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Mr. Patch was in active business, for his own packet plied back and forth between Campobello, St. John and Halifax. Then in his store, close to the shore and just below his house, were sold dry goods, groceries and spices, carpets from St. John, molasses from the West Indies. Men's tailor-made suits and women's garments also found ready sale, but not always for cash payments, and thus the store in time lost much of its ability to do business, though Mr. and Mrs. Patch had moved down into it from their house on the hill. Finally, about eleven years ago, there came a fearful, blinding storm of rain and lightning which entirely destroyed the store, both husband and wife dying within a few hours of each other from injuries caused by their attempts to escape from the burning building. Not long after the upper house was pulled down.

Thus there is not now a vestige left of that sociability which once made the Mulholland home, still more the Patch dwelling, as famous in its own honorable way as the more costly festivities of the Owen mansion.