72 EMIGRATION, Olt 



as it is daily improving, all the way I have come. Some 

 good barns have been erected, and in various places good 

 houses, within the last two years. Indeed, if we consider 

 the great difficulties the first settlers had to encounter, with 

 out roads for their communication, and consequently without 

 a market for their produce, -and the low, nay, almost des 

 titute circumstances which nine-tenths of them were in, on 

 their arrival in the woods, it is matter of surprise that so 

 much has been done. The mistress of this house, who is 

 about thirty years of age, is no dissenter to the custom of 

 the neighbourhood seldom long without a beloved pipe. 

 A girl of eighteen or nineteen, smart and lively, but without 

 stockings,* came for a pound of tobacco (some of the land 

 lord s own raising), to learn to smoke, she said. The land 

 lord had been with some neighbours five miles into the 

 woods, to clear out some windfalls, which had blocked up 

 the road. At dark the above lass (who had now her stock 

 ings on) and her mother, came with a &quot; Jersey waggon,&quot; to 

 take the tavern keeper and his wife to a paring &quot; bee,&quot; or 

 &quot; 6e,&quot; that is, an assemblage of neighbours invited to one 

 house, to prepare apples for drying. Almost every thing here 

 is done by &quot;bees&quot; (in the States they are called frolics). 

 They always contrive to have some whiskey at these &quot; bees,&quot; 

 which are a kind of merry-meeting, when sometimes danc 

 ing and rustic plays are carried on at the close, and occa 

 sionally, by drinking too much, quarrels will sometimes 

 arise among the men ; and doubtless a sufficient quantum of 

 scandal, nearly equal to a tea-party in another part of the 

 world, among the women. 



November 4. Snows and sleets all day ; quite a con 

 trast to yesterday, which was a beautiful, fine mild day. 

 Passed through ten miles of woods ; pine land and sandy 

 oak plains, some of inferior quality, chiefly belonging to 

 &quot; United Empire Loyalists,&quot; or &quot; United Empire&quot; men. 

 Those loyalists who stuck to the British standard in the Re 

 volution, and their children, both male and female, are 

 so called ; each of whom can, upon application, receive 200 

 acres of land of the government in this province, free from 

 all settling and road duties until settled ; so the lands are 



* Stockings are hardly ever worn by the settlers in the woods in 

 summer, either by males or females. In winter the latter wear stock 

 ings, and the former socks. 



