Increasing the suction! Ev’ry flat had its fill of it, Ev’ry slope was a hill of it, Ev’ry brook was a rill of it; Ev’ry yard had three feet of it, Ev’ry road was a sheet of it; Ev’ry farm had a field of it, Ev’ry town had a yield of it. No use to glare at it, No use to swear at it; No use to get mad about it, No use to feel sad about it; No use to sit up all night scheming Some intricate form of blaspheming; No use in upbraiding— You _had_ to go wading, Till wearied humanity, Run out of profanity, Found rest in insanity; Or winged its bright way—unless dropp’d with a thud— To the land of gold pavements and no Oil-Creek mud! [Illustration: WELLS ON BENNINGHOFF RUN, VENANGO COUNTY, PA., IN 1866. [From a photograph taken one hour before they were destroyed by lightning.] ] VIII. PICKING RIPE CHERRIES. JUICY STREAKS BORDERING OIL CREEK—FAMOUS BENNINGHOFF ROBBERY—CLOSE CALL FOR A FORTUNE—CITY SET UPON A HILL—ALEMAGOOSELUM TO THE FRONT—CHERRY RUN’S WHIRLIGIG—ROMANCE OF THE REED WELL—SMITH AND MCFATE FARMS—PLEASANTVILLE, SHAMBURG AND RED HOT—EXPERIENCES NOT UNWORTHY OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. ---------- “Who can view the ripened rose, nor seek to wear it?”—_Byron._ “Black’s not so black, nor white so very white.”—_Canning._ “Wild and eerie is the story, but it is true as Truth.”—_Hall Caine._ “No two successes ever were alike.”—_Hawthorne._ “There is nothing so great as the collection of the minute.”—_Vitus Auctor._ “The toad beneath the harrow knows Exactly where each tooth-point goes.”—_Kipling._ “The crop is always greater on the lands of another.”—_Ovid._ “It didn’t rain, the water simply fell out of the clouds.”—_Cy Warman._ “There are days when every stream is Pachlus and every man is Crœsus.”—_Richard Le Gallienne._ “We shall not fail, if we stand firm.”—_Abraham Lincoln._ ---------- [Illustration: JOHN BENNINGHOFF, HARKINS WELLS ON BENNINGHOFF FARM]