There We Felt We Could Enjoy The Society
Of Those Who Could Sympathise With Our Tastes And Prejudices, And
Who, From Inclination As Well As Necessity, Were Inclined To Assist
Each Other In Their Farming Operations.
There is no situation in which men feel more the necessity of mutual
assistance than in clearing land.
Alone, a man may fell the trees on a considerable extent of
woodland; but without the assistance of two or three others, he
cannot pile up the logs previous to burning. Common labours and
common difficulties, as among comrades during a campaign, produce
a social unity of feeling among backwoods-men. There is, moreover,
a peculiar charm in the excitement of improving a wilderness for
the benefit of children and posterity; there is in it, also, that
consciousness of usefulness which forms so essential an ingredient
in true happiness. Every tree that falls beneath the axe opens a
wider prospect, and encourages the settler to persevere in his
efforts to attain independence.
Mr. S - - had secured for me a portion of the military grant of four
hundred acres, which I was entitled to as a half-pay officer, in his
immediate neighbourhood. Though this portion amounted to only sixty
acres, it was so far advantageous to me as being in a settled part
of the country. I bought a clergy reserve of two hundred acres,
in the rear of the sixty acres for 1 pound per acre, for which
immediately afterwards I was offered 2 pounds per acre, for at that
period there was such an influx of settlers into that locality that
lands had risen rapidly to a fictitious price.
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