Tonya Allen, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. This file was produced from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions. LIFE IN CANADA FIFTY YEARS AGO: PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS AND REMINISCENCES OF A SEXAGENARIAN. BY CANNIFF HAIGHT "Ah, happy years! Once more who would not be a boy?" _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage._ TO THE YOUNG MEN OF CANADA, UPON WHOSE INTEGRITY AND ENERGY OF CHARACTER THE FUTURE OF THIS GREAT HERITAGE OF OURS RESTS, THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. When a man poses before the world--even the Canadian world--in the _role_ of an author, he is expected to step up to the footlights, and explain his purpose in presenting himself before the public in that capacity. The thoughts of the world are sown broadcast, very much as the seed falls from the sweep of the husbandman's hand. It drops here and there, in good ground and in stony places. Its future depends upon its vitality. Many a fair seed has fallen on rich soil, and never reached maturity. Many another has shot up luxuriantly, but in a short time has been choked by brambles. Other seeds have been cast out with the chaff upon the dung heap, and after various mutations, have come in contact with a clod of earth, through which they have sent their roots, and have finally grown into thrifty plants. A thought thrown out on the world, if it possesses vital force, never dies. How much is remembered of the work of our greatest men? Only a sentence here and there; and many a man whose name will go down through all the ages, owes it to the truth or the vital force of the thought embedded in a few brief lines.