The Log House by the Lake | Page 2

than all of us put together."
Philip--Mr Ashton's eldest son--had not spoken after he had first expressed his feelings with his brothers. His thoughts were elsewhere. A bright airy castle he had lately raised, had just been hurled rudely to the ground, and he was stunned by the crash.
Mr Ashton retired to rest that night with a mind greatly relieved. He had not doubted the affection of his children, and he was assured that it would enable them to bear their reverse of fortune with cheerfulness. When he rose in the morning he prayed earnestly for strength to go through the work required of him, and that is never denied to those who seek it from Him who can alone afford it. In all the work he received able assistance from his son. Philip had not left a single debt unpaid at the University, by which, under his altered circumstances, he might ever afterwards have been hampered. Mr Ashton, having never allowed household bills to run on, was comparatively free from debt.
All his affairs arranged, he found himself with an income--arising from a settlement on his wife--of two hundred pounds a-year, and about fifteen hundred pounds in ready money. Once more his family being assembled, he pointed out to them that though their plans were very good, if they were to remain a united family they must look to the future, and seek in another country the opportunity of developing their energies.
"What do you think of Canada?" he asked.
"A capital country!" cried Charley, who, as the youngest, spoke first. "I know all about the sleighing, and the skating, and the ice-boats, and the coasting down snow-hills, and the shooting huge deer, and the snow-shoeing, and the sailing on the lakes, and the fishing, and the sporting of all sorts,--not a country like it, I should say."
"It's a country for hard work, I know," said Harry. "Nothing I should fancy so much as cutting down trees, building log-huts, fencing in fields, and ploughing and reaping. Ever since I read `Laurie Todd' I have wished to go there." Philip and his sisters expressed themselves equally ready to emigrate.
No time was lost in making the necessary preparations, after it was resolved that they should go to Canada. It was highly gratifying to them to find that several of their servants wished to accompany them. Two only, however, could be taken. Of these Mrs Summers had been the nurse of all the younger children, and had lately acted as housekeeper. "It would break my heart, marm, if you were to go out to a strange country, and I, who am still strong and hearty, not to be with you to help you in all your troubles," she said, with tears in her eyes, to Mrs Ashton. "Though you take them like an angel, marm, they are troubles."
The other, Peter Puckle by name, had been first stable-boy, then page, and lately footman. He engaged Harry to plead his cause. "The wages and the passage-money shan't stand in the way, Master Harry," he urged. "I have not been in the family all these years without laying by something, and it's the honour of serving your good father still is all I want."
The surface of the broad Atlantic was scarcely ruffled by a breeze as the steamer with the Ashton family on board rushed across it. "Well, Sophy, I declare it is worth being ruined for the sake of the fun we have on board," exclaimed Charley, to his eldest sister, who was sitting reading on deck, at a short distance from the rest of the party.
A gentleman standing by heard the remark, and finding Charley by himself directly afterwards, he observed, smiling, "Why, my young friend, you do not look as if you were ruined. I have never met a happier family than yours appears to be. What did you mean by saying that?"
"Well, I do not think that we are ruined really, sir," said Charley, artlessly; "still, my papa had many thousand pounds a-year till lately, and we lived in a large house in London, and had another in the country, and Philip was at Oxford and Harry at Eton, and I was going there; and now we are to live in a log-hut in the back woods in Canada, and that makes us all so jolly, because it will be such capital fun. Don't you think so?"
"I have had some experience of life in the back woods," answered the gentleman. "It has its advantages and its disadvantages, though I have little doubt but that you will find it pleasant."
"What, do you live in Canada, sir?" asked Charley.
"Yes; I have lived there all my life," said the stranger. "But, my young friend, you say that you are ruined, and yet I see that you have servants