DUNFORD'S FARM TO MARQUETTE 307 



which was downright comical, established my opinion 

 about teetotalism long before I had ceased to be a legal 

 infant ; and I have a confirmed habit, not of getting 

 drunk, but of sticking to my opinion in spite of evolution- 

 ists and social reformers; and so I drank so much of the 

 whisky that I doubled the trees, and doubled the horse, 

 and doubled the cart, and finally doubled myself up 

 against the old mare. She found a hollow amongst the 

 trees and lay down, and I huddled up close to her, and 

 neither reason nor revelation will persuade me that she 

 did not know full well that our only chance of life was 

 the mutual warmth which we communicated to each 

 other. She curled herself up like a dog, with her nose 

 pressed close to me, and never moved till morning. I 

 had a rug or two, which the scoundrelly robbers could not 

 carry off (they had so well loaded themselves), and these 

 I spread over myself and her ; and so we managed to sur- 

 vive the night. 



And yet it was not a hard frost, for before midday 

 the following morning there was scarcely a trace of the 

 snow left on the ground. But I can say from experience 

 that it is not degrees of cold which cause suffering and 

 danger, but the kind of cold. For a damp cold will kill 

 when three times the degrees of frost can easily be 

 endured. 



It was some time before I could get the mare to move 

 when daylight came back — she was so stiff. I was in a 

 miserable plight myself, but the remains of the whisky 

 pulled me together, and about the middle of the day Ave 

 reached the timber- fellers' domicile — a small log-hut, with 

 a shed or two erected round it. There I got some hot 

 coffee for myself, and some flour-gruel (in lieu of a bran 

 mash) for the old horse. This was the last bit of hard 

 work she ever did, for there never was much go in her ; 

 and the next spring I took her back to Dunford from 

 whom I had her, and there left her under a solemn pro- 

 mise that in consideration of her splendid behaviour 



