while, if the timber be not
good, the grain of the one piece will eat into the other, or run off
without splitting clear the whole length of the block. The blocks
should be cut eighteen inches long, and split into quarters, and the
sap-wood dressed off. It is then ready for the frow--as the instrument
used for splitting shingles is called. A good splitter will keep two
men shaving and packing. The proper thickness is four to the inch: the
packing-frame should be forty inches long, and contain fifty courses of
shingles, which make a thousand. The price varies from five shillings
to seven and sixpence, according to quality. The upper bar of the
packing-frame should be wedged down very tightly across the centre of
the bunch, which will keep them from warping with the sun.]

I was anxious to complete the outside walls, roof, and chimneys before
the winter set in, so that I might be able to work at the finishing
part inside, under cover, and with the benefit of a fire.

As soon as my little fallow was ready for sowing with wheat, I
discharged my two Irishmen, of whom I was very glad to be rid. I would
advise new colonists never to employ men who have not been some time in
Canada: it is much better to pay higher wages than to be troubled with
fellows who know nothing about the work of the country. Besides, these
persons, though accustomed to bad wages and food at home, actually
expect better provisions and wages than men who thoroughly understand
their business: take the following for a fair example.

One day, a stout able-bodied fellow, a fresh importation from the
emerald isle, dressed in breeches open at the knees, long worsted
stockings, rucked down to the ankles, and a great-coat with at least
three capes, while a high-crowned black hat, the top of which opened
and shut with every breeze like the lid of a basket, completed his
costume--rather a curious one for July, with the thermometer above 80
degrees in the shade--accosted me with--"Does yer honor want to hire a
boy to-day?"

He stood at least six feet in his stockings.

"What can you do, and what makes you wear that great coat this hot
weather?"

"Why, sure, yer honour, it's a good un to keep out the heat, and I can
do almost anything."

"Can you log, chop, or fence?"

"No."

"Can you plough?"

"No; but I think I could soon larn."

"Can you mow or cradle wheat?"

"I can mow a trifle, but I don't know what the other thing is at all,
at all."

"Pray,