NEW BRUNSWICK. 129 



" Yes/' said Robert. " The other boys hardly knew 

 the liquor cask they had left in the woods next day, if 1 

 have heard right." 



" You need not laugh, boys," said Duncan, solemnly ; 



there is no fun in seeing a ghost, and I had not taken 

 more than a few drinks. Besides, you know how, next 

 year, when Jake, and Dick, and some others were in the 

 same camp, they heard Sam's old chest, that we had left 

 there, creak as though some one had sat on it, and how 

 the shanty door was taken off the hinges and held 

 upright in the middle of the floor. And the black dog 

 that left no track in the snow, but used to run along the 

 ridge pole of moonlight nights, when nobody was in the 

 shanty; and, finally, how the roof was all taken off 

 when Tom's party was there, and although it was covered 

 with snow, not a drop fell inside. No, no, spirits are 

 no laughing matters." 



" Especially prime spirits," suggested the cook. 



"Jamaica or Holland, but I never heard of New 

 Brunswick spirits before," said Robert. 



" Well, I can just tell you one thing," said Duncan, 

 aroused ; " there is not one of you dare sleep in that 

 shanty alone. Come, 1 will pole any of you down there 

 to-morrow that would like to try. Who will go ?" 



A dead silence fell on the party, for, truth to tell, 

 though bold enough round the fire together, the dwellers 

 on the Miramichi are a good deal given to superstition, 

 and not one of the party but some time or other had 

 fancied he heard Sam's ghost shouting to his team of a 

 Btormy night near the landing. 



u Well," said Vbraham, slowly, " I never saw but one 



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