1 60 Field and Forest Rambles. 



south-easter in our faces getting stronger every hour pro- 

 claimed an unusual thaw, and when we got into the less fre- 

 quented districts, there were indications of impending trouble 

 given by the horse now and then sinking to her knees, and an 

 occasional plunge threatening the safety of the trams ; but 

 my companion not showing any symptoms of disquietude, 

 I continued goading on the animal. Indeed, the dogged 

 indifference of friend " Malcolm " was amusing. Like his 

 countrymen, he had imbibed the usual slang expressions of 

 the Yankee, and freely interlarded his conversation with the 

 true nasal "I guess," or the decided negative of "Nu Sur." 

 His exclamations were invariably "O my! "with which he 

 interrupted every stage of conversational narrative, no matter 

 what might be the nature of the subject. Indeed, by 

 eliminating these repetitions from his sentences, there was little 

 left, and when by dint of hard pressure I could start him on 

 some episode of his forest life, what between these and the 

 countless " says he," " says she," or " says I " interlarding the 

 story, I often thought we should never get to the finale. Then 

 the imperturbable stoicism of the narrator, not a muscle of 

 whose face betrayed the slightest emotion in spite of all 

 these superfluous utterances, not even when rehearsing the 

 history of his amputated finger, which was as follows. " I 

 guess you think this here finger of mine was chopped off by 

 an axe ; but no, it was a horse that done it. I was giving him 

 a drink, when lie caught my middle finger and carried it right 

 away, and giving it a chew dropped it in the manger. I thought 

 that bad enouf," added Malcolm, "but not content with nipping 

 off my finger, he gave me a kick behind and sent me flying out 

 of the stable door." Just as the worthy woodsman was about 

 to end his tale, the horse, who had been sinking now and then, 

 gave a sudden stagger, and before she could recover herself 

 went down on all fours up to the belly, and every few minutes 

 subsequently showed that further progress would be tedious, 

 to say the least, on account of the rapidly increasing thaw. 



