My land derived its name, Gardow, from a hill that is within its limits, which is called in the Seneca language Kau-tam. Kautam when interpreted signifies “up and down,” or “down and up,” and is applied to a hill that you will ascend and descend in passing it—or to a valley.

WHEN Mary first arrived at the Genesee a high bank had just collapsed and exposed a large number of human bones which the Seneca said had been buried there long ago. Her people said that they did not know to what race the ash-white bones belonged. These ancients, it was thought, cleared the fertile Genesee lands and then died out.

More than ten thousand acres. Owning thousands of anything was hard for me to understand. The only person I had heard of who owned thousands and thousands of anything was in the Scripture. “His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses.”

In the evenings, Father would say the Scriptures aloud and mostly by heart. But sometimes of a wintry evening, he would alter them a bit to entertain us. And he would change his voice and move about the cabin.

We children loved the part from Job about the sea monster, and he liked to let us have our way, especially if a fierce wind could be heard blowing outside. We would be called upon to answer for Job and Father would be God. We would interrupt him with the same questions every time. Mother said she was not quite sure it was fitting that Father should take the part of God. But he did, and he made his voice go low, and it filled the cabin so that our dog, Molly, would stir and look up at him.

I see this time now as if it were the present.

“It’s all right, Molly, now. Now, all of you, do you hear that great wind out the door? Now, this voice is coming from its center. It’s telling Job to stand up straight and answer some questions if he really wants to argue. Robert, stand up now. The voice is not really me, sure. I am just moving my lips. Listen.

“ ‘Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?’ Well, canst thou, Robert?”

“Job,” Robert says. “I’m Job, not Robert.”

“Canst thou, Job?”

“No,” says Robert.

“ ‘Canst thou put a hook into his nose? Or bore his jaw through with a thorn?’ ”

“No, God, I cannot.”

“ ‘Will he make many supplications unto thee? Will he speak soft words unto thee?’ ”

Betsey says, “Who is ‘he’?”

“Leviathan. This is all leviathan.”

“Oh. Who is ‘thee’?”

“Job. All these questions are for Job, now, Betsey.”

“Oh.”

“Why does God say ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ instead of ‘ye’?”

“Because these were olden times, Matthew. ‘Will he make a covenant with thee? Will thou take him for a servant forever?’ ”