Strange names are to be found in this free country.  What think you, gentle reader, of Solomon Sly, Reynard Fox, and Hiram Dolittle and Prudence Fidget; all veritable names, and belonging to substantial yeomen?  After Ammon and Ichabod, I should not be at all surprised to meet with Judas Iscariot, Pilate, and Herod.  And then the female appellations!  But the subject is a delicate one and I will forbear to touch upon it.  I have enjoyed many a hearty laugh over the strange affectations which people designate here very handsome names.  I prefer the old homely Jewish names, such as that which it pleased my godfather and godmothers to bestow upon me, to one of those high-sounding christianities, the Minervas, Cinderellas, and Almerias of Canada.  The love of singular names is here carried to a marvellous extent.  It is only yesterday that, in passing through one busy village, I stopped in astonishment before a tombstone headed thus:  “Sacred to the memory of Silence Sharman, the beloved wife of Asa Sharman.”  Was the woman deaf and dumb, or did her friends hope by bestowing upon her such an impossible name to still the voice of Nature, and check, by an admonitory appellative, the active spirit that lives in the tongue of woman?  Truly, Asa Sharman, if thy wife was silent by name as well as by nature, thou wert a fortunate man!

But to return to Uncle Joe.  He made many fair promises of leaving the residence we had bought, the moment he had sold his crops and could remove his family.  We could see no interest which could be served by his deceiving us, and therefore we believed him, striving to make ourselves as comfortable as we could in the meantime in our present wretched abode.  But matters are never so bad but that they may be worse.  One day when we were at dinner, a waggon drove up to the door, and Mr. —–­ alighted, accompanied by a fine-looking, middle-aged man, who proved to be Captain S—–­, who had just arrived from Demarara with his wife and family.  Mr. —–­, who had purchased the farm of Old Satan, had brought Captain S—–­ over to inspect the land, as he wished to buy a farm, and settle in that neighbourhood.  With some difficulty I contrived to accommodate the visitors with seats, and provide them with a tolerable dinner.  Fortunately, Moodie had brought in a brace of fine fat partridges that morning; these the servant transferred to a pot of boiling water, in which she immersed them for the space of a minute—­a novel but very expeditious way of removing the feathers, which then come off at the least touch.  In less than ten minutes they were stuffed, trussed, and in the bake-kettle; and before the gentlemen returned from walking over the farm, the dinner was on the table.

To our utter consternation, Captain S—–­ agreed to purchase, and asked if we could give him possession in a week!

“Good heavens!” cried I, glancing reproachfully at Mr. —–­, who was discussing his partridge with stoical indifference.  “What will become of us?  Where are we to go?”