The story of a summer : $b or, Journal leaves from ChappaquaCleveland, Cecilia Pauline
General
The story of a summer : $b or, Journal leaves from Chappaqua
Cleveland, Cecilia Pauline
Chappaqua (N.Y.); Greeley family
"You have answered your question yourself, dear," was mamma's reply.
"Land was very cheap there, and through our careful economy in Vermont,
father had saved enough money to buy about two hundred acres, to which
he subsequently added, from time to time, so that the old Greeley
homestead now consists of between three and four hundred acres. Then
two of father's brothers, Uncle Benjamin and Uncle Leonard, had settled
in Wayne township three or four years previous, and, to use your papa's
words, had 'made holes in the tall, dense forest that covered nearly
all that region for twenty to fifty miles in every direction.' Father
went to Pennsylvania in advance of us, bought his land, and then
returned to fetch us to our new home.
"I remember seeing mother weep bitterly when she left Vermont; but, as
ever through her brave life, she made no complaint. As for myself, I
remember no regrets, save at parting with dear brother; for I was too
young to feel other than childish exultation at the prospect of making
a long journey; and that journey from Vermont to our new home upon the
'State line,' between New York and Pennsylvania, I must here remark,
occupied a month. Locomotion, you see, was not so rapid in the year
1826 as it is now."
"I should think not!" exclaimed Gabrielle. "Pray, auntie, in what way
did you travel to advance at such a snail's pace? I should think you
could almost have walked the distance in that length of time."
"You will be amused when I tell you the length of the first day's
journey," replied mamma. "Father hired a large wagon, and stowed away
our trunks, furniture, and all of his family in it, and we went as far
as Whitehall, a distance of about nine miles. Here we stopped over
night, and the next day took the boat for Troy, where we again broke
the journey after travelling, I believe, two days. At that time there
were no regular ferry-boats to cross the river from East to West Troy,
and passengers were taken over in row-boats. I remember that the
boatmen stood by the river-side and called all day and night:
"'Over, over, over, going o-o-o-o-ver!' to attract custom.
"Now came the most delightful part of the journey--going from Troy to
Buffalo upon the canal-boat. There were two different kinds of boats
that went between those cities; the packet-boats, carrying the mails
and passengers but no freight, and the line-boats, which took both
freight and passengers, and were consequently cheaper. These were used
by people like ourselves, who were moving from one part of the country
to the other, with furniture, who wished to economize, and to whom time
was no object; for the packet-boats travelled twice or thrice as
rapidly as the line-boats.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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