University. 

INTRODUCTION 

It is a pleasure to write a few words of introduction to this
collection of stories dealing with the early history of
Connecticut, a state that can justly point with pride to a past
rich in features of life and government that have been influential
in the making of the nation.  Yet the history of the colony was not
dramatic, for its people lived quiet lives, little disturbed by
quarrels among themselves or by serious difficulties with the world
outside.  The land was never thickly settled; few foreigners came
into the colony; the towns were scattered rural communities largely
independent of each other; the inhabitants, belonging to much the
same class, were neither very rich nor very poor, their activities
were mainly agricultural, and their habits of thought and ways of
living were everywhere uniform throughout the colonial period.  The
colony was in a measure isolated, not only from England and English
control, but also from the large colonial centers such as Boston
and New York, through which it communicated with the older civilization.