apparent only towards the close of the long winter, when 

 some old veteran of the canoe or saddle would make a "grand 

 promenade" through the settlement, with his ox and sled, 

 making known his wants, incidentally, at his different camps 

 among his old friends, finding always before he left his sled 

 made the heavier by the women's hands. This was simply 

 done ; few in the wild country but had met with sudden exi- 

 gencies in supply, knew well the need at times of one man to 

 another, and, when asked for aid, gave willingly.. Or it may 

 be that some large-hearted, jovial son of the chase had over- 

 rated his winter store, or underrated the assiduity of his 

 friends. His recourse in such case being the more carefully 

 estimated stock of some neighbor, who could in no wise suffer 

 the reproach to lie at his door, that he had turned his back, 

 in such emergence, upon his good-natured, if injudicious, 

 countryman. 



This practical communism — borrowed from the Indians, 

 among whom it was inviolable — was, in the matter of hospi- 

 tality, the rule of all, — a reciprocation of good offices, in the 

 absence of all houses of public entertainment, becoming a social 

 necessity. The manner of its exercise hearty, a knitting of 

 the people together, — no one was at a loss for a winter camp 

 when travelling. Every house he saw was his own, the busiling 

 wife, with welcome in her eyes, eager to assure your comfort. 

 The supper being laid and dealt sturdily with, the good man's 

 pipe and your own alight and breathing satisfaction, — a 

 neighbor soul drops in to swell the gale of talk, that rocks 

 you at last into a restful sleep. How now, my masters ! 

 Smacks not this of Arcady ? 



Early and universal marriage was the rule, our Utopia 

 denying no man or woman at the season when the ductile 

 svmpathies intertwine most easily, — the intended happiness 

 wrought in with married life, and the care of offspring. There 

 were thus no defrauded women — called, by a cruel irony, "old 

 maids ;" no isolated, mistaken men, cheated out of themselves, 

 and robbed of the best training possible for man. This vital 

 fact was fraught with every good. 



