XX11 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



" A motley group of emigrants shared the only available 

 room in the log-house which did duty as tavern on the shores 

 of Rice Lake. The house consisted of but two rooms, the 

 kitchen and one other apartment or public room. In a corner, 

 on a buffalo robe spread on the floor, and wrapped in my 

 Scotch plaid cloak, I rested my weary limbs. The broad 

 rays of the full moon, streaming in through the panes of the 

 small window, revealed our companions of the Cobourg stage, 

 talking, smoking, or stretched at full length sleeping. On a 

 rude couch at the other end of the room lay a poor sick 

 woman, tossing and turning in a state of feverish unrest, 

 moaning or muttering her delirious fancies, unconscious of the 

 surroundings. 



"Our early six o'clock breakfast of fried pork, potatoes, and 

 strong tea without milk, was not very tempting, and it was 

 but a scant portion of the rude meal that I could take. 

 Leaving the crowded table, we strolled down to the landing- 

 place, where a large party of Irish emigrants were encamped. 

 It was a curious scene. What studies of the picturesque for a 

 painter were there ! Men in all sorts of ragged coats and 

 brimless hats and huge wrinkled brogues ; women with red 

 handkerchiefs tied over their dishevelled locks, and wearing 

 jackets that had once done duty as part of a regimental uni- 

 form. There was many a pretty foot coquettishly peeping 

 from beneath a quilted petticoat to be hastily hidden by the 

 black-eyed owner, when she noticed the stranger's approach. 

 A smart young fellow, hat in hand, came forward to know if 

 the ' jintleman ' would like to see an Irish jig or a ' toe the 

 plank ', — a feat which was performed by two men dancing a 

 wild sort of horn-pipe with a wonderful variety of turnings- 

 and twistings, capers and wrestlings, as trials of skill and 

 strength, on a board or door laid on the ground, until one 

 was forced to yield and lose his balance. Of course a reward 

 was expected, though not asked, and a cheer given for the 

 'jintleman' by the actors and spectators. An empty flask 



