BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. XX111 



then made its rounds for the whiskey that was not in it, but 

 hoped for. One old crone noticed my husband's foreign habit 

 of taking snuff, and hobbling up to him presented her own 

 snuff-box, with a significant tap to show that it was empty. 

 It was a tiny receptacle and was replenished at once, to her 

 infinite satisfaction. Among the older women there were 

 many sad and anxious faces, while the younger ones were 

 bright and evidently hopeful for the future. Two nice-look- 

 ing girls interested me, they were so neat and quiet in com- 

 parison with the others. One had a piece of very beautiful 

 work in her hand, which she hastily concealed in the bosom r 

 of her dress. ' It is only a bit of our Irish lace,' she said, in 

 answer to my inquiry, ' and it is not nice, it is not clean ! ' 

 Poor thing, how could she keep her thread and pretty work 

 clean amid such surroundings ? 



" The little steamer Pem-o-dash, the Indian word for 

 ' fire-boat,' which was to convey us across the lake and up 

 the river to Peterborough, had no cabin, was half-decked, 

 and carried a sail in addition to the steam propeller. When 

 she stopped to take in a supply of wood at a clearing about 

 half way, I seized the opportunity to land and gather some 

 of the splendid cardinal flowers that grew along the shores. 

 Here, too, I plucked as sweet a rose as ever graced an English 

 garden. There was also a bush resembling our hawthorn, 

 which* on examination I found to be the Cockspur hawthorn. 

 It had fruit as large as cherries, pulpy and of a pleasant 

 flavor, not unlike tamarind. The thorns were of great length 

 and strength. Among the grasses of the meadow land I 

 found spearmint, and, nearer to the bank, quantities of 

 peppermint. Owing to the rapids and the shallowness of the 

 river, the steamboat was unable to go up the whole way to 

 Peterborough, so a large, un wieldly-looking scow had been 

 engaged to meet it at a point called the 'Yankee Bonnet,' 

 so named from a fanciful resemblance the topmost branches 

 of a tree growing on the bank had to the sort of cap worn by' 



