The Weber Literary Journal went in search of the early violets and buttercups, and on our way home, stopping to rest under the shade of a lone tree, told fortunes with the blossoms! Sometimes the quest would be lost in a mad effort to follow a bird. It was important that the dispute as to whether it was a killdeer or a mud snipe should be settled. Those were happy days! Sleighrides, now almost extinct! No more the whirls and twirls around corners, the looking to see if a head was peering through the snow or if a sleigh was demolished. That excitement is almost gone, forever! And "family" socials! We knew every one in the town and felt as though we were in some way related. None of your "high-fangled," formal balls and sham happiness of the society circles of today. We were truly happy. That family spirit caused, at times, much amusement. Each person's affairs were made the affairs of the whole community. A young man could not escort the lady of his preference home without its being discussed by every fireside in the village. Even inanimate objects shared the village interest. I remember how indignant all the townspeople were when my father cut down a large cotton wood tree on our farm. It had been planted about forty years before by my grandfather. It had grown into an immense tree and had come to be quite a landmark. But campers were constantly stopping under it and roaming around our place. Moreover it had become diseased so that its leaves fell in the middle of summer. For these reasons my father cut it down. The town nearly went wild. The people condemned our family; thought some of its members were crazy; and said if only they had realized they would never have permitted such a crime to be committed. An Austrian once cast a shadow of ignominy over the fair name of the whole community by being haled into court for making "moonshine." He had long been suspected of carrying on something mysterious for he kept a large light burning on a tree by his house. He had explained that troublesome ghosts were prone to disturb his slumbers on dark nights. We had laughed at his fears at first but later had begun to suspect The Weber Literary Journal that the bright light on the tree was attracting more midnight visitors than it was keeping away. One night, seeing a light in the barn at a rather late hour, a neighbor investigated and found a board of the floor raised and the foreigner in a cellar underneath, busily making liquor. The townspeople were horrified to think anyone had dared carry on such a practice under their very noses, and some even went so far as to say that the offender should be drummed out of town. Like every small village, View had its quota of odd characters. The villagers watched with much interest the few who dwelt in their midst. For instance, there was the "old maid" who was supposed to be so pious and pretended to treat the male sex so indifferently, but who was actually seen by little Kitty Brown to cast a most inviting glance at the sedate old bachelor across the aisle in church. Kitty's mother told it at a quilting bee and the town resolved to make a match between the pair. But no matter how many nice things they told the bachelor about the "sweet lady," he failed to see her charms or to be thrilled by her glances. How vexed the people were at the failure of their bright plan. Another plan in which the people of View utterly failed was that of making the "ancients from the mountains" sociable. These quaint little Welsh people lived right in among the hills at the very foot of Ben Lomond. They were seldom seen outside their own remote domain except on Sundays. Then, indeed, they came down to church but returned straight home again in the family buggy. Better people probably never lived than those, but somehow they seemed queer! The bishop thought perhaps these folks had not been treated exactly right and so he devised a plan to get the "ancients" to mingle with the other people of the community. On a fourth of July some of the most prominent citizens especially invited the family to lunch with them in a "bowery" which had been erected to accommodate the people at noon. But, graciously declining the invitation, the father loaded his offspring into the family conveyance and turning toward the mountains, bade his townspeople adieu. Ah! I had almost forgotten the peddler of "Zanol" oint- 13