The last time the Perseverance went to Boston, Sally went in her, baby and all. Mr. Welch and his wife were delighted to see her. Mrs. Welch went shopping with her, and she purchased furniture for the house, and dishes to take the place of the old pewter, a large looking-glass, and a globe to hang on the wall in the front room, dresses for herself, and some presents for Ben and Charlie.
Mr. Welch declared the child should be named for him, and so it was.
Charlie, having received his money, was naturally anxious to close the bargain for the land, of which Uncle Isaac had obtained the refusal.
In going over it the first time, they had merely guessed at the number of acres it would be necessary to buy in order to take in the pond, the pine timber, and the whole of the brook.
Men like Ben and Uncle Isaac will, by pacing, come quite near to the contents of a piece of land; but it was now necessary to measure and describe it sufficiently to make a deed.
Charlie wanted the cove, the long point, a growth of white oak which extended several rods beyond the short point, and the pond and brook. These he meant to have, even if he had to buy more land than he actually wanted. Mr. Pickering wrote to Uncle Isaac, who was an old acquaintance of his, that he was willing to take Rhines’s survey, if he would go with them and carry the chain.
When they arrived at the spot with the new instruments Mr. Welch had given him, Charlie wanted to begin at the shore line, above Long Point; but Ben told him if he did he would lose the point, as he could only hold what was within his lines. They therefore began on the shore, below the short point, ran the lines, and made a description by which to write the deed, as follows: Beginning at a blazed yellow birch tree, standing in a split rock on the shore, twenty rods south-west from Bluff Point, so called; thence running south-east four hundred and fifty rods to a blazed pine, marked C. B. (Charlie’s initials), south-east corner; thence north-east one hundred and fifty rods to a blazed pine tree, marked C. B., north-east corner; thence north-west four hundred and six rods to a blazed red oak tree on the shore, marked C. B.; thence along the shore of Pleasant Point, so called, at low-water mark, to the point of the high ledge at the westerly end of the same; thence west by south forty rods to the south-westerly end of said Pleasant Point at low-water mark; the line thence to the point begun at, being below low-water mark, across the mouth of Pleasant Cove, containing three hundred and sixty-three acres, more or less, thirty-seven being deducted for the contents of Pleasant Cove.
“I must go to the brook and get a drink of water,” said Charlie, when they had finished.
“We’ll go to Cross-root Spring,” said Uncle Isaac. “That’s something you’ve not seen yet, and it’s one of the best pieces of property you’ve got.”