LETTER 



attainment of the tawny colour. What is this family to do in their 

 50 dollar den t Suppose one or more of them sick ! How are 

 the rest to sleep by night or to eat by day ? 



1025. However, here they are, in this miserable place, with 

 the ship-bedding , and without even a bedstead, and with 130 

 dollars gone in land and house. Two horses and harness and plough 

 are to cost 100 dollars ! These, like the hinges of the door, are 

 all to be of -wood I suppose ; for as to flesh and blood and bones in 

 the form of two horses for 100 dollars is impossible, to say nothing 

 about the plough and harness, which would cost 20 dollars of the 

 money. Perhaps, however, you may mean some of those horses, 

 ploughs and sets of harness, which, at the time when you wrote 

 this letter, you ad all ready waiting for the spring to put in your 

 hundred acres of corn that was never put in at all ! However, let 

 this pass too. Then there are 220 dollars left, and these are to 

 provide cows, hogs, seed, corn, fencing, and other expences. Next 

 come two cows (poor ones) 24 dollars ; hogs, 15 dollars,; seed 

 corn, 5 dollars ; fencing, suppose 20 acres only, in four plots, the 

 stuff brought from the woods nearest adjoining. Here are 360 

 rods of fencing, and, if it be done so as to keep out a pig, and to 

 keep in a pig, or a horse or cow, for less than half a dollar a rod, 

 I will suffer myself to be made into smoked meat in the extremely 

 comfortable house Thus, then, here are 213 out of the 220 

 dollars, and this happy settler has seven whole dollars left for all 

 &quot; other expences &quot; : amongst which are the cost of cooking utensils, 

 plates, knives and forks, tables, and stools ; for, as to table-cloths 

 and chairs, those are luxuries unbecoming &quot; simple republicans.&quot; 

 But, there must be a pot to boil in ; or, is that too much ? May 

 these republicans have a washing tub ? Perhaps, indeed, it will 

 become unnecessary in a short time ; for, the lice will have eaten 

 up the linen ; and, besides, perhaps real independence means 

 stark nakedness. But, at any rate, the hogs must have a trough : 

 or, are they to eat at the same board with the family ? Talking 

 of eating puts me in mind of a great article ; for what are the family 

 to eat during the year and more before their land can produce ? 

 For even if they arrive in May, they can have no crop that year, 

 Why, they must graze with the cows in the Prairies, or snuggle 

 with the hogs in the woods. An oven ! Childish effeminacy ! 

 Oh ! unleavened bread for your life. Bread, did I say ? Where 

 is the &quot; independent &quot; family to get bread ? Oh ! no ! Grass 

 and Acorns and Roots ; and, God be praised, you have plenty of 

 water in your wells, though, perhaps, the family, with all their 

 &quot; independence,&quot; must be compelled to depend on your leave to 

 get it, and fetch it half a mile into the bargain. 



1026. To talk seriously upon such a subject is impossible, 

 without dealing in terms of reprobation, which it would give me 

 great pain to employ when speaking of any act of yours. Indeed 

 such a family will be free : but, the Indians are free, and so are 

 the gypsies in England. And I most solemnly declare, that I 



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