ome.
My home, however, for a time it was to be. We heard on every
side, that of all the known places on "the globe called earth,"
Cincinnati was the most favourable for a young man to settle in;
and I only awaited the arrival of Mr. T. to fix our son there,
intending to continue with him till he should feel himself
sufficiently established. We accordingly determined upon making
ourselves as comfortable as possible. I took a larger house,
which, however, I did not obtain without considerable difficulty,
as, notwithstanding fourteen hundred new dwellings had been
erected the preceding year, the demand for houses greatly
exceeded the supply. We became acquainted with several amiable
people, and we beguiled the anxious interval that preceded Mr.
T.'s joining us by frequent excursions in the neighbourhood,
which not only afforded us amusement, but gave us an opportunity
of observing the mode of life of the country people.
We visited one farm, which interested us particularly from its
wild and lonely situation, and from the entire dependence of the
inhabitants upon their own resources. It was a partial clearing
in the very heart of the forest. The house was built on the side
of a hill, so steep that a high ladder was necessary to enter the
front door, while the back one opened against the hill side; at
the foot of this sudden eminence ran a clear stream, whose bed
had been deepened into a little reservoir, just opposite the
house. A noble field of Indian-corn stretched away into the
forest on one side, and a few half-cleared acres, with a shed or
two upon them, occupied the other, giving accommodation to cows,
horses, pigs, and chickens innumerable. Immediately before the
house was a small potatoe garden, with a few peach and apple
trees. The house was built of logs, and consisted of two rooms,
besides a little shanty or lean-to, that was used as a kitchen.
Both rooms were comfortably furnished with good beds, drawers,
&c. The farmer's wife, and a young woman who looked like her
sister, were spinning, and three little children were playing
about. The woman told me that they spun and wove all the cotton
and woolen garments of the family, and knit all the stockings;
her husband, though not a shoe-maker by trade, made all the
shoes. She manufactured all the soap and candles they used, and
prepared her sugar from the sugar-trees on their farm. All she
wanted with money, she said, was to buy coffee, tea, and whi
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