284 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



sorry to hear of the death of old Mr. McLellan, which I read an 

 account of in the paper. And that old horse jockey of a fellow 

 that you sent me the cutting about was a wonder. Those horse 

 jockeys are a set who most always die young, like the good chil- 

 dren we read about in the Sunday school books ; but this old fel- 

 low is a wonder. 



I was much pleased with what you said about Mr. Downs. 

 He was a nice man. I have been at his place a number of times 

 and he has visited me. I was in Halifax soon after the Prince of 

 Wales was there in 18G0 to have his great reception and this is 

 the story some of the people told me. 



The Prince had a long passage over and got to the back bay 

 near Downs" place on Sunday. Their commander in charge 

 allowed the Prince and a couple of his young friends and officers 

 to go on shore to have a run. They landed near Downs' place 

 and went direct to his house. Mr. Downs was told by one of the 

 young officers who they were and was introduced to the Prince. 

 Then of course Downs entertained him like a prince — showed 

 him all he had and gave him his best set of moose horns to be 

 put over his mother's best door in the Royal Palace. 



The next morning Halifax was dressed up for the greatest 

 reception it ever had. All the notables of Canada and other 

 places were on the platform, also the Prince, waiting for the 

 great performance to begin, when among the crowd upon the 

 floor was an old rough customer by the name of Downs. The 

 Prince saw him, knew him, ran down boy-like, and shook Mr. 

 Downs with both hands, then led him up on the platform and 

 introduced him to all his shipmates, officers and members of the 

 party. The crowd was amazed to know how it could be that 

 the Prince should shake hands with Downs before he did with 

 any of the governors or the big officers of Canada and was 

 also amazed to know how Mr. Downs and the Prince should 

 appear such old cronies and when he got down from the platform 

 everybody who eould get a chance was shaking hands with Mr. 

 Downs, while after the Prince Mr. Downs was the greatest man 

 in Halifax for the day. Mr. Downs was paid $150 in gold for 

 the horns. 



My brother Gorham was in bed most of the four weeks he 

 was here. He left me two weeks ago and I hear is much better 



