Running a Sawmill and a Store Up Country. 287 



separate clause agreed that if the saddle should be claimed, or, in 

 other words, if the real owner should turn up, the one-third interest 

 in the mine should be increased to one-half. As several saddles of 

 my own had lately gone astray, I expressed a desire to see the 

 article reputed to be worth one-sixth of a gold mine. The Major 

 promptly produced it, and the J.P. as promptly claimed it ; it was 

 an old saddle, to say the best I could for it, for I had given only 

 5dols. for it, being minus the "horn," and was so badly constructed 

 that it could safely be warranted to give a sore back in the first 

 hour. That was probably the reason why I recovered it so easily. 



Another nationality was even more largely represented, namely, 

 the B.B.'s Busted Britishers, as the Canadians are wont to call 

 that unfortunately largely represented immigrant type. Some of 

 them had reached the "public nuisance" stage, and were "handed 

 their passports" after a day's trial, others were merely financial 

 wrecks, and among these there were several of gentle birth and 

 public school education, who were willing and able to earn their 

 "two-and-a-half" just as honestly as any Italian barrowman or 

 Cannuck axeman. Our carpenter foreman was a London University 

 M.D., who years before had migrated to Manitoba and " had gone 

 broke holding down a quarter of a section," i.e., trying to farm 160 

 acres. I was very glad to have him, for sawmills and larger timber 

 works are usually fruitful causes of accidents, so he made some extra 

 dollars binding up wounds and prescribing pills, which, of course, 

 had to be bought at our store. There was a certain absence of 

 professional etiquette about the whole proceeding that was amusing. 

 The doctor was exceedingly deaf, so deaf that when the twelve 

 o'clock whistle sounded for dinner he frequently failed to hear it,, 

 and would go on quite calmly shingling a roof or joisting a shanty. 

 Patients of the non-urgent class would generally choose the dinner 

 hour to interview the B.B. M.D. If the latter happened to be 

 seated on the top of a roof diligently wielding his hammer some 

 tall shouting had to be done to make him hear the patient's 

 symptoms, and of course everybody round that particular spot 

 heard them too. I have rarely heard a man laugh more heartily 



