284 Sport and Life. 



of all the men in the Company's employment, but also that of all 

 the Indians. 



Our force was a decidedly heterogeneous lot, white men from 

 all parts of the civilised world, not forgetting Africa's contribution 

 in the shape of a funny old Boer, Van Moerkerke by name, 

 Chinamen, French half-breeds, Italians, Swedes, Indians, and even 

 a nigger. 



The foreman of the timber men employed in the construction of 

 the lock was a Liverpool-born Britisher, Bale by name. Twenty 

 years of roughing it in Western camps had given his natural quick 

 wittedness that smack of Western humour which forms such a 

 feature of life on the frontier. Bale was fond of his morning dram, 

 and when the autumn frosts rendered work up to the waist in the 

 icy sepage water in the lock-excavation, more than ever uninviting, 

 Bale's visits to the store, where a private bottle was kept for 

 purposes of Western hospitality, threatened to become a regular 

 institution. As I generally was to be found in the little office 

 attached to the store, and it was worth while keeping burly Bale in 

 good humour, he usually found me responsive to his gentle hint 

 that the morning was particularly frosty, and that the ice that had 

 formed on the water in the lock overnight was inches thick. 



One morning, upset by something or other, I was seated as 

 usual in the office when Bale came in just before the seven o'clock 

 bell summoned all hands to work. Out of humour, and cross with 

 everything visible or invisible in the raw dawn of a frosty November 

 morning, Bale's usual hint found for once an unexpectedly curt 

 reception. 



" Look here, Bale, over yonder is the hotel where you can get 

 as much whisky as you like for 25 cents a drink ; you get 5dols. a 

 day wages, and I don't see why you should want a free drink every 

 morning when none of the other men get it." 



Bale's good humour did not leave him for a second, and he 

 cheerily replied : 



" All right, boss, no harm done, for you can dock me all the 

 free drinks I have had." 



