was the goal of the best oarsmen.  Dick’s successor in the thirties was an ugly horse-boat that in 1840 gave place to the famous scow of Joe Tom and his men, which for twenty years took picnic parties to the Point.  A president of our country, several governors of the State, and Supreme Court judges were among these distinguished passengers.  Doing such duty the scow is seen in the 1840 pictures of Cooperstown.  No picnic of his day was complete without famous ‘Joe Tom,’ who had men to row the scow, clean the fish, stew potatoes, make coffee, and announce the meal.  Rowing back in the gloaming of a summer’s night, he would awake the echoes of Natty Bumppo’s Cave for the pleasure of the company.”  At times a second echo would return from Hannah’s Hill, and a third from Mt.  Vision.

[Illustration:  JOE TOM.]

[Illustration:  NATTY’S CAVE.]

Between the lines can be read the hearty and cheery author’s pleasure in all this merriment, yet, none the less, life’s shadows exacted full attention, as the following shows:  “Cooper took a generous and active part in sending relief to the starving people of Ireland; for, March 8, 1847, James Fenimore Cooper heads his town committee, and, ’in the name of charity and in obedience to the commands of God,’ he urges an appeal ’from house to house, for Food is wanting that we possess in abundance.’”

“Cooper would admit of no denial of principle but could be lenient to offenders.  One day he caught a man stealing fruit from his garden.  Instead of flying into a passion, he told him how wrong it was to make the neighbors think there was no way of getting his fruit but by stealing it, and bid him the next time to come in at the gate and ask for it like a true man.  Cooper then helped him to fill his basket and let him go.”  The author’s fine fruit trees must have been tempting!

One day while walking in the garden with some ladies, Mr. Cooper led the way to a tree well laden with fine apples.  Unable to reach them, he called to a boy in the street, and presenting him to his friends as one of the best boys in the village,—­one who never disturbed his fruit,—­he lifted the little fellow up to the branches to pick apples for the guests, and then filled his pockets as a reward for his honesty, and promised him more when he came again.  The delighted boy waited for a few days and then repeated his visit to the tree, but forgetting to ask permission.  Not knowing him from frequent intruders, Mr. Cooper’s high voice from a distance, added to the savage barking of his watch-dog, frightened the well-meaning forager into a resolve that he would not forget the easier way next time of first asking before picking.

[Illustration:  OTSEGO HALL—­BACK VIEW.]

The author’s genuine interest in his hometown folk never waned.  Among the many and sincere expressions of his good-will were the free lectures he gave to the villagers.  His descriptions of naval actions were full of vigor.  On the blackboard he presented fleets, changing their positions, moving ship after ship as the contest went on, at the same time stating the facts in history and using his cane as a pointer.