A LABRADOR SPRING 
years ago under the direction of Mr. Donald 
Alexander Smith, who was then the factor at 
this Post. Mr. Smith is now Lord Strathcona 
and Mont Royal, the head of this rich and 
powerful Company of Hudson’s Bay. This 
historic house is not used now, as a larger one 
has since been built for the factor. It is a 
small single story square house, painted white, 
standing just to the eastward of the tiny office 
building, its platform surrounded by a neat 
white fence. The dark coloured roof with the 
usual upcurved edges is relieved by white 
dormer windows. A great knocker adorns the 
door, which has two small panes of glass set 
near the top. Lord Strathcona began his 
service for the Honourable Company as an 
apprentice at Rigolet in 1838, and served for 
thirteen years on the Labrador coast. I 
could not help picturing the possible future of 
the young blue-eyed, fair-haired clerk, but a 
year out from Scotland, who was tactfully 
managing the black-eyed, dark-haired Indians 
at the store-house, and I was amused to hear 
him conversing with them in their own language 
with a broad Scotch accent. He seemed to be 
particularly successful in his sales of a calicc 
174 
