Selections from Eliza Leslie

The Travelling Tin-Man

3 “And, indeed sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it behoves men to be wary.” shakspeare, The Winter’s Tale, act 4, scene 4, lines 2140–41 Micajah Warner was owner and cultivator of a small farm in one of the oldest, most fertile, and most beautiful counties of the State of Pennsylvania, not far from the Maryland line. Micajah was a plain Quaker,1 and a man of quiet and primitive habits. He was totally devoid of all ambitious cravings after tracts of ten thousand acres, and he aspired not to the honour and glory of having his name given to a town in the western wilderness, (though Warnerville would not have sounded badly,) neither was he possessed of an unconquerable desire of becoming a judge, or of going to Congress. Therefore, he had always been able to resist the persuasions and example of those of his neighbours, who left the home of their fathers, and the comforts of an old settlement, to seek a less tedious road to wealth and consequence, on the other side of the Alleghany. He was satisfied with the possession of two hundred acres, one half of which he had lent (not given) to his son Israel, who expected shortly to be married to a very pretty and very notable young woman in the neighbourhood, who was, however, no heiress. Upon this event, Israel was to be established in an old frame house that had long since been abandoned by his father in favour of the substantial stone dwelling which the family ocThe Travelling Tin-Man 4 The Travelling Tin-Man cupied at the period of our story. The house had been taken up and transplanted to that part of the farm now allotted to Israel, and he very prudently deferred repairing it till he saw whether it survived its progress across the domain. But as it did not fall asunder during the journey, it was judged worthy of a new front door, new windowpanes, and new shingles to cover the vast chasms of the roof; all which improvements were made by Israel’s own hands.This house was deposited in the vicinity of the upper branch of the creek, and conveniently near to a saw-mill which had been built by Israel in person. Like most of her sect, whether in town or country, Bulah, the wife of Micajah Warner, was a woman of even temper, untiring industry, and great skill in housewifery. Her daughters, commonly called Amy and Orphy, were neat pretty little quaker girls, extremely alert, and accustomed from their earliest childhood , to assist in the work of the house. As her daughters were so handy and industrious, and only went half the year to school, Mrs. Warner did not think it necessary to keep any other help than an indentured Negro girl, named Cloe. Except the marriage of Israel, which was now in prospect; a flood in the neighbouring creek, which had raised the water so high as to wash away the brick oven from the side of the house; a tornado that carried off the roof of the old stable, and landed it whole in an adjoining clover field; and a visit from a family of beggars, (an extraordinary phenomenon in the country,) nothing occurred among the Warners for a long succession of years that had occasioned more than a month’s talk of the mother, and a month’s listening of the children. “They kept the even tenor of their way.”The occupations of Israel and his father (assisted occasionally by a few hired men) were, of course, those of the farm, except when Israel took a day, now and then, to attend his saw-mill. With regard to domestic arrangements, everything con- 5 The Travelling Tin-Man nected with household affairs went on in the same course year after year, except that, as the daughters of the family improved in capability of work, Cloe, the black girl, retrograded. They washed on Monday, (with the assistance of a woman, hired for the day,) ironed on Tuesday, performed what they called “the little baking,” on Wednesday, and “the big baking,” on Friday; cleaned the house on Saturday, and clear-starched their book-muslin collars; rode on horseback to Friends’ meeting on Sunday morning, and visited their neighbours on Sunday afternoon. It was the day after the one on which Israel and his brideelect had passed Meeting,2...