ne accomplishments, the
practice of which are necessarily superseded by imperative domestic
duties. To the person who is capable of looking abroad into the beauties
of nature, and adoring the Creator through his glorious works, are
opened stores of unmixed pleasure, which will not permit her to be dull
or unhappy in the loneliest part of our Western Wilderness. The writer
of these pages speaks from experience, and would be pleased to find that
the simple sources from which she has herself drawn pleasure, have
cheered the solitude of future female sojourners in the backwoods of
Canada.

As a general remark to all sorts and conditions of settlers, she would
observe, that the struggle up the hill of Independence is often a severe
one, and it ought not to be made alone. It must be aided and encouraged
by the example and assistance of an active and cheerful partner.
Children should be taught to appreciate the devoted love that has
induced their parents to overcome the natural reluctance felt by all
persons to quit for ever the land of their forefathers, the scenes of
their earliest and happiest days, and to become aliens and wanderers in
a distant country,--to form new ties and new friends, and begin, as it
were, life's toilsome march anew, that their children may be placed in a
situation in which, by industry and activity, the substantial comforts
of life may be permanently obtained, and a landed property handed down
to them, and their children after them.

Young men soon become reconciled to this country, which offers to them
that chief attraction to youth,--great personal liberty. Their
employments are of a cheerful and healthy nature; and their amusements,
such as hunting, shooting, fishing, and boating, are peculiarly
fascinating. But in none of these can their sisters share. The hardships
and difficulties of the settler's life, therefore, are felt peculiarly
by the female part of the family. It is with a view of ameliorating
these privations that the following pages have been written, to show how
some difficulties may be best borne and others avoided. The simple
truth, founded entirely on personal knowledge of the facts related, is
the basis of the work; to have had recourse to fiction might have
rendered it more acceptable to many readers, but would have made it less
useful to that class for whom it is especially intended. For those who,
without intending to share in the privations and dangers of an
emigrant's life,