ng with this homestead in view for the last year and a half.
The prudent Scotsman would portion off his other sons in similar
respectability as they came of age.

'And yer mither and I cam' here wi' an axe and a cradle,' he was wont to
say, 'eh, Jeanie Davidson?'

He had good cause for gratulation at the wedding that day. His own
indomitable industry and energy had raised him from being a struggling
weaver in Lanarkshire to be a prosperous landowner in Canada West. He
looked upon a flourishing family of sons and daughters round the festive
board in Benson's barn, every one of them a help to wealth instead of a
diminution to it; strong, intelligent lads, healthy and handy lasses.
With scarce a care or a doubt, he could calculate on their comfortable
future.

'I tell you what, neighbour,' cried stout John Benson, from the head of
the table, 'throw by cold water for once, and pledge me in good whisky
to the lucky day that brought us both to Canada.'

'Na, na,' quoth Davidson, shaking his grizzled head, 'I'll drink the
toast wi' all my heart, but it must be in gude water. These twenty year
back I hae been a temperance man, and hae brought up thae lads to the
same fashion; for, coming to Canada, I kenned what ruined mony a puir
fallow might weel be the ruin o' me, an' I took a solemn vow that a drap
o' drink suld never moisten my lips mair. Sandy Davidson wouldna be
gettin' John Benson's daughter in marriage the day, if it werena for the
cauld water.'

Captain Armytage, who never missed a merrymaking of any description
within a circle of miles, took on himself to reply to this teetotal
oration.

It was all very well for Mr. Davidson to talk thus, but few constitutions
could bear up against the excessive labour of bush life without
proportionate stimulants. For his own part, he would sink under it,
but for judicious reinforcement of cordials, ordered him by the first
medical man in Europe.

'I daur say,' replied Davidson, whose keen hard eye had been fixed on
the speaker; 'I daur say. Ye mak' nae faces at yer medicine, anyhow.
It's weel that Zack's store is so handy to Daisy Burn, only I'm thinkin'
the last will go to the first, in the long run.'

'What do you mean, sir?' demanded the captain fierily.

'Naething,' responded Davidson coolly,--'naething save what e'er the
words mean.'

'But we were a-goin' to drink to Canada, our adopted country,' put in
Benson, willing to stifle the incipient quarrel--'the finest