“It will pay if you do, Bertie,” said James.
The emigrants slept in the wagon, built a fire at night and morning, and cooked beside the roads; stormy days, put up, milked the cows, and exchanged the milk that they did not need themselves at the farm-houses for other articles of food; and the latter part of their journey, as they came into the unsettled portion of the country, James killed game. They reached Prescott’s upon a Thursday at noon, and stopped till the next morning.
Mr. Prescott, without their knowledge, sent Clarence, the second boy, to inform Dan of their coming, with the pig and the kitten; and his wife sent butter, bread, and a boiled ham.
When the married pair reached the camp, they found the provisions on the table, a good fire, a camp-kettle full of hot water, a birch-bark dish full of eggs, the kitten in Dan’s lap and the pig was squealing lustily in the hovel; while the rooster, jealous of the intruder, was flapping his wings on the roof of the camp, and crowing in defiance. The walls of the hovel were hung with the skins of coons, foxes, and two otters stretched on hoops; the beans were threshed, and the potatoes in the pit. The boys were invited to dinner as the first visitors, and as they had but three plates and two mugs, James and his wife ate and drank out of the same plate and mug, and gave the other vessels to the boys, who, after the meal, helped to unload the cart, set up the loom, and make other necessary arrangements, and took leave after an early supper.
They now retired to rest, not without first returning thanks for their safe arrival to the Being whose hand, unseen, had brought them safely hitherto, and given to the pauper boy a homestead and a helpmeet.
It was quite an important matter for James to prepare his workshop, as he had brought only the iron portion of his farming tools; and they had not a bowl, nor barrel, nor even a wash-tub. So, after they had arranged matters, and he had built a pigpen and dug out a trough, he went to the mill in the birch, and brought home plank for a work-bench, and hardwood stuff for the framework of his lathe, and to make a wheel and footboard; and pine-boards for shelves and racks to put his tools in, and to make drawers; and before the ground froze, he had, mostly on stormy days, made bowls and plates and trays of wood, two wash-tubs and a trough to salt pork in, and the wood-work both of a plough and harrow, and had cut down the great wagon to proper dimensions for farm labor.
When James went to mill after his lumber, he felt quite uneasy lest Emily, left thus alone in the woods, should feel unhappy and homesick; but, upon his return, he heard, as he came up the bank, the whir of the shuttle, and found her singing at the loom, with the kitten on the bench beside her.
“You seem in excellent spirits,” said James, delighted to find her in this happy mood.
“Why should I not be? Plenty to eat, plenty to do, and a nice young man to take care of me.”
James bought three shoats, and let them run in the woods, and every night and morning they came up to the hovel, and he fed them with milk and a little corn, and then they were off to the woods nutting and hunting for rattlesnakes.