idle; nay, the general scarcity which extended to the East tended to
increase the number of adventurers.”

“And how, dearest father, didst thou encounter this dreadful evil?”
said Elizabeth, unconsciously adopting the dialect of her parent in
the warmth of her sympathy. “Upon thee must have fallen the
responsibility, if not the suffering.”

“It did, Elizabeth,” returned the Judge, pausing for a single moment,
as if musing on his former feelings. “ I had hundreds at that
dreadful time daily looking up to me for bread. The sufferings of
their families and the gloomy prospect before them had paralyzed the
enterprise and efforts of my settlers; hunger drove them to the woods
for food, but despair sent them at night, enfeebled and wan, to a
sleepless pillow. It was not a moment for in action. I purchased
cargoes of wheat from the granaries of Pennsylvania; they were landed
at Albany and brought up the Mohawk in boats; from thence it was
transported on pack-horses into the wilderness and distributed among
my people. Seines were made, and the lakes and rivers were dragged
for fish. Something like a miracle was wrought in our favor, for
enormous shoals of herrings were discovered to have wandered five
hundred miles through the windings of the impetuous Susquehanna, and
the lake was alive with their numbers. These were at length caught
and dealt out to the people, with proper portions of salt, and from
that moment we again began to prosper.” *

* All this was literally true.

“Yes,” cried Richard, “and I was the man who served out the fish and
salt. When the poor devils came to receive their rations, Benjamin,