CHAPTER II.
DESCRIPTION OF ELIZABETH'S BIRTH-PLACE AND
EARLY CHILDHOOD.
"The din of cities she had never known:
Her feet had never trod the gay parade;
But she had felt a joy, when all alone
She sought the river's bank, the forest's shade."
The native village of dear Elizabeth is beautifully situated about sixteen miles from Toronto, the seat of government in Upper Canada. The road from thence to this peaceful Indian settlement opens to the eye of the traveller a diversified scene of land and water, hill and dale, the cultivated farm, and the native forest.
On the left spread the expansive waters of the lake Ontario, now bearing on its magnificent bosom the stately steam-boat, on which formerly the birch-bark canoe of the hardy Indian was only seen to glide. To the right interminable woods form a fine back-ground to a country partially cultivated and settled.
From the undulations of the road the distant prospect is sometimes entirely obscured, and the tall dark pines throw around their deep shadows, giving a sense of loneliness and a tone of pensive feeling. Glimpses are caught and lost at intervals of the beautiful lake, when suddenly it opens
