"Certainly not. Men do not like to part with good land, and if my friends could set their farms well in grass, so that a few hands could attend to them, they would only sell at very high figures; but being unable to do this, they are willing, and many of them anxious, to sell on most reasonable terms."
"What is the trouble, then?"
"The trouble is about houses."
"Explain."
"Wealthy people seldom emigrate. The men who leave home have generally but limited means, and coming here they find just the soil and climate they desire, but no place to lay their heads; and few if any of them can afford to buy land and build houses at the same time. This, I am satisfied, is the main difficulty in the way of the speedy filling up of Virginia with the best class of yeoman settlers."
"A difficulty not easily remedied."
"No, for our people, rich in land, are even poorer in money than the immigrants themselves."
"How on earth, then, did you manage to sell to the New Hampshire gentleman who came with me this evening, and who, as I learn, bought a part of your farm?"
"Why, I had a roomy house, and I just opened my doors to him and his family, and kept them here free of charge till their own house was finished."