ance. The presiding officer, with
a high sounding title, was my mother's cousin, Tommy Nixon. He was
the most popular young man of the neighborhood. The rudiments of a
classical education gained at a reputable academy in Sackville had not
detracted from his qualities as a healthy, rollicking young farmer.
The lodge had an imposing ritual of which I well remember one feature.
At stated intervals a password which admitted a member of any
one lodge to a meeting of any other was received from the central
authority--in Maine, I believe. It was never to be pronounced except
to secure admission, and was communicated to the members by being
written on a piece of paper in letters so large that all could read.
After being held up to view for a few moments, the paper was held in
the flame of a candle with these words: "This paper containing our
secret password I commit to the devouring element in token that it no
longer exists save in the minds of the faithful brethren." The fine
sonorous voice of the speaker and his manly front, seen in the lurid
light of the burning paper, made the whole scene very impressive.

There was also a society for the discussion of scientific questions,
of which the founder and leading spirit was a youth named Isaac
Steves, who was beginning the study of medicine. The president
was a "Worthy Archon." Our discussions strayed into the field
of physiological mysteries, and got us into such bad odor with
Mrs. Foshay and, perhaps, other ladies of the community, that the
meetings were abandoned.

A soil like that of the Provinces at this time was fertile in odd
characters including, possibly, here and there, a "heart pregnant
with celestial fire." One case quite out of the common line was
that of two or three brothers employed in a sawmill somewhere up the
river Petticodiac. According to common report they had invented a
new language in order to enable them to talk together without their
companions knowing what they were saying. I knew one of them well
and, after some time, ventured to inquire about this supposed tongue.
He was quite ready to explain it. The words were constructed out
of English by the very simple process of reversing the syllables or
the spelling. Everything was pronounced backward. Those who heard
it, and knew the key, had no difficulty in construing the words;
to those who did not, the words were quite foreign.

The family of the neighborhood in which I was most intimate wa