Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/61

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SUGAR- BALL. 47

additional security. There is a very saves them from many temptations,

complete system used in many of the Directors should require it, so as to

Boston banks, called the "depositor's relieve them from heavy responsibility

daily balance book," which balances and possible loss. And, lastly, share-

the entire deposit account at the slose holders are entitled to, and ought to

of business each day, it is simple and demand that some system providing

no more work than the ordinary ledger for a strict vigilance be established in

system. It is this charging and credit- every bank, the results of all examina-

ing over long periods without giving tions published to them and the public.

any test, that opens the door to so There have been too many examples

much fraud. of slipshod management in banks, and

Such a system as given above re- so necessary a reform as this should

quires no recommendation. It is better not be delayed, for the officers and clerks, because it

��SUGAR-BALL.

��BY LAURA GARLAND CARR.

'T was years ago, O, years ago ! when this old town was new,

When, in the streets we walk to-day. a tangled forest grew ;

When wolves and bears were all about, and catamounts erouehed low,

When rattlesnakes, in shining curves, went gliding to and fro.

When Indians skulked behind the trees, seeking for white folks' hair.

When long-bows twanged, and arrows whizzed like rockets through the air.

After the men from Haverhill came up to view the land.

And laid out roads, and marked out lots and meeting-house had planned.

While swinging axes scared the owls in old ancestral trees,

And forest monarchs thundered down, sighing through all their leaves;

T was then across the wilderness came Jacob Shute one day.

Driving up Eben. Eastman's team, through that long, toilsome way, —

•• Six yoke of oxen and a cart," an awkward team to guide.

His -t gees " and ,l haws " must have awoke the echoes far and wide,

While from the woodland recesses peered many a startled eye,

As that uncouth old vehicle went slowly bouncing by.

It must have jostled bush and tree, lurching from left to right.

While squirrels leaped away, and stood all quivering with fright.

It lumbered over roots and knolls with heavy roll and tip,

It jolted over water-beds with frantic plunge and slip,

And what a lively time was that at " Suneook's rapped Stream! "

They crossed it safe, as no mishap is told of man or team.

O, little has come down to us of that drive, long ago !

We know not if in forest wilds he met a friend or foe ;

If bird or beast, of aspect strange, flitted before his eyes;

If plant or tree, of form unknown, gave him a quick surprise.

But when he came to "'Johnny Barr's, in *Nutfield " town, that day,

I think he stopped for rest and beer, though records do not say.

He reached, in time, old '* Penny Cook," and on a " Head of Land,

Called Sugar-Ball," where years before a fort was said to stand.

He must have paused to calculate the better waj' to go,

T<» bring himself and cattle safe to the fair plain below;

For. •• Steep as ordinary Roofs of Houses are," this hill

Might have appalled a weaker man with many hints of ill ;

lint Jacob was a Yankee — though he 'd never heard the name.

The cuteness of that people had developed all the same.

lie saw the situation, which he mastered at the start.

By cutting down a pine tree, which lie fastened to his cart.

He chained it on top-foremost, too, so that each stumpy bough,

Among the roots and brambles would go dragging like a plough.

  • Londonderry.

�� �