134 NEWFOUNDLAND 



Once upon a time there was a monarch whose kingdom 

 was torn by dissensions, and, wishing for popularity, he offered 

 as a reward to the guesser of a certain riddle half of his 

 kingdom, and the hand of his lovely daughter. Of course 

 there was no answer to the riddle, although the cunning 

 monarch kept his people in a state of pleasurable excitement 

 and peace from internal strife for the space of a few years, 

 and so tided over a difficulty. In similar fashion the good 

 folk of Newfoundland are apt to ask each other another 

 conundrum which is also unanswerable, namely, "Why is 

 the ' accommodation train ' so-called, and whom does it accom- 

 modate ? " At present the genius who can give a satis- 

 factory answer has not been discovered. The people of 

 the island regard the " accommodation train " with dread ; 

 strangers suffering a single journey resolve never to repeat 

 the experiment. But the "accommodation train " must accom- 

 modate somebody — perhaps it is the Old Gentleman himself! 

 Every second day that passes, Satan must bless the island's 

 government for running such a show entirely for his benefit. 

 Could the walls of those " First Class " carriages speak, what 

 a tale of wicked thoughts and wickeder language they could 

 tell, and how oft had the nature of the most gentle of men 

 been turned to acid and gall through the bitter experience 

 of a night's travel ! 



One evening, in 1902, little Mike, Saunders, Wells, a 

 couple of station men, and myself were seated round a 

 blazing fire near the line at Terra-Nova. We were waiting 

 for the "accommodation train," which was only six hours late. 

 The conversation turned on wild beasts, as it always does 

 where two or three are gathered together in the backwoods. 



" I seen a bear once here, close to the station," began 

 little Mike. We listened with hushed expectancy to the 



