High Praise

A story told by John Ross Dix in his "Pulpit Portraits" shows how strong a current of life ran in the veins of Dr. Lyman Beecher when he had passed the allotted threescore years and ten.

When about 75 years of age, he spent a fortnight in the eastern part of Maine. A party of gentlemen at Calais went with him some 30 miles up a series of lakes to Indian territories.

When about to embark upon a chain of lakes in the birch canoes, the Indian guide, Etienne, rather objected to so old a man attempting the adventure, fearing that he would give out.

The doctor paddled with the best of the youngsters: caught more trout than all the party together and returned each day from the various tramps in the lead; ate his fish on a rock, with a sea biscuit for a trencher and fingers for knives and forks; slept on the ground upon hemlock branches under the tent, and at length the Indian guide went from the extreme of depreciation to the highest expression of admiration in his power, saying:

"Ah, old man, all Indian!"