DOWN THE PEACE RIVER 125 



two o'clock, I started, determined to walk on as fast and as far 

 as possible before I gave out. In going back, I noticed certain 

 things on the roadside, amongst others a dead horse, and I wondered 

 to see it was so like one I had seen in the morning, the only dif- 

 ference being that it was on the left hand side of the road instead 

 of on the right hand, as the one was in the morning. Proceeding, 

 I came to where there was a broken stone, which I examined, and 

 found it was one that I had myself broken in the morning and 

 here I had been all day going back on the road I had come. The 

 scales immediately fell from my eyes and I saw that I had been 

 blinded all day and had been completely lost all that time. I 

 turned back and walked rapidly to where I had sat down in the 

 morning and discovered that instead of sitting on the right side 

 of the road, I had sat down on the left hand, and, when I had 

 risen to my feet, I turned back instead of forward. I mention 

 this to show that, on a plain road, a man may get lost if he is 

 not attentive to what he is doing. In all my long life, I never 

 got lost but once and that was on a beaten road. 



It was now growing dark and I heard a faint "Hello," which 

 turned out to be that of the Indian who had turned back to see if 

 he could find me. He had stopped at noon and, as I had not come 

 up with him, he waited the afternoon in hopes I would turn up, but, 

 having failed to do so, he came to look for me. I reached camp at 

 dark and tried to explain to him what had happened, but he could 

 not understand and he told the people at the Mission, when we 

 reached there, that I had been sick when, in reality, I was lost. 



In due time, we reached the Mission and found it in charge 

 of an English clergyman, called Hines, and, in all my experience, 

 he seemed to be the most practical missionary I had come across. 

 He told me his aim was to teach the children English and the 

 old men and women how to farm. This, he was doing, in 

 the most practical manner, and, as I sat in his little school, 

 the Sunday I spent with him, and saw the crowd of attentive 

 children and old men and women scattered all over the floor 

 listening to what he said and the children's answers, I saw for 

 the first time what a wonderful power education of a practical 

 kind would have on the future of the Indians. 



