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"Yes, and yours, too, for a while," said Amos. Mrs. Garfield is said to have been delighted with the consciousness that she could stand on their own soil.

"Is this our own land, Abram?" said she. "I cannot realize it."

Years afterward, and even to this day, the sisters visit frequently the spot where first they set foot on their own land, and each lives over again the sensations of those good old days. So frequently did Alpha visit the place where she first stopped and asked: "Amos, is this our land?" and so sacred did she hold it, that the children gave it the name of "Mother's retreat," and always scrupulously left her to herself whenever they saw her put on her bonnet and start in the direction of the place. Births, marriages, deaths, have come since then. The strong men are laid low, the children are scattered, and the trees have been cleared away and grown again, but the two women live to visit their sacred "retreats," and to recite the tales of their early adventures in the ears of a wondering generation.

When the two families were safely packed away in the little cabin with one room and one fire-place, the brothers began the construction of Abram's house.

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They selected a spot about forty rods from the other cabin, and on an elevated mound, behind which was a little ravine and a diminutive streamlet. short distance down the ravine was a living spring, which was found afterward to be a most convenient and valuable household appendage.

There, with the ox team for the transportation of timber from the adjacent forest, and with their own natural Yankee skill to hew it, and their own strong arms to raise it, they constructed the old log cabin, without a "raising," and, as Amos always took pride in adding, "without whiskey."

This log house was nearly square, with the front door in the middle, and the windows, about two feet square, in each end. It was ready for occupancy in the early spring, and in time to sow the front yard with wheat. During the summer other cabins were erected within a circuit of a mile and a half, so that they did not long feel the weight of an almost complete isolation. It required the closest management for the new farmer to secure a livelihood through the months preceding the sale of the first crop, and no little watching to keep his family from the wolves and from the possible visits of fiercer beasts. But all seem to have willingly endured all the privations of poverty and isolation with cheerfulness, often making jokes of their greatest hardships. The brothers often exchanged work, and so together cleared the fields of stumps, constructed fences, and set out fruit trees. Such saplings, seeds, or stock as they needed, one or the other procured at Cleveland. So that at the close of the autumn of 1830 both farms were in a prosperous condition, giving promise of rich harvests. in the year to come.

Other relatives, and many of his former acquaintances, purchased tracts of land in the county and in adjoining counties, and the three years which fol

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lowed Abram's removal to his new home saw many clearings and improvements made in that whole region. His fifty-acre tract of land underwent a complete transformation. Early and late he toiled with the oxen; and such a share did those beasts of burden have in the establishment and improvement of his home that Abram regarded them with affectionate fondness, and treated them with the most friendly and patient consideration.

It was a grand thing to see the forest and wildwood give place to the garden of vegetables, the fields of grain, and the orchards of apples. Abram and Eliza appreciated the wonderful change. Those were their sweetest, best days, when they watched for the sprouts of corn and wheat with the eagerness and innocence of children, when the whole family joined in the gathering of the harvest, or when about the roaring winter fire they sat and talked of the past or planned for the future.

Soon a log school-house was constructed, across the ravine at the back of Abram's house, and at one corner of his clearing. This furnished a means of education for their children, and Abram and Eliza were happy.

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