covered with forest. Hiring himself to a farmer at some distance, he was enabled to purchase a stock of provisions and an axe; and thus provided, he resolutely faced the wilderness, and there erected a shanty for himself and his little family. Like others similarly circumstanced, he then commenced to hew down the trees that overshadowed his primitive dwelling. Having effected a certain amount of clearing, he would again seek for such employment as enabled him to renew his stock of provisions; and thus alternately working abroad for others and at home for himself, this sturdy settler gradually succeeded in making a home for his now increasing family. His first crop of wheat, raised from the small patch which he had then cleared, he was compelled to carry on his back to the nearest mill, to be ground into flour. The distance was thirty miles not of road or river, but through the dense forest, at that time but rarely intersected by open paths. Returning on one occasion with the customary bag of flour on his back, the night overtook him while he was still far away from home. Blindly stumbling about in every direction, he fell, and, perhaps owing as much to the burden he carried as to the manner in which he came to the ground, broke his leg. Here was indeed a sad position!—in the midst of a lonely forest infested with wolves, away from all human assistance, and writhing in exquisite pain. There he lay for the whole night, moaning helplessly in agony of mind and body, as he thought of his young wife and his little children, far away from friendly assistance, and of the wild terror which his unaccountable absence would be sure to occasion. He was fortunately discovered next morning by a settler, who was attracted by his cries of distress, and who assisted in conveying him to his almost distracted family. For some months he lay helpless in his cabin, full of anxiety as well as pain; but no sooner was he once more able to be on his legs than he was again at work. That man never ceased his hard toil till he had cleared
