When settling with him he found that there was a great difference in wages between the place he was now in and Swatara. He could hire Prescott for fifty cents a day, his oxen at the same price, and Dan for two shillings.
Arriving at Creech’s, he was received with great cordiality, and found there his horse and pack-saddle. He inquired in regard to the surveyor, and was informed that the rheumatic fever had left him a cripple on crutches.
“The best thing you can do, Mr. Renfew,” said Creech, “if you mean to settle here, is to buy his instruments.” James bought them for fifteen dollars, and told Creech if he heard of any one that wanted land run, to send them to him.
He bought a narrow axe, and what farming tools he needed for the present, and some rope and nails, and returned; put the fire into his trees, and got a good burn. With the rope and cedar-bark for a breastplate he contrived, by chopping the logs into short lengths, to twitch and roll them together sufficiently for a second burn, and planted his corn. He was dropping the last kernels of his corn when a man, sent by the proprietors, came to ask if he would go twenty miles into the woods to lay out a road, and measure some lots; that they would send three men to his place, one to carry the chain, and two to clear the way, if he concluded to go. They thought it would take about ten days.
James replied that he must have the next day to make his preparations, and would then be ready to go.
He hired Prescott to plough and sow to wheat two acres of ground; plant half an acre with potatoes, except a few rods reserved for beans.
When James returned, his first care was to peel hemlock bark, and put the bark under pressure to flatten the sheets to cover the roof, and to cut the timber for the roof, and logs to raise the walls, and haul them to the camp.
There was a mill at the mouth of the creek, and from thence he brought, in his birch, boards to lay a floor, make an outside door and a large chest, with a cover and partings, for cornmeal and flour.
James rather exceeded the instructions of Emily, and raised the wall high enough to make a good chamber above; laid the floor with boards, and made a ladder to reach it.
He went seven miles to a limekiln and brought lime in the pockets of the pack-saddle, that would contain half a bushel each, and built a fireplace and chimney of stones, with the chimney at the end of the camp and outside, thus affording more room.
