"It is only to Canada that I intend to ship myself," replied Frederick
somewhat shyly.

"Worse, and worse!" retorted H. "Why, what do you expect to get there?"

"Get a farm for nothing, and make a fortune in five years," said
Frederick.

"If the farm is to be given away for nothing I may venture to say, _it
will be worth nothing_," replied H., and continued, "I had an
acquaintance who went to Canada a few years ago with £500; and having
lived three years upon one of those 'nothing farms' or rather, living
upon his money during that time, he returned to England utterly worth
_nothing_. Why, Fred! such farms may be suitable enough for men of iron
muscles and wooden stomachs, and who can work whether they eat or
not;--men who have nothing to lose except their life, and would even
sacrifice that for a small amount. But for either you or I to go there
in search of a living, or anything else, except death and horror, would
be worse for us than hanging; it would eventually result in
strangulation by starvation. And besides, as my acquaintance informed
me, the woods are infested with wild animals; and if a fellow attempted
to venture out at night very possibly his carcass would be very soon
deposited in the inside of a dozen of wolves. He further told me that
the trees during summer rained down myriads of mosquitoes as large as
beetles, with stings like hornets and in the shape of a tube, by which
means a dozen of them could suck up a fellow's blood in a night; and
were by far a greater plague than the grasshoppers of Egypt. To prevent
them from settling upon himself he covered his head and neck with a mask
made from deer-skin, in which he cut holes to inhale air and see
through; but despite of such precautions they would sometimes force