and far from attractive, and the surrounding country was not very much
inhabited. The lumbering operations constituted the staple commerce,
and the shanties were the winter homes of the greater number of the
people.

Nearly all my life, except the last three years, was spent at home. I
never travelled much, and in fact, never expected to become a
traveller, and above all, an unwilling heroine in the North-West
troubles. I had several sisters and brothers. I was the eldest of the
family, and as such, for many years had to devote my time to household
cares. My school-days seem now the pleasantest period of my early
life. Since then I have known many ups and downs; but never felt the
same peace of mind and gayness of spirit that I have felt in days now
gone. I might say that I have lived three distinct lives. From my
birth until the day of my marriage, which took place on the 27th of
July, 1882, I led a uniform life. Few, if any changes, marked each
passing year. The seasons came and went, and the winter's snow fell
and the summer's sun ripened the golden harvests, and days flowed into
weeks, weeks into months, months into years, and year succeeded year
as I felt myself growing into womanhood. The changes in my life were
few and my troubles so small, that memory had scarcely ever to recall
a dark or dreary scene and hope always beckoned me on to the future.

The only events that seemed to stand out, landmarks in the past, were
two deaths in the family--the first my eldest brother and the second
my dearly beloved and much lamented father.

Had it not been for these two events I might drop a veil over all the
past and consider merely that I had lived through such a number of
years:-these years, like the great desert of the east, would stretch