ty to extirpate everything
that grows higher than a pumpkin; one would imagine it ought to be easy
enough to leave clumps of trees in picturesque spots, so as to produce
the effect of the ornamental plantations at home. Now I do not mean
exclusively the lowest grade of settlers, for of course from them so
much taste was not to be expected; but gentlemen farmers and such like.'

'I dare say they contract such an antipathy to wood of every species
during their years of clearing, that it is thenceforth regarded as a
natural enemy, to be cut down wherever met with. And when you have seen
one of our Canadian hurricanes, you will understand why an umbrageous
elm or a majestic oak near one's dwellings may not always be a source of
pleasurable sensations.'

'Still, I mean to spare that beautiful butternut yonder,' said Robert;
'of all trees in the forest it is prettiest. And I shall try to clear
altogether in an artistic manner, with an eye to the principles of
landscape gardening. Why, Holt! many an English _parvenu_ planning the
grounds of his country seat, and contemplating the dwarf larches and
infantine beeches struggling for thirty years to maturity, would give a
thousand guineas for some of these lordly oaks and walnuts, just as they
stand.'

Sam Holt refrained from expressing his conviction that, after a winter's
chopping, Robert would retract his admiration for timber in any shape,
and would value more highly a bald-looking stumpy acre prepared for fall
wheat, than the most picturesque maple-clump, except so far as the
latter boded sugar.

'To leave landscape gardening for after consideration,' said he, with
some slight irony, 'let us apply ourselves at present to the shanty. I
think, by working hard, we might have walls and roof up before dark.
Twenty by twelve will probably be large enough for the present--eh,
Robert?'

Oh yes, certainly; for the house was to be commenced so soon, that
the shanty could be regarded only as a temporary shelter. Blessed,
labour-lightening sanguineness of youth! that can bound over intermediate
steps of toil, and accomplish in a few thoughts the work of months or
years.

So Mr. Holt measured the above dimensions on the ground, choosing a spot
where the trunks appeared something less massive, than elsewhere, and
set his auxiliaries to cut down all the trees within the oblong, and for
a certain distance round; arranging also that the logs should fall as
near as might be to where th