Pompton Lakes

Wherein lay their secret? Or rather, their secrets? For seldom did two of them follow the same plan of campaign.

Albert Payson Terhune, Sunnybank, Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, 1916.

End of Foreword.

Chapter 1 of Superwomen.

Albert Payson Terhune.

Sunnybank, Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, 1916.

End of foreword.

Chapter one of Superwomen.

Wherein lay their secret, or rather their secrets? For seldom did two of them follow the same plan of campaign.

Albert Payson Terhune, Sunnybank, Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, 1916.

End of foreword.

Chapter one of Superwomen.

For whereas spring's couriers were once the evidence of our finer senses, now the Associated Press does the trick.

The warble of the first robin in Hackensack, the stirring of the maple sap in Bennington, the budding of the pussy willows along the main street in Syracuse, the first chirp of the bluebird, the swan song of the blue point, the annual tornado in St. Louis, the plaint of the peach pessimists from Pompton, New Jersey, the regular visit of the tame wild goose with a broken leg to the pond near Bilgewater Junction, the base attempt of the drug trust to boost the price of quinine foiled in the house by Congressman Jinks, the first tall poplar struck by lightning and the usual stunned picnickers who had taken refuge, the first crack of the ice jam in the Allegheny River, the finding of a violet in its mossy bed by the correspondent at Round Corners.

These are the advanced signs of the burgeoning season that are wired into the wise city, while the farmer sees nothing but winter upon his dreary fields.

But these be mere externals.