A second time he set himself to the building of a house and the
establishing of a home, and as he found much of the material ready at
hand--stone for foundations and timber for the building--it was not long
before the farmer and his family had another roof-tree of their own
above their heads. This structure has gone the way of the first, and
long since disappeared, traces of the cellar and foundations only being
visible; but the large dwelling-house which he later built, and in which
he died, still stands at a little distance away. After clearing a
portion of the land, and working the stones with which it was
plentifully bestrewed into dividing walls, he planted an apple-orchard,
sowed grain of various sorts, and increased as rapidly as possible his
flocks and herds of live stock. His chief, perhaps his only, assistant
in these earlier labors was a negro servant, who figures, though not
greatly to his credit, in the narration of an adventure in which his
master took part, about two years after his arrival in Connecticut.
This, of course, is that famous encounter with the wolf, which has since
become part and parcel not only of local tradition, but of American
history. As many generations have been familiar with this story as
related in story-books and primers, particularly during the early part
of the nineteenth century, it will now be told in the language of a
contemporary, Colonel David Humphrey, who was an aide-de-camp to
General Putnam, and also to General Washington, during the Revolutionary
War, and who wrote the first and best biography of our hero, which was
published in his lifetime. "The first years on a new farm are not exempt
from disasters and disappointments, which can only be remedied by
stubborn and patient industry. Our farmer, sufficiently occupied in
building an house and barn, felling woods, making fences, sowing grain,
planting orchards, and taking care of his stock, had to encounter in
turn the calamities occasioned by drought in summer, blast in harvest,