young people being outside with a few who have
lingered after the frolic. By the open window, around which a hop vine
is enwreathed, in memory of the rose-bound casements of England, and
through which comes a faint perfume from the balm of gilead trees, sits
the invalid, seemingly refreshed with the pleasant things around him. He
has been suffering from rheumatic fever caught in the changeful days of
the early spring, when the moist air penetrates through nerve and bone,
and when persons having the least tendency to rheumatism, or pulmonary
complaints, cannot use too much caution. At no other season is New
Brunswick unhealthy; for the winter, although cold, is dry and bracing.
The hot months are not so much so as to be injurious, and the bland
breezes of the fall and Indian summer are the most delightful that can
be imagined.

Stephen Morris had come from England, like the generality of New
Brunswick settlers, but lightly burthened with worldly gear--but gifted
with the unpurchasable treasures of a strong arm and willing spirit,
that is, a spirit resolved to do its best, and not be overcome with the
difficulties to be encountered in the struggle of subduing the mighty
wilderness. While he felled the forest, his wife, accustomed in her own
country to assist in all field labours, toiled with him in piling and
fencing as well as in planting and reaping. Even their young children
learned to know that every twig they lifted off the ground left space
for a blade of grass or grain; beginning with this, their assistance
soon became valuable, and the labour of their hands in the field soon
lightened the burthen of feeding their lips. Slowly and surely had
Stephen gone onward, keeping to his farm and minding nothing else,
unlike many of the emigrants, who, while professing to be farmers, yet
engage in other pursuits, particularly lumbering, which, although the
mainspring of the province and source of splendid wealth to many of the
inhabitants, has yet been the bane of others. Allured by the visions of
speedy riches it promises, they have neglected their farms, and engaged
in its glittering speculations with the most ardent hopes, which have
far oftener been blighted than realised. A sudden change in trade, or an
unexpected storm in the spring, having bereft them of all, and left them
overwhelmed in debt, with neglected and ruined lands, with broken
constitutions, (for the lumberer's life is most trying to the health,)
and often t