In The New Hampshire
Historical Collections For 1815 It Says, "Some Time After Pewter
Was Found In The Well, And An Iron Pot And Trammel In The Sand;
The Latter Are Preserved." These Were The Traces Of The White
Trader.
On the opposite bank, where it jutted over the stream
cape-wise, we picked up four arrow-heads and
A small Indian tool
made of stone, as soon as we had climbed it, where plainly there
had once stood a wigwam of the Indians with whom Cromwell traded,
and who fished and hunted here before he came.
As usual the gossips have not been silent respecting Cromwell's
buried wealth, and it is said that some years ago a farmer's
plough, not far from here, slid over a flat stone which emitted a
hollow sound, and, on its being raised, a small hole six inches
in diameter was discovered, stoned about, from which a sum of
money was taken. The lock-man told us another similar story about
a farmer in a neighboring town, who had been a poor man, but who
suddenly bought a good farm, and was well to do in the world,
and, when he was questioned, did not give a satisfactory account
of the matter; how few, alas, could! This caused his hired man to
remember that one day, as they were ploughing together, the
plough struck something, and his employer, going back to look,
concluded not to go round again, saying that the sky looked
rather lowering, and so put up his team. The like urgency has
caused many things to be remembered which never transpired. The
truth is, there is money buried everywhere, and you have only to
go to work to find it.
Not far from these falls stands an oak-tree, on the interval,
about a quarter of a mile from the river, on the farm of a
Mr. Lund, which was pointed out to us as the spot where French,
the leader of the party which went in pursuit of the Indians from
Dunstable, was killed. Farwell dodged them in the thick woods
near. It did not look as if men had ever had to run for their
lives on this now open and peaceful interval.
Here too was another extensive desert by the side of the road in
Litchfield, visible from the bank of the river. The sand was
blown off in some places to the depth of ten or twelve feet,
leaving small grotesque hillocks of that height, where there was
a clump of bushes firmly rooted. Thirty or forty years ago, as
we were told, it was a sheep-pasture, but the sheep, being
worried by the fleas, began to paw the ground, till they broke
the sod, and so the sand began to blow, till now it had extended
over forty or fifty acres. This evil might easily have been
remedied, at first, by spreading birches with their leaves on
over the sand, and fastening them down with stakes, to break the
wind.
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