to this a crop of oats or wheat.  The true pioneer is a model farmer.  He lays out his work two weeks in advance.  Every evening finds him further ahead.  If there is a rainy day, he knows what to set himself about.  Be lays his plans in a systematic manner, and carries them into execution with energy.  He is a true pioneer, and therefore he is not an idle man, nor a loafer, nor a weak addle-headed tippler.  Go into his house, and though you do not see elegance you can yet behold intelligence, and neatness, and sweet domestic bliss.  The life of the pioneer is not exposed to such hardships and delays as retarded the fortunes of the settlers in the older states.  They had to clear forests; here the land is ready for the plough.  And though “there is society where none intrude,” yet he is not by any means beyond the boundaries of good neighborhood.  In many cases, however, he has left his dearest friends far away in his native village, where his affections still linger.  He has to endure painful separations, and to forego those many comforts which spring from frequent meetings under the parental roof, and frequent converse with the most attractive scones of youth.  But to compensate for these things he can feel that the labor of the pioneer, aside from its pecuniary advantage to himself, is of service to the state, and a helpmate to succeeding generations.

  “There are, who, distant from their native soil,
   Still for their own and country’s glory toil: 
   While some, fast rooted to their parent spot,
   In life are useless, and in death forgot!”

LETTER XII.

 Speculation and business.

Opportunities to select farms—­ Otter Tail Lake—­ Advantages of the actual settler over the speculator—­ Policy of new states as to taxing non-residents—­ Opportunities to make money—­ Anecdote of Col.  Perkins—­ Mercantile business—­ Price of money—­ Intemperance—­ Education—­ The free school.

Crow Wing, October, 1856.

It is maintained by the reviewers, I believe, that the duller a writer is, the more accurate he should be.  In the outset of this letter, I desire to testify my acquiescence in the justice of that dogma, for if, like neighbor Dogberry, “I were as tedious as a king,” I could not find it in my heart to bestow it all without a measure of utility.

I shall try to answer some questions which I imagine might be put by different classes of men who are interested in this part of the west.  My last letter had some hints to the farmer, and I can only add, in addition, for his benefit, that the most available locations are now a considerable distance above St. Paul.  The valley of the St. Peter’s is pretty much taken up; and so of the valley of the Mississippi for a distance of fifteen miles on either side to a point a hundred miles above St. Paul.  One of the land officers at Minneapolis informed me that there were