They will never be forgotten. You have found Nantucket is
not merely an isolated place, where oil is manufactured; where the
people only work to eat, and eat to work. [Though as some have
suggested, a carriage drive connecting Nantucket with the Continent
would be a great modern improvement]. As one has quaintly expressed, in
a little poem entitled "An Old Story:"
"Before Columbus ever thought
Of Western World, with glory fraught;
Before the Northmen had been known
To wander from their native zone;
Before war raised a single mound,
The antiquarians to confound;
Indeed, so very long ago,
The time one can't exactly know,--
A giant Sachem, good as great,
Reigned in and over our Bay State.
So huge was he, his realm so small,
He could not exercise at all,
Except by taking to the sea.
[For which he had a ticket free,
Granted by Neptune, with the seal,
A salient clam, and couchant eel].
His pipe was many a mile in length,
His lungs proportionable in strength;
And his rich moccasins,--with the pair,
The seven-league boots would not compare.
Whene'er siestas he would take,
Cape Cod must help his couch to make;
And, being lowly, it was meet
He should prefer it for his feet.
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