Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/71

 the water of the salt spring, and thus secures a small supply of salt. This is while the latest of the centuries is in its youth and the youngest of the nations in its childhood. Peace again! And commerce comes back, bringing its supplies from other countries, and saving men the toil of seeking at home that which it is easier to bring from abroad. The salt spring is forgotten, and half a century passes before the red war-cloud darkens above Arcadia. War again, the cruellest of all wars, in which the lusty sons have turned their weapons each against his brother; there is no other strong enough to cope with them. Then the dwellers in the island remember the tradition of the boiling of the salt water, and the old kettles are set up again, and a meagre residuum of salt is gained, while the great basin lies unsuspected ten feet beneath the surface of the ground. The spring fails one day, and a new well is sunk. The laborers strike, in digging it, a rock which they cannot dislodge. Dig around it,' says the overseer. Dig around it! Dig around the great salt basin whose upper edge it takes a hundred and a half acres of soil to cover! The task is soon seen to be a difficult one, and the obstinate ledge of rock, which cannot be dug around, is examined. At last, after cycles have passed, you are avenged, O sea! and the land is found to be but a setting to the great treasure she holds embedded in her jealous breast. Pure and priceless in its worth is the great salt-bed, and the island which was never heard of before a hundred miles beyond its shores is now one of the wonders of the New World.