great ban-dogs at his heels, as it would be for
a rich nobleman to live in his garret upon bread and water. Moreover,
in Canada, most sportsmen are mere idlers, and generally neglectful
either of their professions or of their farms. Many a fine young
fellow has been ruined in Canada, by fancying it very fine to copy the
officers of the army in their sportsmanship, forgetting that these
officers could afford both in time and money what they could not.

Keep your house, and your house will keep you. Almost all settlers too
have mothers, wives, sisters, brothers, cousins, to assist them, or to
provide for; and, if they are industrious, a few years make them happy
and independent.

Even L50 a year of clear income in the Bush is a very pretty sum, and
L100 per annum places you on the top of the tree--a magnate, a
magistrate, a major of militia.

I know many, many worthy families, who live well with their pensions
or their half-pay.

What a luxury to have your own land, two hundred acres!--to live
without the chandler, the butcher, the baker, the huxter, and the
grocer! Tea, a little sugar and coffee, these are your real luxuries.

Soap you make out of the ley of your own potash; fat you get from your
pigs or your sheep, which supply you with candles and food; and by and
by the good ox and the fatted calf, the turkey, the goose, and the
chicken, give your frugal board an air of gourmandism; whilst in this
climate all the English garden vegetables and common fruits require
only a little care to bring them to perfection. Indian corn and
buckwheat make excellent cakes and hominy; and you take your own wheat
to be ground at the nearest mill, where the miller requires no money,
but only grist. In like manner, the boards for your house are to be
had at the sawmill for logs, for potash, for wheat, for oats.

Keep a few choice books for an evening, and provide yourself with
stout boots and shoes, a good coat, and etceteras, besides your
smock-frock and shooting-jacket of fustian, and its continuations, and
let the rest follow; for you will at last take to wear country
homespun, when occasions of state do not require it otherwise, such as
church and tea-parties of more than ordinary interest.

People talk about life in the Bush as they do about life in London,
without knowing very much about either. Backwoods and backwoodsmen are
novelties which amuse for the moment. A backwoodsman, who never worked
at a farm, although he may