The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1875-08-02
LITERARY
THE SETTLERS TRAGEDY.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "GINX BABY.

RY THE AUTHOR OF s'GINxs BABY
eyes: that's a queer lookin place, now.
amt it? It's the best piece of land you've
seen anywhere in this day drive, and that's
a good deal to say; and likewise, it was
once the prettiest farm along this road.
Why. sir, | mind the time when that porch
was all a glory with roses like 'ouse in q
hopora bouffe for all the world An right
hin the front there, where you see all them
docks an mullen a CROWN hat was chuck
full O. beds of Lunnun pride, an chinay as
tiers, an sweet mignonelte, you could smell
the place mile off of warm summers
night All! she was fine girl, she was,
that lived up there: an terri bic story that
'ouse tells 1t amt just pleasant to be on
the next lot to it."
Mr Welbeloved, for | had stumbled in
nv Canada ramble on a person of that
name, thus spoke of log house and lot
which had attracted my curiosity On one
Of the best stretches of arabic land, lying
well up the gentle swell of the valley, with
a good exposure, backed by fine woodland,
was-a singular sight in that raw, yet
thriving settlement-a "concussion.' which
seemed to have been swept by some spirit
of ruin and decay. The log house stood,
but it's roof was rotting; its slight porch
had been shattered or displaced by snow; its
windows remained unbroken but one could
see from the dragging paper blinds which
had once made them gay with color, that
there was nc housewife within to mend or
change things; and all over the eight or ten
acres of land which had been cleared about
the house, there grew as high as the hnre-
moved stumps wealth of weed, such as IS
only the crop of absolute desertion and
death BY this place, on one side, my
friend Welbeloved, at whose place had
drawn up for midday meai, titled thriving
farm: the evidence was visible IN the roll OF
ripening wheat dotted with the disks OF tn
blackened stumps, and in the cattle that
lo,tered from the suns heat under the cir
Gle of young naples he had left in corner
of one of his fields, where spring welled W
from among some powders, and by the
vruut of well-fed pigs which wandered
down the road and cooled their heated side
in the marshy bottom, where found thu
road like a floating stage of logs. More
over. there was Mrs. Wellbeloved. little
weary-looking perhaps for number nine II
the cradle was 1.-THE most bothersome child
that il was, God bless it, she had eve
knew" and two or three fine strappin
bows that came home to the noontide inca
from some hoeing work at the back of tn
concession with an appetite for the pork an
corn that made me envious.
Wellbeloved was n Londoner, and ha
been in Canada exactly six years. He wa
..iust turned forty" having married 8
twenty, and now possessed graduatin
scale of voracious infantry. which must il
the metropolis have severely worn his enc,
oies and Mrs Wellbeloved's patience, bu
Which. out here, was his most promisin
sourse of wealth. The elder boy, nearly l!
had added q hundred acres to the origina
government concession. and as the boy
grow nm more would follow. Already MI
Wellbeioved's house and barns began to tai
an an mir. if not Of wealth or even comfor
Of sufhciency, which, as one looked IN
bronxed face and clear eyes and listened
his CHEEKY voice, gave promise that tn
time might come when the patriarch shou
bless his sons and daughters, and his son
in-law and daughters-in-law. looking
upon a scene of civilized beauty and ferti
", and dividing among them no mean
heritance. Such scenes have been wltnes
ed in earlier settlements, and in the antes
dent district of Lake Simcoe. alcng who
cultivated shores had traversed to Must
Ia; and such scenes win be repeated o.
and over again as tide of population lea
ON and into the forest wilds Of Ontario.
..Well." l said, whats the story Of 4
nl.ces It seems odd that il should be .
serted like this. Why don't you take
up" -,
rod Q, that soil for its pawn in gold.
NO, There's blood on that land; let 50
stranger come an wipe it hout-"
He wiped the beads from his foreh
1.-THE day was hot) and began:
1.-The man that took hup that coaeess
va. . gentleman, leastways, sir, you n