536 LETTER TO [PART 111. 



for, though \ve were by no means shy, their 

 hospitality far exceeded our appetites. I am 

 an old hand at the work of settling in wilds. 

 I have, more than once or twice, had to begin 

 my nest and go in, like a bird, making it 

 habitable by degrees ; and, if I, or, if such 

 . people as my old friends above-mentioned, with 

 every thing found for them and brought to the 

 spot, had difficulties to undergo, and sighed 

 for home even after all the difficulties were 

 over, what must be the lot of an English Far 

 mer's family in the Illinois ? 



087, All this I told you> my dear sir, in 

 London just before your departure. I begged 

 of you and Mr. Richard Flower both, not to 

 think of the Wildernesses. I begged of you to 

 go to within a day's ride of some of these great 

 cities, where your ample capital and youi* great 

 skill could not fail to place you upon a footing, 

 at least, with the richest amongst the most 

 happy and enlightened Yeomanry in the world ; 

 where you would find every one to praise the 

 improvements you would introduce, and no 

 body to envy you any thing that yon tnight 

 acquire. Where you would find society as 

 food, in all respects, as that which you had 

 left behind you. Where you would find neigh 

 bours ready prepared for you fer more generous 

 and hospitable than those in England eah be f 



