308 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



on this occasion she should be permitted to live in clover 

 the rest of her days, and shuffle off this mortal coil in her 

 own time and way. 



The following day I got on to a track that had more 

 pretensions to a road than any I had hitherto travelled 

 over. I met a few of my fellow-men on horseback, one 

 of whom was polite enough to offer me a cigar. I am 

 not a habitual smoker, but I can enjoy an occasional weed 

 just to make myself sociable. This gentleman being free 

 of speech and opinion like myself, criticised my horse- 

 flesh and general turn-out with a confident unreserve 

 that made us friends on the instant. He soon got tired 

 of my jog-trot pace and went off at a canter, but he gave 

 me an address near Marquette where I could find him, 

 and during the following winter I spent many happy 

 hours with him and his charming daughters — his lady 

 lying under the trees in Marquette Churchyard. 



That night I stopped at a wayside inn — such an inn ! 

 An Irishman would have looked twice before he put a 

 cow or a pig in such a hovel, and all the world knows 

 that Pat is not particular about lodgings, either for him- 

 self or his beast. When I drew up there seemed to be no 

 wakinsf soul about, though I could hear the stentorian snor- 

 ing of a sleeper through the half-open door. Kjiowing the 

 style of such cribs as this, and that I should have to do 

 everything for myself, I put the mare in the best shed I 

 could find, and gave her the whole of a small rick of hay 

 — corn I could find none. 



I should explain that there is a custom in parts of 

 America of piling a small quantity of hay round a stick 

 driven into the earth, or round the trunk of a fruit-tree. 

 Such a pile, which is rarely more than a small load in 

 quantity, often a mere armful, is called a rick. There 

 may be scores of such ricks on a single farm. The hay 

 is supposed to dry better in this form of storing ; it also 

 is supposed to afford a beneficial protection to the tree 

 trunks. It is a very common method of storing hay in 



