EMIGRATION TO CANADA 23 



home and his wife put a poultice on his back with the gum. After 

 a time, when the wound cleared Jane, his wife, thought she saw 

 something in the wound and discovered the end of the stick, near- 

 ly half an inch wide, protruding from between his ribs and she 

 got a pair of tweezers that she had and pulled it out and found 

 that it was over two inches long. We then thought there was 

 considerable danger and so had a doctor brought to see Fred and 

 he probed the wound and said, that if it had gone in much further it 

 would have struck a vital part and advised keeping the wound 

 clean and anointing it with the balsam gum, as I had done before 

 he came. 



My own mishap took place in the same swamp but it was 

 more simple than was Frederick's. I was cutting a cedar log and 

 in bending a small stem limb it broke and the part still on the tree 

 bounced back and struck me clear in the eye and I was blinded at 

 once, because my other seemed to be in sympathy with the one 

 that was struck. Frederick led me home and I was in great pain 

 with the eye and spent a very agonizing night of it. In the morn- 

 ing, Jane thought she would have a look at my eye and told me 

 that she thought there was something near the eye ball and she 

 saw something there and got her tweezers again and pulled out a 

 piece of bark lying above and back of the eyeball and the pain was 

 instantly relieved. In a day or two it was as well as ever. 



Another mishap that took place years after this, I may relate, 

 to show how accidents often take place in the bush. I had taken 

 a contract to cut ten acres for one of the farmers and Frederick 

 and I worked together part of the time. One morning, we cut 

 down a large maple that had old limbs at its top and was hollow, 

 although we had no knowledge of this at the time and cut it. We 

 stepped back from the tree as it fell and a family of flying squirrels 

 flew out of the top and we gazed up at them and did not remark 

 the large limb that was falling right down upon us. Without any 

 warning, Frederick's axe flew out of his hand and a large limb came 

 between him and me, where we stood. The limb had been dis- 

 placed with the falling of the tree and it fell with the large end 

 downwards. The limb had fallen clear on the top of his axe- 

 handle as he held it in his hand and he was not hurt, fortunately. 



