Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/231

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To An Out-Bound Ship.

��221

��Piukbam and a son-in-law, Joseph Hanson, determined to erect a flag- pole on the summit. They started up the mountain, selecting as they passed through the woods a tree suitable for their purpose. Choosing one about thirty feet high', they cut it down, and soon transformed it into a flag- pole, which they carried on their shoulders to the top of the mountain. After nailing a small flag to the pole, they raised it on the very summit, making it fast at the base with rocks ; and for the first time the Star Span- gled Banner " floated from the top of Mt. Washington, and continued to do so until worn out by wind and storm.

There is a story of a very sagacious dog connected with Pinkham Notch. This dog was owned by Joseph Han- sou, who had a house near the place where the Glen House now stands. One very cold and stormy winter day, one of Mr. Hanson's children, a little girl, was taken very sick It was extremely necessary to send word down through the woods to Mr. Pink- ham's family, and to the doctor. Mr. Hanson could not leave home to go, and as a last resort resolved to send the dog, who was a remarkably in- telligent animal. He wrote a note, which he tied around the dog's neck, and, taking him out into the storm.

��told him he must go to Mr. Pink- ham's and carry the letter ; that little Lucy was very sick, and he must bring them help. The dog seemed to understand, and started off; but the dreadful storm probably discouraged him, for in about half an hour he re- turned whining, and apparently afraid. Mr. Hanson scolded him, and told him ho, must go. Again he started, and did not return until the next morning, when he came accompanied by Mrs. Pinkham and the doctor.

There is a highway robbery con- nected with the history of Pinkham woods. About four years ago, as the stage from the Glen House to Glen station in Bartlett was passing the Glen Ellis falls, two men armed with pistols emerged from the woods, seized the horses by their heads, and demanded the money and jewelry of the passengers. They received what they asked for, and disappeared in the woods, and were never discovered.

Mr. Pinkham, who was a preacher as well as pioneer, as it was he who preached the sermon at the funeral of the Willey family, did not succeed in making the land he received for build- ing this road profitable, and finally sold out and went to Lancaster, a village about twenty miles from Pink- ham woods, where he resided until his death.

��TO AN OUT-BOUND SHIP.

I stand and watch them from the shore,

The white ships steal away Silently down into the blue.

All at the close of day.

And from the clift's bold brow I watch, Throuirh eves made dim with tears.

One ship closer than all the rest. As seaward swift she veers.

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