Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/37

 The Old North Church of Concord. 2*]

��THE OLD NORTH CHURCH OF CONCORD.

Read in the Abbott Chapel, Jan. 27, 18S7.

Upon this spot, where church and chapel stand, But eiglit score years ago was wild-wood land. Here tangled forests echoed to the tread Of dusky warriors and their war-whoop dread. Where now yon shapely spire points to the sky, Were loft}' pines with summits full as iiigh, Beneath whose branches, in the grateful shade, Have wandered Indian brave and Indian maid. Here in their wigwams by the river side Have countless generations lived and died ; Here were their pleasures few, their many woes ; Here were their feasts, their battles with their foes. Here, when their lords to hunt or fish had gone, The squaws would cultivate their patch of corn. Here lived the mighty chieftain of their race, In war so valiant, cunning in the chase. Now all have disappeared and left no trace Save in the names whicii dignify the place. Contoocook, Merrimack, and Soucook, too, And Penacook, are names they left to you. For them no cemetery was laid out, Their dust o'er hill and vale is spread about.

Were they unhappy? Let us view the case : They had the pleasures of the hunt and chase ; They had no rum-shops in or near the place ; They had no politicians, no ring rule ; The boys and girls were not confined in school. They had no counting-house, no shop, no mill ; They had no gas, no coal, no butcher's bill. They had no pigs, nor cows, nor hens to feed ; Of saw, and axe. and books they had no need. They had no engine shrieking through the night ; They had no motor, and no horse to fright. They had no parlors then to sweep and dust, No nickle-plated silver-ware to rust ; No contribution box, no bank to burst ; No tariff high or low, and no free-trade ; Of competition they were not afraid.

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