I DECLINE TAKING A FARM. 193 



across my mind, with his threadbare black coat, false 

 collars, and shirt-front, and his frame as thin as a skele- 

 ton. I shook my head mournfully. He changed his 

 plan, and proposed that I should take a farm. But that 

 I had also reflected on : I was too poor, and although 

 the kind people would have done every thing in their 

 power to help me, I should have been too dependent ; 

 for although much is not required to set up farming in 

 America, still there must be something, and it does not 

 look well for the beginner to be always borrowing horse 

 or plow, axe, spade, saw in short, every farming and 

 household utensil, until at last the most patient man 

 would be worn out, and everybody would be alarmed the 

 moment they saw the borrower coming. I was once 

 witness of such a beginning : a family that came to the 

 forest without any means, were at first most liberally as- 

 sisted by their neighbors ; they helped them with their 

 fences, in building their house, in clearing and ploughing 

 the land, and lent them every thing, even to flour and 

 pork ; but how could people who began thus ever become 

 independent? It took years before they could procure 

 the most necessary articles for themselves. 



My old friend acknowledged the truth of the picture, 



and my journey was settled for the morrow. 

 13 



