his house is
one of the handsomest old dwellings in the town, and promises to
outlive many of its newest neighbors. The parlor has undergone no change
whatever since the populace rushed into it over a century ago. The
furniture and adornments occupy their original positions and the plush
on the walls has not been replaced by other hangings. In the hall--deep
enough for the traditional duel of baronial romance--are full-length
portraits of the several governors and sundry of their kinsfolk.

There is yet a third Wentworth house, also decorated with the shade of
a colonial governor--there were three Governors Wentworth--but we shall
pass it by, though out of no lack of respect for that high official
personage whose commission was signed by Joseph Addison, Esq., Secretary
of State under George I.

V. OLD STRAWBERRY BANK

THESE old houses have perhaps detained us too long. They are merely the
crumbling shells of things dead and gone, of persons and manners and
customs that have left no very distinct record of themselves, excepting
here and there in some sallow manuscript which has luckily escaped the
withering breath of fire, for the old town, as I have remarked, has
managed, from the earliest moment of its existence, to burn itself up
periodically. It is only through the scattered memoranda of ancient town
clerks, and in the files of worm-eaten and forgotten newspapers, that
we are enabled to get glimpses of that life which was once so real and
positive and has now become a shadow. I am of course speaking of the
early days of the settlement on Strawberry Bank. They were stormy and
eventful days. The dense forest which surrounded the clearing was alive
with hostile red-men. The sturdy pilgrim went to sleep with his firelock
at his bedside, not knowing at what moment he might be awakened by
the glare of his burning hayricks and the piercing war-whoops of the
Womponoags. Year after year he saw his harvest reaped by a sickle of
flames, as he peered through the loop-holes of the blockhouse, whither
he had flown in hot haste with goodwife and little ones. The blockhouse
at Strawberry Bank appears to have been on an extensive scale, with
stockades for the shelter of cattle. It held large supplies of stores,
and was amply furnished with arquebuses, sakers, and murtherers, a
species of naval ordnance which probably did not belie its name. It also
boasted, we are told, of two drums for training-days, and no fewer
than fifte