be rich, and complain of the unequal and unjust distribution of
property. He could point to a score of men who had not worked half so
hard as he had, in his own opinion, that had made fortunes, or at
least won a competence, while he was as poor as ever, and in danger
of having his place taken away from him. People said that John
Wilford was lazy; that he did not make the most of his land, and that
his ferry, with closer attention to the wants of passengers, might be
made to pay double the amount he made from it. He permitted the weeds
to grow in his garden, and compelled people to wait by the hour for a
passage across the lake.

John Wilford wondered that he could not grow rich, that he could not
pay off the mortgage on his place. He seldom sat down to dinner
without grumbling at his hard lot. His wife was a sensible woman. She
did not wonder that he did not grow rich; only that he contrived to
keep out of the poorhouse. She was the mother of eight children, and
if he had been half as smart as she was, prosperity would have smiled
upon the family. As it was, her life was filled up with struggles to
make the ends meet; but, though she had the worst of it, she did not
complain, and did all she could to comfort and encourage her
thriftless husband.

The oldest son was as near like his father as one person could be
like another. He was eighteen years old, and was an idle and
dissolute fellow. Lawrence, the second son, inherited his mother's
tack and energy. He was observing and enterprising, and had already
made a good reputation as a boatman and pilot. He had worked in
various capacities on board of steamers, canal-boats, sloops, and
schooners, and in five years had visited every part of the lake from
Whitehall to St. Johns.