2o8 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



to dark of the short wintry days against snow, 

 storm, or sleet, or in the bitter cold of hard frosty 

 weather ; crouching through the long nights by a 

 solitary fire with a few bushes stuck in the snow for 

 shelter ; caught perhaps in some sudden thaw, 

 when the softened snow clogs and sticks in the 

 netting of the snow-shoes, and progress is almost 

 impossible; exposed to mal de raquette^ snow 

 blindness, and all the chances of a forest life — such 

 an occupation is one that fully deserves to be well 

 paid. However, the activity of this particular 

 " Joe " was abnormal ; the rest of the family spent 

 their winters lounging about the beach, making 

 perhaps a few mast hoops, butter tubs, or fish 

 barrels, or sitting by the stove indoors, smoking 

 their pipes and doing nothing. In the summer they 

 fished a little, and in the autumn the whole com- 

 munity went up Indian brook and spent two months 

 in the interior of the island, shooting and trapping 

 beavers and otters. Fur was pretty plentiful in 

 those days, and a man could make a good income 

 out of a couple of months' hard work, furring in the 

 fall. These " Joes " appeared to entertain, to a 

 limited extent, communistic principles, while par- 

 tially recognising at the same time the right of pri- 

 vate ownership in land and chattels. They would 



