It irritated him a good deal.

He has been up there, and he says the bricks are all baked right enough, but he can't get them down.

At first, he thought maybe the government would get the bricks down for him, because since government bought the island, it ought to protect the property where a man has invested in good faith; but all he wants is quiet, and so he is not going to apply for the subsidy he was thinking about.
He went back there last week in a couple of ships of war, to prospect around the coast for a safe place for a farm where he could be quiet; but a great "tidal wave" came, and hoisted both of the ships out into one of the interior counties, and he came near losing his life.

So he has given up prospecting in a ship, and is discouraged.
Well, now he don't know what to do.

He has tried Alaska; but the bears kept after him so much, and kept him so much on the jump, as it were, that he had to leave the country.