A LABRADOR SPRING 



and appreciated him. Now one day there 

 passed along this road a stranger on the march 

 for the Hudson's Bay Post of Mingan, an elderly 

 man of timid disposition, and ignorant of the 

 customs of the Magpie ox, and indeed not 

 familiar with any horned cattle. 



As he approached the bridge that crosses 

 the river near the cascade, he perceived the ox 

 grazing by the roadside, and quickened his 

 pace, for he did not relish such close proximity 

 to a great beast with long horns, and these 

 with such sharp points. Our friend the ox 

 stops grazing and steps out rather quickly 

 in order to say bon jour, so to speak, to the 

 traveller. He, poor man, starts to run to es- 

 cape what he believes to be an animal with 

 vicious intentions, and to his terror the beast 

 runs after him. Away they go, faster and 

 faster, down the hill towards the bridge. Just 

 before reaching this point, the road turns 

 sharply to the left at the river's brink. The 

 man, terrified as he is, has enough wits left to 

 take the turn successfully, and gains the bridge, 

 but the ox in the ardour of his desire for social 

 intercourse, and the slowness of his mind and 

 of his huge bulk, is unable to turn quickly 



56 



