams.

The cows and sheep went forth to crop the green herbage and luxurious
grass, heralding their approach by tinkling bells.

No roads were made, and the citizens pursued their way by trees,
stripped of little pieces of bark, by friendly Indians, who went
as guides to the pale faces, that had come into their territories,
purchased their lands, and distributed the deadly fire-water among
them, thus adding fury to their already ferocious natures.

The men were both house carpenters, and one of them a wheelwright; so
they were frequently called upon to leave their homes, and go to some
distant part, where a new settlement was springing up, to fill the
place of the forest trees, that had fallen before the woodman's axe.

In the spring of 1773, the settlement upon the banks of the Kennebec
river, now called Gardiner (but then bearing the Indian name of
Cobbessy), was progressing rapidly. A saw mill was to be erected upon
this rapid stream, that had rolled on for centuries, through the
towering forest, only bearing the Indian's light canoe, as it floated
over its glassy surface, and the dipping of the paddle, in the dark
rolling stream, awoke an answering echo in her wild forest haunts.

And so these men, Mr. Fuller and Capt. Somers, shouldered their tools,
and pursued their way by the spotted trees, to the far off settlement,
leaving their families in the bosom of the forest, unprotected and
alone. Not infrequently did the crackling brush denote the near
approach of the sulky bear, or some other wild beast that had
heretofore roamed the woods at large, undisturbed, save by the
swift-winged arrow of the Indian, as he pursued his prey over the
dense forest, but little tamer than the hunted beast. A discharge
of the rifle, which they were ever obliged to carry with them, soon
caused the enemy to retreat, and leave them to pursue their solitary
walk unmolested.

Often would the Indians come along in droves, their small dogs
indicating their approach. The chief of one tribe was called Sousup.
His wife was a woman of pleasant countenance, and was usually very
neatly dressed, having her blanket of snowy whitenes