"...Stephen Andrus owned the big chestnut woods and every boy, the writer not excepted, early learned the art of thievery by slipping into the chestnut orchard, gathering a pocket full of nuts and then streaking hot-foot for no-man's-land.
"David Brundage was the old-time blacksmith. He also pulled teeth with a turn key apparatus, for which he charged a quarter. If children had no money, he asked none. Sam Benson kept the Tavern, and Jim Knight lived up the river where we went trout fishing. His home was open to all comers. Peg Lawrence also kept a tavern and in her declining years always claimed that the Lord should forgive her for selling liquor because she always sold more water than whiskey...."