of England. And a railway is being built through Manitoba now, in five different places, and emigrants are crowding in by every train. The mail goes soon, and I have three miles to walk for the post-office. They are all English round here. I sleep on the floor with blankets and buffalo robe-too cold for sheets. With love to all.

TO HIS MOTHER.

Cyprus Lodge, November 30, 1881.-Your letter is full of practical advice. I can milk, I can make butter, I can bake a little, etc.; in fact, I think I could bach it (i.e. keep bachelor's quarters) very comfortably, and with economy. Now to business. There is a lot (640 acres) close to here, the best land in Manitoba in a civilized spot, for sale, homestead, and pre-emption, 160 acres for nothing, 160 for $1 an acre, twelve years to pay it in; 320 acres, $2 dollars an acre, twelve years to

pay it in. The land is valuable for this reason -a railway will run through it in two years. Fellows are now selling their lots for $4000, with about $300 worth of improvements on them. So it is a safe investment for money, at ten per cent. (the least possible calculation). If you can give me money to start on, I could buy the land this winter. Thirty pounds would do that, but then there are my logs for my house, stables, etc., this winter, before March, that I may build in the autumn; breaking about twenty acres this spring with oxen. One can put nothing but potatoes in, first breaking, which would give me time to break a nicer lot for next year. I have talked all this over with Boulton, who has been four years in the country, and was the first to settle in the district. I am now qualified to look after myself; and as for starting, it takes three years to make anything but cover expenses, so the sooner started the better. This year I should break

necessary.

as much as possible, put in one acre and a half of potatoes, build my house, and save hay for my oxen, and a cow, probably, and have two pigs. Digging a cellar to keep the potatoes, and a well for water, takes time. Poplar logs to be sawn up for lumber, for my house, probably sixteen feet by twenty; and teaming to Emmerson for stores, tools, window sashes, etc.; so, you see, a good start in the spring would be This lot is not open for settlement yet, so I should have to be ready with the cash to pounce upon it; and they are nice English people round here, who would be glad to help me and advise. Besides, it is unheard of! In the middle of one of the best districts, well settled, with a railway already surveyed, and a bonus of $70,000 promised, it will save taking things twenty miles to a market, and having to go 110 miles to Emmerson to buy anything. Portage la Prairie is thirty miles north of this. The Boultons are very nice people, Plymouth

Brethren, Bible reading, and prayer every morning and evening. Graham Boulton is a very sensible, nice fellow; it is he who advises me to stop my wandering, and settle here. He also showed me how he lost a year by having no one to advise him. So I really think, if I settle now, it will be better than waiting till I am twenty-four. Boulton has just come back from Emmerson, with his mother, and I have been managing his farm in his absence.

lots, 1280 acres, but only farms one.

He has two

The other

is for speculation. He expects to get $20 an acre for it in four years. I should like to begin at once, if possible; so I trust to your powers, dear mother, to give me help, both in money and advice. The country here is splendid, they say, in summer, so I have hopes that if I take up a lot, when I get my shanty fairly comfortable, you will brave the voyage, and come and spend one summer with me before long. At Eastwood I used to work in the kitchen

garden sometimes, so I know something of it. I should not buy a team of horses the first year, by which I should save one year's oats, which are 2s. a bushel here now; hay costs the trouble of cutting and drawing in, and oxen thrive on it. I used to churn at Eastwood, and made the butter once or twice. Write and let me know your decision about the land as soon as possible. If you let me take up land at once, I should take up the whole lot, as I should not be able to get land adjoining, if I take less, when I wanted it. If I miss this lot, I shall start land-hunting directly the spring comes, and the snow clears. The land here is taken up at once, so the longer I wait the further west I shall have to go; in fact, this is the only lot for miles round, and this is vacant on account of a quarrel between the Syndicate and Government, as to whom it belongs. I will send my diary home as soon as the year closes. I shall anxiously await an answer. I can change Bank