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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��Mr. Houston continued to reside in town, and, so far as the record shows, he was an industrious, peaceable citi- zen. There is no evidence that his views on the great question of the day ever changed. Indeed, it is evident they did not. On one occasion a brother minister called to pass the night with him, but, finding tea on Mr. Hous- ton's table, his patriotic soul was so of- fended that he would neither sit at the table nor unite in asking a blessing, and a table was spread for the guest in another room.
The pastoral connection between Mr. Houston and the people of Bed- ford was not dissolved until 1778, and he retained his standing with the Pres- bytery till the time of his death, Feb. 3, 1798, at the age of 75. He and his wife, who died five months later, were both buried in the old grave-yard.
��where suitable stones mark the place of their interment.
After the summary dismissal of Mr. Houston the town was destitute of a settled minister for nearly thirty years. They were supplied with preaching much of the time, but of a character and under circumstances which seem to have done them but little good. Says a native of the town: "The cause of religion ran very low, the church was diminished and scattered. As for spirituality it was scarcely to be found. I hope some souls were born of God, yet they were few and far be- tween."
In September, 1804, Rev. Daniel McGregor was ordained as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Bedford, and a change greatly for the better fol- lowed.
��YANKEE SKILL AND INDIAN ADROITNESS.
��BY GEORGE KENT.
��Philip Carrigain, a well-known pub- lic official, once Secretary of State in New Hampshire, and maker of its most elaborate map, used to relate the following anecdote — showing, to some extent, the estimate put upon the char- acter of one of our hardy pioneers of the White Mountain region, by one of a race not lacking in native shrewd- ness ; and also an adroitness in evading an admission, forced upon him by the obvious fact of superior sagacity and ability on the part of a skillful trapper and hunter of another race.
Col. Carrigain said that on one of his explorations and surveys in the northern section of New Hampshire he was belated, and night overtook him in the woods, where he discovered, not far apart, two apparently deserted tents. He entered and took posses- sion of one of them. Hearing voices
��not long after in the other, he listened, and found the sounds proceeded from two persons, evidently a white man and an Indian, arguing very warmly the question as to the relative superi- ority of the Indians or the whites, in the matter of hunting, fishing and trap- ping.
The Indian adduced, in support of his position, many admitted instances of adroitness and skill. The white man, in his argument, referred mainly to one individual — the well-known Thomas Eames, of the upper Coos re- gion. He thought this would be a poser for the Indian. It was, so far as any argument was concerned ; but he at once got over his trouble by the prompt reply, — " Tom Eame, Tom Eame, why he Indian and more too.'" — evidently meaning that, to the native sagacity of an Indian, and, perhaps }
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