The monotony of that long and painful trip of sixty-seven miles, from the ferry at Meshoppen on the big river, was softened for us not a little by our meeting with a rather large number of families, almost all European, but so recently established that we could hardly find a shelter and something to feed ourselves and our horses. Occupied with splitting rails, with girdling great trees, and with piling up and burning dry bushes, they so far had harvested only a few vegetables.

"Yes!" we were told by a man from Sweden at whose home we had stopped to refresh our horses, "I can die without being uneasy about the future of my children, since I am going to leave them in a country of abundance where labor is amply rewarded. They will not be exposed to the shame of begging, to remorse, nor to the dangers of crime."

"Yes!" another said, "No longer shall I hitch wretched cows to a sorry plow in order to skim the surface of the sandy soil in my private land! Here the oxen and horses plow deep and fertile soil that belongs to me."

"Born in the midst of the avalanches and glaciers of Savoy," said a third, "industrious as I was, I needed nothing to be happy but good laws and good soil. Here I have found all I wanted, and even more, since the government and the god of harvests require only our gratitude and our prayers."

After crossing the Susquehanna we were slowly making our way into Luzerne County when my companion said to me, "Yes, I confess it; I have begun to fulfill the object of my travels only since we met the settler from Fairfield. Since then I have been more interested than before in these cabins of logs and bark, the first dwellings of the colonists, destined to be replaced some day by cheerful homes, just as these rude clearings, through industry and necessity, will be converted into fertile fields. With much less aversion I cross these forests whose soil, heretofore harsh and sterile, will soon provide food for thousands of families, and these humid and impenetrable swamps on which countless herds of animals will some day graze. I am having the opportunity," he continued, "of observing what can truly be called the origin of society. Yes, without doubt, because in these places where, just seven months ago, only the cries of panthers and the howls of wolves were to be heard, we see the plow tracing its first furrows, the fire consuming the bushes and useless grass, and we hear the sound of axes, the songs of happiness, the bustle of labor and life. Yes, without doubt, because we are traveling paths which will some day be great and beautiful highways, and because we are conversing with the first magistrates, who, like the other colonists, are occupied in clearing the surface of their land, in planting their corn, or in sowing their first fields of wheat among trees that have been left standing and among branches, stumps, and roots piled up and burning!"

"To own a piece of land," I said to Monsieur Herman, "to farm it, is here the universal ambition. Furthermore, since the beginning of the colonies, agriculture, although still in its infancy, has been the favorite occupation of both classes of society and the foundation for the prosperity of these states. However, the colonists do not all succeed. Here, as elsewhere, success does not crown all undertakings. Here, as elsewhere, man is exposed to danger from accidents, bad weather, and the caprices of fate. The settlers do not all bring with them the necessary disposition, nor the habits, nor the intelligence that this new way of life requires. They do not all have the same amount of strength, of courage, of judgment, and they are not all equally happy. Illness, insects, negligence, and laziness often destroy their hopes. If, when the time comes that the land must be paid for, the settler is not able to supply the necessary sum of money, the law gives back the land to its original owner, after recompensing the purchaser for any improvements he has made. And even among those who owe nothing, how many times is it not found to be true that some grow lazy when they find out that with just two days of work they can live for the rest of the week! Examples like these are found much more often among the foreign born colonists than among the settlers from the northern states, whose way of life, intelligence, and industry are so often worthy of great praise."

In the meantime we were traveling on toward the salt lick farms in the district around Philippopolis and west of Mount Ararat, when on the evening of the third day after crossing the great river, as we were making our way through a large swamp - which I have since found out is the source for one of the branches of the Wyolusing - we heard a clock striking. Encouraged by this sound, so unusual in such a sparsely populated country, we continued on our way more gaily and soon arrived at a field of corn, a young orchard, and a house, a newly built house, it is true, but one with four little wooden windows.

"All this," said Monsieur Herman, "gives signs of being a good place to stop. Let us rejoice and forget the fatigues of this long day's journey."

We still had some little distance to go when a man with a distinguished looking form and countenance appeared and said to us, "Welcome, gentlemen; get down and come in. You have either powerful motives or a great deal of courage to dare a trip through a country still so thinly populated. Have you not strayed from your road?"

"One is not off his road," replied my companion, "when he has the good luck to meet a colonist such as you seem to be, and the good luck to be invited to spend the night under such a fine roof."

"Ah! Gentlemen, don't praise the hospitality of the woods more than it deserves. If you knew how great my pleasure is and how real the need of hearing news from informed travelers, you would realize that it is I who thank you for a good turn."

"You underrate what you want to give us."

"Well! Think of it as reciprocity, and I shall be satisfied."

"How many years have you been living here?" I asked him.

"Seven," he replied. "Tomorrow I shall let you see that I haven't wasted my time. When a person wants immediate results, it costs something; but money that is wisely spent in clearing land and drying up swamps returns more than a hundred percent. My ambition is some day to have great meadows and pasturelands on which to raise and feed many cattle and horses. I have great respect for the plow, but I take even more to the scythe, because that kind of farming requires fewer hands. Ten years ago this country was scarcely known and was frequented only by hunters; the land was hardly worth six silver sous an acre. What a difference today! It is the same everywhere. The 110-acre lots that the Penn family sold on the other side of the Alleghenies for twenty-five piastres are now worth more than ninety; and we haven't been enjoying the benefit of municipal laws for more than three years!"

"Is this a healthy country?" asked Monsieur Herman.

"Except for a kind of fever that comes at certain times of the year," he replied. "But it is caused by the ignorance of the settlers rather than by the climate. After getting hot from their labor, they lie down in the shade of a tree; perspiration stops and they grow cold. I brought with me out here a simple and sure remedy, which has already been of great benefit to many of these colonists."

"You talk like a man who understands medicine."

"I practiced it a little in Europe."

"What! Are you a European?"

"Alas! yes. I am from Poland, and Poland is no more. You have heard of our confederations, of the first division of our lands-which took away five million subjects from the king of that unfortunate country-and of the general dismemberment made by the Northern Powers 2 Since that time the wails of my unfortunate compatriots have resounded through the world in vain. What a deplorable event! Russia having seized the province where I was born, I was forced to go as a surgeon into the hospitals and dress the wounds of those who had ravaged my land and then enslaved it. Angered by this shameful servitude, I formed the plan of breaking my bonds or perishing. Everything in this world, as you must know, depends on chance. I owe my escape to chance-to my lucky arrival at Copenhagen and to the good fortune of being of assistance to a captain of a ship ready to leave for Lisbon. He had hardly discharged his cargo there when he took on another for New York, where we arrived after forty-seven days. And in less than four months, from the village of Orsa on the Dnieper River, I found myself landed on this continent. What is it then that controls the fate and fortune of men? Some days after my arrival, because of my knowledge of the German language, I made the friendship of Doctor Ebeling, the minister of the Luthern church at New York, who recommended me to his colleague, the Reverend Mulhausen, at German Flats, on the Mohawk River. This worthy and respectable churchman welcomed me as if I had been one of his countrymen; and when I had finished telling him of my misfortunes, he became even more friendly and interested. After making it known in his neighborhood that I was a surgeon, he volunteered to give me advice and direct my first steps in this new land.

"Oh! when compared with the slavery I had just left, how sweet and delicious seemed this new independence and this thoughtfulness, which I was quick to enjoy! It was for me like a second birth. Of all the moments of the day, the time of waking was most filled with charms for me, because then, since my dreams often took me back to Poland, to find myself an inhabitant of North America and a citizen of this new state was a new and exquisite joy. At last, feeling for the first time a happy existence, I swore to forget the past and to concern myself only with pleasing hopes for the future.

"If my imagination was vividly struck at the sight of the beautiful rivers, the great lakes, and the mighty waterfalls of this country, how much also were my heart and mind aroused by a close examination of the bases on which these new societies were founded! The mildness and the justice of the laws; the ease with which one can acquire land; the civil importance that goes with that possession; the ample recompense assured by work and skill; the harmony and the great number of children that are found in almost every family; in short, the general happiness! At the sight of this moving spectacle, I began to conceive a better impression of human nature and to love my fellow men. After I had practiced medicine for a few years in the land of the Mohawks, the Reverend Mulhausen gave me his daughter in marriage and made me a present of the 750 acres which I own here. It is to him that I owe the greatest, as well as the most precious, of blessings, the best of wives. There she is, that angel of goodness and sweetness, to whom I owe everything-the children she has given me, the land that I am clearing, and the happiness, as well as the order, the comfort, and the neatness of my little dwelling.

"Furthermore, it is the long and interesting conversations of her revered father," he continued, "that have given me the advantage of learning the history of these states during the period of their colonial infancy, the details regarding the new social compact which has held them together since their separation from the mother country, the boundaries that separate them from the three neighboring nations, and the code of civil laws on which rest the freedom of the individual and the freedom of religion. What a contrast between the absurd and barbaric feudal customs known in Poland for so many centuries and the system, adopted by these states, which protects both life and property! What a contrast between the religious oppression which has been the source of nearly all the ills that have inundated my fatherland and the constant protection that this government accords all religions equally, a protection that is not the result of tolerance, but of justice, since it is founded not on opinion but on natural law.

"One day my revered father-in-law said to me, 'For a long time I have been at once a minister of the gospel, a physician, and a farmer. I dare appeal to the divine inspector of hearts, as well as to my neighbors; they will judge whether or not I have done everything that is in my power to fulfill the duties of those three positions in life. I took charge of the clearing of four hundred acres of land that the government had donated to the church of this district at the time we were given a map of incorporation, and since then I have been asked to set aside two-thirds of that land for the support of a free school. I have grown old while following the beautiful and interesting career which you are about to enter. But the fruits of this old age are neither sad nor bitter, unlike the experience of those who pursue goals less honorable and less useful. The store of knowledge I have acquired is a little treasure which I wish to bequeath to you as to one who is charged with contributing to the happiness of my daughter. In this way I shall have a part in your success. My desire is only the natural result of the friendship and affection which I feel toward the man whom I have esteemed enough to make my son-in-law.

"'They are deceived,' my father-in-law continued, 'who expect to become rich at farming; it does not make people rich in these northern states. The seasons pass too quickly, the winters are too long, and help is still too costly. But for those who work hard, it brings comfort and abundance. In order to succeed in the woods, one must have some money to start with, so that he will not be crushed by the yearly interest on borrowed funds; he must also have some knowledge of this new way of life. Since the job of farming is like a bundle composed of several parts, everything that pertains to work, to supervision, and to planning must be equally the object of your daily attention. It is indispensable to know the nature and quality of soils in order to plant in them only the seeds that suit them best, and to have some of the skill of the veterinarian, although the animals who roam at liberty and eat enough salt are rarely sick.

"'The first of all those virtues that are so useful to a colonist, after the love of work, is a soft and conciliatory spirit, which is absolutely necessary for getting along with one's neighbors; for you will not be isolated forever. The peace of a neighborhood is a constant source of prosperity. You will see what wonders a spirit of brotherly harmony can perform among men who are destined to help each other in the great and painful task of clearing the land. I know of no obstacles that a union of wills and efforts cannot cause to disappear. Everything becomes easier and more beautiful; and in a few short years the most dismal forests, the driest deserts, will be covered with flowers, with fruits, with harvests.

"'After having felled the first tree on your plantation, pray to heaven that you will be given health, the mother of strength, the aid to perseverance and courage. Yes, that is necessary, even more than one thinks, to bear the solitude of the forest, to strip from the surface of the soil those giants at the foot of which man seems so weak, to clear the land and burn everything that encumbers it, to dry up the swamps, to plant and enclose fruit trees, to open up roads, to build houses and barns. If ever you begin to have feelings of disgust, the forerunners of discouragement, think of the wife I have given you and of the children she will give you. If that powerful incentive does not call you back to activity and devotion, you are not destined to become a good and true colonist.

"'Have a care,' he continued, 'for the illusions of the imagination, which, too often, make distant objects seem more beautiful than they are; for nothing is more seductive than the project of setting up an establishment in some new place. Don't do as so many farmers I have known. Cut down only the trees that are in your way; for the cold of your long winters, the building and repairing of your barns and sheds, the upkeep of your fences, all require a huge amount of wood. The second generation will regret bitterly that the first destroyed so many trees, something that has already happened in several districts of New Jersey and Connecticut, where, for lack of wood, the value of the land has diminished considerably.

"'And even if one considers the forests only as an ornament, as a magnificent robe with which nature in its kindness has covered this continent, are they not beautiful and majestic? How can one keep from venerating these gigantic pines, which no amount of human skill and cultivation can ever replace? Those oaks, whose origin is much more ancient than that of our greatest cities? This respect for the forests and the beautiful trees is so natural that, in spite of the labor and the expense necessary to clear, enclose, and cultivate the fields, in spite of the distressing habit of looking at the trees only as enemies, as 'intruders' who occupy the soil one needs, a landowner, after some years of possession, is instinctively more moved, more flattered, on going through his woods than in crossing his fields. Once cleared and submitted to the plow, these fields seem to him to be only his own work; nothing grows there except what he has sowed or planted. In his forests, on the other hand, everything carries the mark of grandeur and endurance, a sentiment with which men, even the most ignorant, are involuntarily struck.

"'The colonist,' he went on, 'who has surmounted the first difficulties of his establishment, and who owes nothing, is happier and richer than he thinks. He is as free as he can be in a social state; his fortune is better assured than in any other situation; he has only a few outside connections; the source of his independence is within himself, if he has known how to summon peace and moderate his desires; his joys, so long solicited by labor and active industry, are keen and pure; and finally, the laws which in other places favor some and oppress others are here designed to favor no one.

"'Do you wish to increase your happiness? Contribute to that of your neighbors. Assist them in their illness; give them advice that will keep them in health. That is what I have been doing for a great many years. Do you want to become a distinguished and respected colonist? Teach your neighbors by your example and by your discourse the love of work, of industry, of order, of justice, as well as the worship of a God who repays virtue and punishes crime. If ever your talents and the public esteem make of you a representative in the federal government, never forget that the strength of the federated states was born out of their union, that the greatness, the prosperity of this new country are founded only on that unity. All the laws destined to cement it will be obtained by your vote and your support, as well as those laws whose end will be to encourage the clearing of land and the perfecting of the art of agriculture. It is our national taste, a sure guarantor of religion and customs, which has raised us so rapidly from the feebleness of infancy to the vigor of adolescence; and that it is which, in less than a half century, will lead us to the strength of manhood.

"'As a son loves his parents, you must love your new country. Bend all your efforts to propagate the system of public education that has been practiced so long in the northern states, the most useful perhaps that modern times have discovered. The light of a good education spread through all classes of society strengthens the happiness of family life and assures the tranquillity and glory of the nation. Honor a government that reason has founded on the eternal bases of justice and libery. During peace, consecrate your talents and your example; during war, your courage and your blood, if they are necessary. At this price only can a good citizen pay his debts to his country. Scorn those orators who, in order to curry favor with the public, blame without ceasing the form and the laws of government, as if what comes from man can be perfect. To want to go beyond the bounds of human reason ought to be looked upon as foolishness, and these fanatics, as the enemies of the public peace.

"'Like you I saw the light of day in a country where for centuries men were bound to the soil; like you, after overcoming a thousand obstacles, I landed on the shores of this new world, towards which penury, despair, intolerance, and misfortune lead the debris of the old, as the waves of the sea carry the debris of the tempest to the nearby land. Just as a plant, blighted by the shade of trees, spreads out and grows as soon as it has been transplanted to a place where it can enjoy the dew of the sky and the rays of the sun, so the happy seeds that I had received from nature, long stifled by misery and ignorance, sprouted soon after my arrival in this country and produced fruit. I remember it well. The day after my naturalization, full of joy and hope at the sight of a country, of a city, where work, industry, and useful talents were so amply rewarded, and where there was so much space, I forgot that I was a Salzburger and thought of myself only as a member of the new family of the United States.'

"That, Gentlemen, is what this venerable man, this worthy minister of the gospel, has so often told me."

The next day, struck by the size and the beauty of his barn, I asked him why it was such a handsome structure when his house was built only of squared logs.

"My father-in-law," he told me, "exacted a promise that I would not consider a better house until after the ninth harvest. If all the new settlers acted as prudently, misfortunes would occur less frequently among them. Most of them build too much above their means. The pines and oaks of which my barn is constructed I hauled across the snow to a sawmill belonging to one of my neighbors, and although it is very big, it cost me much less than you would perhaps imagine; I paid out only three hundred piastres.

"Here is an orchard," he continued, "whose trees came from Schoharie. I planted it on the south slope of this little hill so that it could be more easily irrigated by the waters of the stream you just crossed. That's what gives it the air of freshness you noticed. But I shall not enjoy that advantage very long; this creek diminishes in size as the number of clearings in the neighborhood grows larger. I know some people who, because they did not see that the source of their streams was in the marshes, built mills that have today become useless. If this stream ever dries up, it will be an irreparable loss; for it is hard to understand, without having seen it, the effect that irrigation has on young shoots and on the growth of trees, particularly in the month of August. This orchard will be covered with blooms and fruit long before those of my neighbors."

"But why," asked Monsieur Herman, "are your roads still so bad?"

"That is the result of the great territorial dispute between this state and Connecticut. Happily for us it is now ended. Since then everything has been changed. The government has made this section of the country into a county and has subdivided it into districts, according to the custom. In order that the influence of the law can extend to all these places, it has just opened up a road that runs from the Susquehanna to the line of demarcation. We are told that the road from New York will be extended across the counties of Tioga, Otsego, and Albany. Already we have nearly three hundred free-holding families in this part of the state, as well as several flour and saw mills, two churches, and some schools. Next year, bridges will be built across the principal creeks. And, gentlemen, I was almost alone here only a few years ago!

"There have been several reasons for this progress: the navigation of the Susquehanna as far as Northumberland, the great quantity of lowlands, the encouragement that Congress has given to the cultivation of hemp, and the introduction of two branches of industry that were previously unknown in these districts. The first of these is the production of potash; the second, the extraction of maple sugar. It is the philanthropic society of the Quakers to whom we owe the advantage of having the latter. What would you say if I assured you that within the space of two years there had been sold perhaps 5,000 hundredweights of maple sugar at the Exchange in Philadelphia? What a benefit of nature! This benefit is to be found from the plains of Kentucky, at the thirty-fifth latitude, to Canada, at the forty-seventh."

On our return from the fields, his wife led us into what she smilingly called her parlor. On the table was placed one of the most pleasing meals that we had seen since our departure from Carlisle.

"What luxury for new colonists!" my companion observed.

"Why do you call it that," she replied, "when it is only the enjoyment of the fruits of our labor? The tea comes from China, it is true; but we pay for it with ginseng from our woods. The shad, the ham, the beef, the honeycombs, the preserves, and the sugar, everything is our own. My husband owns oneeighteenth of a seine on the big river, which brings him nearly two hundred of these fish every year; and we know how to use smoke in preserving beef and ham."

During this conversation, Mr. Nadowisky, who noticed that we frequently turned our eyes to a little oil painting on which could be seen the following three words written in big Anglo-Saxon letters, PROPERTY, PROTECTION, JUSTICE, said to us, "Gentlemen, those names that you see are the names of three charitable spirits whose aid I had uselessly implored in my native land; here, placed by the side of the laws, and under their tutelary aegis, they have received from me a peculiar kind of worship, that of gratitude."

On leaving this splendid family, Monsieur Herman took the hand of the head of the household and said, "After living for a long time in the midst of the old social institutions, and after experiencing degradation and misfortune, how happy you should be for having escaped and for having become a member of a society founded on such different principals! How this striking contrast should contribute to making your sojourn in the forest less sad and dismal, and in easing the painful task which you have imposed on yourself! Never shall I forget what I have seen and heard in this home of prosperity, happiness, and blessing."