FORT GEORGE 171 



Fort George (and no medical man was near us), when 

 she was big enough to toddle about, used to make 

 her way to the garden and pull up a turnip, and 

 devour it with the keenest relish. 



" An amusing incident in connection with this 

 child and her love of raw turnips, occurred in 1892, 

 seven years after, on my return to England. We 

 had just landed, my wife and children and myself, 

 under circumstances that will find their own place 

 later on in this narrative. While waiting at the 

 railway station, previous to the starting of the 

 train, and having seen some apples at a fruiterers 

 near by as we entered the terminus, I thought 

 they would be a treat to my children, who had never, 

 of course, seen an apple. 



" Returning to the carriage where I had left them, 

 I dropped some of the apples into the lap of my 

 little girl, waiting curiously to hear what remark 

 she would make concerning the (to her,) strange 

 fruit. 



" With wonder in every line of her sweet little 

 face, she looked up into her mother's, and with 

 beautiful, childlike simplicity, cried : * Oh, mother ! 

 what big turnips these are.' 



" To return to Fort George. Besides the food 

 supplied from England, we could, in most years 

 obtain a fair supply of fish, rabbits, partridges, and 

 sometimes a little venison. But there were years 

 when these things could not be got, then the anxiety 



