CIIAPTETJ XI. 



On the whole. Fuller's furnished a variet}' of entertain- 

 ment, and was enjoyable. But the most delightful of plaees 

 and the most charming of experiences become monotonous 

 after a time, and, a favorable opportunity offering, one day 

 I joined a party of ladies and gentlemen and departed from 

 Meacham Lake to Paul Smitirs. Our flotilla of boats went 

 down the lake to the rapids, we walked to the bridge, and 

 there were met li}- teams sent up from Smith's. 



The ride through the woods was rather rough, but reason- 

 ably comfortal)le foi- a wood's road, until we reached 

 " Burnt Ground, " where the road became excellent. Here 

 was a large, tree-less, stump-less section of severiU hundred 

 acres, supposed to have been swept bj^ fire at some period 

 long past. A feeble settlement of a dozen or fifteen fam- 

 ilies maintains the struggle for existenc-e in the centre of 

 this tract, the men cultivating a few acres of the sand}' soil, 

 hunting, trapping and fishing, and, as occasion offers, act- 

 ing as guides for sport.smen among the little lakes that lie 

 in clu.sters on every side in the forest. The notal)le man 

 of this out-of-the-world hamlet is A. C. McCollum. a kindly 

 old gentleman who came hither from the great world out- 

 side, after a succession of domestic bereavements which 

 almost broke his heart, but left him even more kindly and 

 ffeutle than before. Little bare-footed children were run- 



