My Boyhood and Youth 



as luxuries. No other wild country I have ever 

 known extended a kinder welcome to poor 

 immigrants. On the arrival in the spring, a log 

 house could be built, a few acres ploughed, the 

 virgin sod planted with corn, potatoes, etc., 

 and enough raised to keep a family comfort- 

 ably the very first year ; and wild hay for cows 

 and oxen grew in abundance on the numerous 

 meadows. The American settlers were wisely 

 content with smaller fields and less of every- 

 thing, kept indoors during excessively hot or 

 cold weather, rested when tired, went off fish- 

 ing and hunting at the most favorable times 

 and seasons of the day and year, gathered nuts 

 and berries, and in general tranquilly accepted 

 all the good things the fertile wilderness offered. 

 After eight years of this dreary work of 

 clearing the Fountain Lake farm, fencing it and 

 getting it in perfect order, building a frame 

 house and the necessary outbuildings for the 

 cattle and horses, after all this had been 

 victoriously accomplished, and we had made 

 out to escape with life, father bought a half- 

 [ 226 ] 



