NEW BRUNSWICK. 129 
"Yes," said Eobert. "The otlier boys liardlj knew 
the liquor cask tliey had left in the woods next day, if I 
have heard right." ^^ 
" You need not laugh, boys," said Duncan, solemnly ; 
" there is no fun in seeing a ghost, and I had not taken 
more than a few drinks. Besides, you know how, next 
year, when Jake, and Dick, and some others were in the 
same camp, they heard Sam's old chest, that we had left 
there, creak as though some one had sat on it, and how 
the shanty door was taken off the hinges and held 
upright in the middle of the floor. And the black dog 
that left no track in the snow, but used to run along the 
ridge pole of moonlight nights, when nobody was in the 
shanty; and, finally, how the roof was all taken off 
when Tom's party was there, and although it was covered 
with snow, not a drop fell inside. 'No, no, spirits are 
no laughing matters." 
" Especially prime spirits," suggested the cook. 
"Jamaica or Holland, but I never heard of New 
Brunswick spirits before," said Robert. 
" Well, I can just tell you one thing," said Duncan, 
aroused ; " there is not one of you dare sleep in that 
shanty alone. Come, I will pole any of you down there 
to-morrow that would like to try. Who will go ?" 
A dead silence fell on the party, for, truth to tell, 
though bold enough round the fire together, the dwellers 
on the Miramichi are a good deal given to superstition, 
and not one of the party but some time or other had 
fiincied he heard Sam's ghost shouting to his team of a 
stormy night near the landing. 
" Well," said Abraham, slowly, " I never saw but one 
6* 
