and then we steered north, for Old England. We arrived at
Liverpool in two months and a half after leaving Sydney, and a little
more than two years from the time we sailed from England. Captain
Bolton called me into the cabin, and told me that he was so well pleased
with me that he would take me another voyage if I had a mind to go; but
that I might first go down into Dorsetshire to see mother and my
brothers and sisters, and friends. I thanked him very much, and said
that I should be very glad to sail with him, and that I hoped to be back
any day he would name.

Well, I got home, and there was mother, and Jane come home on purpose to
see me, and Sam, and Jack, and little Bill grown quite a big chap, and
all of them; and I blessed God, and was so happy. I had brought all
sorts of things from China for them, and others from the South Sea
Islands; and they were never tired of hearing of the wonders I had seen,
nor was I tired of telling of them.

Thus ended my first voyage; I have been many others, but this was the
happiest coming home of all.

STORY THREE, CHAPTER 1.

THE FORTUNES OF MICHAEL HALE AND HIS FAMILY. A TALE ABOUT LIFE IN
CANADA.

The sun shone brightly out of a deep blue sky. His rays glanced on the
axes of several sturdy men, who with shirt sleeves tucked up and
handkerchiefs round their waists, were hewing away lustily at some tall
pine-trees. A few had already fallen before their strokes, making a
small clearing in the thick forest. Through the trees the glittering
water of a lake could be seen, but on every other side the thick forest
alone stood up like a dark wall. Yet all that thick underwood and those
tall trees must be cut down and cleared away before the newly arrived
settlers would find means of living. It was enough to try the bold
hearts of the men as they looked round and saw the work before them.
Not an inch of ground turned up, nor a hut built, and winter not so very
far-off either. Yet it must be done, and could be done, for like work
had been done over and over again in the country. The ground rose at
first gently and then steeply from the lake, while the splashing sound
of a stream on one side gave promise of good water-power for the new
settlement. There were not only firs but many hard-wood trees. Such
are those which shed their leaves, maple, birch, oak, beech, and others,
all destined soon to fall before the sturdy backwoodsman's axe.

The scene I have described