On Our Selection

g the S

y-eight of us, and all the things-beds, tubs, a bucket, the two cedar chairs with the pine bottoms and backs that Dad put in them, some

rth; but Dad had a mixture of sand and fresh cow-dung with which he used to keep it level. About once every month he would put it on; and everyone had to keep outside that day till it was dry. There were no locks on the doors: p

out on a tree the surveyor's marks, showing the boundary of our ground. It must have been fine land, the way Dad talked about it! There was very valuable timber on it, too, so he said; and he showed us a place, a

Dwyer's-was three miles away. I often wonder how the women stood it the first few years; and I can remember how M

enced. It was a delightful topic before we started,; but in two weeks the clusters of fires that illumined the

there was down. We thought then the worst was over; but how little we knew of clearing land! Dad was never tired of calculating a

ation. Sometimes Dan and Dave would sit in the shade beside the billy of water and gaze at the small patch that had taken so long to do; then they would turn hopelessly to what was before them and ask Dad (who would never take a spell) what was the use of thinking of ever getting such a place cleared? And

they got seventy pounds last year, besides feed for the f

r water-cask, trolly, nor dray; so we humped it-and talk about a drag! By the time you returned, if you had n't drained the bucket, in spite of the big drink you'd take before leaving the springs, more than half would certainly

ery much. We were all pleased because there was enough left after the tea had been made to give each

og like?" Dad told him: "Yell

he bushy tail-all th' hair had comed off." "Where'd y' see th

tea. I did n't want any more. Dan jumped off the

ing on the selection like a horse was an old "tuppy" mare that Dad used to straddle. The date of her foaling went further back than Dad's, I believe; and she was shaped something like an alderman. We found her one day in about eighteen inches of mud, with both eyes

ad and Mother sat inside talking it over. Sometimes Dad would get up and walk round the room shaking his head; then he w

used because he remember

Mister Dwyer to le

es; and the problem was solv