Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/86

 60 on their way up the river: they promised to call again, but, returning, shouted out they had not time:—those whom we are most anxious to see are generally the most expeditious in their movements. This evening I took tea, sitting on my canteen opposite a blazing fire placed on a brick hearth a little above the level of the floor: no invidious fender to keep my feet from receiving the benefit of the fire: neither sashes nor windows, thanks to the erratic disposition of my carpenter.

10th.—Delightful day! I have been amusing myself in the garden, making a new bed for pumpkin, water melon, orange, lemon, and cucumber seeds; and these I mean to cover during the winter, from the heavy rain and frost (if there be any). John busy to-night mending his shoes; I rummaged out bristles, awls, thread, a ladle to make wax, and cut the legs off a pair of boots for leather, which cracks so rapidly with the heat, that we wear out a pair of shoes in two or three weeks. Captain Mangles told us yesterday that a ship had come in; it was not known with certainty, when he came off, what ship it was.

11th.—Sat up last night sketching a plan for