have been nearly driven out of my mind. Now I can
live on board the tug till she goes down with the empty flats. I am glad
I brought up those eight negroes, for there would be the greatest
difficulty in hiring hands here; every one seems to have gone stark mad,
and to consider every hour's delay in pushing west as so much loss of a
chance of making a fortune."

For the next fortnight the labour was incessant. Hiram, Frank, and the
eight negroes toiled in landing the stores and the framework of the
house, and in transporting them to the lot which Mr. Willcox had
purchased. Even the engineers of the tug were induced by the high
payment Mr. Willcox offered to aid in the work. Several stretchers, or
hand-barrows, had been brought up with them, and on these such bales and
boxes as were too heavy for one man to carry were transported. The
framework of the house was first carried to the site, and four of the
negroes who were good carpenters at once began to put it together, so
that by the time the last of the goods were brought up the store was
ready to receive them. It was a building some sixty feet long by twenty
wide, and was divided into two by a partition: the one end, twenty feet
in length, was the saleroom; in the other, forty feet long, the bulk of
the heavy goods, flour, rice, bacon, hogsheads of sugar, and chests of
tea, were stored. There was, in addition, a lean-to, nine feet square,
at one end, which was to serve as the habitation of the storekeeper. The
assortment of goods was very large. In addition to the stock of
provisions, which filled the storeroom nearly up to the roof, were a
great quantity of clothing fitted for the rough work of the plains, a
large assortment of rifles and pistols, kegs of ammunition, casks of
axle-grease, ironwork for waggons, and all the miscellaneous stores,
down to needles and thread, which would be likely to be required by the
emigrants. As soon as the stores were all safely on shore and housed,
the tug started down the river again with the flats; Hiram and six of
the negroes accompanied them, two of the latter being retained as
assistants to the storekeeper. Between Hiram and Frank there was a very
cordial adieu.

"I likes yer, young fellow," the boatman said; "you will make your way,
never fear, some day, if you get a chance. Send a line to me, to the
charge of the boss, and let me know how things go with you. I shall be
gladder than I can tell you to hear as you're making your