My Boyhood and Youth 



as the controversy went on with fairly level 

 temper, only gude braid Scots was used, but if 

 one became angry, as was likely to happen, 

 then he immediately began speaking severely 

 correct English, while his antagonist, drawing 

 himself up, would say: "Weel, there's na use 

 pursuing this subject ony further, for I see ye 

 hae gotten to your English." 



As we neared the shore of the great new land, 

 with what eager wonder we watched the whales 

 and dolphins and porpoises and seabirds, and 

 made the good-natured sailors teach us their 

 names and tell us stories about them! 



There were quite a large number of emigrants 

 aboard, many of them newly married couples, 

 and the advantages of the different parts of 

 the New World they expected to settle in were 

 often discussed. My father started with the 

 intention of going to the backwoods of Upper 

 Canada. Before the end of the voyage, how- 

 ever, he was persuaded that the States offered 

 superior advantages, especially Wisconsin and 

 Michigan, where the land was said to be as 

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