Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/61

DELAWARE COUNTY. 37 tliat one small loaf was the last morsel the house contained, and for this even the children were crying, but she dared not give it to them, hardly knowing what they would do when that was consumed. The father now resolved, as a last resort, to repair to the Schoharie settlement on the morrow, which he doubted not he could do, travelling by the aid of snow shoes; and taking the dainty morsel from the shelf and breaking it, distributed it among the members of the family, giving a portion to his wife and each of his children, but touching it not himself. John Harper was a consistent Christian and a good man, and the trust he reposed in his Grod sustained him in this trying- hour. He consoled his wife, by exhorting her to fear not. Providence would provide. We will now turn to the Schoharie settlements ; the inha- bitants, aware ' of the scanty supply of provisions of their neighbors at the '^ Bush, as Harpersfield was usually termed, and conscious that unless they could afford them succor, they must perish with hunger, had fortunately, the same day that the provisions of the family became exhausted, and the affect- ing scene narrated above had transpired, determined to go to their assistance. Accordingly, early on the day in , question, a company set out from Schoharie, travelling by the aid of snow shoes toward Harpersfield, at which place they arrived at midnight, to the joyful surprise of the starving inhabit- ants. The little settlement at Harpersfield continued gradually but slowly to increase, during the subsequent years that inter- vened up to the period of the Revolution. Each year added some new comers to the list of their neighbors, and each was hailed with unaffected joy by the inhabitants. A correspond- ent, whose grey hairs entitle him to a respectful hearing, and whose memory serves him of by-gone times, says : " It was an invariable custom among the early settlers, that when a new 4