116 NEW BRUNSWICK. 



CHAPTEE VL 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 



One bright moonlight night in the early part of Bum- 

 . mer, a heavy wagon, drawn by two powerful horses, wa? 

 bowling along one of the dreary level roads of the 

 province of New Brunswick. It was loaded down with 

 trunks on the rack, barrels nnder the seats, that were 

 built on springs above the sides for that purpose, and 

 bundles and bags innumerable in the bottom, and two 

 long leathern cases that suggested salmon rods. It car- 

 ried three men ; the driver, tall and spare, with a shrewd 

 eye, and long, curly, black hair, was turned half-way 

 round in the seat, assuming an attitude that combined 

 comfort with facility of conversation. On the back seat, 

 a middle aged gentleman, whose hair and beard were 

 silvered o'er, but whose eye was bright as in his earliest 

 youth, and a younger man of stout build with brownish 

 hair and beard. Their talk was of the forest, and many 

 thrilling tales of danger, or exciting ones of the chase, 

 were told; vivid descriptions of how the moose, the 

 caribou, the red deer, met his fate ; stories of the tiger, 

 the wild boar, the rhinoceros and unwieldy elephant ; or 

 peaceful description of killing the beautiful trout, the 

 fierce, striped bass, or the voracious mascallonge. The 

 time wore pleasantly away as they passed along between 



