THE HACK-WOODS OF CANADA.

THIS work appears with great propriety as a volume of the " Li- brary of Entertaining Knowledge," and might equally well have made a part of the kindred publication, the " Library of Useful Knowledge ;" for it would be difficult to decide whether it is more , entertaining or useful. It is written by a ladt—the wife of a .s3ritish officer, one of that numerous body of military men, who, availing themselves of the provision made them by Government, have accepted grants of land in Canada. It is a picture equally delightful and instructive; placing before us a delicate, refined, and accomplished female, who has cheerfully sacrificed the com- forts and pleasures of her native country, and the ties of kindred and friendship, to share with her husband the hardships and priva- tions of a settler's life in the regions of the " far West." This picture of herself is drawn by the fair authoress with as much modesty as truth ; for nothing can be more simple and unpre- tending than the style of her letters; They are, meraever, very gracefully written, and give evidence, in every page, of an ele- gant and cultivated mind, in which sensibility, and a love of the beautiful approaching to enthusiasm, are admirably blended with good sense and sound practical views. Though there has been much written upon the subject of emi- gration, yet this little book, at the present time, is calculated to prove eminently useful. The tide of emigration from great Bri- tain to the back settlements of America is every day flowing more and more strongly ; and the vast solitudes of the Western Conti- nent are rapidly filling with the redundant population of England. A large portion of the emigrants are of a different class from those who formerly left our shores. " It is not only," says our author, " the poor husbandmen and artisans that move in vast bodies to the West, but it is the enterprising English capitalist and the once affluent landholder, alarmed at the difficulties of establishing numerous families in independence in a country where every profession is overstocked, that join the bands that Great Britain is pouring forth into .these colonies. Of what vital importance is it that the female members of the families of these most valuable colonists should obtain proper information regard- ing the important duties they are undertaking ; that they should learn beforehand to brace their minds to the task, and thus avoid the repinings and discontent that are apt to follow unfounded expectations and fallacious hopes !"

It is to the female members of the families of these colonists that this book will be peculiarly, though by no means exclu-

sively, useful. It is upon their active discharge of their domestic

duties—their cheerful submission to the wants and difficulties 'of their lot—and their determination to abstain from casting any

"longing, lingering looks" on the world behind them—that their own welfare and happiness, as well as that of their husbands, fathers, and brothers, will very much depend : and we hardly know any thing that would afford a stronger incentive to such exertions than the perusal of this excellent work.

We shall give some slight idea of its contents by a few miscel- laneous extracts. The reader will bear in mind, we quote from letters.

THE INDIAN SUMMER.

I had reckoned much on the Indian summer, of which I had read such de- lightful descriptions, but I must say it has fallen far below my expectations. Just at the commencement of this month (November), we experienced three or four warm, hazy days, that proved rather close and oppressive. The sun looked red through the misty atmosphere, tinging the fantastic clouds that hung in smoky volumes with saffron and pale crimson light, much as I have seen the clouds above London look on a warm sultry spring morning. Not a breeze ruffled the waters, not a leaf (fur the leaves had not entirely fallen) moved. This perfect stagnation of the air was suddenly changed by a hurricane of wind and snow, that came on without any previous warning. I was standing near a group of tall pines that had been left in the middle of the clearing, collecting some beautiful crimson lichens, S-- not being many paces distant, with his oxen drawing firewood. Suddenly we heard a distant hollow rushing sound that momentarily increased, the air around us being yet perfectly calm. I looked up, and beheld the clouds, hitherto so motionless, moving with amazing rapidity in different directions. A dense gloom over- spread the heavens. 5-, who had been busily engaged with the cattle, had not noticed my being so near, and now called to me to use all the speed I could to gain the house or an open part of the clearing, distant from the pine-trees. Instinctively I turned towards the home, while the thundering shock of trees falling in all directions at the edge of the forest, the rending of the branches from the pines I had just quitted, and the rush of the whirlwind sweeping down the lake, made me sensible of the danger with which I had been threatened. The scattered boughs of the pines darkened the air as they whirled above me: then came the blinding snow-storm ; but I could behold the progress of the tempest in safely, having gained the threshold of our house. The driver of the oxen had thrown himself on the ground, while the poor beasts held down their meek heads, patiently abiding "the pelting of the pittiless storm." S-, my husband, and the rest of the household, collected in a group, watched with anxiety the wild havoc of the warring elements. Not a leaf remained on the trees when the hurricane was over ; they were bare and desolate. Thus ended the short reign of the Indian summer.

rims wozzows TO BE. GOT RID OF.

I was once much amused with hearing the remarks made by a very fine ladv, the reluctant sharer of her husband's emigration, on seeing the son of a naval

officer of some rank in the service busily employed in making an axe-handle out of a piece of rock-elm.

" I wonder that, you allow George to degrade himself so," she said, addres- sing his father. The captain looked up with surprise. " Degrade himself ! In what manner, madam ? My boy neither swears, drinks whiskey, steals, nor tells lies." " But you allow him to perform tasks of the most menial kind. What is he now better than a hedge-carpenter ; and I suppose you allow him to chop too?"

" Most assuredly I do. That pile of logs in the cart there was all cut by him after he had left study yesterday," was the reply.

" I would see my boys dead before they should use an axe like common labourers."

" Idleness is the root of all evil," said the captain. " How much worse might my son be employed it he were running wild about streets with bad companions." " You will allow this is not a country for gentlemen or ladies to live in ?" said the holy.

" It is the country for gentlemen that will not work, and cannot live without? to starve in," replied the captain bluntly ; " and for that reason I make my boys early accustom themselves to he usefully and actively employed." " -sly boys shall never work like common mechanics," said the lady, in- dignantly.

"'Then, madam, they will be good for nothing as settlers ; and it is a pity you dragged them across the Atlantic." " We were forced to come. We could not live as we had been used to do at home, or I never would have come to this horrid country."

" Having conic hither you would be wise to conform to circumstances. Canada is not the place for idle fidlcs to retrench a lost fortune in. In some parts of the country you will find most articles of provision as dear as in Loa- don, clothing much dearer, and not so good, and a lead market to choose in." " I should like to know, then, who Canada is good for ?" said she, angrily.

0 It is a good country fur the honest, industrious artisan. It is a fine country for the pr.e labourer. who, after 11 tiny yp11, eqn .Zt rin.Tn in his own log-house, and look abroad on his own land, and see his children well settles! in life as independent freeholders. It is a grand country for the rich speculator, who can afford to lay out a large sum in purchasing land in eligible situations ; for if he have any judgment, he will make a hundred per cent. as interest for his money after waiting a few years. But it is a hard country for the poor gentleman, whose habits have rendered him unfit for manual

labour. He brings with hint a mind unfitted to his situation ; and even if

necessity compels him to exertion, his labour is of little value. He has a hard struggle to live. The certain expenses of wages and living are great, and he is obliged to endure many privations if he would keep within compass, and be free of debt. If he have a large family, and brings them up wisely, so as to

adapt themselves early to a settler's life, why does well for them, and 8001) feels the benefit on his own land ; but if he is idle himself, his wife extrema. gout and discontented, and the children taught to despise labour, why, madam, they will soon be brought down to ruin. In short, the country is a good country for those to whom it is adapted ; but if people will not conform to the doctrine of necessity and expediency, they have no business in it. It is plain Canada is not adapted to every class of people." " It was never adapted for me or my family," said the lady, disdainfully. " Very true," was the laconic reply ; and so ended the dialogue.

A SETTLER'S WIFE.

" What are necessary qualifications of a settler's wife? and the usual occupa- tion of the female part of a settler's family ?" are your next questions. To the first clause, I reply, a settler's wife should be active, industrious, in. genious, cheerful, nut above putting her hand to whatever is necessary to be done in her household, nor too proud to profit by the advice and experience of older portions of the community, from whom she may learn many excellent lessons of practical wisdom. Like that pattern of all good housewives described by the prudent mother of King Lemuel, it should be said of the emigrant's wife, "she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff." " She Peeked' wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands." " She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness."

Nothing argues a greater degree of good sense and gond feeling than a cheer- ful conformity to circumstances, adverse though they be compared with former lot; surely none that felt as they ought to feel would ever despise a woman, however delicately brought up, for doing her duty in the state of life unto which it may have pleased God to call her. Since I came to this country, I have seen the accomplished daughters and wives of men holding no inconsi- derable rank as officers, both naval and military, milking their own cows, making their own butter, and performing tasks of household work that few of our farmers' wives would now condescend to take a part in. Instead of de. spising these useful arts, an emigrant's family rather pride themselves on their skill in these matters. The less silly pride and the more practical knowledge the female emigrant brings out with her, so much greater is the chance for domestic happiness and prosperity. I am sorry to observe, that in many cases the women that come hither give way to melancholy regrets, and destroy the harmony of their fireside, and deaden the energies of their husbands and brothers by constant and useless repining. Having once made up their minds to follow their husbands or friends to this country, it would be wiser and bettter to conform with a good grace, and do their part to make the burden of emigration more bearable.

RAPID PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENTS.

Very great is the change that a few years have effected in our situation. A number of highly-respectable settlers have purchased land along the shores of these lakes, so that we no longer want society. The roads are now cut several miles above us, and, though far from good, can be travelled by waggons and sleighs, and are, at all events, better than none. A village has started up where formerly a thick pine-wood covered the ground ; we have now within a short distance of us an excellent saw-mill, a grist-mill, and store, with a large tavern and many good dwellings. A fine timber bridge, on stone piers, was erected last year to connect the opposite townships and lessen the distance to and from Peterborough ; and though it was unfortunately swept away early last spring by the: unusual rising of the Otanabee lakes, a new and more substantial one has risen upon the ruins of the former, through the activity of an enterprising young Scotchman, the founder of the village.

TRUE PHILOSOPHY.

Not to regret my absence from my native land, and one so fair and lovely withal, would argue a heart of insensibility ; yet I must say, for all its roughness, I love Canada, and am as happy in my humble log-house as if it were courtly hall or bower : habit reconciles its to many things that at first were distasteful. It has ever been my way to extract the sweet rather than the bitter in the cup of life, and surely it is best and wisest so to do. In a country where constant ex- ertion is called for from all ages and degrees of settlers, it would be foolish to a degree to damp our energies by complaints, and cast a gloom over our homes by sitting dejectedly down to lament for all that was so dear to us in the old country. Since we are here, let us make the best of it, and bear with cheer- fulness the lot we have chosen. I believe that one of the chief ingredients in human happiness is a capacity for enjoying the blessings we possess.

Though at our first outset we experienced many disappointments, many un- looked-for expenses, and many annoying delays, with sonic wants that to us seemed great privations, on the whole we have been fortunate, especially in the -situation of our land, which has increased in valise very considerably : our thief difficulties are mw over, at least we hope so, and we trust soon to enjoy the comforts of a cleared farm.

My husband is becoming more reconciled to the country, and I daily feel my attachment to it strengthening. The very stumps that appeared so odious, through long custom, seem to lose some of their hideousness ; the eye becomes familiarized even with objects the most displeasing, till they cease to be observed. Some century hence how different will this spot appear ! I can picture it to lily imagination with fertile fields and groves of trees planted by the hand of taste: all will be different : our present rude dwelling will have given place to others of a more elegant style of architecture, and comfort and grace will rule the scene which is now a forest wild.

An old country is full of the past ; a new country is pregnant with the future. In England we love to muse upon the relics of the olden time, and to think of the illustrious and venerable names which adorn our annals. But what are these recollections of antiquity, and all the associations to which they give birth, when compared to the heart-stirring prospects of the future, which are ever before the eyes of the inhabitants of the New World ? Ours are the melancholy musings of old age and decay ; theirs, the bright anticipations of youth—anticipations which, to whatever extent they may he indulged by a kindling imagination, must as- suredly be realized.