Excerpt: “The story within these covers has been written from impressions received in boyhood days, ideas which time could not erase and which the passing of the years has developed and strengthened. It is perhaps only fair to state frankly that the story is largely founded on fact, though, for purposes which will be obvious, the characters have been treated from a general rather than a particular sense. The aim has been to follow a young man’s life from his home in the Orkney Islands, one hundred years ago, through his experiences in what was then an untravelled country in the Canadian West, and to show how, in his humble, commonplace way, he took hold of the opportunities which presented themselves, small though they might seem to us to be, and built up a character and a place for himself in the community which stood the test of time. Hundreds of our Canadian pioneers did just this in the simple, honest, straightforward lives they led in the early days of this country, and it is on the foundations they laid in those days that Canada’s greatness now has been reared. All honor to the stalwart Canadian pioneer. Both the young and the old of to-day may well renew in[10] memory the struggles and sacrifices by which Canada’s foundation was well and truly laid. It is one of the greatest legacies which the past has bequeathed to us. It is one of the treasures that we should fondly cling to. May we never forget the heroic daring, the finer qualities of self-denial, of loyalty to duty, stronger than the love of life, of the temper which dreads dishonor more than it fears death and the patriotism which makes love of home and country a passion."
