A Backwood Shanty and its Inmates. 163 



of smoke, to which I hastened, to find a hut almost buried 

 in a bank of snow, containing an old Irishman, with his 

 wife and an idiot girl, huddling round a log fire. Having 

 told my tale of trouble, the good Samaritans- tendered a 

 share of their humble cabin to man and beast, so that in the 

 course of two hours' hard work, both horse and sleigh were 

 dragged to the little cabin, where we spent the night on the 

 floor by the fireside, whilst the horse was domiciled with the 

 pig, cow, and poultry in an adjoining outhouse. Dead-beat, 

 we fell asleep directly after supper, but were awakened at 

 midnight by loud sounds. These were found to be caused by 

 the lunatic daughter, who, excited by our appearance, would 

 not settle down, and had kept making uncouth noises within 

 the little bunk in which she was imprisoned. In vain her 

 parents suggested all manner of punishments if she did not at 

 once cease her incoherences, when at length she succumbed, 

 but only when threatened with decapitation at our hands. 

 The result was that she repaired on the following morning to 

 the cow-shed, and nothing would induce the poor girl to come 

 indoors until we had gone. I had a long talk with her parents, 

 both of whom had left Cork forty-five years before, and settled 

 in the centre of this forest, where they had made the little clear- 

 ing, and managed to rear a family of several sons and the idiot. 

 However, " the boys," a.s they called them, had gone to the 

 United States, so that the man and his better-half were left 

 in their old age to struggle as best they could, with the addi- 

 tional infliction of a helpless child, and a climate particularly 

 trying to old people. Indeed their story was much like that of 

 many others in this land, more especially such as settle down 

 in districts at a distance from towns and markets. As long 

 as the parents can work, and their sons and daughters con- 

 descend to remain under the paternal roof, there will be a 

 sufficiency to keep soul and body together ; but when health 

 fails or old age comes, and the boys find out they can do 

 better elsewhere, then comes back the old struggle for exist- 



