(9, p. 67.)

Many were the privations and discomforts to which various of the labouring classes were subjected, during these times, through the scarcity of employment; while the overreaching and fraudulent dealings of some who pretended to be employers—of which several instances could be given—added not a little to the sorrows of the day. In order to eke out a scanty meal, not a few have been obliged to search the bush sometimes for necho, to obtain their hearts, to make up by a little art in cooking what might be termed a meal, and on which to do a hard day’s work.∗ I have even heard one mother relate to another, by way of recommendation, how she has taken young sowthistle, and boiled it up with a little salt, to satisfy the hunger of her children, when she had nothing else to give them, because her husband’s master would not serve him that day with a little flour, even though it was due.