ABSTRACT
Our trio of adventurers were now in the full zenith of their glory. Sancho with great expedition engaged in unloading the house of the dirt which had been for years collecting, and adjusting and repairing the furniture. Our hero and Dr. Sourby formed plans, and laboured daily to improve the garden, and / introduce the most succulent vegetables for the kitchen. An old German woman was hired as a cook, and a smart Irish indented servant, by the name of Polly Macguggerty, to be chambermaid and housekeeper. The employments, novelty, and amusements of this kind of life, soothed the sorrows of our hero in a wonderful manner. He would sometimes sally out with Sancho, and supply the Doctor’s table with wild pigeons, geese, ducks, or turkies, with which the country abounded, and employ whole days in examining the productions of the forests, in pursuing the wild bees to their nests, and bearing home their honey, or their hives to the garden. At other times they would hunt the squirrels from tree to tree, or trace a bear to his haunts, and bring his carcase, if a young one, as delicious fare, and his skin as a noble trophy, to Independent Hall. Their two cows furnished them with milk, and the neighbouring river and streams with fine salmon, trout, / perch, eels, and sturgeon. But Tim’s chief delight was in killing the deer, which frequented much the neighbouring forest, and were easily shot from places of concealment; or in kindling fires at night, and assaulting the wolves which prowled about the neighbourhood, and threatened destruction to their poultry and cattle. Sancho’s activity and ingenuity were of the utmost consequence to them, as he had a smattering of all trades, understood agriculture and gardening, and could execute as well as plan. Dr. Sourby found his talents and acquirements of little use in his present sphere. He had not strength, agility, or dexterity, to accompany our hero and Sancho in their excursions, and was not enough acquainted with agriculture or gardening, either to direct or perform much. But the novelty of the objects around him, the hurry of adjusting, refitting, and improving his estate, and the prospect of giving a full establishment to his system, occupied and delighted his / mind. The 276neighbouring settlers received him and our hero, whenever they met or visited, with great respect and attention; and the Doctor found at home a favourite to solace his leisure hours. We shall unfold the delicate subject to our readers in the Doctor’s words, one evening to our hero: ‘My dear Tickle,’ said he, with a mild tone, ‘as love is an honourable and reasonable passion, when kept within proper bounds, fixed on a deserving object, and directed to its true natural end; I shall not blush to confess to you that I am once more under its influence. The final cause of the passion in us, as in other animals, is the multiplication of the species, and I have accordingly chosen a person well adapted to it. As to rank and station, you know it neither adds nor diminishes real merit and dignity, I shall pay no respect therefore to them; and indeed Horace, at the court of Augustus, justifies it beautifully by example:
Ne sit ancillæ tibi amor pudori Xanthia Phoceu, &c. 422 /
