566 The Halcyon in Canada. 



into these wilds. In La Grand Brulure, a hermit-thrush perched 

 upon a dry tree in a swampy place and sang most divinely. We 

 paused to listen to his clear, silvery strain, poured out without stint 

 upon that unlistening solitude. I was half persuaded I had heard 

 him before on first entering the woods. 



We nooned again at No Man's Inn, on the banks of a trout 

 lake, and fared well and had no reckoning to pay. Late in the 

 afternoon, we saw a lonely pedestrian laboring up a hill far ahead 

 of us. When he heard us coming he leaned his back against the 

 bank, and was lighting his pipe as we passed. He was an old 

 man, an Irishman, and looked tired. He had come from the far- 

 ther end of the road, fifty miles distant, and had thirty yet before 

 him to reach town. He looked the dismay he evidently felt, when, 

 in answer to his inquiry, we told him it was yet ten miles to the 

 first house, La Chance's. But there was a roof nearer than that, 

 where he doubtless passed the night, for he did not claim hospital- 

 ity at the cabin of La Chance. We arrived there betimes, but found 

 the "spare bed" assigned to other guests; so we were comfortably 

 lodged upon the haymow. One of the boys lighted us up with a 

 candle, and made level places for us upon the hay. 



La Chance was one of the game wardens or constables appointed 

 by the Government to see the game laws enforced. Joe had not felt 

 entirely at his ease about the duck he was surreptitiously taking to 

 town, and when, by its "quack," "quack," it called upon La Chance 

 for protection, he responded at once. Joe was obliged to liberate it 

 then and there, and to hear the law read and expounded, and be 

 threatened till he turned pale besides. It was evident that they follow 

 the Home Government in the absurd practice of enforcing their laws 

 in Canada. La Chance said he was under oath not to wink at or 

 permit any violation of the law, and seemed to think that made a 

 difference. 



We were off early in the morning, and before we had gone two 

 miles met a party from Quebec who must have been driving nearly 

 all night to give the black flies an early breakfast. Before long, a 

 slow rain set in ; we saw another party who had taken refuge in a 

 house in a grove. When the rain had become so brisk that we 

 began to think of seeking shelter ourselves, we passed a party of 

 young men and boys — sixteen of them — in a cart turning back to 



