of the old soldier principally owed a
large fortune, which he had accumulated as the result of his privateering
adventures; and it is said that the prizes came in so plentifully, that
once he lifted up his hand and declared, "O Lord, it is enough!" However
this may be, it is certain that not long afterwards his riches gradually
vanished, and he was compelled to seek and obtained the office upon which
he supported his declining days. Though "aristocratic" enough in his own
personal character and demeanor, he was not naturally in much favor with
the grandees of the old Federal town; but they stood in awe of him,
nevertheless; for he had been very rich, and in his less prosperous days
was still a person of the most impulsive and resolute spirit. His
appearance in public was very marked. His person was manly and his
countenance singularly striking. He dressed in black, his small-clothes
terminating in white cotton stockings down to his gouty foot. On his
white head, decorated with a queue, was his three-cornered hat. He seemed
to take a pride in walking up the principal business street of the town,
at the time of high "'Change," and paying attention to no one, to utter
his not always very conciliatory thoughts aloud, in regard to his
contemporaries and matters in general, as he threw out sideways the gouty
foot aforesaid, on his way to the one o'clock dinner, which was the
fashion of the time.

But the Revolutionary War exhausted the fortunes of many prosperous men
of the day; and the story is told of one very rich merchant, who could
drive in his own carriage several days' journey--when such a journey over
difficult roads was hardly so much as could be accomplished by "the
hollow, pampered jades of Asia,"--and sleep in his own house every night.
He lent immense sums, for the time, to the Revolutionary government,
received what he could recover in depreciated currency, and failed. At
the period of my narrative, the country was suffering from the
consequences of another war, and the once active commerce of the old town
was reduced to the lowest ebb. It was then that active emigration began
from the sterile soil of New England--since rendered so much more
productive by intelligent cultivation--to the fertile region known as
"The Ohio;" just as, not much more than half a century ago, people talked
of "The Coos country" in New Hampshire, and within a few years we spoke
of the "Far West," brought at length within the compass of