His idea was then to get the family over into New York
without delay, with such remnants of the farm stock as could be got
together, and leaving them for the winter at New Lebanon, just the
other side the border, to go on himself, meanwhile, to the western
part of the state, to secure a farm in the new tracts being already
opened up in that rich region, and rapidly filling with settlers. For
the populating of the west, and New York was then the west, has gone
on by successive waves of emigration, set in motion by periodical
epochs of financial and industrial distress in the Atlantic states,
and the first of these impulses, the hard times following the
Revolution, was already sending thousands to seek new homes toward the
setting sun.
Busy with preparations for the start, he kept close at home during the
entire week following. Only once or twice did he even go down street,
and then on some errand. Obadiah dropped around frequently and looked
on as he worked, evidently having something on his mind. One twilight
as Perez was cutting wood for the evening fire, the young man came
into the back yard and opened conversation in this wise:
"Guess it's gonter rain."
"Looks a little like it," Perez assented.
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