nd which caused the
travellers to doubt considerably whether they and their vehicles would
get across or sink beneath the treacherous surface. In such cases,
however, all hands uniting with ropes and poles, the waggons were
dragged across.

No one could complain that the road did not go direct for its object; on
it went, up and down hill, and across bog and stream, with the same
vanishing point between the dark tall thick growing trees ever a-head.
Most people would have become very weary of what they had gone through
and of the prospect before them, but the travellers now proceeding along
the road were the Ashton family; and Mr Norman had prepared them fully
for what they were to expect, besides which they were always inclined to
make light of difficulties of every sort and kind.

Their last day's journey was drawing to a close. As they mounted to the
top of a ridge of hills over which the road led, in the distance was
seen the blue surface of Lake Huron, while below them appeared,
surrounded by trees, a small piece of water, unnoted on most maps,
though covering an area as large as all the Cumberland Lakes put
together. In the smaller lake were several wooded islands, and there
were promontories, and bays, and inlets, with hills of some height near
it, adding to its picturesque beauty. A wood-crowned height separated
the smaller from the larger expanse of water, except in one place, where
a river, or an inlet it might be called, formed a junction, which
settlers on the shores of the former would not fail to prize.

"There is our future home," said Mr Ashton, pointing to the side of the
small lake nearest Lake Huron. "Philip and Peter, with the two men Mr
Norman sent up, will, I hope, have made some progress by this time, and
have got a roof ready under which you may creep. We shall soon be at
the village, and from thence we must cross the lake in a boat, as the
road round is impassable, or rather there is no road at all."

Harry, who had a small telescope slung at his back, said that he could
make out a wide clearing and a shanty in the middle of it. His parents
hoped that he was correct, though his younger sisters and brother
declared that they should be delighted to camp out in the bush for the
remainder of the summer. It was growing dusk as the travellers entered
the village, which consisted of a store, three or four log-huts, and
half a dozen shanties or sheds, some the abode of man, and some of
beast,