back into the wilderness were everywhere clearing land and
burning brush. This set the forests afire far beyond intention,
so as to burn houses and fences.... The woods burned extensively
for a week before the nineteenth of May and the wind all the
while northerly."

A quaint old ballad, said to have been written about that time,
gives a description of this Dark Day:--

[Illustration:

From Harper's Weekly, Copyright 1893. Copyright Harper and
Brothers

AN OLD CONNECTICUTT INN, 1790]

"The Whip-poor-will sung notes most shrill,
Doves to their cots retreated,
And all the fowls, excepting owls,
Upon their roosts were seated.

"The herds and flocks stood still as stocks,
Or to their folds were hieing,
Men young and old, dared not to scold
At wives and children crying.

"The day of doom, most thought was come,
Throughout New England's borders,
The people scared, felt unprepared
To obey the dreadful orders."