disposed to deal unfairly, in all possible transactions; and though last not least, could get nothing fit to eat.

Mr. B's account, though given with a careless, off-hand air, had a strong dash of bitterness in it—a sort of fierce defiance of earth and heaven, which is apt to be the resource of those who have wilfully thrown away their chances of happiness. His remarks upon the disagreeables which we had to encounter, were carried at least as far as those of his wife; and he asserted that there was but one alternative in Michigancheat or be cheated.

We were not invited to remain to tea; but took our leave with many polite hopes of further acquaintance. Mr. Clavers found the spot he had been seeking, and then, taking another road home, we called to see Mrs. Danforth; whom we considered even then in the light of the very good friend which she has since so often proved herself. I told of our accidental visit and learned from the good lady some particulars respecting this family, whose condition seemed so strange and contradictory, even in the western country, where every element enters into the composition of that anomalous mass called society.

Mr. B was born to a large fortune, a lot which certainly seems in our country to carry a curse with it in a large proportion of instances. Feeling quite above the laborious calling by which his father had amassed wealth, the son's only aim had been to spend his money, like a gentleman; and in this he had succeeded so well that by the time he had established himself, at the head of the ton in one of our great Eastern cities, and been set down as an irreclaimable roué by his sober

friends, he found that a few more losses at play would leave him stranded. But he had been quite the idol of the "good society" into which he had purchased admission, and the one never-failing resource in such cases—a rich wife, was still perhaps in his power. Be. fore his altered fortunes were more than whispered by his very particular friends, he had secured the hand of an orphan heiress, a really amiable and well-bred girl; and it was not until she had been his wife for a year or more, that she knew that her thousands had done no more than prop a falling house.

Many efforts were made by the friends on both sides, to aid Mr. Bin establishing himself in business, but his pride and his indolence proved insuperable difficulties; and after some years of those painful struggles between pride and poverty, which so many of the devotees of fashion can appreciate from their own bitter experience, a retreat to the West was chosen as the least of prospective evils.

Here the whole country was before him "where to choose." He could have bought at government price any land in the region to which he had directed his steps. Water-power of all capabilities was at his command, for there was scarce a settler in the neighbourhood. But he scorned the idea of a place for business. What he wanted was a charming spot for a gentlemanly residence. There, with his gun and his fishing rod he was to live; a small income which still remained of his wife's fortune furnishing the only dependance.

And this income, small as it was, would have been, in prudent and industrious hands, a subsistence at least ; so small is the amount really requisite for a frugal way

of life in these isolated situations. But unfortunately Mr. B- -'s character had by no means changed with his place of residence. His land, which by cultivation would have yielded abundant supplies for his table, was suffered to lie unimproved, because he had not money to pay labourers. Even a garden was too

much trouble; the flower-beds I had seen were made by the hands of Mrs. B―, and her sisters; and it was asserted that the comforts of life were often lacking in this unfortunate household, and would have been always deficient but for constant aid from Mrs. B―'s friends.

Mrs. B had done as women so often do in similar situations, making always a great effort to keep up a certain appearance, and allowing her neighbours to discover that she considered them far beneath her ; she had still forgotten her delicate habits, and that they were delicate and lady-like, no one can doubt who had ever seen her, and laboured with all her little strength for the comfort of her family. She had brought up five children on little else beside Indian meal and potatoes; and at one time the neighbours had known the whole family live for weeks upon bread and tea without sugar or milk;—Mr. B- sitting in the house smoking cigars, and playing the flute, as much of a gentleman as ever.

And these people, bringing with them such views and feelings as make straitened means productive of absolute wretchedness any where, abuse Michigan, and visit upon their homely neighbours the bitter feelings which spring from that fountain of gall, mortified yet indomitable pride. Finding themselves growing poor.

er and poorer, they persuade themselves that all who thrive, do so by dishonest gains, or by mean sacrifices ; and they are teaching their children, by the irresistible power of daily example, to despise plodding industry, and to indulge in repining and feverish longings after unearned enjoyments.

But I am running into an absolute homily! I set out to say only that we had been warned at the beginning against indulging in certain habits which darken the whole course of country life; and here I have been betrayed into a chapter of sermonizing. I can only beg pardon and resume my broken thread.

CHAPTER XX.

I come, I come! ye have called me long,
I come o'er the mountains with light and song!
Away from the chamber and sullen hearth!
The young leaves are dancing in breezy mirth.

MRS. HEMANS.-Voice of Spring.

And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music,) therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air.—BACON.

I BELIEVE I was recurring to the rapidity with which our first winter in the wilds slipped away. We found that when the spring came we were not half prepared to take advantage of it; but armed with the "American Gardener," and quantities of choice seeds received in a box of treasures from home during the previous Autumn, we set about making something like a garden. It would seem that in our generous soil this could not be a difficult task; but our experience has taught us quite differently. Besides the eradication of stumps, which is a work of time and labour any where, the "grubs present a most formidable hindrance to all gardening efforts in the "oak-openings." I dare say my reader imagines a “grub" to be a worm, a destructive wretch that spoils peach trees. In Michigan, it is quite another affair. Grubs are, in western parlance, the gnarled roots of small trees and shrubs, with which our soil is