M—–­ remonstrated with his friend for deserting the country for such minor evils as these, which, after all, he said, could easily be borne.

“Easily borne!” exclaimed the indignant Wilson.  “Go and try them; and then tell me that.  I did try to bear them with a good grace, but it would not do.  I offended everybody with my grumbling.  I was constantly reminded by the ladies of the house that gentlemen should not come to this country without they were able to put up with a little inconvenience; that I should make as good a settler as a butterfly in a beehive; that it was impossible to be nice about food and dress in the bush; that people must learn to eat what they could get, and be content to be shabby and dirty, like their neighbours in the bush,—­until that horrid word bush became synonymous with all that was hateful and revolting in my mind.

“It was impossible to keep anything to myself.  The children pulled my books to pieces to look at the pictures; and an impudent, bare-legged Irish servant-girl took my towels to wipe the dishes with, and my clothes-brush to black the shoes—­an operation which she performed with a mixture of soot and grease.  I thought I should be better off in a place of my own, so I bought a wild farm that was recommended to me, and paid for it double what it was worth.  When I came to examine my estate, I found there was no house upon it, and I should have to wait until the fall to get one put up, and a few acres cleared for cultivation.  I was glad to return to my old quarters.

“Finding nothing to shoot in the woods, I determined to amuse myself with fishing; but Mr. —–­ could not always lend his canoe, and there was no other to be had.  To pass away the time, I set about making one.  I bought an axe, and went to the forest to select a tree.  About a mile from the lake, I found the largest pine I ever saw.  I did not much like to try my maiden hand upon it, for it was the first and the last tree I ever cut down.  But to it I went; and I blessed God that it reached the ground without killing me in its way thither.  When I was about it, I thought I might as well make the canoe big enough; but the bulk of the tree deceived me in the length of my vessel, and I forgot to measure the one that belonged to Mr. —–.  It took me six weeks hollowing it out, and when it was finished, it was as long as a sloop-of-war, and too unwieldy for all the oxen in the township to draw it to the water.  After all my labour, my combats with those wood-demons the black-flies, sand-flies, and mosquitoes, my boat remains a useless monument of my industry.  And worse than this, the fatigue I had endured while working at it late and early, brought on the ague; which so disgusted me with the country that I sold my farm and all my traps for an old song; purchased Bruin to bear me company on my voyage home; and the moment I am able to get rid of this tormenting fever, I am off.”