92 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



their farm. The village was on the river Coatacook, a 

 tributary of the St Francis, in the county of Sherbrooke, 

 very near the angle formed by a line drawn south from 

 Quebec and one drawn east from Montreal. It was 

 thirteen miles distant from the town of Sherbrooke, and 

 about twenty from the frontier of the state of Vermont, 

 U.S.A. What the farm consisted of, and what their labour 

 in it, may be plainly seen, though still through somewhat 

 rose-coloured spectacles, in the following extract from a 

 letter written November 4, 1835, to his friend, Dr. P. E. 

 Molloy, in Montreal : — 



" I like my location here very much ; it seems the 

 "general opinion that our farm was a bargain: — one 

 " hundred and ten acres of land (forty-five cleared), a 

 " frame-house, a log-house, a frame-barn, young orchard, 

 "four tons of hay, etc., for £100 — £50 in hand, the 

 "remainder in two annual instalments. It is a pic- 

 " turesque-looking place, containing hill and dale, hard 

 " and soft wood, and streams of water. The first thing 

 " I did was to cut the hay which was on my allotment. 

 " This I did by hired labour ; I made it chiefly myself. 

 " I then ploughed a field of about six acres, except 

 "three-quarters of an acre, which was done by hired 

 " labour. I found ploughing rather different from book- 

 " keeping, but not near so difficult nor so laborious as 

 " I had expected. Since then I have been collecting 

 " stones from the fields, which are very numerous in 

 " some parts, and dragging them off. I have had about 

 " six acres of wild land (from which the heavy timber 

 " had been cut before) cleared of logs and bushes, and 

 " am getting them ploughed ; though I intend trying to 

 " do part of this myself. My intended next year's crops 

 "will be as follows: — Three acres wheat; three acres oats ; 

 " one acre peas ; two acres turnips ; three acres potatoes ; 



