I thought of tilling it in America, in which it was said there was plenty of wild, unclaimed land, of which any one, who chose to clear it of its trees, might take possession.

I figured myself in America, in an immense forest, clearing the land destined, by my exertions, to become a fruitful and smiling plain.

Methought I heard the crash of the huge trees as they fell beneath my axe; and then I bethought me that a man was intended to marry--I ought to marry; and if I married, where was I likely to be more happy as a husband and a father than in America, engaged in tilling the ground?
I fancied myself in America, engaged in tilling the ground, assisted by an enormous progeny.

Well, why not marry, and go and till the ground in America?
I was young, and youth was the time to marry in, and to labour in.

I had the use of all my faculties; my eyes, it is true, were rather dull from early study, and from writing the Life of Joseph Sell; but I could see tolerably well with them, and they were not bleared.