“Everyone is in great excitement just now, because we have to elect an overseer (the same as our English mayor), and canvassing is going on pretty smartly. So, with one thing and another, we are quite busy. The little ones are all well, happy, and growing very rapidly. My wee Canadian is the happiest baby I have ever seen. Mr. Rendall has just bought a piece of land, consisting of 320 acres, adjoining our homestead. When the railway comes, that land will be very valuable. We have bought a one-year-old calf for $11, with a ton of hay thrown in.” After giving an account of enjoyable social gatherings and frolics at Christmas and New Year’s Eve, our chronicler added: “We are most amused at the reports that reach us from England as to the terrible plight we are in, even to the verge of starvation! As a matter of fact we are quite happy and contented, and very much better off in every way than we were in England. As for food, we certainly live as well as ever we did. There are now two butchers in the town. Our meat is delivered at the door, and is of the very best quality. Certainly we have had difficulties to surmount and hardships to endure, but we quite expected them when we left England; and at that time we treasured up a reserve fund of determination and pluck which stood us in good stead when the need came. I would never advise anyone to come out here who is the least afraid of work—they are better off at home. There is plenty of room to breathe in this country, and if the work is hard, the freedom—which is the inevitable attribute of the life here—makes one far less susceptible to physical fatigue than one was in the old country, where there is a feeling of weighty oppression to handicap one’s energies. Here one feels that each week’s work is a step onwards, while ten years’ hard toil in Devonshire brought nothing but disappointment and additional anxiety. “There is no doubt whatever that Lloydminster bids fair to become a very important centre. Its growth week by week is marvellous. The Government are now erecting a large immigration hall in anticipation of the arrival of new-comers in the spring. Meetings are being held now to discuss and perfect arrangements for receiving expected friends and families and ensure their safe conduct right up to the colony.