"I believe, Doctor," sais I, "we have seen all that is worth notice here, let us go into one of their houses and ascertain if there is anything for Sorrow's larder; but, Doctor," sais I, "let us first find out if they speak English, for if they do we must be careful what we say before them. Very few of the old people I guess know anything but French, but the younger ones who frequent the Halifax market know more than they pretend to if they are like some other habitans I saw at New Orleans. They are as cunning as foxes."

Proceeding to one of the largest cottages, we immediately gained admission. The door, unlike those of Nova Scotian houses, opened outwards, the fastening being a simple wooden latch. The room into which we entered was a large, dark, dingy, dirty apartment. In the centre of it was a tub containing some goslins, resembling yellow balls of corn-meal, rather than birds. Two females were all that were at home, one a little wrinkled woman, whose age it would puzzle a physiognomist to pronounce on, the other a girl about twenty-five years old. They sat on opposite sides of the fire-place, and both were clothed alike, in blue striped homespun, as previously described.

"Look at their moccasins," said the doctor. "They know much more about deer-skins than half the English settlers do. Do you observe, they are made of carriboo, and not moose hide. The former contracts with wet and the other distends and gets out of shape. Simple as that little thing is, few people have ever noticed it."

The girl, had she been differently trained and dressed, would have been handsome, but spare diet, exposure to the sun and wind, and field-labour, had bronzed her face, so that it was difficult to say what her real complexion was. Her hair was jet black and very luxuriant, but the handkerchief which served for bonnet and head-dress by day, and for a cap by night, hid all but the ample folds in front. Her teeth were as white as ivory, and contrasted strangely with the gipsy colour of her cheeks. Her eyes were black, soft, and liquid, and the lashes remarkably long, but the expression of her face, which was naturally good, indicated, though not very accurately, the absence of either thought or curiosity.

After a while objects became more distinct in the room, as we gradually became accustomed to the dim light of the small windows. The walls were hung round with large hanks of yarn, principally blue and white. An open cupboard displayed some plain coarse cups and saucers, and the furniture consisted of two rough tables, a large bunk,¹ one or two sea-chests, and a few chairs of simple workmanship. A large old-fashioned spinning-wheel and a barrel-churn stood in one corner, and in the other a shoemaker's bench, while carpenter's tools were suspended on nails in such places as were not occupied by yarn. There was no ceiling or plastering visible anywhere, the floor of the attic alone separated that portion of the house from the lower room, and the joice on which it was laid were thus exposed to view, and supported on wooden cleets, leather, oars, rudders, together with some half-dressed pieces of ash, snow-shoes, and such other things as necessity might require. The wood-work, wherever visible, was begrimed with smoke, and the floor, though doubtless sometimes swept, appeared as if it had the hydrophobia hidden in its cracks, so carefully were soap and water kept from it. Hams and bacon were nowhere visible. It is probable, if they had any, they were kept elsewhere, but still more probable that they had found their way to market, and been transmuted into money, for these people are remarkably frugal and abstemious, and there can be no doubt, the doctor says, that there is not a house in the settlement in which there is not a supply of ready money, though the appearance of the buildings and their inmates would by no means justify a stranger in supposing so. They are neither poor nor destitute, but far better off than those who live more comfortably and inhabit better houses.

¹ Bunk is a word in common use, and means a box that makes a seat by day and serves for a bedstead by night.

The only article of food that I saw was a barrel of eggs, most probably accumulated for the Halifax market, and a few small fish on rods, undergoing the process of smoking in the chimney corner.

The old woman was knitting and enjoying her pipe, and the girl was dressing wool, and handling a pair of cards with a rapidity and ease that would have surprised a Lancashire weaver. The moment she rose to sweep up the hearth I saw she was an heiress. When an Acadian girl has but her outer and under garment on, it is a clear sign, if she marries, there will be a heavy demand on the fleeces of her husband's sheep; but if she wears four or more thick woollen petticoats, it is equally certain her portion of worldly goods is not very small.

"Doctor," sais I, "it tante every darnin' needle would reach her through them petticoats, is it?"

"Oh!" said he, "Mr Slick--oh!" and he rose as usual, stooped forward, pressed his hands on his ribs, and ran round the room, if not at the imminent risk of his life, certainly to the great danger of the spinning wheel and the goslings. Both the females regarded him with great surprise, and not without some alarm.

"He has the stomach-ache," sais I, in French, "he is subject to it."

"Oh! oh!" said he, when he heard that, "oh, Mr Slick, you will be the death of me."

"Have you got any peppermint?" sais I.

"No," said she, talking in her own patois; and she scraped a spoonful of soot from the chimney, and putting it into a cup, was about pouring hot water on it for an emetic, when he could stand it no longer, but rushing out of the door, put to flight a flock of geese that were awaiting their usual meal, and stumbling over a pig, fell at full length on the ground, nearly crushing the dog, who went off yelling as if another such blow would be the death of him, and hid himself under the barn. The idea of the soot-emetic relieved the old lady, though it nearly fixed the doctor's flint for him. She extolled its virtues to the skies; she saved her daughter's life, she said, with it once, who had been to Halifax, and was taken by an officer into a pastrycook's shop and treated. He told her if she would eat as much as she could at once, he would pay for it all.

Well, she did her best. She eat one loaf of plumcake, three trays of jellies, a whole counter of little tarts, figs, raisins, and oranges, and all sorts of things without number. Oh! it was a grand chance, she said, and the way she eat was a caution to a cormorant; but at last she gave out she couldn't do no more. The foolish officer, the old lady observed, if he had let her fetch all them things home, you know we could have helped her to eat them, and if we couldn't have eat 'em all in one day, surely we could in one week; but he didn't think of that I suppose. But her daughter liked to have died; too much of a good thing is good for nothing. Well, the soot-emetic cured her, and then she told me all its effects; and it's very surprising, it didn't sound bad in French, but it don't do to write it in English at all; it's the same thing, but it tells better in French. It must be a very nice language that for a doctor, when it makes emetics sound so pretty; you might hear of 'em while you was at dinner and not disturb you.

You may depend it made the old lady wake snakes and walk chalks talking of physic. She told me if a man was dying or a child was born in all that settlement, she was always sent for, and related to me some capital stories; but somehow no English or Yankee woman could tell them to a man, and a man can't tell them in English. How is this, Squire, do you know? Ah! here is the doctor, I will ask him by and by.

Women, I believe, are born with certain natural tastes. Sally was death on lace, and old Aunt Thankful goes the whole figure for furs; either on 'em could tell real thread or genuine sable clear across the church. Mother was born with a tidy devil, and had an eye for cobwebs and blue-bottle flies. She waged eternal war on 'em; while Phoebe Hopewell beat all natur for bigotry and virtue as she called them (bijouterie and virtu). But most Yankee women when they grow old, specially if they are spinsters, are grand at compoundin' medicines and presarves. They begin by nursin' babies and end by nursin' broughten up folks. Old Mother Boudrot, now, was great on herbs, most of which were as simple and as harmless as herself. Some of them was new to me, though I think I know better ones than she has; but what made her onfallible was she had faith. She took a key out of her pocket, big enough for a jail-door, and unlocking a huge sailor's chest, selected a box made by the Indians of birch bark, worked with porcupine quills, which enclosed another a size smaller, and that a littler one that would just fit into it, and so on till she came to one about the size of an old-fashioned coffee-cup. They are called a nest of boxes. The inner one contained a little horn thing that looked like a pill-box, and that had a charm in it.

It was a portion of the nail of St Francis's big toe, which never failed to work a cure on them who believed in it. She said she bought it from a French prisoner, who had deserted from Melville Island, at Halifax, during the last war. She gave him a suit of clothes, two shirts, six pair of stockings, and eight dollars for it. The box was only a bit of bone, and not worthy of the sacred relic, but she couldn't afford to get a gold one for it.

"Poor St Croix," she said, "I shall never see him again. He had great larning; he could both read and write. When he sold me that holy thing, he said:

"'Madam, I am afraid something dreadful will happen to me before long for selling that relic. When danger and trouble come, where will be my charm then?'

"Well, sure enough, two nights after (it was a very dark night) the dogs barked dreadful, and in the morning Peter La Roue, when he got up, saw his father's head on the gate-post, grinnin' at him, and his daughter Annie's handkerchief tied over his crown and down under his chin. And St Croix was gone, and Annie was in a trance, and the priest's desk was gone, with two hundred pounds of money in it; and old Jodrie's ram had a saddle and bridle on, and was tied to a gate of the widow of Justine Robisheau, that was drowned in a well at Halifax; and Simon Como's boat put off to sea of itself, and was no more heard of. Oh, it was a terrible night, and poor St Croix, people felt very sorry for him, and for Annie La Roue, who slept two whole days and nights before she woke up. She had all her father's money in her room that night; but they searched day after day and never found it."

Well, I didn't undeceive her. What's the use? Master St Croix was an old privateers-man. He had drugged La Roue's daughter to rob her of her money; had stolen two hundred pounds from the priest, and Como's boat, and sold the old lady a piece of his toe-nail for eight or ten pounds' worth in all. I never shake the faith of an ignorant person. Suppose they do believe too much, it is safer than believing too little. You may make them give up their creed, but they ain't always quite so willing to take your's. It is easier to make an infidel than a convert. So I just let folks be, and suffer them to skin their own eels.

After that she took to paying me compliments on my French, and I complimented her on her good looks, and she confessed she was very handsome when she was young, and all the men were in love with her, and so on. Well, when I was about startin', I inquired what she had to sell in the eatin' line.

"Eggs and fish," she said, "were all she had in the house."

On examining the barrel containing the former, I found a white-lookin', tasteless powder among them.

"What's that?" said I.

Well, she told me what it was (pulverised gypsum), and said, "It would keep them sweet and fresh for three months at least, and she didn't know but more."

So I put my hand away down into the barrel and pulled out two, and that layer she said was three months old. I held them to the light, and they were as clear as if laid yesterday.

"Boil them," sais I, and she did so; and I must say it was a wrinkle I didn't expect to pick up at such a place as that, for nothing could be fresher.

"Here is a dollar," said I, "for that receipt, for it's worth knowing, I can tell you."

"Now," thinks I, as I took my seat again, "I will try and see if this French gall can talk English." I asked her, but she shook her head.

So to prove her, sais I, "Doctor, ain't she a beauty, that? See what lovely eyes she has, and magnificent hair! Oh, if she was well got up, and fashionably dressed, wouldn't she be a sneezer? What beautiful little hands and feet she has! I wonder if she would marry me, seein' I am an orthodox man."

Well, she never moved a muscle; she kept her eyes fixed on her work, and there wasn't the leastest mite of a smile on her face. I kinder sorter thought her head was rather more stationary, if anything, as if she was listening, and her eyes more fixed, as if she was all attention; but she had dropped a stitch in her knitting, and was taking of it up, so perhaps I might be mistaken. Thinks I, I will try you on t'other tack.

"Doctor, how would you like to kiss her, eh? Ripe-looking lips them, ain't they? Well, I wouldn't kiss her for the world," said I; "I would just as soon think of kissing a ham that is covered with creosote. There is so much ile and smoke on 'em, I should have the taste in my mouth for a week. Phew! I think I taste it now!"

She coloured a little at that, and pretty soon got up and went out of the room; and presently I heard her washing her hands and face like anything,

Thinks I, "You sly fox! you know English well enough to kiss in it anyhow, if you can't talk in it easy. I thought I'de find you out; for a gall that won't laugh when you tickle her, can't help screamin' a little when you pinch her; that's a fact." She returned in a few minutes quite a different lookin' person, and resumed her usual employment, but still persisted that she did not know English. In the midst of our conversation, the master of the house, Jerome Boudrot, came in. Like most of the natives of Chesencook, he was short in stature, but very active, and like all the rest a great talker.

"Ah, gentlemen," he said, "you follow de sea, eh?"

"No," sais I, "the sea often follows us, especially when the wind is fair."

"True, true," he said; "I forget dat. It followed me one time. Oh, I was wunst lost at sea; and it's an awful feelin'. I was out of sight of land one whole day, all night, and eetle piece of next day. Oh, I was proper frightened. It was all sea and sky, and big wave, and no land, and none of us knew our way back." And he opened his eyes as if the very recollection of his danger alarmed him. "At last big ship came by, and hailed her, and ask:

"'My name is Jerry Boudrot; where am I?'

"'Aboard of your own vessel,' said they; and they laughed like anything, and left us.

"Well, towards night we were overtaken by Yankee vessel, and I say, 'My name is Jerry Boudrot; where am I?'

"'Thar,' said the sarcy Yankee captain, 'and if you get this far, you will be here;' and they laughed at me, and I swore at them, and called 'em all manner of names.

"Well, then I was proper frightened, and I gave myself up for lost, and I was so sorry I hadn't put my deed of my land on recor, and that I never got pay for half a cord of wood I sold a woman, who nevare return agin, last time I was to Halifax; and Esadore Terrio owe me two shillings and sixpence, and I got no note of hand for it, and I lend my ox-cart for one day to Martell Baban, and he will keep it for a week, and wear it out, and my wife marry again as sure as de world. Oh, I was very scare and propare sorry, you may depend, when presently great big English ship come by, and I hail her.

"'My name is Jerry Boudrot,' sais I, 'when did you see land last?'

"'Thirty days ago,' said the captain.

"'Where am I?' sais I.

"'In 44° 40' north,' said he, 'and 63° 40' west,' as near as I could hear him.

"'And what country is dat are?' said I. 'My name is Jerry Boudrot.'

"'Where are you bound?' said he.

"'Home,'¹ said I.

¹ All colonists call England "home."

"'Well,' said he, 'at this season of the year you shall make de run in twenty-five day. A pleasant passage to you!' and away he went.

"Oh, I was plague scared; for it is a dreadful thing to be lost at sea.

"'Twenty-five days,' said I, 'afore we get home! Oh, mon Dieu! oh dear! we shall all starve to death; and what is worse, die first. What provision have we, boys?'

"'Well,' sais they, 'we counted, and we have two figs of tobacco, and six loaf baker's bread (for the priest), two feet of wood, three matches, and five gallons of water, and one pipe among us all.' Three matches and five gallons of water! Oh, I was so sorry to lose my life, and what was wus, I had my best clothes on bord.

"'Oh, boys, we are out of sight of land now,' sais I, 'and what is wus, may be we go so far we get out sight of de sun too, where is dark like down cellar. Oh, it's a shocking ting to be lost at sea. Oh, people lose deir way dere so bad, sometimes dey nevare return no more. People that's lost in de wood dey come back if dey live, but them that's lost at sea nevare. Oh, I was damn scared. Oh, mon Dieu! what is 44° 40' north and 63° 40' west? Is dat de conetry were people who are lost at sea go to? Boys, is there any rum on board?' and they said there was a bottle for the old lady's rheumatis. 'Well, hand it up,' sais I, 'and if ever you get back tell her it was lost at sea, and has gone to 44° 40' north and 63° 40' west. Oh, dear, dis all comes from going out of sight of land.'

"Oh, I was vary dry you may depend; I was so scared at being lost at sea that way, my lips stuck together like the sole and upper-leather of a shoe. And when I took down the bottle to draw breath, the boys took it away, as it was all we had. Oh, it set my mouth afire, it was made to warm outside and not inside. Dere was brimstone, and camphor, and eetle red pepper, and turpentene in it. Vary hot, vary nasty, and vary trong, and it made me sea-sick, and I gave up my dinner, for I could not hole him no longer, he jump so in de stomach, and what was wus, I had so little for anoder meal. Fust I lose my way, den I lose my sense, den I lose my dinner, and what is wus I lose myself to sea. Oh, I repent vary mush of my sin in going out of sight of land. Well, I lights my pipe and walks up and down, and presently the sun comes out quite bright.

"'Well, dat sun,' sais I, 'boys, sets every night behind my barn in the big swamp, somewhere about the Hemlock Grove. Well, dat is 63° 40' west I suppose. And it rises a few miles to the eastward of that barn, sometimes out of a fog bank, and sometimes out o' the water; well that is 44° 40' north, which is all but east I suppose. Now, if we steer west we will see our barn, but steering east is being lost at sea, for in time you would be behind de sun.'

"Well, we didn't sleep much dat night, you may depend, but we prayed a great deal, and we talked a great deal, and I was so cussed scared I did not know what to do. Well, morning came and still no land, and I began to get diablement feared again. Every two or tree minutes I run up de riggin' and look out, but couldn't see notin'. At last I went down to my trunk, for I had bottle there for my rheumatics too, only no nasty stuff in it, that the boys didn't know of, and I took very long draught, I was so scared; and then I went on deck and up de riggin' again.

"'Boys,' sais I, 'there's the barn. That's 63° 40' west. I tole you so.' Well, when I came down I went on my knees, and I vowed as long as I lived I would hug as tight and close as ever I could."

"Your wife?" sais I.

"Pooh, no," said he, turning round contemptuously towards her; "hug her, eh! why, she has got the rheumatiz, and her tongue is in mourning for her teeth. No, hug the shore, man, hug it so close as posseeble, and nevare lose sight of land for fear of being lost at sea."

The old woman perceiving that Jerry had been making some joke at her expense, asked the girl the meaning of it, when she rose, and seizing his cap and boxing his ears with it, right and left, asked what he meant by wearing it before gentlemen, and then poured out a torrent of abuse on him, with such volubility I was unable to follow it.

Jerry sneaked off, and set in the corner near his daughter, afraid to speak, and the old woman took her chair again, unable to do so. There was a truce and a calm, so to change the conversation, sais I:

"Sorrow, take the rifle and go and see if there is a Jesuit-priest about here, and if there is shoot him, and take him on board and cook him."

"Oh, Massa Sam," said he, and he opened his eyes and goggled like an owl awfully frightened. "Goody gracious me, now you is joking, isn't you? I is sure you is. You wouldn't now, Massa, you wouldn't make dis child do murder, would you? Oh, Massa!! kill de poor priest who nebber did no harm in all his born days, and him hab no wife and child to follow him to--"

"The pot," sais I, "oh, yes, if they ask me arter him I will say he is gone to pot."

"Oh, Massa, now you is funnin, ain't you?" and he tried to force a laugh. "How in de world under de canopy ob hebbin must de priest be cooked?"

"Cut his head and feet off," sais I, "break his thighs short, close up to the stumps, bend 'em up his side, ram him into the pot and stew him with ham and vegetables. Lick! a Jesuit-priest is delicious done that way."

The girl dropped her cards on her knees and looked at me with intense anxiety. She seemed quite handsome, I do actilly believe if she was put into a tub and washed, laid out on the grass a few nights with her face up to bleach it, her great yarn petticoats hauled off and proper ones put on, and her head and feet dressed right, she'd beat the Blue-nose galls for beauty out and out; but that is neither here nor there, those that want white faces must wash them, and those that want white floors must scrub them, it's enough for me that they are white, without my making them so. Well, she looked all eyes and ears. Jerry's under-jaw dropped, Cutler was flabbergasted, and the doctor looked as if he thought, "Well, what are you at now?" while the old woman appeared anxious enough to give her whole barrel of eggs to know what was going on.

"Oh, Massa," said Sorrow, "dis here child can't have no hand in it. De priest will pyson you, to a dead sartainty. If he was baked he mout do. In Africa dey is hannibals and eat dere prisoners, but den dey bake or roast 'em, but stew him, Massa! by golly he will pyson you, as sure as 'postles. My dear ole missus died from only eaten hogs wid dere heads on."

"Hogs!" said I.

"Yes, Massa, in course, hogs wid dere heads on. Oh, she was a most a beautiful cook, but she was fizzled out by bad cookery at de last."

"You black villain," said I, "do you mean to say your mistress ever eat whole hogs?"

"Yes, Massa, in course I do, but it was abbin' dere heads on fixed her flint for her."

"What an awful liar you are, Sorrow!"

"'Pon my sacred word and honour, Massa," he said, "I stake my testament oat on it; does you tink dis here child now would swear to a lie? true as preachin', Sar."

"Go on," said I, "I like to see a fellow go the whole animal while he is about it. How many did it take to kill her?"

"Well, Massa, she told me herself, on her def bed, she didn't eat no more nor ten or a dozen hogs, but she didn't blame dem, it was havin' dere heads on did all the mischief. I was away when dey was cooked, or it wouldn't a happened. I was down to Charleston Bank to draw six hundred dollars for her, and when I came back she sent for me. 'Sorrow,' sais she, 'Plutarch has poisoned me.'

"'Oh, de black villain', sais I, 'Missus, I will tye him to a tree and burn him.'

"'No, no,' she said, 'I will return good for ebil. Send for Rev. Mr Hominy, and Mr Succatash, de Yankee oberseer, and tell my poor granny Chloe her ole missus is dyin', and to come back, hot foot, and bring Plutarch, for my disgestion is all gone.' Well, when Plutarch came she said, 'Plue, my child, you have killed your missus by cooking de hogs wid dere heads on, but I won't punish you, I is intendin' to extinguish you by kindness among de plantation niggers. I will heap coals of fire on your head.'

"'Dat's right, Missus,' sais I, 'burn the villain up, but burn him with green wood so as to make slow fire, dat's de ticket, Missus, it sarves him right.'

"Oh, if you eber heard yellin', Massa, you'd a heard it den. Plue he trowed himself down on de ground, and he rolled and he kicked and he screamed like mad.

"'Don't make a noise, Plutarch,' said she, 'I can't stand it. I isn't a goin' to put you to def. You shall lib. I will gib you a wife.'

"'Oh, tankee, Missus,' said he, 'oh, I will pray for you night and day, when I ain't at work or asleep, for eber and eber. Amen.'

"'You shall ab Cloe for a wife.'

"Cloe, Massa, was seventy-five, if she was one blessed second old. She was crippled with rheumatis, and walked on crutches, and hadn't a tooth in her head. She was just doubled up like a tall nigger in a short bed.

"'Oh, Lord, Missus,' said Plutarch, 'hab mercy on dis sinner, O dear Missus, O lubly Missus, oh hab mercy on dis child.'

"'Tankee, Missus,' said Cloe. 'God bless you, Missus, I is quite appy now. I is a leetle too young for dat spark, for I is cuttin' a new set o' teeth now, and ab suffered from teethin' most amazin', but I will make him a lubin' wife. Don't be shy, Mr Plue,' said she, and she up wid one ob her crutches and gub him a poke in de ribs dat made him grunt like a pig. 'Come, tand up,' said she, 'till de parson tie de knot round your neck.'

"'Oh! Lord, Missus,' said he, 'ab massy!' But de parson married 'em, and said, 'Slute your bride!' but he didn't move.

"'He is so bashful,' said Cloe, takin' him round de neck and kissin' ob him. 'Oh, Missus!' she said, 'I is so proud ob my bridegroom--he do look so genteel wid ole massa's frill shirt on, don't he?'

"When dey went out o' de room into de entry, Cloe fotched him a crack ober his pate with her crutch that sounded like a cocoa-nut, it was so hollow.

"'Take dat,' said she, 'for not slutin' ob your bride, you good-for-nottin' onmanerly scallawag you.'

"Poor dear missus! she died dat identical night."

"Come here, Sorrow," said I; "come and look me in the face."

The moment he advanced, Jerry slipt across the room, and tried to hide behind the tongues near his wife. He was terrified to death. "Do you mean to say," said I, "she died of going the whole hog? Was it a hog--tell me the truth?"

"Well, Massa," said he, "I don't know to a zact sartainty, for I was not dere when she was tooked ill,--I was at de bank at de time,--but I will take my davy it was hogs or dogs. I wont just zackly sartify which, because she was 'mazin' fond of both; but I will swear it was one or toder, and dat dey was cooked wid dere heads on--dat I will stificate to till I die!"

"Hogs or dogs," said I, "whole, with their heads on--do you mean that?"

"Yes, Massa, dis here child do, of a sartainty."

"Hogs like the pig, and dogs like the Newfoundlander at the door?"

"Oh, no, Massa, in course it don't stand to argument ob reason it was. Oh, no, it was quadogs and quahogs--clams, you know. We calls 'em down South, for shortness, hogs and dogs. Oh, Massa, in course you knows dat--I is sure you does--you is only intendin' on puppose to make game of dis here nigger, isn't you?"

"You villain," said I, "you took a rise out of me that time, at any rate. It ain't often any feller does that, so I think you deserve a glass of the old Jamaiky for it when we go on board. Now go and shoot a Jesuit-priest if you see one."

The gall explained the order to her mother.

"Shoot the priest?" said she, in French.

"Shoot the priest," said Jerry; "shoot me!" And he popped down behind his wife, as if he had no objection to her receiving the ball first.

She ran to her chest, and got out the little horn box with the nail of St Francis, and looked determined to die at her post. Sorrow deposited the gun in the corner, hung down his head, and said:

"Dis here child, Massa Slick, can't do no murder."

"Then I must do it myself," said I, rising and proceeding to get my rifle.

"Slick," said the doctor, "what the devil do you mean?"

"Why," says I, a settin' down again, "I'll tell you. Jesuit-priests were first seen in Spain and Portugal, where they are very fond of them. I have often eaten them there."

"First seen in Spain and Portugal!" he replied. "You are out there--but go on."

"There is a man," said I, "in Yorkshire, who says his ancestor brought the first over from America, when he accompanied Cabot in his voyages, and he has one as a crest. But that is all bunkum. Cabot never saw one."

"What in the world do you call a Jesuit-priest?"

"Why a turkey to be sure," said I; "that's what they call them at Madrid and Lisbon, after the Jesuits who first introduced them into Europe."

"My goody gracious!" said Sorrow, "if that ain't fun alive it's a pity, that's all."

"We'll," said Jerry, "I was lost at sea that time; I was out of sight of land. It puzzled me like 44° north, and 63° 40' west."

"Hogs, dogs, and Jesuit-priests!" said the doctor, and off he set again, with his hands on his sides, rushing round the room in convulsions of laughter.

"The priest," said I to the old woman, "has given him a pain in his stomach," when she ran to the dresser again, and got the cup of soot for him which had not yet been emptied.

"Oh dear!" said he, "I can't stand that; oh, Slick, you will be the death of me yet," and he bolted out of the house.

Having purchased a bushel of clams from the old lady, and bid her and her daughter good-bye, we vamosed the ranche.¹ At the door I saw a noble gobbler.

¹ One of the numerous corruptions of Spanish words introduced into the States since the Mexican war, and signifies to quit the house or shanty. Rancho designates a hut, covered with branches, where herdsmen temporarily reside.

"What will you take for that Jesuit-priest," said I, "Jerry?"

"Seven and sixpence," said he.

"Done," said I, and his head was perforated with a ball in an instant.

The dog unused to such a sound from his master's house, and recollecting the damage he received from the fall of the doctor, set off with the most piteous howls that ever were heard, and fled for safety--the pigs squealed as if they had each been wounded--and the geese joined in the general uproar--while old Madam Boudrot and her daughter rushed screaming to the door to ascertain what these dreadful men were about, who talked of shooting priests, and eating hogs and dogs entire with their heads on. It was some time before order was restored, and when Jerry went into the house to light his pipe and deposit his money, I called Cutler's attention to the action and style of a horse in the pasture whom my gun had alarmed.

"That animal," said I, "must have dropped from the clouds. If he is young and sound, and he moves as if he were both, he is worth six hundred dollars. I must have him; can you give him a passage till we meet one of our large coal ships coming from Pictou?"

"Certainly," said he.

"Jerry," sais I, when he returned, "what in the world do you keep such a fly-away devil as that for? why don't you sell him and buy cattle? Can't you sell him at Halifax?"

"Oh", said he, "I can't go there now no more, Mr Slick. The boys call after me and say: Jerry, when did you see land last? My name is Jerry Boudrot, where am I? Jerry, I thought you was lost at sea! Jerry, has your colt got any slippares on yet (shoes)? Jerry, what does 44--40 mean? Oh! I can't stand it!"

"Why don't you send him by a neighbour?"

"Oh! none o' my neighbours can ride him. We can't break him. We are fishermen, not horsemen."

"Where did he come from?"

"The priest brought a mare from Canada with him, and this is her colt. He gave it to me when I returned from being lost at sea, he was so glad to see me. I wish you would buy him, Mr Slick; you will have him cheap; I can't do noting with him, and no fence shall stop him."

"What the plague," sais I, "do you suppose I want of a horse on board of a ship? do you want me to be lost at sea too? and besides, if I did try to oblige you," said I, "and offered you five pounds for that devil nobody can ride, and no fence stop, you'd ask seven pound ten right off. Now, that turkey was not worth a dollar here, and you asked at once seven and sixpence. Nobody can trade with you, you are so everlasting sharp. If you was lost at sea, you know your way by land, at all events."

"Well," sais he, "say seven pounds ten, and you will have him."

"Oh! of course," said I, "there is capital pasture on board of a vessel, ain't there? Where am I to get hay till I send him home?"

"I will give you tree hundredweight into the bargain."

"Well," sais I, "let's look at him; can you catch him?"

He went into the house, and bringing out a pan of oats, and calling him, the horse followed him into the stable, where he was secured. I soon ascertained he was perfectly sound, and that he was an uncommonly fine animal. I sent Sorrow on board for my saddle and bridle, whip and spurs, and desired that the vessel might be warped into the wharf. When the negro returned, I repeated the terms of the bargain to Jerry, which being assented to, the animal was brought out into the centre of the field, and while his owner was talking to him, I vaulted into the saddle. At first he seemed very much alarmed, snorting, and blowing violently; he then bounded forward and lashed out with his hind feet most furiously, which was succeeded by alternate rearing, kicking, and backing. I don't think I ever see a critter splurge so badly; at last he ran the whole length of the field, occasionally throwing up his heels very high in the air, and returned unwillingly, stopping every few minutes and plunging outrageously. On the second trial he again ran, and for the first time I gave him both whip and spur, and made him take the fence, and in returning I pushed him in the same manner, making him take the leap as before. Though awkward and ignorant of the meaning of the rein, the animal knew he was in the hands of a power superior to his own, and submitted far more easily than I expected.

When we arrived at the wharf, I removed the saddle, and placing a strong rope round his neck, had it attached to the windlass, not to drag him on board, but to make him feel if he refused to advance that he was powerless to resist, an indispensable precaution in breaking horses. Once and once only he attempted escape; he reared and threw himself, but finding the strain irresistible, he yielded and went on board quietly. Jerry was as delighted to get rid of him as I was to purchase him, and though I knew that seven pounds ten was as much as he could ever realize out of him, I felt I ought to pay him for the hay, and also that I could well afford to give him a little conciliation present; so I gave him two barrels of flour in addition, to enable him to make his peace with his wife, whom he had so grossly insulted by asserting that his vow to heaven was to hug the shore hereafter, and had no reference to her. If I ain't mistaken, Jerry Boudrot, for so I have named the animal after him, will astonish the folks to Slickville; for of all the horses on this continent, to my mind, the real genuine Canadian is the best by all odds.

"Ah! my friend," said Jerry, addressing the horse, "you shall soon be out of sight of land, like your master; but unlike him, I hope you shall never be lost at sea."