A New World 



place for a farm. So father went away to spy 

 out the land, and in the mean time left us child- 

 ren in Kingston in a rented room. It took us 

 less than an hour to get acquainted with some 

 of the boys in the village; we challenged them 

 to wrestle, run races, climb trees, etc., and in a 

 day or two we felt at home, carefree and happy, 

 notwithstanding our family was so widely 

 divided. When father returned he told us that 

 he had found fine land for a farm in sunny 

 open woods on the side of a lake, and that a 

 team of three yoke of oxen with a big wagon 

 was coming to haul us to Mr. Gray's place. 



We enjoyed the strange ten-mile ride through 

 the woods very much, wondering how the 

 great oxen could be so strong and wise and tame 

 as to pull so heavy a load with no other harness 

 than a chain and a crooked piece of wood on 

 their necks, and how they could sway so obedi- 

 ently to right and left past roadside trees and 

 stumps when the driver said haw and gee. At 

 Mr. Gray's house, father again left us for a 

 few days to build a shanty on the quarter- 

 [ 6i ] 



