These rocky hills and pleasant vales,
These lakes where youthful pleasure sails,
Are dear to all our hearts to-day,
As to our grandsires passed away.

The roses by the road-side grow,
Our grand-dames planted long ago;
And bloom as sweet this dewy morn
As if in Eden newly born.

The choicest fruitage of the years,
Attained by struggles, prayers and tears,'
Is not of gold, but faith in Thee,
Great love and sweetest charity.

And in the future, as the past,

May Thy strong arms, around us cast,
Make all our labors go to prove

That in Thy love we live and move.

[NOTE. The Personal Sketches in the succeeding pages are inserted by special arrangement with the Publisher, on the authority of friends of the subjects sketched.]

OLIVER GUMMINGS

AND HIS DESCENDANTS.

BY PRENTISS CUMMINGS.

Oliver Cummings was born in Dunstable, Mass., July 12, 1756, and died in Sumner, July 2, 1823. He was son of Capt. Oliver Cummings, and was himself a soldier in the war of the Revolution. The family was Scotch, and the name was spelled Comings, Cumings, Comins, Cumins, and in other ways; and the early settlers pronounced the name as if it had no "g". It was at my father's suggestion that the present spelling was adopted by the family generally. The original emigrant is said to have been Isaac Cummings, who settled in Topsfield, Mass., in 1632. The family was reputable, and very religious; and among them were a number of brave soldiers.

When a child I heard it talked in the family that my grandfather, being one of the original proprietors, came early to Sumner to locate his land and settle, as he was engaged to be married to Betsy Bailey, a girl brought up in his father's family. He brought with him a plan of the grant which had on it the two ponds now known as Pleasant and Labrador. His land was located in fact about a mile southwesterly of Labrador Pond, where he afterwards lived and built a house which is still standing; but he mistook what is now called Moose Pond in Paris for the