There was no very valuable timber on Bates's land.

The romance of the lumber trade had already passed from this part of the country, but the farmers still spent their winters in getting out spruce logs, which were sold at the nearest saw-mills.

Bates and Cameron had possessed themselves of a large portion of the hill on which they had settled, with a view to making money by the trees in this way--money that was necessary to the household, frugal as it was, for, so far, all their gains had been spent in necessary improvements.

Theirs had been a far-seeing policy that would in the end have brought prosperity, had the years of uninterrupted toil on which they calculated been realised.
It was not until the next day that Trenholme fully understood how helpless the poor Scotchman really was in his present circumstances.

In the early morning there was the live-stock to attend to, which took him the more time because he was not in strong health; and when that was done it seemed that there was much ado in the house before the old woman would sit down peacefully for the day.