Homesteading 



Perhaps it is not to be wondered at, when one 

 considers many of the attractions of city-life, 

 in comparison, especially, with that of pioneer 

 farming, with its incessant and strenuous toil 

 and liability to financial disappointment. There 

 would seem to be a tendency to look with dis- 

 favour upon what should surely be the noble 

 employment of agriculture. If all this is true 

 (and I fear it is), it is surely a very serious matter 

 for Canada, whose future prosperity lies in the 

 development of her agricultural resources, which 

 thousands and thousands of young men are striv- 

 ing hard to effect, living and cooking meanwhile 

 for themselves in lonely shacks— in fact " baching," 

 as the expressive term has it. 



It must, however, be admitted that in the 

 early stages of settlement there is a good deal 

 to be said on behalf of girls who refuse to be- 

 come the wife of a pioneer settler, and there was 

 justification for the remark made by the practical 

 if taciturn Harry at one of our informal discus- 

 sions, to the effect that he would not care to 

 bring a wife on to his homestead until things 

 were very different from what they were. 



To this Bob replied, in his hopeful way, " You 

 forget, Harry, how quickly things are changing ; 

 we shall soon have the railroad within twelve 

 miles, and in a year or two we should have tele- 



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