AN EXCITING TRIP 317 



, and " fiddled " around taking life easy until five 

 minutes past three, and then we were off with four 

 horses hauling us, and a little snow falling. 



On the stage was a woman, a native, born in Barker- 

 viile, and a little girl, whom she was going to take out 

 to school in the Kootenay country ; a blacksmith be- 

 longing to the stage company, and another man. We 

 were told that we would arrive in Stanley, fourteen 

 miles away, for supper at six o'clock, if we started on 

 time. Had we left at two, we probably should have 

 done so ; but the snow came down thicker and thicker 

 as we climbed mountain after mountain, and it was late 

 when we reached Stanley, and later still when we left 

 there for Cotton wood, where we were to spend the 

 night. The snow now turned to rain. 



We should have been in front of the big stove in the 

 Cottonwood house at ten o'clock, but it was after one 

 in the morning when the bedraggled woman and child 

 and the rest of us got there. The finery of the females 

 was all drenching wet ; hats, feathers and other fixings 

 were apparently ruined. The bunch of us sat around 

 a big hot stove until nearly three o'clock, and then we 

 were off to bed to sleep until six. 



Saturday morning snow and slush covered the ground 

 and it still rained. The road now became very muddy 

 and heavy, and the best the horses could do for many 

 miles was a walk. At 1 p. M. Quesnelle on the 

 Frazer River was reached. Here we took the steamer 



