ALONE IN THE FOREST. 161 



accept him and return with him to Canada. Accustomed 

 to the enjoyment of all the comforts which independent 

 means enabled her to command in the Old World, it was 

 little wonder that the young wife beheld with dismay the 

 homeliness of her new surroundings in the backwoods. 



She had felt the fatigue of a journey through the 

 sombre pine forest, and turned with deep disgust from 

 the unsightly prospect of half-cleared fields, disfigured 

 by charred stumps and surrounded by scorched and 

 blackened trees, in the midst of which lay her new 

 home. 



Where was the charming rural village her husband 

 had spoken of with pride and delight ? Here was only 

 a saw-mill — never a pleasant sight — heaps of newly- 

 sawn boards, all the debris of bark and chips, and the 

 skeleton frames of unfinished buildings scattered with- 

 out order over the rough ground. The stone house to 

 which she was introduced as her future residence con- 

 sisted simply of two rooms on the ground floor and two 

 small bedrooms above, with a kitchen, a wide barrack- 

 like lean-to built of boards against the main edifice. 



Is it to be wondered that a feeling of disappointment 

 and discontent took possession of her, and that, unable 

 to see the future with her husband's sanguine, hopeful 

 eyes, she should often weep and sigh over her lot ; that 

 she should feel the change from her former life, and that 

 the remembrance of all she had lost in her own beloved 

 country should make the contrast more painful ? 



