LAKE SUPERIOR. 35 



and gratified ; hereafter, the commonest home, the 

 simj)lest covering, the plainest food, was to be our 

 lot ; hitherto we had been in the land Avhere gold 

 was the talisman that commanded ten thousand 

 slaves ; henceforth we were to trust ourselves to 

 kindly nature and our own caj)abilities. Glorious 

 were our anticipations from the change. Our ves- 

 sel, the unromantic City of Cleveland^ Avlnch, from 

 the beginning, had been lumbering along at the 

 moderate rate of ten miles an hour without ever 

 being betrayed into the slightest evidence of enthu- 

 siasm, seemed overjoyed at her approaching arrival, 

 and dressed herself in her gala costume of variegat- 

 ed bunting. She whistled merrily to announce to 

 the inhabitants that once more she was to bless their 

 sight, and tried to get up a little extra steam for a 

 final burst. The travellers crowded her decks, the 

 natives collected along shore ; the former waved 

 their handkerchiefs, the latter, probably having no 

 handkerchiefs, swung their hats ; and amid all this 

 excitement we came merrily up to the dock. 



The Sault, or Soo, as the name of the village is 

 always pronounced, is not a large place, but proved 

 to be larger than I expected ; our dull plodding east- 

 ern people can hardly imagine how rapidly the 

 west is growing in wealth and population ; already 

 our little western brother is claiming to be a man, 

 and if we are not careful will be too much for us 

 some day. This newly planted village, almost at 

 the extreme northwest of American civilization, in- 

 cluded an excellent hotel, a dozen stores, and at 



