he
constant friction of the sleigh-runner. The horses are each provided
with a ring of bells, the sound of which is not unmusical; and I am
assured is delightful indeed to the ears of the anxious wife, watching
for the return of her husband from a winter journey. Some years ago,
when the country was unsettled, the females of the family had some
cause for fear, since the absence of the father, son, or husband, was
not always followed by his safe return; and the snow-storm, or the
wolves, were thought of with alarm, till the music of the sleigh-bells
announced the safety of the beloved absentee.

In no country on the face of the earth does the torch of wedded love
beam brighter than in Canada, where the husband always finds "the wife
dearer than the bride." I have seen many an accomplished and beautiful
English girl, "forgetting with her father's house," the amusements of a
fashionable life, to realize with a half-pay officer or "younger
brother," the purer, holier pleasures of domestic love in this country,
where a numerous issue, the fruits of their union, are considered a
blessing and a source of wealth, instead of bringing with them, as in
the old country, an increase of care.

CHAPTER VII.

EMPLOYMENTS OF A MAN OF EDUCATION IN THE COLONY. -- YANKEE WEDDING. --
MY COMMISSION. -- WINTER IN CANADA. -- HEALTHINESS OF THE CANADIAN
CLIMATE. -- SERACH FOR LAND. -- PURCHASE WILD LAND AT DOURO. -- MY
FLITTING. -- PUT UP A SHANTY. -- INEXPERIENCE IN CLEARING. -- PLAN-
HEAPS.

THE employments of a respectable Canadian settler are certainly of a
very multifarious character, and he may be said to combine, in his own
person, several professions, if not trades. A man of education will
always possess an influence, even in bush society: he may be poor, but
his value will not be tested by the low standard of money, and
notwithstanding his want of the current coin of the realm, he will be
appealed to for his judgment in many matters, and will be inducted into
several offices, infinitely more honourable than lucrative. My friend
and father-in-law, being mild in manners, good-natured, and very
sensible, was speedily promoted to the bench, and was given the
colonelcy of the second battalion of the Durham Militia.

At this time there was no place of worship nearer than Port Hope, where
the marriage ceremony could be legally performed. According to the
Colonial law, if a magistrate resides more than eighteen miles from a
church,