\var\vk;k nvuoulands. t>6 



believe, I once ate a Ptarmigan, the day year alter it wae 

 killed, which had been packed with hops, in perfect 

 preservation, at Famloy, Mr. Fawke's place in Yorkshire! 

 — and I tried prepared charcoal, and got my woodcock 

 down to New Vork, looking like chimney sweeps, and 

 smelling' " 



"\\^iat the devil difference does it make to you now, 

 Archer, I'd be pleased to knowl" interposed Tom; "what 

 under heaven they smells like — a man that eats cock with 

 their guts ip, like you does, needn't stick now, I reckon, 

 for a leetle mite of a stink!" 



"Shut up, you old villain," answered Harry, laughing, 

 ■'bring the milk punch, and get your great coat on, if you 

 mean to go with us; for it's quite keen this morning, I 

 can tell you ; and we must be stirring too, for the sun will 

 be up before we get to Teachman's. Now, Jem, get out 

 the hounds; how do you take them, Tom?" 



"Why, that darned Injun, Jem, he'll take them in my 

 lumber wagon — and, I say, Jem, see that you don't over- 

 drive old roan — away with you, and rouse up Garry, he 

 means to go, I guess I" 



After a mighty round of punch, in which, as we were 

 now departing, one half at least of the village joined, we 

 t'.Il got under way; Tom, buttoned up to the throat in a 

 huge white lion skin wrap-rascal, looking for ail the world 

 like a polar bear erect on its hind legs; and all of us 

 muffled up pretty snugly, a proceeding which was rendered 

 necessary by a brisk bracing north-west breeze. 



The sky, though it was scarcely the first twilight of an 

 autumnal dawn, was beautifully clear, and as transparent 

 — though still somewhat dusky — as a wide sheet of crystal; 

 a few pale stars were twinkling here and there; but in 

 the east a broad gray streak changing on the horizon's 

 edge to a faint straw color, announced the sim's approach. 



The whole face of the country, hill, vale, and woodland, 

 was overspread by an universal coat of silvery hoar-frost; 

 thin wreaths of snowy mist rising above the tops of the 

 sere woodlands, throughout the whole length of the lovely 

 vale, indicated as clearly as though it were traced on a 

 map, the direction of the stream that watered it; and as 

 we paused upon the brow of the first hiUoek, and looked 

 back toward the village, with its white steeples and neat 

 cottage dwellings buried in the still repose of that early 



