CHAPTER VII.

EMPLOYMENTS OF A MAN OF EDUCATION IN THE COLONY. -- YANKEE WEDDING. --
MY COMMISSION. -- WINTER IN CANADA. -- HEALTHINESS OF THE CANADIAN
CLIMATE. -- SERACH FOR LAND. -- PURCHASE WILD LAND AT DOURO. -- MY
FLITTING. -- PUT UP A SHANTY. -- INEXPERIENCE IN CLEARING. -- PLAN-
HEAPS.

THE employments of a respectable Canadian settler are certainly of a
very multifarious character, and he may be said to combine, in his own
person, several professions, if not trades. A man of education will
always possess an influence, even in bush society: he may be poor, but
his value will not be tested by the low standard of money, and
notwithstanding his want of the current coin of the realm, he will be
appealed to for his judgment in many matters, and will be inducted into
several offices, infinitely more honourable than lucrative. My friend
and father-in-law, being mild in manners, good-natured, and very
sensible, was speedily promoted to the bench, and was given the
colonelcy of the second battalion of the Durham Militia.

At this time there was no place of worship nearer than Port Hope, where
the marriage ceremony could be legally performed. According to the
Colonial law, if a magistrate resides more than eighteen miles from a
church, he is empowered to marry parties applying to him for that
purpose, after three written notices have been put up in the most
public places in the township, with the names and residences of the
parties for at least a fortnight previous to the marriage. I witnessed