t had lost all the
features of a swamp. The clearing of the forest went on steadily, so
that each fall saw a larger yield of grain and roots. In the fifth year
the master was rejoiced to find many of the stumps could be dragged out
by oxen, and a field secured on which he could use the long-handled plow
as in Scotland. An unlooked for result of the draining of the swamp and
the sweeping away of the forest in every direction was the gradual
drying up of the pond. A more striking instance was told me by a settler
who was led to choose a lot near lake Simcoe on account of a brook
prattling across it and which reminded him of Scotland. In twenty years
the brook was gone, the plow turning furrows on its bed. The one great
drawback to the progress of the three families was the lack of a road to
Yonge-street. In winter there was little difficulty for then snow made a
highway, but the rest of the year no wheeled vehicle could go over it.
At one of the sessions of the legislature, when the estimates for roads
and bridges was up, the owner of the 1200 acre block of land that was
the cause of our trouble, made a pathetic appeal for a grant to give an
outlet to three of the thriftiest and most deserving families he had any
acquaintance with, and his appeal resulted in a hundred dollars being
voted. Two years later, on being questioned by the master about the
grant, the honorable gentleman (for he had Hon. before his name) told
him he had drawn the money but there was no condition as to the time he
should start the work. In 1830 there set in an unprecedented influx of
immigrants, who wanted land. The honorable gentleman saw his opportunity
and sold every acre of the 1200. Those who bought had to cut out the
road, and making it passable for travel was hard work for years, on
account of the size of the stumps and of many parts having to be
corduroyed.

With the coming of these new neighbors, a school became necessary and in
it services were held on Sunday. The master sought the help of a
Presbyterian minister in Toronto. He came once; on finding how rude
everything was, he declined to return. A North of Ireland family was no
more successful with an Anglican minister. He had newly come out from a
cathedral city in the south of England and was shocked to find the log
school had not a robing-room. The end was that a Methodist circuit-rider
took in our settlement in his rounds, which resulted in a majority of
those who attended his servic