His employer proving false to his contract in the matter of the land, and there being no law in the country to force him to fulfil it, Israel—­who, however brave-hearted, and even much of a dare-devil upon a pinch, seems nevertheless to have evinced, throughout many parts of his career, a singular patience and mildness—­was obliged to look round for other means of livelihood than clearing out a farm for himself in the wilderness.  A party of royal surveyors were at this period surveying the unsettled regions bordering the Connecticut river to its source.  At fifteen shillings per month, he engaged himself to this party as assistant chain-bearer, little thinking that the day was to come when he should clank the king’s chains in a dungeon, even as now he trailed them a free ranger of the woods.  It was midwinter; the land was surveyed upon snow-shoes.  At the close of the day, fires were kindled with dry hemlock, a hut thrown up, and the party ate and slept.

Paid off at last, Israel bought a gun and ammunition, and turned hunter.  Deer, beaver, etc., were plenty.  In two or three months he had many skins to show.  I suppose it never entered his mind that he was thus qualifying himself for a marksman of men.  But thus were tutored those wonderful shots who did such execution at Bunker’s Hill; these, the hunter-soldiers, whom Putnam bade wait till the white of the enemy’s eye was seen.

With the result of his hunting he purchased a hundred acres of land, further down the river, toward the more settled parts; built himself a log hut, and in two summers, with his own hands, cleared thirty acres for sowing.  In the winter seasons he hunted and trapped.  At the end of the two years, he sold back his land—­now much improved—­to the original owner, at an advance of fifty pounds.  He conveyed his cash and furs to Charlestown, on the Connecticut (sometimes called No. 4), where he trafficked them away for Indian blankets, pigments, and other showy articles adapted to the business of a trader among savages.  It was now winter again.  Putting his goods on a hand-sled, he started towards Canada, a peddler in the wilderness, stopping at wigwams instead of cottages.  One fancies that, had it been summer, Israel would have travelled with a wheelbarrow, and so trundled his wares through the primeval forests, with the same indifference as porters roll their barrows over the flagging of streets.  In this way was bred that fearless self-reliance and independence which conducted our forefathers to national freedom.

This Canadian trip proved highly successful.  Selling his glittering goods at a great advance, he received in exchange valuable peltries and furs at a corresponding reduction.  Returning to Charlestown, he disposed of his return cargo again at a very fine profit.  And now, with a light heart and a heavy purse, he resolved to visit his sweetheart and parents, of whom, for three years, he had had no tidings.