The autumn soon passed by, and once more the winter was upon us.  We had plenty of work in felling trees, and either burning them or dragging them over the snow to places where we intended to cut them up. Occasionally we paid a visit to the settlement; indeed, I was always glad of an excuse for passing a few hours with Lily when I could spare the time.  I looked in, also, on my friends the Claxtons.  Both they and my uncles, as Lily had told me, were, I observed, becoming more and more discontented with the settlement, as were likewise a number of other people, and the attractions of the new regions of the far west were the constant subject of conversation.  We at the hut troubled ourselves much less about such matters than did our friends.  We had plenty of hard work, and were pretty well tired when the day's labours were over.  Mike declared that the only drawback to his happiness was the loss of his fiddle, which he never expected to see again.