CHAPTER I.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
No sooner was the stout Puritan Commonwealth of Massachusetts firmly planted than it began rapidly to throw out branches in all directions.

With every succeeding year the long, thin, sinuous line of settlements stretched farther and farther away to the northeast, fringing the wild shores of the Atlantic with houses and farms gathered together at the mouths or on the banks of the rivers, and with the homes of hardy fishermen which clustered in little groups beneath the shelter of the rocky headlands.

The extension of these plantations was chiefly along the coast, but there was also a movement up the river courses toward the west and into the interior.

The line of northeastern settlements began first to broaden in this way very slowly but still steadily from the plantations at Portsmouth and Dover, which were nearly coeval with the flourishing towns of the Bay.

These settlements beyond the Massachusetts line all had one common and marked characteristic.