He Comes With A List Of Ancient Saxon, Norman, And Celtic
Names, And Strews Them Up And Down This River,
- Framingham,
Sudbury, Bedford, Carlisle, Billerica, Chelmsford, - and this is
New Angle-land, and these are the New West Saxons whom
The Red
Men call, not Angle-ish or English, but Yengeese, and so at last
they are known for Yankees.
When we were opposite to the middle of Billerica, the fields on
either hand had a soft and cultivated English aspect, the village
spire being seen over the copses which skirt the river, and
sometimes an orchard straggled down to the water-side, though,
generally, our course this forenoon was the wildest part of our
voyage. It seemed that men led a quiet and very civil life
there. The inhabitants were plainly cultivators of the earth,
and lived under an organized political government. The
school-house stood with a meek aspect, entreating a long truce to
war and savage life. Every one finds by his own experience, as
well as in history, that the era in which men cultivate the
apple, and the amenities of the garden, is essentially different
from that of the hunter and forest life, and neither can displace
the other without loss. We have all had our day-dreams, as well
as more prophetic nocturnal vision; but as for farming, I am
convinced that my genius dates from an older era than the
agricultural. I would at least strike my spade into the earth
with such careless freedom but accuracy as the woodpecker his
bill into a tree.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 51 of 422
Words from 14077 to 14338
of 116321
