I Had Also Purchased
One Hundred Acres More For 1 Pound 10s. Per Acre, From A Private
Individual; This Also Was Considered Cheap At The Time.
These lots, forming altogether a compact farm of three hundred and
sixty acres, were situated on the sloping banks of a beautiful lake,
or, rather, expansion of the river Otonabee, about half-a-mile wide,
and studded with woody islets.
From this lake I afterwards procured
many a good meal for my little family, when all other means of
obtaining food had failed us. I thus secured a tract of land which
was amply sufficient for the comfortable subsistence of a family,
had matters gone well with me.
It should be distinctly borne in mind by the reader, that uncleared
land in a remote situation from markets possesses, properly
speaking, no intrinsic value, like cleared land, for a great deal of
labour or money must be expended before it can be made to produce
anything to sell. My half-pay, which amounted to about 100 pounds
per annum of Canadian currency, was sufficient to keep us supplied
with food, and to pay for clearing a certain extent of land, say
ten acres every year, for wheat, which is immediately afterwards
sown with grass-seeds to supply hay for the cattle during winter.
Unfortunately, at this period, a great change took place in my
circumstances, which it was impossible for the most prudent or
cautious to have foreseen.
An intimation from the War-office appeared in all the newspapers,
calling on half-pay officers either to sell their commissions or to
hold themselves in readiness to join some regiment.
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Page 298 of 670
Words from 80972 to 81245
of 181664
