The fishermen in the harbour were making fabulous catches of valuable mackerel and other fish. The smaller streams near swarmed with salmon and huge trout. Here and there on our rambles giant moose faced us for a moment, then went crashing off into the forest. Vegetation was springing up with marvellous rapidity, while all day long the woods rang with the song and chatter of nesting birds. An exuberance of wild beauty and unrestrained life abounded everywhere. In a little over a month our party, having accomplished the object for which it had been sent, set off for Halifax, not, however, before I had engaged to return and accept a position as clerk with Mr. Simonds later in the season. We found a spirit of remarkable cheerfulness in Halifax. The soldiers had all sailed for New York. Many of the Loyalists, both men and women, had obtained situations. In several places, about the outskirts of the town, the more resolute ones, to whom lands had been granted, were boldly hewing their own way into the forest; and here and there, where the gaps on the slopes were widest in the broken ranks of the trees, small log houses were being built. In a few days the matter of my own grant on the St. John had been fully arranged. Since I was not yet of age, the grant--it consisted of four hundred acres some miles up the river in what Mr. Simonds had told me was the most fertile part--was made out in my mother's name. My sister Caroline, who was still engaged with the Halifax family, was delighted with the prospect of having a new home of our own. 'Mother, won't it be grand?' she said one evening as we sat and talked together, 'simply grand. Four hundred acres--all ours--a big river in front and mountains behind. We'll be far richer than ever we were. When are we to go, Roger?' 'Not till next spring,' I said. 'David Elton has secured a lot alongside of ours; he is to do some chopping on both places this summer, then during the winter we shall prepare for building houses. Next spring the Government is to give us seed, tools, and a cow.' A few days later, accompanied by Doctor Canfield and Duncan Hale, now free from his former duties as secretary, along with David Elton and several other farmers not yet settled about Halifax, I bade a cheerful goodbye to my mother and sisters and again set off for the St. John. It was the middle of August when we arrived. 'The Indians are acting finely up the river,' Mr. Simonds told us on our arrival, 'and as for the pirates, we have not seen hilt nor hair of them since they scuttled out of the harbour in the spring. That was a settler we gave them that day.' 'How's business been since?' I said.