CHAPTER XIII 



BY THE FIRESIDE 



THE farmer's fireside in olden days was a most 

 enticing and attractive place for young and 

 old. In the early or pioneer days, the log cabins 

 on the bush farms had fireplaces of stone and it 

 was from one of these that the blazing logs threw 

 the ruddy tints of health on my youthful face, 

 and it was there by the hearth-side that I drank 

 in the stories of the pioneers. The tallow dip or 

 candle was then the only light in the farmer's 

 palace of logs, supplemented, of course, by the 

 glow from the open hearth. 



Books were few in those days, and newspapers 

 a rarity, and conversation was the chief medium 

 for distributing or conveying the news of the 

 neighbourhood or district. It was also the means 

 of much entertainment and such a condition natu- 

 rally developed the story-telling art. It is surpris- 

 ing, too, how fascinatingly and artistically, some 

 of those early settlers could present the rural hap- 

 penings in story form by the fireside. It was the 

 age of romance in this country for the shadow of 

 the deep woods was still upon it. Many of those 

 pioneers, too, had memories of the Old Land with 

 its superstitions, folklore and legends. These fur- 



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