Mr. Hoskins, after the purchase I had made from Mr. Nackets, became less anxious to return home. He saw, as he often said, “the settlement was a-going to do,” and his intention of moving to it from Vermont when he could get his farm there sold, was, every time we conversed on the subject, more and more strengthened. We agreed, however, not to open store regularly before the spring, when we should have a proper place constructed, and a right assortment of goods laid in; at the same time we thought it would be as well, not absolutely to abstain from supplying the settlers who could pay ready money for such articles as we then had. Thus it came to pass, that he stayed with us till the snow fell, with the first of which he set out in a sleigh to bring Mrs. Hoskins, and to dispose of his land and betterments. He had no children, and about this time he began to speak of leaving the bulk of his property to my family, if they should happen to survive himself and wife.

He had not, however, left us above three or four days, when symptoms of a change began to appear in the settlement;—so long as the public works, roads, clearings, &c. undertaken by the speculators had continued to give employment and wages to the settlers, every thing went on prosperously, and even for some time after the seasonable suspension, no visible diminution of their contentment and industry was discernible. But the savings of their wages were at last exhausted; the severity of the winter caused a greater outlay among them for clothes than the most provident were prepared for; and so general was the distress in consequence, that the agent grew seriously alarmed, lest the settlement should be broken up.

In this crisis, one day, when the agent came to see how we were getting on, he entered my house, and familiarly taking a stool by the fire, spoke to me of his anxieties, pointing out how detrimental any considerable desertion would be to the speculation, especially following so close upon the heels of the failure at Olympus.