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A NEW HOME-WHO'LL FOLLOW?

OR,

GLIMPSES OF WESTERN LIFE.

BY

MRS. MARY CLAVERS,

AN ACTUAL SETTLER.

Ladies or fair ladies-I would wish you--or I would request you, or I would entreat you,
not to fear-not to tremble; my life for yours.

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

SIDNEY'S ARCADIA.

A show, as it were, of an accompanable solitariness, and of a civil wildness.

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AL

22637.2.1

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
FROM

THE BEQUEST OF
EVERT JANSEN WENDELL

1918

Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1839,

BY CHARLES S. FRANCIS,

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

PRINTED BY MUNROE AND

FRANCIS.

PREFACE.

I AM glad to be told by those who live in the world, that it has lately become fashionable to read prefaces. I wish to say a few words, by way of introduction, to a work which may be deemed too slight to need a preface, but which will doubtless be acknowledged to require some recommendation.

I claim for these straggling and cloudy crayon sketches of life and manners in the remoter parts of Michigan the merit of general truth of outline. Beyond this I venture not to aspire. I felt somewhat tempted to set forth my little book as being entirely -what it is very nearly-a veritable history; an unimpeachable transcript of reality; a rough picture, in detached parts, but pentagraphed from the life ; a sort of 'Emigrant's Guide :'-considering with myself that these my adventurous journeyings and

tarryings beyond the confines of civilization might fairly be held to confer the traveller's privilege. But conscience prevailed, and I must honestly confess, that there be glosses, and colorings, and lights, if not shadows, for which the author is alone accountable. Journals, published entire and unaltered, should be Parthian darts, sent abroad only when one's back is turned. To throw them in the teeth of one's everyday associates might diminish one's popularity rather inconveniently. I would desire the courteous reader to bear in mind, however, that whatever is quite unnatural, or absolutely incredible, in the few incidents which diversify the following pages, is to be received as literally true. It is only in the most common-place parts (if there be comparisons) that I have any leasing-making to answer for.

It will of course be observed that Miss Mitford's charming sketches of village life must have suggested the form of my rude attempt. I dare not flatter myself that any one will be led to accuse me of further imitation of a deservedly popular writer. And with such brief salvo, I make my humble curtsey.

M. C.

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OUR friends in the 'settlements' have expressed so much interest in such of our letters to them, as happened to convey any account of the peculiar features of western life, and have asked so many questions, touching particulars which we had not thought worthy of mention, that I have been for some time past contemplating the possibility of something like a detailed account of our experiences. And I have determined to give them to the world, in a form not very different from that in which they were originally recorded for our private delectation; nothing doubting, that a veracious history of actual occurrences, an unvarnished transcript of real characters, and an impartial record of every-day forms of speech (taken down in many cases from the lips of the speaker) will be pronounced 'graphic' by at least a fair proportion of the journalists of the day.

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