o the rude shanty that I described to you as the only habitation
on our land. This test of our fortitude was kindly spared us by S------,
who insisted on our remaining beneath his hospitable roof till such time
as we should have put up a house on our own lot. Here then we are for
the present _fixed_, as the Canadians say; and if I miss many of the
little comforts and luxuries of life, I enjoy excellent health and
spirits, and am very happy in the society of those around me.

The children are already very fond of me. They have discovered my
passion for flowers, which they diligently search for among the stumps
and along the lake shore. I have begun collecting, and though the season
is far advanced, my hortus siccus boasts of several elegant specimens of
fern; the yellow Canadian violet, which blooms twice in the year, in the
spring and fall, as the autumnal season is expressively termed; two
sorts of Michaelmas daisies, as we call the shrubby asters, of which the
varieties here are truly elegant; and a wreath of the festoon pine, a
pretty evergreen with creeping stalks, that run along the ground three
or four yards in length, sending up, at the distance of five or six
inches, erect, stiff, green stems, resembling some of our heaths in the
dark, shining, green, chaffy leaves. The Americans ornament their
chimney-glasses with garlands of this plant, mixed with the dried
blossoms of the life-everlasting (the pretty white and yellow flowers we
call love-everlasting): this plant is also called festoon-pine. In my
rambles in the wood near the house I have discovered a trailing plant
bearing a near resemblance to the cedar, which I consider has, with
equal propriety, a claim to the name of ground or creeping cedar.

As much of the botany of these unsettled portions of the country are
unknown to the naturalist, and the plants are quite nameless, I take the
liberty of bestowing names upon them according to inclination or fancy.
But while I am writing about flowers I am forgetting that you will be
more interested in hearing what steps we are taking on our land.

My husband has hired people to log up (that is, to draw the chopped
timbers into heaps for burning) and clear a space for building our house
upon. He has also entered into an agreement with a young settler in our
vicinity to complete it for a certain sum within and without, according
to a given plan. We are, however, to call the "bee," and provide every
thing necessary fo