Yet those settlers were sensible, matter-of-fact men; and it was soon plain to them, that healthful as were the breezes that made so rosy the cheeks of their daughters, Fairport was not the very best site in the world for a settlement, at least if its people were to depend on the thin and rocky soil won from the forest, which scarcely produced the bare necessaries of life.
Was Fairport given up in despair?
No, no.

Her settlers were not the men to be so daunted and foiled.

If the land was unkindly, they could take to the water; and so they did, to a man.

Some were off to the Newfoundland Banks, tossing about the codfish, and piling them up into stacks that were more profitable than any hay of their own raising.

Some were on board swift vessels, doing a good share of the carrying trade between the West Indies and the New England cities.