PART III. CHAPTER I. Spread the sail, spread the sail, My trip to Albany did me much good. I returned reinvigorated both in body and mind. The doubt which had still hung about me as to the prudence of resuming my old business was dissipated: I had discovered a new field, and was eager to enter on the cultivation. No time was lost in making the necessary arrangements for the removal of my family to the western part of the State, the Genesee country, which at that period, as I have already hinted, was fast filling with settlers- emigrants from Europe, and swarms from Pensylvania and New England. Peace having been restored a short time before, the number of passengers from London and Liverpool, all bound for the new settlements, was extraordinary. They came by the earliest ships in the spring, and brought great accounts of the multitudes who were to follow in the autumn. of the land-jobbers, as well as of the settlers, were cheering; insomuch that Mr. Hoskins, who took a deep interest in my proceedings, talked vastly of the prosperity I should see come to pass; he even hinted that I need be none surprised if he sold off his land and betterments in Vermont, gave up all speculations, and operated with his capital within the tract where I proposed to settle. Our exodus from New York thus commenced under the happiest auspices. The prospects, in consequence, I had reflected on what Mrs. Micklethrift had said about the inconvenience of lugging and hauling furniture so far to the back of beyond; and accordingly, after due consultation with my wife, it was agreed between us, that, saving the ark, whereof mention has so often been made, and some three or four boxes with necessaries, we should set out as light-handed as possible; and our purse, as the courteous reader is well aware, not being one of the weightiest, we made our calculations, that it would be cheaper to take passage in one of the Albany schooners than by the steam-boat. This I accordingly did, and made an agreement with the skipper of the Van Egmond, of Troy, a Dutchman, for less than a third of the money. My family consisted at this time, besides the old cock and hen, of five chickens; Robin was fifteen, and Charley twelve; the other three were girls of something more than eighteen months between the two eldest; but though so young, none of them were without hands. Susy, the eldest, could do all kind of household work and spin, as well as bake bread. Mary was a perfect nonpareil at knitting-stockings, and had sewed a sampler with the Lord's Prayer in the middle, surrounded by the initials of all our names, in different stitches, that was, by competent judges, much thought of, at least they |