Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
my mind what my grandfather did in his days; they ll me with gratitude to his
memory as well as to that government, which invited him to come, and helped him
when he arrived, as well as many others. Can I pass over these reections without
remembering thy name, O Penn! thou best of legislators; who by the wisdom of
thy laws hast endowed human nature, within the bounds of thy province, with
every dignity it can possibly enjoy in a civilised state; and showed by thy singular
establishment, what all men might be if they would follow thy example!
In the year 1770, I purchased some lands in the county of——, which I intended
for one of my sons; and was obliged to go there in order to see them properly
surveyed and marked out: the soil is good, but the country has a very wild aspect.
However I observed with pleasure, that land sells very fast; and I am in hopes
when the lad gets a wife, it will be a well-settled decent country. Agreeable to our
customs, which indeed are those of nature, it is our duty to provide for our eldest
children while we live, in order that our homesteads may be left to the youngest,
who are the most helpless. Some people are apt to regard the portions given to
daughters as so much lost to the family; but this is selsh, and is not agreeable to
my way of thinking; they cannot work as men do; they marry young: I have given
an honest European a farm to till for himself, rent free, provided he clears an acre
of swamp every year, and that he quits it whenever my daughter shall marry. It will
procure her a substantial husband, a good farmer—and that is all my ambition.
Whilst I was in the woods I met with a party of Indians; I shook hands with them,
and I perceived they had killed a cub; I had a little Peach brandy, they perceived it
also, we therefore joined company, kindled a large re, and ate an hearty supper. I
made their hearts glad, and we all reposed on good beds of leaves. Soon after dark, I
was surprised to hear a prodigious hooting through the woods; the Indians laughed
heartily. One of them, more skilful than the rest, mimicked the owls so exactly, that
a very large one perched on a high tree over our re. We soon brought him down;
he measured ve feet seven inches from one extremity of the wings to the other.
By Captain——I have sent you the talons, on which I have had the heads of small
candlesticks xed. Pray keep them on the table of your study for my sake.
Contrary to my expectation, I found myself under the necessity of going to
Philadelphia, in order to pay the purchase money, and to have the deeds properly
recorded. I thought little of the journey, though it was above two hundred miles,
because I was well acquainted with many friends, at whose houses I intended to
stop. The third night after I left the woods, I put up at Mr.——’s, the most worthy
citizen I know; he happened to lodge at my house when you was there.—He kindly
inquired after your welfare, and desired I would make a friendly mention of him to
you. The neatness of these good people is no phenomenon, yet I think this excellent
family surpasses everything I know. No sooner did I lie down to rest than I thought
myself in a most odoriferous arbour, so sweet and fragrant were the sheets. Next
morning I found my host in the orchard destroying caterpillars. I think, friend
B., said I, that thee art greatly departed from the good rules of the society; thee
seemeth to have quitted that happy simplicity for which it hath hitherto been so
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