FISHING IN MUSKOKA, ETC* 239 



virtue condones for the roughest accommodation 

 and feeding to be paid for anywhere. The rules 

 of daily life are primitive in the extreme. 

 Washing-basins and the ordinary simple details 

 of civilisation are unknown. You must not 

 wash in your bedroom, nor must you expect a 

 towel larger than a pocket-handkerchief. Care, 

 too, must be taken in going to bed, for there are 

 no carpets, and the wide chinks in the floor enable 

 you to see all that is going on in the room below, 

 and the occupants in that room have also the 

 same undesirable privilege. Perhaps it is on this 

 account that a sort of secret curfew-law is 

 established here, viz., " Lights out at nine ! " 

 No light is ever carried up-stairs (or up-ladders 

 would be more correct). 



Our request or demand for a lamp at eleven 

 o'clock created almost a stampede. One mystery 

 we never solved, though it gave us some concern, 

 was at what hour and how often, cold water 

 touched the skin of the Van Doughnuts. We 

 braved our difficulties by taking a swim every 

 morning, but the family as we passed them 

 appeared to shiver at the sight of a towel. The 

 food consisted almost entirely of fried pork of 

 a cast-iron type. No meal was ever without it 



