approvals of every thing to which she has been unaccustomed. Rose declares against the people, and their ways, which she pronounces the 'oncivilizedest' in the world; quite unaware, all the time, that she herself is utterly incapable of one sentence of pure English.

"I wish you could have seen her yesterday when a little boy came to me, without salutation of any sort, with

666

"I say! what do you guess about lending me your axe for a spell? Do you reckon you can spare it?'

"I think but little of these instances of rusticity, but I must say that the example of entire want of personal deference which is customary here has already had some influence upon the manners of my own people,

always excepting Rose, who is too devoted a creature to be spoiled by any example. I can perceive that John and Sophy, who are beginning, since their marriage, to feel something of a separate and selfish interest, are not quite so respectful in manner as before, although in their ser

vices I have nothing to complain of. This is to be expected, I know, but it is not pleasant in proof.

"Little Charlotte is the person most disturbed by the delay of our building operations. Children are always longing for something new, and can appreciate none of the obstacles which often thwart our bestlaid plans. She wonders why papa cannot build a pretty log house like John's, which she is never weary of extolling. In truth, I, who am obliged almost to rest on my oars, look at John's rapid progress with a feeling akin to envy. He has but borrowed a few days' work of his neighbours, which he is to repay in kind when called upon; and, with this slight aid to his own good arm, his neat little dwelling is almost finished; while mine, simple as it is to be, must wait the convenience of others, whom I am ready to pay well for their services.

"It is really surprising, the advantage which a capacity for manual labour bestows in a state of society like this. Money is comparatively ineffectual where there is no

competition: where your labourers are sure that if you discharge them you can get no others, and that the pay must therefore ultimately fall into their hands, any trifle is permitted to stand in the way of serving you. But it would not do thus to disappoint a neighbour, whose assistance you may require upon some occasion of great haste or importance so that here, as in other cases, the strong-handed have the best of it.

"It is often supremely vexatious to find that people will exercise their judgment as to whether your occasion for dispatch is as pressing as their own, or as that of some neighbour. Even after making a positive engagement to 'help' you (for pay), it is no uncommon thing to find your workman turning his back on you and his promise for awhile, having made up his mind that you can wait better than others. Thus one has

the double care of making a bargain, and inducing the other party to keep it when made. It is no uncommon thing to make an agreement, and then hire it to be kept.

"I must acknowledge there is, from some

cause, a laxity of morals on this same point of bargain-making. While more ready than the people of older countries to give gratuitous aid to each other in straits and difficulties more inclined to be generous our backwoods neighbours are less observant of their engagements, — justice being a far less attractive and popular quality. They like a little show about their virtues, like the world on a larger scale. You know I promised you the shades of the picture ; — but to return to the point what was it? Oh! John's house.

"Charlotte is especially charmed with John's chimney, it is so like baby-house building: slender sticks crossing each other at right angles in such a manner as to form a hollow square and this carried up entirely on the outside of the building, — it has quite a gimcrack air. What Charlotte's opinion will be when she sees the whole finished within and without by a thick plastering of mud, I cannot say. Even the house, whose neat rustic appearance so charms her, has to be chinked and mudded,'

i. e. have its interstices filled first with slender strips of wood, and then with wet clay, bountifully bestowed, to keep out the wintry blasts. The cottage, after all, will really be a pretty object in our prospect, for John, with an attempt at taste not very common except among the English settlers, has continued his roof down on each side so as to form a narrow veranda, which he intends to ornament with vines; and he has also a small enclosure in front of the house, where roses of all hues are to make it look as much like home as possible. By the way, what think you of intensifying the odour of the rose by planting onions (!) around its root? Who knows but this may be, after all, the true source of the power of the Persian ottar? If this were proved, what an elegant way of making one's fortune!

"I had intended that my garden should have been at least laid out and partly planted this summer, but I fear the lack of suitable labourers will be in the way. I have a strong desire to make an experiment in