For some time after the establishment of the school, I met with no particular instance of good or bad fortune. The clearing on my farm, as well as the girdling of the trees, had proceeded so well, that by the beginning of November, when I paid off Amidab Peters for his job, four acres were in crop, and five or six girdled and chopped, the whole making one of the best clearings in the township, although I was among the latest to begin; so that I had good cause to be satisfied with my prospects, and no reason to repent of having become a settler at Babelmandel.

But as it would be harmful to the earth if it was ever summer and sunshine, so would it be prejudicial to man if fortune were ever smiling. It is necessary for our contentation that we should now and then be reminded by a blast or a shower that all we possess is precarious; and therefore, although I acknowledge that at this epoch the comforts of my lot were meted in a large measure, the courteous reader must not imagine I was spared from the wonted cares and anxieties of an inhabitant of the bush; for truly I had my trials.

For some days about the middle of November, we had a delicious enjoyment of the Indian summer; it was later than usual in the season, but for that it was the more delightful, especially as it had been preceded by cold, showery, blustering weather.

Every one felt, in the temperance of the air, as if a palpable tranquillity had been effused abroad; a visible softness overspread the face of things, and a pleasing shadowiness filled the woods. The sun, veiled with the dim haze, gleamed like an opal stone, and looked down with the indolent eye of a voluptuary content with enjoyment.

One of those calm and beautiful days happened to be a Sunday; and the settlement not having that day been visited by a preacher of any persuasion, the young men walked into the woods; among the rest, my two sons, who went together.