Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS 169
dam pike about halfway between College Corners and Mount
Healthy, and my memory pictures it as I saw it as we were
driving to church one rainy Sunday. We had the carriage
curtains drawn, and I opened a little peephole and took in a
view of that "brown old homestead" and the apple tree which
"would almost cast its foliage on the roof."
The poetesses were cousins of Freeman and Sam Cary.
The latter was the once well-known temperance lecturer of
southern Ohio. Some of Phoebe and Alice Cary's songs are
still in our hymn-books and are yet a delight and comfort —
such as "A day's march nearer home." While I was still a
child they went east and remained there the rest of their lives,
and when we were on College Hill no one could point out even
the spot where they had lived; in fact, I heard conflicting
stories as to its place — some declared the old brick house near
the College Corners was the home they left and that the one
they called "the brown old homestead" had disappeared.
The home they immortalized in "Clovernook" is pictured in
The Sentinel as it is to-day.
Freeman Cary was a man of fine social powers and great
discernment. He could read character and had studied to
know boy life, and he succeeded in understanding in a most
remarkable manner different kinds of boys. He knew every
boy m Farmers' College. I remember at one time they had
matriculated three hundred in the fall term, and I think I am
right in asserting that in six months President Cary could tell
the standing, both mental and moral, of every boy there. He
had a fine face, full of benevolence. Pioneer life had made him
manly and self-reliant, and all who knew him were his friends.
He was an enthusiast in his work for our youth and did much
to dignify labor.
As we passed through the streets of Cummingsville, brother
pointed out to me a level spot of perhaps an acre of ground just
freshly broken up and asked me if I recognized the place.
There was nothing to identify it, and I looked with puzzled
eyes when he said, "That is where Hoffner had his garden."
Ah, what a rare day it was in the long ago when we young
people were told that we might take our friends to visit Hoff-