sing ones would be found on the island,
towards which, supplied with a compass, he immediately set out,
accompanied by Peter, and carrying provisions, cordials, and blankets.
His satisfaction was considerable when laughing voices proceeded from
the direction of the island, and he found the young gentlemen amusing
themselves greatly by fishing for tommicods. Taking the best parts of
the bear, he hurried back with his rescued friends to prevent Philip,
should he arrive first, from setting off to meet them.

Philip's long delay had again caused his family great anxiety. A happy
party, with grateful hearts, assembled round Mr Ashton's supper-table
that evening--a table framed by his own hands, while most of the
luxuries were supplied by the industry of those sitting round it. In
another year there would not be an article of food on it which had not
been produced on the farm, or procured from the lake, or surrounding
woods. Not the least happy was Lawrence D'Arcy; and perhaps a glance at
Miss Ashton's countenance might have told the reason why.

"Well, Mr Norman, I am glad at length to see you here; and I can assure
you, that your prognostications as to my liking the country, have been
more than fulfilled," said Mr Ashton. "I have never for an instant
regretted coming out here; and I believe that I am happier, and that my
wife and children are so, than we should have been had we lived on the
life we had been proposing for ourselves in London, when I found myself
deprived of the property which I thought my own."

"God's merciful Providence overruled your plan for your own and your
children's good," said Mr Norman. "I know nothing practically of large
cities, and little enough of towns; but from what I have read, I suspect
that the temptations to evil in them are great, and the advantages
comparatively small, when the chief object of man's life is considered.
No life can more conduce to virtue and a healthful state of body and
mind than that which the industrious settler in the country leads out
here. He has hard work and rough living, may be; but what is that,
whether he be gentle or simple, compared to what he would have had to
endure, had he without fortune remained idle at home? That is the
question all settlers must ask themselves over and over again, whenever
they get out of sorts with the Province."

CHAPTER NINE.

"It is the fashion to say in England, so I hear, that Canada is not the
country in which