her, and for some moments they could only weep together.
When Mr. Miller was able to command his voice he said,
“God is good, my children, an’ overrules
a’ things for our good, let us bow before Him
in prayer;” and when they rose from their knees,
they felt calmed and comforted, by the soothing influence
of prayer. With the two boys, Geordie and Willie,
fatigue soon got the better of their joy at meeting
with their friends, and they were soon enjoying the
sound sleep of healthful childhood; but with the elder
members of the family, so much was there to hear and
to tell that the hour was very late when they separated
to seek repose. Mr. Ainslie decided upon purchasing
a lot of land, lying some two miles north of the farm
occupied by Mr. Miller. Although it was covered
with a dense forest, its location pleased him, and
the soil was excellent, and he looked forward to the
time when he might there provide a pleasant home.
They arrived at R. on the first of July. There
were beside Mr. Miller but three other families in
the settlement; but they were all very kind to the
newly arrived strangers, and they assisted Mr. Ainslie
in various ways while he effected a small clearing
upon his newly purchased farm. They also lent
him a willing hand in the erection of a small log house,
to which he removed his family in the fall, Mrs. Ainslie
and the children having remained with her parents
during the summer; and kind as their friends had been,
they were truly glad when they found themselves again
settled in a home of their own, however humble.
They were people of devoted piety, and they did not
neglect to erect the family altar the first night
they rested beneath the lowly roof of their forest
home. I could not, were I desirous of so doing,
give a detailed account of the trials and hardships
they endured during the first few years of their residence
in the bush; but they doubtless experienced their share
of the privations and discouragements which fell to
the lot of the first settlers of a new section of
country. The first winter they passed in their
new home was one of unusual severity for even the rigorous
climate of Eastern Canada, and poor Mrs. Ainslie often
during that winter regretted the willingness with
which she bade adieu to her early home, to take up
her abode in the dreary wilderness. They found
the winter season very trying indeed, living as they
did two miles from any neighbour; and the only road
to the dwelling of a neighbour was a foot-track through
the blazed trees, and the road, such as it was, was
too seldom trodden during the deep snows of winter,
to render the foot-marks discernible for any length
of time. Their stores had all to be purchased
at the nearest village, which was distant some seven
miles, and Mr. Ainslie often found it very difficult
to make his way through the deep snows which blocked
up the roads, and to endure the biting frost and piercing
winds on his journeys to and from the village.
In after years when they had learned to feel a deep