Instead of going twice a week for this
purpose, we determined to give one whole week to getting wood, and
then we should have enough to last us half through the summer.
Accordingly, we started off every morning, after an early breakfast,
with our hatchets in hand, and cut wood until the sun was over the
point,- which was our only mark of time, as there was not a watch on
the beach- and then came back to dinner, and after dinner, started
off again with our hand-cart and ropes, and carted and "backed" it
down, until sunset. This, we kept up for a week, until we had
collected several cords,-enough to last us for six or eight weeks-
when we "knocked off" altogether, much to my joy; for, though I liked
straying in the woods, and cutting, very well, yet the backing the
wood for so great a distance, over an uneven country, was, without
exception, the hardest work I had ever done. I usually had to kneel
down and contrive to heave the load, which was well strapped together,
upon my back, and then rise up and start off with it up the hills
and down the vales, sometimes through thickets,- the rough points
sticking into the skin, and tearing the clothes, so that, at the end
of the week, I had hardly a whole shirt to my back.
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