Every man in this country is his own glazier; this you will laugh at; but if he does not wish to see and feel the discomfort of broken panes, he must learn to put them in his windows with his own hands. Workmen are not easily to be had in the backwoods when you want them; and it would be preposterous to hire a man at high wages, to make two days’ journey to and from the nearest town to mend your windows. Boxes of glass of several different sizes are to be bought at a very cheap rate in the stores. My husband amused himself by glazing the windows of the house preparatory to their being fixed in. To understand the use of carpenter’s tools, I assure you, is no despicable or useless kind of knowledge here. I would strongly advise all young men coming to Canada to acquire a little acquaintance with this valuable art, as they will often be put to great inconvenience for the want of it. I was once much amused with hearing the remarks made by a very fine lady, the reluctant sharer of her husband’s emigration, on seeing the son of a naval officer of some rank in the service busily employed in making an axe-handle out of a piece of rock-elm. “I wonder you allow George to degrade himself so,” she said, addressing his father. The captain looked up with surprise. “Degrade himself! In what manner, madam? My boy neither swears, drinks whisky, steals, nor tells lies.” “But you allow him to perform tasks of the most menial kind. What is he now better than a hedge-carpenter; and I suppose you allow him to chop, too?” “Most assuredly I do. That pile of logs in the cart there was all cut by him after he had left study yesterday,” was the reply. “I would see my boys dead before they should use an axe like common labourers.” “Idleness is the root of all evil,” said the captain. “How much worse might my son be employed if he were running wild about the streets with bad companions.” “You will allow this is not a country for gentlemen or ladies to live in,” said the lady. “It is the country for gentlemen that will not work, and cannot live without, to starve in,” replied the captain, bluntly; “and for that reason I make my boys early accustom themselves to be usefully and actively employed.” “My boys shall never work like common mechanics,” said the lady, indignantly. “Then, madam, they will be good for nothing as settlers; and it is a pity you dragged them across the Atlantic.” “We were forced to come. We could not live as we had been used to do at home, or I never would have come to this horrid country.” “Having come hither you would be wise to conform to circumstances. Canada is not the place for idle folks to retrench a lost fortune in. In some parts of the country you will find most articles of provision as dear as in London; clothing much dearer, and not so good, and a bad market to choose in.” “I should like to know, then, who Canada is good for?” said she, angrily.