Dick's Desertion: A Boy's Adventures in Canadian Forests / A Tale of the Early Settlement of Ontario

A young boy leaves his frontier homestead and undertakes a sequence of wilderness adventures in early Ontario, traveling woods and prairie, facing storms, and learning from encounters with a man called Peter Many-Names. Interwoven scenes show the daily labor and seasonal customs of the log-cabin household, including a backwoods Christmas and family responsibilities involving a sister and homestead elders. Through episodic scenes of danger, remorse, work, and song, the narrative traces his emotional growth and shifting loyalties, culminating in a homecoming that confronts his earlier flight and points toward his place in the family's future.