ng, however, I want to
do first, that is to see you and mother in a well-plastered house," he
said, after he had got Michael's consent to his marriage. "We'll get
that put up during the summer, and this old log-house will do for Fanny
and me for another year or two. There's only one thing I ask. Don't
tell mother what we are about. It will be a pleasant surprise to her.
She was saying, only the other day, that she wished that she had a house
with another floor."

When Mr Landon heard that Rob was going to marry Fanny Kemp, he called
him aside one day, and said, "If your father will give you twenty acres
of his land, I will give you another twenty acres alongside it, and
will, besides, stand the expense of a bee, and have a house put up for
you in no time. Your father was kind to me when I was burnt out of my
house, and has given me much good advice, by which I have profited. His
example made me work in a way I do not think I should have otherwise
done."

Rob thanked Mr Landon very much, but told him of his wish first to help
his father build and settle in a comfortable plastered house.

"You set a good example, Rob; and I hope other young men will follow it.
A dutiful son will make a good husband, and little Fanny deserves one."

The new house was to be in a very different style from the old one. The
first thing was to burn the lime. It was found on the top of the hill,
and brought down in carts to a piece of ground, the trees on which had
just been cut down. These were now piled up in a large heap, and the
limestone placed above. By the time the log heap was burned, the lime
was made, but it took some time to clear it from the ashes. A wood of
fine elm-trees grew near. A number of them were felled to form the
walls. In many respects, a well-built log-house, when well-plastered,
is better than one of brick or stone in that climate. At the end of the
lake a saw-mill had lately been established. Rob, David, and Tommy set
out in the canoe to bring home a supply of planks from the mill. Rob
took his gun, in the hopes of getting a shot at wild-fowl. On their
way, when passing an island, a deer, which seemed to have taken refuge
there, started out, and plunging into the water, swam rapidly across the
lake.

Bob fired, and hit the deer, which made directly for the shore. Just as
it neared it, some Indians who had been fishing in a canoe overtook it;
and weak from loss of blood, it was killed by a few blo