the increase of population, that potent factor in so many economic revolutions. The score of boys with which the school was opened soon grew to twoscore, and within a year, at the ripening of the next crop, there were fifty hungry seekers after nuts trying to satisfy their wants from the trees within school bounds. The chestnuts were plentiful enough to supply all demands, but the walnuts were far less abundant, and the competition for the possession of the trees became very keen. The primitive condition of the golden age, in which each boy had only to help himself, quickly disappeared in the state of scarcity that followed the great increase of population, and almost every one, in order to insure his getting a share of the crop, attempted to possess himself of at least one tree. This instituted a reign of force, in which violence was tempered only by the weak consciences of healthy boys of sixteen and under. From this condition of anarchy, but by steps which I am unable fully to describe, the citizens of our rudimentary state soon emerged into a reign of law, in which private property was recognized and individual rights were defined. Of course, as in all primitive communities, the law was customary law, not written statutes.
The process of this development of order from chaos was nearly as follows. In the earlier stages of their economic progress the boys started out in parties of three or four, whenever they fancied the walnuts were ripe, each party intent upon shaking the fruit from at least one tree and harvesting it for winter. We may readily believe that two such groups often fixed their minds upon the same tree as the object of their efforts. In such a case the first party to begin work, according to the analogies presented by the world outside, would have the better title to the use of the tree; and, according to the practice of both men and boys, the first takers could be dispossessed only after a fight. It is not surprising, therefore, that the boys came to respect the rights of the first takers of a tree to an unrestricted enjoyment of its fruit. But the community has given this right an enlargement which is quite remarkable, and which has had very important effects upon the history of the state we are studying.
This enlargement is a consequence of the conditions in which the crop is gathered. The first step of the process of harvesting is a laborious one. It consists in climbing among the branches, and, with a great deal of hard work, shaking the nuts down upon the ground. If carried to completion in a large tree by forcing down all the fruit, the process would require some hours of severe exertion, at the end of which the harvesters would naturally feel inclined to leave their field of labor and recuperate themselves at the pantry door and on the ballfield. I may add, parenthetically and explanatorily, that a very tired boy just in from work is much refreshed by first swallowing a crust and then violently "running the bases." It is to the credit of the community under description that its moral sense will not suffer a harvester, thus enjoying his well-earned respite from the toil of climbing and shaking, to be deprived of his property by any one who may come along during his temporary absence and feel tempted to pick the nuts up from the ground where they have been so laboriously deposited. But the custom goes one step further in order to protect this form of
