Betty had plenty of potatoes, without the trouble of planting, or the expense of buying; she never kept a cow, yet she sold butter and milk; but she had a fashion, and it proved a convenient one to her, of making pets of the cattle of her neighbours.... we all looked upon Betty as a sort of freebooter, living upon the property of others.
-from Chapter V: "Our First Settlement,
and the Borrowing System"

A classic of Canadian frontier literature, this delightful volume was devoured by readers on both sides of the Atlantic when it was first published in 1852, who turned to it for an unvarnished portrait of homesteading in the woods of Upper Canada.

Though Moodie depicts a life that is harsh and dangerous in an unforgiving environment far from civilization, her sense of humor and embracing of adventure are extraordinary, and create an invaluable first-person document of a formative time in North American history.

Canadian writer SUSANNA MOODIE (1803-1885) was born in England and emigrated to Canada with her husband, a military officer, in 1832. The sister of author Catharine Parr Traill, Moodie also wrote Life in the Clearings (1853) and Matrimonial Speculations (1854).