go out into the open country and sleep in
fields and under trees and have the sun and wind upon their faces, has a
more intense loathing of the dull, artificial routine of town life than
he. His escape is easily managed, and his transition to the cheerful
freedom of a widely different career is so speedy and so satisfying that
he is in no mood to dwell upon the monotonous past. We get an estimate
of the bondage from which he has fled by the tone of pleasant surprise
and buoyant gratitude with which he welcomes the commonest gifts of
mother nature. He is as impressible as a schoolboy let loose for the
long vacation.

There is a vein of loving trustfulness pervading his narrative that is
really touching. Our young, vigorous, and hearty settler, glorying in
his privilege to struggle, achieve, and conquer difficulties, is too
proud to be ashamed of his dependence on Him who appointed the planets
to their courses, and is not unmindful of a sparrow's fall. How fine and
delicately tender is this retrospective glance at the close of his
monthly record for April!

'Four months have fled away like a busy though pleasant dream since
I laid myself down to my first night's repose in my homestead. The
Giver of all good gifts has crowned my poor efforts with his tender
mercies, and as I look up from these pages through the arcade of
fruit-bearing trees and onward to the gentle hill-slope now green
with springing corn, and beautiful in the promise of future
abundance, I feel a perfect and grateful trust--far, far too deep
for my weak powers of utterance--that He will never forsake the
humble laborer in this fair field of His creation.'

And he is instructive withal. His book is a perfect _vade mecum_ for
beginners in tropical farming. To such it is literally 'guide,
counsellor, and friend.' Colonists going out to Santo Domingo will do
well to include a copy in their outfit, and, as far as practicable,
follow in the footsteps of their sturdy and genial predecessor.

The reader need not expect to find in this work a sensation story. It is
anything but that. Neither, being exclusively descriptive of the
beneficent arts of peace, can it in any sense come under the head of
what is termed war literature. Yet it is safe to affirm that without the
great rebellion this book had never been written. It is full of novel,
picturesque, and widely suggestive ideas. Some of its statements tear
away old