reed to help me
with the stable for them.

August 3--Fixed on spot for stable and began preparing logs for it,
choosing cedar and pine as being easier to handle.

August 8--Began raising stable. Gordon made very neat corners.

August 9--Had stable up to the square when we dropped work.

August 11--Got the rafters on. Having no sawed lumber or shingles, will
have to cut basswood staves and scoops.

August 13--Stable finished and all proud of it. There is a roomy loft
which will be useful for more than fodder, for I am told when there is
no bed in the shanty for a visitor they 'loft him.'

August 14--Had arranged to walk to Toronto, for none of us have been
inside a church since we left Scotland, but the sun came out with such a
blistering heat that we had to give up our intention. It is awfully
lonesome in the bush, and were it not for the work you are forced to do,
we would get vacant-minded. It has been a great blessing in every way
that the three families settled together. I can believe the report that
a family planted in the depths of the bush, without a neighbor nearer
than three miles, abandoned all they had accomplished to get company.

August 15--While chinking the stable, Gordon helping, I heard a crash
and a cry from where Allan was chopping. We ran to the spot, and my
heart jumped into my mouth, when I saw him lying as if he were dead
under a big branch. I was for dragging him out, when Gordon showed me
the movement would bring down the butt of the branch on his body. He ran
for help. Ailie came first and then Brodie, and while the three of us
held up the limb of the tree, Ailie pulled him out. She was calmer than
any of us. Carrying him to the house, we had the satisfaction of finding
there was no bone broken. A blue mark above the right eye showed where
he had been struck. As he was breathing easily we had hopes he would
come to, but it was long before he did, and it was the most anxious hour
Ailie and I had ever known. When he opened his eyes, and looking
wonderingly round asked, 'What is a' the steer aboot?' we never before
thanked God with such fervor. Gordon had run for Mrs Simmins, and while
we were keeping wet cloths on Allan's head, she hurried in. Looking at
the mark, which was now swollen, and feeling all round it, Mrs Simmins
declared there was no fracture of the skull and that the blow had only
stunned him. 'Well for him that he is a thick-headed Scotchman or he
would have been killed,' she