306 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



tunately witli some three hundred dollars in gold safely 

 stowed away in my pockets. I left these rascally tender- 

 feet in the hamlet, half drunk, although it was scarcely 

 daylight. All day long I was apprehensive that they 

 would come after me, but I never saw them again. 



My mare not having much go in her, the road, where 

 road there was, being so bad, and I several times mis- 

 taking side tracks for the main one, caused so much delay 

 that I was eight days doing the hundred and ten miles I 

 was supposed to have to cover. During this long week 

 I was continually meeting with trifling but vexatious 

 accidents ; and though the adventure I have just narrated 

 was one of the most troublesome I ever met with in all 

 my experience in the States, it was not the only accident 

 I met with during this journey ; for on the fifth night I 

 mistook the road to the wood-feller's hut where I expected 

 to find accommodation, and becoming quite bewildered 

 passed the night in the depths of the forest. 



It was bitterly cold, and the snow fell in slight showers 

 all night, so that all my efforts to make a fire failed, though 

 perhaps the recent rains which had made both wood and 

 ground thoroughly damp had as much to do with this 

 failure as the snow. Fortunately I was not without food, 

 for I had already become experienced enough in wild life 

 to know the wisdom of always providing for a day or two 

 ahead. At my last resting-place I had procured bread, 

 cold boiled pork, and a bottle of whisky, and some jam. 

 Jam is always procurable in a Yankee homestead, for if 

 there is nothing better to make it of, pumpkins, or even 

 turnips, are used for this purpose. 



I gave the most of the bread to the old horse ; and to 

 her and the whisky bottle I consider that I owe my life on 

 this occasion. My friends the teetotalers, I hope, will not 

 judge me harshly. I have a profound respect for them, 

 and believe that they mean well, though I cannot sub- 

 scribe to all that they teach. The Maine liquor laws, 

 which are downright wicked, and the ladies' whisky war. 



