414 DISOBEDIENCE OF CHILDREN. 



Potatoes, oats, and turnips were the crops growing on 

 their first year's clearing — ail luxuriant and healthy. 



An anecdote told me by a friend at Dalhousie 

 illustrates very graphically one of the most important of 

 the social and domestic differences by which our own 

 homes, and those of most of our colonies, are distinguished 

 from those of the United States. " A settler of many 

 years at Dalhousie, a shoemaker by trade, had saved 

 £500 in money, and had five or six boys growing up, 

 when he took it in his head to go off to Wisconsin. Six 

 months after his departure, a small vessel from Quebec 

 entered the harbour of Dalhousie, and, when evening 

 came on, a depressed-looking man in shabby clothing 

 landed from the vessel, and walked up to my house. 

 When he came in, I was surprised to recognise my old 

 neighbour the shoemaker. ' You are surprised,' he said ; 

 ' but though I was a fool to go away, I have had courage 

 enough to come back. When I had got to Wisconsin, 

 my boys — who had been good boys here — began to 

 neglect their work, and disregard me. I durst not 

 correct them, sir, or I should have been mobbed. They 

 soon learned this, and my authority was gone. My heart 

 was sore, my money was melting away, my children 

 were a sorrow instead of a comfort to me, and talked 

 of starting for themselves. I sold off and came down to 

 Canada. " Now, my boys," says I, " I have got you 

 under the British flag again, and we'll have no more 

 rebellion." So I kept my boys in hand, but we didn't 

 get on as we used to do ; and, at last, I determined to 

 come back to Dalhousie. What's the world to me, sir, 

 if my boys are to be a vexation to me ? But I haven't 

 a penny of money ; and our clothing is so scanty that I 

 am ashamed to bring them all ashore in daylight.' * 



* How differeut this picture of the domestic relations, in these new 

 States, from the representations which have come down to us regarding 

 the ancient republics of Greece and Rome ! How different, for example, 



