40 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA : 
a dreadful storm arose, and by day-break the 
next morning, we found ourselves, and every 
thing belonging to us, drenched with rain. 
Our situation now was by no means agreeable ; 
torrents still came pouring down ; neither our 
tent nor the woods afforded us any shelter, and 
the wind being very strong, and as adverse as 
it could blow, there was no prospect of our 
being enabled speedily to get into better quar¬ 
ters. In this state we had remained for a con¬ 
siderable time, when one of the party, who had 
been rambling about in order to discover what 
sort of a neighbourhood we were in, returned 
with the pleasing intelligence that there was a 
house at no great distance, and that the owner 
had politely invited us to it. It w r as the house 
of an old provincial officer, who had received 
i 
a grant of land in this part of the country for 
his past services. We gladly proceeded to it, 
and met with a most cordial welcome from the 
captain and his fair daughters, who had pro¬ 
vided a plenteoys breakfast, and spared no 
pains to make their habitation, during our stay, 
as pleasing to us as possible. We felt great 
satisfaction at the idea, that it would be in our 
power to spend the remainder of the day with 
these worthy and hospitable people; but alas, 
we had all formed an erroneous opinion of the 
weather ; tlie wind suddenly veered about; the 
sun broke through the thick clouds; the con- 
