GRANDFATHER'S OLD HOME IN ERIN, ONTARIO, CANADA.

See description on opposite page.

From an old proof-photo, so badly faded as to be scarcely discernible, taken in 1894, and preserved by Mrs. William Davidson, of Fever-
sham, Ontario, Canada, our artist and engraver have produced the above highly creditable picture.

The modern addition on the left occupies the place of the old domestic workshop. The old active use of the stone basement has been abandoned. A small added lean-to, on the right, protects the front door. Otherwise, the house stands as built 93 years ago.-W. H. T.

plenty of room. The basement of the house was of stone, fronting on a side road, and was built partly into a bank about ten feet high; this formed the kitchen and dining room, which also contained one bed. In the center of the end toward the road, was a large, well-built, stone fireplace that would take in four-foot wood, with a stone chimney to the top of the house. Close to the right of this fireplace was a large stone oven built in the same masonry and with its flue leading into the chimney. The entrance door was on the end alongside of the oven and had a glass sash in its upper part; two other small windows served rather poorly to light the room. The upper or main story was built over the basement and extended back over the top of the bank about fifteen feet, forming two or three bedrooms. The large best room was directly above the kitchen. It had a fireplace connected with the main chimney. Grandfather and grandmother's bed was in a recess to the right, between chimney and side wall and the corresponding recess on opposite side of chimney, contained grandfather's bookcase and books, and business table. This was the main living and reception room, and had its front door on the side to be entered from the top of the bank. The kitchen was entered from the end on the lower level. About three rods in front of the kitchen was a beautiful perennial spring, walled up with stone, so as to be two feet deep, with a nice little creek going away from it, cool in summer and never freezing in winter. They generally kept a pet trout in it, who had his cavern at the bottom of the stones, generally out of sight, but would come at call for feeding. With hard work we could empty the spring low enough to catch him with our hands and for a short time admire his wiggling beauty. But to us boys and Mary, the bank and a hand sleigh were the most interesting of all. We could slide down hill to our heart's content; and on thawy days could roll down big snowballs and make snow men. The first visit was also extended to take in our Scotch relatives on the west side of Erin, but how we got there and how we got back to Norval, I do not recall. I think father returned very soon and left it to some of our uncles to bring us back.

MATERNAL RELATIVES

While my object now is to finish the record of grandfather's career, then to proceed to father's and others, yet there is such an interweaving of lives, in the events common to each, that as they occurred in relation to both sides of our family, so we must narrate them.

Our second visit to Erin was made in the winter of 1843, Uncle Laughlin and wife came down from Erin to visit his father-in-law (McKinmon on the seventh line of Esquesing) and then came to Norval and took mother, and us five boys, with Harriet, the baby, back with them to Erin, and I think at about the same time, father was called upon by a Mr. Connell, of Toronto, to go across the country, to the Georgian Bay, to examine and report on a mill site. We thus spent the last half of the winter visiting first with our Scotch relatives. There were four families: Uncle Donald, with one child; Uncle Munn and Aunt Sally's family of one girl, Mary, and five boys, the oldest being about a year and a half older than myself; Uncle Lachlin's family of three boys, the oldest being about a year or more younger than I; and also Uncle John's with one baby boy. They were all so close to each other, that we could walk from one place to the other, if roads were good, which was seldom the case, as it was a winter of very deep snow. It is plain that we five boys matched up with the Munn boys pretty well. I, nine years old, could help feed the cattle and do chores and then we would have all the more time for play, which was mainly sliding down hill, digging in the snow, or chasing red squirrels about the barn and fences, or catching the young cattle by the tail to give us a good run. There were no schools, or else it was too far or the roads too bad to go. At my other uncle's, I learned to thresh with a flail, and clear up and winnow out the grain with a fanning mill; we boys turned the crank and could hold the bags for the grain to be shoveled into them, and pitch sheaves down from the mow; the last was fun, but crank turning did not measure up much as fun. This was the first winter of the Millerites, the end of the world preachers. I think at that time the end

was to come that year, or the next, I am not sure; of course, now it does not matter which, but at that time, with many people it was a subject of great concern.

It was a winter of great snowfall, the depth being from three to four feet. Teams meeting each other had great difficulty in passing. There were but few large clearings, and, in such, the roads were impassable. Uncle Laughlin took us to grandfather's, and we had a hard time to get there through the rough bush roads and the drifted roads in the clearings. It was only nine miles, but it took the greater part of the day to make the journey. This second visit was much like the first of two years previous. Grandfather and grandmother and Aunt Harriet were much the same, Mary and we boys had grown older. Aunt Susan and Uncle John were married. Aunt living in Otanabee, one hundred and fifty miles away, and Uncle John across the road from grandfather. Aunt Harriet's younger children, Julia and Henry, were with us. All these with mother and her six children, made a big family, and we had a lively time for two or three weeks. It was on this visit that I made my best acquaintance with grandfather's books. I also learned some more about grandfather's horse team, Myra, a gray mare, and a bay horse, Bill. Myra was well-behaved and kindly. Bill was prankish and uncertain. He would get up a runaway sometimes for a change. My first recollection of the horse was when grandfather and grandmother made us a visit to Norval, the first and only one as I recollect. They came in a wagon and rode in a double-armed, bark bottom chair, specially and strongly made for the wagon. When not required for riding out, the big wagon chair formed a good settee in the kitchen. The visit was much enjoyed by father and mother, and was a matter of much interest to us children. In regard to chairs, grandfather had a few that were very finely made, with what are called rush bottoms. I never knew such to be made in Canada. He also had an excellent Connecticut clock, the first one I had seen, with wooden wheels, but the usual coiled wire strike, which seemed to me so sweet and musical, and the nice ogee moulded and veneered case, with a mirror in the door.