“He’s a shrewd man who wants two things: to keep peace in the colony and to enrich himself and his crowd. There are a lot of wealthy and influential people on the coast with close ties to London. Tryon is more careful there, and things are better even for average citizens. The big up-country population is demanding more influence in the colony’s affairs, which is a threat to Tryon’s control. From this region he wants money, total government control, and land.

“The original charter of the colony spells out how frontier land is distributed, and it’s done fairly well when new settlers like you first arrive, but what happens after that is where the problem lies.”

He was convinced that Ethan would find his warning to be justified when he applied for a grant, and urged him to learn all about the process before making an official application. He provided more and more detailed answers, filling in personal descriptions of community leaders, his own experiences, concerns about the government, and some guarded comments about the Sandy Creek Association. After a few weeks his conversation became quite lively and not so uniformly cynical, and he even laughed a few times. His old customers began to assemble as before, to debate current issues and to keep alive the streams of community gossip.

Ethan rarely took part in these sessions, but listened to Henry with close attention. He and Epsey visited some of the nearby families in the rural areas and learned everything they could about procedures for obtaining land grants, the sources and price of farm equipment and supplies, and agricultural practices. The obvious hardships of frontier life only strengthened their determination to begin work on their own place.

On most Sundays, Epsey stayed at the shop while Henry and Ethan rode out a dozen miles or so, mostly westward from the town. They visited the most remote areas of the county, where land grants were still available, and became acquainted with some of the farmers who had recently settled there. They learned that many of their potential neighbors would be Quakers, or Friends, who had been moving down into the region from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Most of these men were experienced farmers and seemed delighted to offer advice to Ethan. They even described the few remaining farm sites that were set aside by law for new settlers, and the brothers examined them closely.