It is true that
most of the houses would be six miles off; but that is close, on
the pampas. There was a talk, too, of the native overseer of the
land between Canterbury and the Jamiesons selling his ground in
plots of a mile square. This would make the country comparatively
thickly populated. Indeed, with the exception of Mr. Mercer, who
had taken up a four-league plot, the other new settlers had in no
case purchased more than a square league. The settlements would
therefore be pretty thick together.
In a few days Mrs. Mercer arrived with her children. The boys gave
up their room to her--they themselves, with Mr. Fitzgerald and four
peons, accompanying Mr. Mercer and the party he had brought with
him, to assist in erecting his house, and in putting up a strong
wire fence, similar to their own, for defense. This operation was
finished in a week; and Mrs. Mercer, to the regret of Mrs. Hardy
and the girls, then joined her husband. The house had been built
near the northeast corner of the property. It was therefore little
more than six miles distant from Mount Pleasant, and a constant
interchange of visits was arranged to take place.
Shortly afterward Mr. Hardy suggested that the time had now come
for improving the house, and laid before his assembled family his
plans for so doing, which were received with great applause.
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