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& ' 3 . ~ E'S nothing delicate looking about boots, is there? In that respect they e fit emblems of the day's work done by 'early settler; At sun-up he would feed ° and his pigs, and take a look at his -/@xé. He would edge it up a bit; 'or maybe 3 nick out of it, if he had been so un- as to touch a stone with it the day "Then he would go in to his break- 'and we will not trouble to follow him just now, but later on a. picture of his life will be given. . .'., &fter breakfast the clearing would be- "Rin. Men were wonderfully clever in those +" days with the axe. There is alégend told of i man who could split a sixpenny piece in two edgewise with that tool. | Certain it is thar those old time choppers, with their heavy bitted axes, could make a clean smooth 'Cut:that was pretty to see. Their trees were felled with the accuracy that characterizes the beaver in. his work; and these animals always fall their trees just where they want them. All this is becoming more or less a'lost art to-day. Few men can chop and saw and skid with the skill of the old pioneer, whose whole life was a training either directly or indirectly for this work. SH CHOPPING A MAN DOWN Chopping contests were part of the sport of the day, and one of the pastimes wis to "chop a man down." The contest was carried out in this fashion: After a tree had been felled and trimmed up, it was meas- ured tnto log lengths. Then the two chopping contestantsclimbed one to -each end of the log--=the better man at the but end. If the buttend man could get his log cut through first, he was considered to have "chopped down his man." . Sometimes the other man did come down with a rush, for the small end of thé log was often higher in the air than the big end. You ought to see the chips those men made, and the way they sunk the blades of their axes into the wood. Those axes weighed five pounds or more; but good choppers could: swing them all day long with ease. Indeed, as the country became more settled; they would chop all day, and then tramp a féw miles to go to a dance that kept thém up till the "TORONTO - Bede st Bp AVINGS deposited in this bask draw the highest cuirent rate of interest. Withdrawals of part or the whole amount may be made when- PORT PERRY BRANCH i ry Hoe ~~ To-day we have no bush left worth mentioning. The Christie woods is'about the last piece, and it is now being cut down. At that time men looked. upon trees as their enemies standing in the way of progress and prosperity. Naturally an enemy of this kind would be destroyed with vigor and very successfully conquered. What a fortune those logs would bring to-day. Mr. John Rolph 'says that he bought good pine lumber to build his first house in Prince Albert for $6.00 per 1000 feet delivered on the lot. And he paid for the lumber in trade. Now one can scarcely get such lumber at any price It has gone; and very much of it went up in smoke. The first shingles made in this locality were of pine. The home of Mr. Bigelow and Mr. McCaw was shingled with pine thirty-five years ago, and the roof is in splendid shape to-day. In the days of which we are now writing, basswood troughs were more common than shingles, and greased paper sometimes took the place of glass. THE PLEASING SIDE OF CLEARING There was a fascination and romance about this here and there among the shadows, men and women would gather the sticks and chunks and feed the blazing fire. Three hours *of this task after supper was not considered drudgery Even to-day, any boy will be pleased if you let him feed a bonfire; and in those days bonfires meant cleared land, potash, and good crops. After the'land was cleared a bit, the corn roastings began. was plenty of fun in roasting green corn before a pile of blazin First you must have yout ears of corn ready; pile of logs and get a good blaze going. to the fire, and set the corn on end in a row in front of it, leaning the ends of the ears against the log. That corn needed watching and turn- ing or it would soon be done to a crisp on one side. Young folks enjoyed themselves immensel work. Flitting There g logs. then you set fire to your After that you roll a log close ~ "wee sma' hours;" 'but they would be back again on the job bright and _ early next morning: : brush, and later the log heaps. at ; al n able the amount of work that would be done : @ smial¥ stm of money. "Ten dollars an acre used to be the average price paid for chopping, clearing and fencing an cre of land fit for the Arroy Experienced hands could clear an acre in this manner n ten imagine working as they had to work fora dollar a day Later - In clearing land every effort was 'cut a much as possible so > 'Sometimes it was something very different from a dance that kept "them awake at nights." In the summer and fall they used to burn the At times the fire would start to spread, + and if the grass and undergrowth were dry, there would be a fight for life and home, when one man seemed to have to do the work of three. Those; who like seeing. splendidly built men work, would have en- joyed the: scene presented by these pioneers as they cleared the land. Over there you would see a pile of pries, strong, clean saplings, used for shifting the logs. "Why are there so many prepared? Simply because it was part of the fun of life to see how many pri¢s the strong man could And it was the small boy's job to keep the } clear from half an acre to an of many seasons back, blessing. One must recognize that these | Men would get gloriously drunk or his neighbors. verance, hospitality, and great faith. Seagrave Station Burned Some time after midmght Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Crooks woke up to find their room full of smoke. In fact | Mrs. Crooks was choking with it. Eh pd : | They. soon discouered that the station brush Burned. This clearing was on fire, and that if they were go- > piles ready, for buming. ing to get out with their lives they would have to move quickly. So they hastily 'picked up a few articles of ! clothing and dressed themselves as !best. they could. In the 'meantime ~ithey could hear the -fire crackilng 'around them. It is not likely 'that "Mr. Crooks could tell to-day just how "he and his wife got out.of that burn- ing building for be hasto goon crutches {and his. wife in her half smothered { condition would need assistance. = It was a. narrow "escape, for the building was burned right to the .ioto one brush pile, trunks of the trees into was all cut down, and made. The fallow was physical endurance and strong passions. Their fun was ofte irresistible power that gained coutrol of them, hide their feelings. and anybody that did seem to be ner, was considered odd, and often misunderstood of Their virtues have been the subject of song a year and will be in evidence all through these y at these corn roastings. There was nothing mamby pamby about their fun, for they were full blooded, healthy folk who were not making any great fuss about nice points of etiquette. You could eat with your knife, high handshake or the three cornered smile, and be know nothing of the dressed in the style | without losing caste or any other imaginary pec ple were rough. They had great 1 uproarious. soundly converted, according to the They made no effort to reserved in man- even disliked by and story for many pages-- courage, perse- (lo be Continued) covered that the warehouse nedr by was on file. There were some milk cans on the platform and some men took these and filled them with water, while others climbed on the roof to pour the water on to the fire. In a short time it was pnt out, and but little damage was done to the building because of the excellent service of this, volunteer fire brigade. There was a carload of furniture standing on the track belonging to the Fleurys who are moving into the Sea- grave locality. One sidé of the car was burned, but our informant did not hear that there was any special dam- age done to the furniture. Mr. Crooks became station master at Seagrave on April 1st 1878, a little more than thirty-five years ago. His friends will be sorry "to hear of his loss; which included an artificial limb valued at $100. Fortunately there was_$500. insurance on Mr. Crooks' share of the contents of the building. AFA 2% Sg, I VY ae ge Wa - Erg vs lua yh