Excerpt from Introductory Address of Hon. William P. Wheeler, of Keene, N. H. President of the Day, and Oration of Baron Stow, D. D. Of Boston: Delivered at the Centennial Celebration, at Croydon, N. H., June 13, 1866 The wanderers have gathered at their native home to day, because it was not in their hearts to resist the kindly summons. They are here to renew ancient friendships, to listen again to voices once familiar to them, and to look once more upon the face of nature as she greeted them in childhood. Here truly are the streams and lakes, the hills and valleys of our early days, unchanged by the lapse of time. And the grand old mountain, with its dark forests, still looks down upon us as of yore. Our country boasts of mountain peaks which attract pilgrims from distant lands, but I have seen none which can for a moment compare with the familiar one under whose shadow we now stand. There may be little to attract to it the eye of the stranger but every true son of Croydon can testify that the sacred mountains are those upon which the eye was accustomed to rest in childhood. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.