One time no pork is to be procured; another time there is a scarcity of flour, owing to some accident that has happened to the mill, or for the want of proper supplies of wheat for grinding; or perhaps the weather and bad roads at the same time prevent a team coming up, or people from going down.  Then you must have recourse to a neighbour, if you have the good fortune to be near one, or fare the best you can on potatoes.  The potatoe is indeed a great blessing here; new settlers would otherwise be often greatly distressed, and the poor man and his family who are without resources, without the potatoe must starve.

Once our stock of tea was exhausted, and we were unable to procure more.  In this dilemma milk would have been an excellent substitute, or coffee, if we had possessed it; but we had neither the one nor the other, so we agreed to try the Yankee tea—­hemlock sprigs boiled.  This proved, to my taste, a vile decoction; though I recognized some herb in the tea that was sold in London at five shillings a pound, which I am certain was nothing better than dried hemlock leaves reduced to a coarse powder.

S------ laughed at our wry faces, declaring the potation was excellent;
and he set us all an example by drinking six cups of this truly sylvan
beverage.  His eloquence failed in gaining a single convert; we could not
believe it was only second to young hyson.  To his assurance that to its
other good qualities it united medicinal virtues, we replied that, like
all other physic, it was very unpalatable.

“After all,” said S------, with a thoughtful air, “the blessings and the
evils of this life owe their chief effect to the force of contrast, and
are to be estimated by that principally.  We should not appreciate the
comforts we enjoy half so much did we not occasionally feel the want of
them.  How we shall value the conveniences of a cleared farm after a few
years, when we can realize all the necessaries and many of the luxuries
of life.”

“And how we shall enjoy green tea after this odious decoction of hemlock,” said I.

“Very true; and a comfortable frame-house, and nice garden, and pleasant pastures, after these dark forests, log-houses, and no garden at all.”

“And the absence of horrid black stumps,” rejoined I.  “Yes, and the absence of horrid stumps.  Depend upon it, my dear, your Canadian farm will seem to you a perfect paradise by the time it is all under cultivation; and you will look upon it with the more pleasure and pride from the consciousness that it was once a forest wild, which, by the effects of industry and well applied means, has changed to fruitful fields.  Every fresh comfort you realize around you will add to your happiness; every improvement within-doors or without will raise a sensation of gratitude and delight in your mind, to which those that revel in the habitual enjoyment of luxury, and even of the commonest advantages of civilization, must in a great degree be strangers.  My pass-words are, ‘Hope!  Resolution! and Perseverance!’”