A CANADIAN WIFE. 263 



" I'll go over to Canada for a wife when I marry," said 

 a young south-shore farmer to his friend. " When I 

 come home at night she'll have a nice blazing fire on, 

 and a clean kitchen, and a comfortable supper for me ; 

 but if I marry a New Yorker, it'll be, when I come home, 

 ^ John, go down to the well for some water, to make the 

 tea C or, ' John, go and bring some logs to put on the 

 fire, to boil the kettle.' No, no ; a Canadian woman's 

 the wife for me." 



One circumstance which will materially modify the 

 population on the opposite shores is the large number of 

 Germans who have settled in the States, while the popu- 

 lation of Upper Canada is almost wholly British. This, 

 I think, promises a more active future to Canada than 

 the population of New York would give her. 



I have already drawn attention to some of the places 

 in the valley of the Mohawk, where Germans especially 

 abound. But all along the western region they are 

 numerous. In Buffalo, the German correspondence is 

 so extensive that a separate bureau, as I was informed, 

 is established at the post-office for German letters ; and 

 in the far north-western State of Minnesota — the New 

 England of the West — the annual message of Governor 

 Eamsay to the Legislature for 1850 was printed in 

 German as well as English, which shows how many of 

 that tongue are already numbered among its adventurous 

 inhabitants. 



