14000 IVIILES 



like a hotel, or any one who could understand we wanted 

 one. After going to the telegraph office, a store, and in 

 despair, attacking a man sawing wood — most hopeless 

 of all, with his senseless grin — we found two or three 

 boys, and between them we were directed to a little 

 house we saw as we drove into the village, with the 

 inevitable faded sign, and thanked fortune we had not to 

 stay there. "Well, you wanted to drive to Canada, so 

 you may go and see what you can do while I stay with 

 Jerry" (the most unkind word on the trip). With 

 feigned courage the threshold of the wee hotel was 

 crossed. In Canada we usually enter by the bar-room, 

 and those we saw had an air of great respectability and 

 were frequently tended by women. All the doleful mis- 

 givings were dispelled the moment we entered this tiny 

 bar-room and glanced through the house, for unparal- 

 leled neatness reigned there. Three persons were sent 

 for before our wants were comprehended. The bright- 

 faced girl from the kitchen proved an angel in disguise, 

 for she could speak a very little English, although she 

 said she did not have much "practix." A gem of a boy 

 took Jerry, and in half an hour we were as much at home 

 as in our own parlor. We were shown to a little room 

 with one French window high up, from which we 

 watched the Montreal steamer as it glided by on the 

 Richelieu in the night. The little parlor was opened for 

 us ; it was hardly larger than a good-sized closet, but 

 radiant with its bright tapestry carpet, Nottingham cur- 

 tains and gay table-cover. There was a lounge in one 

 corner and a rocking-chair before the large window, 



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