The French in Upper Canada--Sir Wilfrid Laurier--Voyageurs and their songs--“A la Claire Fontaine”--Money-lenders--Educational matters--Expatriated Canadians--Successful railway speculation--A shrewd banker 181 CHAPTER XIV. Poor-tax--Poor-houses undesirable--The tramp nuisance--A tramp’s story--Mistaken charity--Office seekers--Election incidents 193 CHAPTER XV. Upper Canada’s favored situation--Our Great Lakes--Cases of apparent tides on Lake Ontario--Canadians as givers--Oshawa’s generous support to churches and charities--Life insurance--Amusing incidents of a railway journey--A “talking machine” 209 CHAPTER XVI. Drinking habits in the early days--Distilleries and mills--Treating prevalent--Drinking carousals--Delirium tremens--“One-Thousand-and-One” Society--Two gallon limit--Bibulous landlords--Whiskey fights--Typical Canadian pioneers--Clearing the farm--Sons and daughters married--Peaceful old age--Asleep in death--Conclusion 228 ILLUSTRATIONS AND PORTRAITS. PAGE Roger Conant’s Mill, Devon, England _Frontispiece_ Thomas Conant 6 Mrs. Thomas Conant 7 Map of Upper Canada (Ontario) 9 Roger Conant’s house, Salem, Mass. 18 Roger Conant’s first settlement in Upper Canada 33 Typical Logging Scene 40 Durham boats ascending River St. Lawrence 48 David Annis 52 Indian trading scene 65 Maple sugar making 78 Indian wigwams of birch bark 84 Potash making--the “melting” 97 Hauling cannon in the war of 1812 104 Moode Farewell’s tavern 122 Daniel Conant’s lumber mill 135 Meteoric shower (1833) 144 Daniel Conant 152 Mary Eliza Conant 153 Loading lumber on schooners, Lake Ontario 160 Refugees escaping over the ice at Oswego, N.Y. (1837) 172 Crossing Lake Ontario in a canoe 186 Assassination of Thomas Conant (1838) 193 Camp-meeting scene 209