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 '• Thos. Swan "^ Co., 
 
 CATERERS, 
 
 - AND - 
 
 Restaurateurs, Etc. 
 
 THE LEADING LUNCH AND 
 SAMPLE ROOMS OF THE CITY. 
 
 Cor. of Woodward & Lamed Sts., DETROIT, MICH. 
 
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 Cor. Griswold and Congress Sis., 
 
 DETROIT, MICH. 
 
 The Most Centrally Situated Business Man's and 
 Family Hotel in the City. 
 
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 Ask for Tickets by the Grand Haven Route. 
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 Ele^apt SaiDple apd Wipe Roorp, 
 
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 BEST OF Wings. UQUORS AND CIGARS, LAGER AND OTHER COOLING 
 
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 Convonisnt to Belle Isle Park Ferry. 
 Ladies' Entrance on Atwater St. 
 

 
 
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 (PIOHTINQ ISLAND.) 
 
 Nine Miles belovsr the Gity of Detroit, Michigan. 
 
 e 
 THE NEWEST 
 
 DELIGHTFUL SUMMER SHOOTING AND 
 
 FISHING RESORT IN THE WEST. 
 
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 PROPRIETORS A.NC> 
 MANAQERS. 
 
 UROPEAN HOTEL " " 
 
 Restaurant and Caft , 
 
 10-12-14 MONROE AVENUE, 
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 All Street Car Lines within one minutes walk. 
 
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 Proprietors. 
 
 V 
 
(;t 
 
 Border Canucks: 
 
 Our Friendly Relations. 
 
 A NOVEL. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEO. CAMERON RANKIN, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "The Canuck" and Other Plays. 
 
 DETROIT, MICH.: 
 
 G. C. Rankin, Publisher. 
 
 1890. 
 
Ri9 
 
 r\ 
 
 
 COPTRIOHTBD 1890 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES S. MoDONALD. 
 All rights rmerved. 
 
■Hi» 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 With Best Wishes for his 
 Welfare and Advancement, this Book is Dedicated 
 
 TO MY Friend, 
 
 The Hon. CHARLES W. CASGRAIN, 
 
 City Attorney, Detroit, Mich. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
-^ JW ' * v»«*^. "*'•*' ■ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Faom 
 
 Lesdkoxamih 1 
 
 MuBiiiiAT Faum 7 
 
 A Mai.kdiction and an Inau(m;iiai- Fiiiknih.y Conpaji 19 
 
 A Dklkihtkdl Plackto LivK AND Kkkp House in.— A Mixbd 
 
 MAKiiiAaE 88 
 
 A Uuusii Koii Turc Lead 41 
 
 The Widow Mautin and IIeu Pacini T'ony " (JuAPAri) " R7 
 
 The Fakeus 69 
 
 The Race on the Ice 79 
 
 The Widow's Ball 105 
 
 A TUIIKEY GOBIILKU PaUENT— An EMllAUKA8flING SON AND HeiU 
 
 —A Retuospect— An Ai'olo<iy pou a liwiio, Etc 181 
 
 The Vaoauieb op a Domestic Skeleton, and One ov the Rr- 
 
 8ULT8 of a Mixed Maiuiiaqe 1 11 
 
 A SYiiPii like Alheit Autpul Nluse 178 
 
 An Idealistic Stray Sheep 183 
 
 FiusT Love's Conspiracy . . . 197 
 
 Friendly Relations, ou Ultimate Annexation ? 209 
 
 Jacobin Clocks and " Le ciiemin de cuois " 219 
 
 A Little Theology and a " Pat Hand " 281 
 
 The Suppeh— Petku Bektkand's Toast and Monsieuu IIadee- 
 
 show's Reply 249 
 
 Reactionery Reflections 259 
 
 An International Love Scene 269 
 
 A Son op Erin 279 
 
 A Devoted Mother and a Penitent Son 288 
 
 The Promised Valedictory Visit 291 
 
'yr.:ai±:^ AJa'»,.O . ja ■K ^' fe r; 
 
 SSRHMI 
 
 . ■«»»•*< ■»"^r^m*"«^*««***'-' 
 
m 
 
 7 
 
 Border Canucks; 
 
 OUE FRIENDLY RELATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Les deux amis, 
 
 XT WAS the 29tli of Januaiy, 187—, in the city of 
 -^ Detroit, in the State of Michigan. 
 
 The reaction following the busy and joyous Christmas 
 holiday season was at its height, and dullness held its 
 dampening sway throughout the retail shops and market 
 places of the fair metropolis. 
 
 It had been snowing in the early morning — a dry, mealy 
 sort of snow, which did but little to improve the already 
 tolerably good sleighing. 
 
 Now, at eleven o'clock ai the day, the overcast, darken- 
 ing sky, and surcharged lying clouds gave sign of another 
 storm near at hand, while the whistling wind wliich rushed 
 about the four corners, formed by the intersection of the 
 two broad chief thoroughfares of the city, in boisterous 
 disturbance, suggested an invisible game of blind man's 
 buff in full blast. 
 
\\ 
 
 \ 
 
 2 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 The horses on the neighboring cab-stand hunched their 
 backs and bowed their heads as ^ ,11 as their cruel over- 
 checks would allow, and squeezed their tails between their 
 hocks as if they fain would squeeze themselves inside of 
 themselves until the gathering storm rolled by, while frost- 
 laden blasts came trooping up from the frozen river, and, 
 arriving at the nearest of the four corners, would suddenly 
 stop as if disgusted at the abnormal dullness of the streets, 
 and, gathering up a modicum of the newly-fallen snow, fly 
 away with it in spiral columns towards the regions whence 
 it had so recently come. 
 
 In the midst of this portentous condition of the elements 
 a young man wearing a Persian lamb's-fur overcoat and 
 cap, and driving a grey pony in a well-robed, fashionable 
 Portland sleigh passed westward down one of the intersecting 
 streets until he came to a large wholesale and retail store 
 with an imposing front, when he stopped, got out, and pro- 
 ceeded to tie the pony to a hitching-post on the curb. 
 
 While he was in the act of doing this there came out of 
 the store a middle-aged looking man, conciderably above 
 the medium height, with black, or dark brown hair tinged 
 with grey, and dark blue eyes, having a sad expression in 
 them until they caught sight of the youth at the pony's 
 head, when they took on a pleased look, and the whole face 
 lighted up with good-natured recognition. 
 
 He wore a full beard, and his dress was a near approach 
 to the winter costume of the typical French Canadian 
 habitant. 
 
 His overcoat was of a light brownish-grey, homespun, 
 secured by a dark red sash about the waist, while his 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. ^ 3 
 
 trousers were of a shade lighter color of the same material, 
 and at the bottom were stuffed inside the short legs of a 
 pair of shoe pacs On his head he wore a very seedy 
 muskrat fur cap, and upon his left arm hung a large sized 
 hand- basket, which upon examination would be found to 
 contain a couple of empty bags. 
 
 As the youth, while carefully covering the pony with a 
 thick scarlet horse cloth, caught sight of the other, he cried 
 out in a surprised and pleased tone of voice: "Hello, 
 Jock, old fellow, I'm awfully glad to see you! I. was just 
 thinking about you as I drove down." 
 
 " Bah gosh, Monsieur Jack," responded the Frenchman, 
 as he crossed tlje sidewalk towards the youtli, "dat's long 
 taraAhnot see you. How was you mon cher ami? And 
 they shook hands demonstratively. 
 
 " Oh, I'm all right, thank you Jock," replied the other. 
 "I don't know how it is that I've happened to miss you 
 whenever you've been in the city of late. I have heard of 
 your being in the store twice since Christmas, but I've never 
 happened to come in either time you were here." 
 
 " No, you see Ah've always be een hurray de lass tree 
 four tam Ah've be on de ceetay." 
 
 " Yes, but why more so than usual ? But let's get out of 
 the wind " suggested the youth, and they went and stood 
 within the shelter of the ca])acious entrance to the retail 
 department of the store. " Well, you see," resumed the 
 Frenchman, ** mah Meeses have not be well lately. She 
 have de rheumatiss pootay bad, an de two youngess chile 
 have de meezle, an what wus wuss of all pauvre leetle 
 Marie have kotch cole wit de fever 'bout a mons ago, an 
 
1 
 
 4 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 Ah wus 'fraid she wus goin be very seeck, an so you see 
 Ah have always be ankshus to got back home soon's Ah 
 kin whenevaire Ah have be on de ceetay lately." 
 
 " "Why, I am real sorry you've been in such trouble, 
 Jock," exclaimed the youth, sympathetically, " and how 
 are they now ? " 
 
 "Oh, dey wus all raght agin, tank God." 
 
 " I am glad to hear it," replied the young man, heartily, 
 " and my especial little friend Archange, she has not been 
 ill I hope?" 
 
 " Ah, no. Archange she's nevaire seek. You know dey 
 ses she's look lac me, an dough she doan look lac she's 
 strong, she wus tuS lac Eengeen rubber." 
 
 " I tell you, Jock, that's going to be a pretty girl when 
 she grows up," exclaimed the youth, admiringly. But I'm 
 glad to hear Mrs. Laforge and the other sick ones are all 
 right again, too." 
 
 " Ah, yas ! de Meeses she's move 'roun all raght agin, an 
 Marie, pauvre chile, was work hard all de tarn braiden straw 
 every day, every day, from de tarn she's got up een de 
 morning teel she's go to bed at naight. Why, Monsieur 
 Jack," continued the Frenchman, rousing up, " fur how 
 much wurt you tink dat leetle Marie could mac een ten 
 day braiden straw for dees store ? " 
 
 "I'm sure I don't know," responded the youth, "but I 
 do know that she is a remarkably bright and clever little 
 girl." 
 
 " Well sair," said Jock, as if he were giving utterance to 
 something scarcely credible, "you kin blceve me ou no 
 jews ypu's mine to, mats Ah have got on mah pockette now 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 at dees tarn jcwst eight dollaire an seextay cent dat leetle 
 ting have arne een ten work in day." 
 
 •' Eight dollars and sixty cents in ten days," repeated the 
 youth in surprise, " very nearly a dollar a day ! Well, by 
 Jove I That is good wages for a little crippled girl of twelve 
 years old to earn, and no mistake." 
 
 "Yas sair," said the Frenchman, proudly, "and heur 
 braid was always fust-' 'ass. Eet always fatch de bess 
 prasse. Ah'll toll you she's help keep it de famlay good 
 deal on dose hard tarn wit me." 
 
 "Poor Httle thing," exclaimed the youth, tenderly, "I 
 must go down and see her and the rest of the family before 
 I go away." 
 
 " Ah ! wus you go 'way, Monsieur Jack ? " enquired the 
 Frenchman in surprise. *' Excuse moi mon cher, mais 
 where was you go ? " 
 
 " I'm going to New York before the end of the week, and 
 I wanted in any case to go down and see you about stow- 
 ing away or disposing of ni}' duck skiff and decoys." 
 
 " Aw, yo skeef an de dekye was all een de barn to home, 
 an dey cood stay dare unteel you wants dem een de spring." 
 
 " But I don't think I shall be here in the spring. How- 
 ever," continued the youth, " I'll tell you all about my 
 plans when I go down to see you to-morrow or next day, if 
 it's fine." 
 
 " Aw well, dat's all raght den, you goan come an see us 
 beefor you goes," exclaimed the Frenchman, satisfiedly, 
 tightening his coat around him and pulling his muskrat 
 cap down further over his head as he looked up at the 
 gathering clouds. *' On de meeu tarn, eef Ah doan start 
 
^ 
 
 6 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 now, bab gosh I Ah bleeve de storm goan kotch me beefor 
 Ah wus got half ways home," and turning to the youth 
 with a kindly smile upon his face and outstretched right 
 hand, he said: "Good-bye Monsieur Jack. Good-bye fur 
 de pressen," and they shook hands heartily. 
 
 "Good-bye Jock till I see you again." 
 
 " Mine, we wus goan look fur you to-morrow ou de nex 
 day fur sure," enjoined the Frenchman. "Goodbye Mon- 
 sieur Jack," and he hurriedly took his way down the street 
 towards the ferry that crossed to the Canadian side of the river. 
 
 Thus parted, for the time being, these two friends in the 
 gathering storm — the one Jacques Lafo' ^e to his home on 
 the River Canard, on the Canadian siae, ten miles below 
 the city — the other young John Rathbone, the only son of 
 Mr. Robert Rathbone, the senior partner of the firm of 
 Rathbone and Ritter, into whose spacious place of business 
 he now entered. 
 
 ■MM 
 
1 me beefor 
 ,o the youth 
 itched right 
 ood-bye fur 
 
 ou de nex 
 Ddbye Mon- 
 m the street 
 3 of the river, 
 ends in the 
 bis home on 
 miles below 
 
 only son of 
 the firm of 
 
 of business. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Mushrat Farm. 
 
 nPHE FIRM of Rathboneand Ritter were extensive deal- 
 ers in furs, hats, caps and straw goods and for a quarter 
 of a century past had held a leading position throughout the 
 Union as manufacturers of what is known to the trade as 
 "hand made Mackinaw straw braid." This circumstance it 
 is presumed was in great measure d ue to the fact of their prox- 
 imity to an extensive settlement of people whose women 
 folk from time immemorial have made the braiding of straw 
 for hats and bonnets an industry of the fireside and home. 
 
 The narrow stretch of low-lying country on the Canadian 
 side extending from Stony Point, on Lake St. Clair, to the 
 River Canard, a sluggish, turbid stream which empties its 
 brackish waters into the Detroit River some half dozen miles 
 above its mouth at the head of Lake Erie (the whole being 
 about thirty-five miles in length and from three to five miles 
 in depth from its front on the lake and river), is known upon 
 the local county maps as the French survey. It is so des- 
 ignated because of the fact that in common with all other 
 old French settlements on the continent founded by the fol- 
 lowers of Lasalleand the Jesuits, it was originally divided off 
 into tiers, called concessions, of attenuated lots three arjpents* 
 wide by thirty in depth. 
 
 These parieres are still largely occupied by descendants of 
 the adventurous harbingers of civilization under U regime de 
 
 *Au arpent is twelve feet less than a lineal Euglish acre. 
 
I ! /- 
 
 8 
 
 BORDER CANUCES. 
 
 la Nouvelle France, who with a characteristic quaint conserv- 
 atism peculiar to their remarkable race, to this day prac- 
 tice many of the old time customs and still possess many of 
 the domestic habits which their ancestors sailed from North- 
 ern France with three hundred years and more ago. In- 
 deed, there are to this day certain localities throughout this 
 "French survey" that from a social and religions point of 
 view are as exclusively French as are any of the canton- 
 ments or prefectures of old France; and Monsieur Ernest 
 Gagnon in his commendable compilation "Zes Chansons pop- 
 ulair du Canada^^ makes what can not but be regarded as an 
 extraordinary announcement, and that is that the French 
 Canadians in some respects have been far more conservative 
 of certain ancient peasant customs extant in France three 
 hundred years ago, than have their cousins of the mother 
 country. 
 
 However that may be, the Riviere Canard settlement at 
 the outset of the period of this story was to all intents and 
 purposes an exclusively French community which counted 
 among its resident members Jacques Laforge, small farmer, 
 hunter, trapper, fishermnn and the husband and father re- 
 spectively of a wife and little crippled daughter, the eldest 
 of a numerous family, who plaited straw braid, in common 
 with numerous other wives and daughters of the rural vicin- 
 age, for Messrs. Eathbone&; Ritter, of Detroit 
 
 Monsieur Laforge's farm fronted upon the northwest side 
 of the highway, running parallel with the Detroit river about 
 forty rods east from where it crosses the Riviere Canard over 
 a palsied wooden drawbridge and thence in a northwesterly 
 direction towards tlic m-ai:^ river for seven or eight acres, 
 
 ■m 
 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 9 
 
 aint conserv- 
 lis day prac- 
 sess many of 
 
 from North- 
 •re ago. In- 
 'oughout this 
 ions point of 
 I the canton- 
 isieur Ernest 
 Chausonspop- 
 sgarded as an 
 t the French 
 
 conservative 
 France three 
 I the mother 
 
 settlement at 
 I intents and 
 hich counted 
 mall farmer, 
 d father re- 
 er, the eldest 
 in common 
 e rural vicin- 
 
 rthwest side 
 it river about 
 
 Canard over 
 orthwesterly 
 
 eight acres, 
 
 until all possibility of marking its boundaries is lost amidst 
 the tall rushes, muskrat hills and stagnant bayous of the 
 vast marsh, which constitutes the amphibious gore of terri- 
 tory formed b}'^ the confluence of the two rivers. His deed 
 called for the usual sized French lot of three arpents in 
 width by thirty in length — "ninety arpents be the same 
 more or less" — but not more than twenty-five acres thereof 
 were ever at any time available for purposes of active cul- 
 tivation. 
 
 The lot had been given our friend before he left the paren- 
 tal fold by his father, old Emanuel Laforge, a venerable and 
 courteous, albeit illiterate, habitant of the old school who 
 still lived on the family homestead some three miles up the 
 river road in what is known as the "Petite Cote radish set- 
 tlement." 
 
 The old man had bought the land in at tax sale to 
 strengthen a somewhat shakey title by right of possession 
 obtained from its previous occupant and when, thirteen years 
 before the opening of this narrative, after a long drawn-out 
 boy and girl courtship, Archange Ronseau, aged eighteen, 
 pretty and good-tempered, had been permitted to marry 
 Jaques Laforge before he was yet twenty, the latter had 
 before their marriage contrived to furbish up the tumbled 
 down premises. 
 
 lie had patched up the dilapidated, long unused barn by 
 stuffing up the open spaces twixt the logs with fresh clay, 
 replacing the shaky hingeless doors with new ones and 
 whitewashing the whole with a liberal coating of whitewash. 
 The prim fowl house and diminutive adjoining woodshed 
 he subjected to the same process of rejuvenation, and upon 
 
I .) 
 
 10 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 the dwelling itself he exhausted whatever of ingenuity he 
 possessed in making out of small means a nest as nearly as 
 might be, worthy of his young life's lova 
 
 The house was of the style of architecture so common in 
 the rural districts of Quebec. 
 
 Indeed it had been originally built by an adventurous 
 emigrant from that province, who had been in due course 
 forced into throwing up the sponge to malaria and mosqui- 
 toes, and selling out his squatter's rights for a nominal figure 
 to Laforge, pere, had returned to the land of his nativity 
 with sunken eye and a parched and jaundiced skin. 
 
 The building set back from the highway about half an 
 acre, and was between twenty-five and thirty feet in length 
 facing the same. About ten feet from either end of its steep 
 pitched gable roof there popped up a complacent dormer 
 window like two duely pacified and properly domesticated 
 Jacks in boxes. With one fell swoop, as it were, this roof 
 on the side fronting the road extended on down towards the 
 ground sufficient to cover a veranda, which ran the full 
 length of the building, and in point of fact the frame of the 
 veranda was part and parcel of the main structure. The 
 Dutch school of decoration was employed in its embellish- 
 ment in that our Benedict yellow-washed the body of the 
 building and painted the front door, window casings and 
 banister encircling the balcony a light Prussian blue. Its 
 foundation was not upon a rock, but upon upright cedar posts 
 four feet high from the humid ground below with a sta/- 
 way of five steps at the centre of the veranda in the front 
 and a corresponding one at the rear side leading to a plat- 
 
BOUDKU CANUCKS. 
 
 11 
 
 f ingenuity he 
 ist as nearly as 
 
 so common in 
 
 n adventurous 
 
 in due course 
 
 ia and mosqui- 
 
 nominal figure 
 
 of his nativity 
 
 d skin. 
 
 about half an 
 jr feet in length 
 end of its steep 
 Dlacent dormer 
 y domesticated 
 
 were, this roof 
 5\'n towards the 
 h ran the full 
 le frame of the 
 tructure. The 
 
 its embellish- 
 le body of the 
 w casings and 
 sian blue. Its 
 ght cedar posts 
 7 with a stajf- 
 la in the front 
 iing to a plat- 
 
 form lean-to facing the frame kitchen, which projected out 
 of its back part like a stiff, stubby tail. 
 
 Until in later years when these upright foundation posts 
 were hidden from view by being boarded over, a side view 
 of the domicile suggested an obese woman, with uplifted 
 skirts, in the act of crossing a muddy thoroughfare. For 
 the rest, the main building, which was of hewn, chinked logs, 
 was alike divided into two compartments upstairs and down- 
 stairs, the large frame kitchen in the rear being the dming 
 and living room as well. 
 
 This was and is the home in the Canard settlement on the 
 Detroit River of Jacques Laforge, whose prototype is a 
 familiar figure in the French parishes scattered along that 
 portion of the border of the Queen's dominions. 
 
 To this home upon the confines of the marshes, regardless 
 of the buzz and bite of mosquitoes which at certain seasons 
 seemed to permeate the very gases composing the atmos- 
 phere of the neighborhood, and despite the inevitable an- 
 nual shakes of nauseating ague, Mons. Jacques Laforge 
 brought his amiable young bride. 
 
 Here had his devoted wife blossomed forth and made him 
 a father before quite eleven months had elapsed from their 
 wedding day with its long procession of holiday vehicles 
 and their joyous occupants, first to the church and then to 
 the house of his wife's father, his own paternal roof and the 
 domiciles of other sympathizing friends and relatives — all 
 winding up by being bidden au revoir and Godspeed at his 
 own threshold by an hilarious crowd of merry-makers in the 
 wee sma' hours of the next succeeding morn. 
 

 12 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 It all seemed such a very short time ngo since this aus- 
 picious event happened, and yet it was cloao upon fourteen 
 years past and gone ! 
 
 Until tlie last eighteen months the blossoming process had 
 gone on annually with unfailing reguUirity, until ho found 
 himself the parent stem of a bunch of blossoms numbering 
 nine, with two dead, when the roll was called. "Bah Gosh, 
 dc chiles come so fass at de fust of eet," Mr. Laforge was in 
 the habit of saying, "dat's fright me. Becfor dc fuss wan 
 wus got toots on hees head, aw ! hoorah bye I anuddair wan 
 was on de craddlc; an jews soon's dat wan wus use to look 
 'round and notteece what's go on leetle beet, aw, voila I dar 
 wus nuddair wan on han fur took hees plasse. Ah'll toll 
 you, mah fren, moss ov mah tam fur de fuss tree, four year 
 aftaire we wus marry wus occoopy wit nussin." 
 
 Howbeit, though this was to a large extent a fact, and 
 with that vanity common to lords of creation in respect of 
 his capacity to perform woman's work, Jacques had gotten 
 to think that, armed with an India rubber nippled bottle, 
 containing a decoction of cow's milk and sugar, he could be 
 as good as any mother to an infant, still the work upon the 
 farm did not go unmindful of attention. With an energy 
 begotten of an imperturbable amiability and a determined 
 disposition to provide for growing responsibilities, he sim- 
 ultaneously performed the duties of acting wet-nurse and 
 cultivator of a largely submerged marsh farm in a manner 
 not altogether discreditable to himself. 
 
 In the former role he at least possessed the quality of 
 supreme patience, growing at the same time, as most sub- 
 stitute nurses of infants are said to do, absurdly fond of the 
 
r'^'.DEU CANUCKS. 
 
 18 
 
 since tills aus- 
 upon fourteen 
 
 ling process had 
 until lie found 
 lonis nunnbcring 
 d. "Bah Gosli, 
 Laforgo was in 
 or de fuss wan 
 il anuddairwan 
 sv'us use to loolc 
 ., aw, voilal dar 
 [isse. Airil toll 
 s tree, four year 
 
 in." 
 
 ont a fact, and 
 
 3n in respect of 
 
 ues had gotten 
 
 nippled bottle, 
 ^ar, he could be 
 
 work upon the 
 V"ith an energy 
 d a determined 
 bilities, he sim- 
 
 wet- nurse and 
 'ni in a manner 
 
 . the quality of 
 e, as most sub- 
 rdly fond of the 
 
 objects of his care and especially of littlo Marie his first- 
 born; while in his efforts on the farm he was ambitious of 
 redeeming from the sway of stagnant, vordunt waters and 
 boggy bayous, sufficient of terra Jirma to relieve his holding of 
 its sobriquet of " Mushrat Farm " given it by certain of his 
 cotemporary friends and acquaintances with a facetious dis- 
 position to chaflfand ridicule. 
 
 To this end, after locating a fall for the water he dug a 
 di+^h east and west across the fifteen acres intervening twixt 
 th dry cultivated land on which were the house and out- 
 buildingsand the irreclaimable marsh, which area Lc had sue* 
 ceeded in encircling with a rail fence. The following year 
 being dry and in every way propitious for such pur{)ose, he 
 succeeded in breaking up this field with the plow, and plant- 
 ing a crop of Indian corn, which after a period of languish- 
 ing yellow growth came to partial maturity and yielded a 
 half crop of deformed and sickly looking nubbins. 
 
 Believing that this method of cultivation — this kind of 
 hoed crop — would most rapidly and effectively bring the 
 soil into subjection he repeated his corn planting for three 
 or four consecutive seasons with varyiiig success as to yield, 
 until he bethought him that he'd sow the field with oats 
 and seed it down v/ith grass seed for meadow. 
 
 Meanwhile the domestic blossoms blossomed forth an- 
 nually, and there was ever a recurring stranger in the home- 
 made basswood cradle. 
 
 Marie, the first of these wlien a soft, brown-eyed, olive 
 complexioned little tot just able to comfortably waddle 
 about was ever at her father's heels in the neighboring 
 field, the barn yard or the house. 
 
tS" 
 
 14 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 She had undergone all the stereotyped infantile»maladies 
 and a siege of ague, through which her father had been her 
 chief nurse and caretaker until he had grown to be the 
 summum bonum of her little life. 
 
 There seemed no possibility of avoiding the annual visit- 
 ations of the ague. 
 
 With each succeeding spring and wet fall every available 
 member of the family shook the soul-sickening sliake of 
 a torpid or constipated liver. Howbeit, like puppies with 
 the distemper, as each succeeding blossom of tlie house- 
 hold became big enough to stand a natural sliake in con- 
 tradistinction to an artificial one (which has an unknown 
 quantity within the portals of this particular domestic fold), 
 he or she was subjected to the crucible of two or three 
 seasons' tremors which once over seemed to strengthen the 
 child's hold upon life, rendering he or she redolent of youth- 
 ful vigor. 
 
 Of his children, Mr. Laforge was in the habit of saying to 
 his English speaking friends, "Ah'll toll you mah fren, 
 " mah chile was all strong lac boole ! 
 
 "Dey was coppair fass an reeveet bote heenside an hout- 
 'side I De ager have try hees bess fur shook dem off dees 
 
 * worl 'mats she's coo'nt do eet. Yas sair I all of dem was 
 
 * foole of laf an belt all 'cep our pauvre petite Marie. Ah, 
 *m-onsieur, when Ah tink of dat po' leetle cret'[)le chile, 
 Mat's mac me blam meseff an Ah feels bad lac secstay." 
 
 After saying which he usually had to fumble about his 
 pockets for a yellow bandanna pocket handkerchief, inter- 
 spersed wnh white moons, which he perennially carried for 
 use m such emergencies. 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 15 
 
 antile»maladies 
 r had been her 
 3wn to be the 
 
 le annual visit- 
 
 jvery available 
 ining shake of 
 3 puppies with 
 of the house- 
 shake in con- 
 is an unknown 
 iomestic fold), 
 [ two or three 
 strengthen the 
 olent of youth- 
 
 ►it of saying to 
 ^ou mah fren, 
 
 □side an hout- 
 dem off dees 
 
 all of dern was 
 Marie. Ah, 
 cret'ple chile, 
 
 1 lac secstay." 
 
 ble about his 
 
 erchief, inter- 
 
 V carried for 
 
 Little Jklarie's crippled condition was due to an accident 
 which happened in the partially redeemed marsh meadow 
 on the evening of the last day her father had wrought 
 therein, and for this mishap he so blamed himself that he 
 had become bitterly morbid upon the subject. 
 
 It was well on towards dark on a lowering evening in the 
 latter part of April that Jacques had finished seeding down 
 the fifteen acre field which had cost him so much of hard 
 labor and so many sickening soul-warping ague shakes. 
 He had put forth all his huge strength and capacity for 
 work to the utmost to finish th .' task before the rain came, 
 and this the overhanging clouds of portentous omen, the 
 chirping of the myriad frogs throughout the vast marsh in 
 every conceivable key of intonation, the deep sounding 
 notes of the Wahwahron (bull frog) and the weird call of 
 the distant loon, all went to show was not far off. 
 
 He was just finishing the last harrowing of the field 
 when he was hailed, in a little piping voice from a little pair 
 of lungs very much out of breath, and asked why he was 
 stopping out there so long? Wasn't he afraid the Loup 
 Oarou (Banshee) or luiiiis (fairies) would catch him, that 
 Maw-Maw wanted him to come in to supper right away. 
 
 He told her to come over to where he was and he'd put 
 her on Blonde (one of the team of ponies) for a ride to the 
 barn, and then he had proceeded to unhitch the horses from 
 the harrow. 
 
 Poor little Marie I Tfiat run across the newly plowed field 
 in the gloaming of that storm-threatened April evening was 
 the last unimpeded use of her fragile young limbs she ever 
 had. 
 
16 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 ! I 
 
 Breathlessly she had thrown her littl,3 arms around her 
 father's knees while he was still occupied with loosening 
 the ponies from their work and then finishiLg this, amidst 
 a volley of loving, lisping epithets and baby-talk he had 
 taken her up in his great, strong arms and allowed her to 
 vent her infant strength in hugging and kissing him. 
 
 Then he put her on Blonde and told her to hold fast to 
 the harness saddle-band until he went across the field to 
 fetch the neckyoke. 
 
 He had not got more than a hundred feet ">m her when 
 Carlo the dog came bounding over the rail j.^ace, not ten 
 feet from the horses' heads, which so startled them in the 
 dim, lowering twilight that they gave one bound backwards, 
 and with a wild and frantic baby shriek, which for months 
 afterwards never ceased its sickening echo in Jacques' grief- 
 stricken ears, the little child lay prone upon the old fashioned 
 wooden harrow. 
 
 The fall was accompanied by so sickening and resound- 
 ing a thud followed by so awful a stillness, the very 
 
 frogs seemed hushed into silence for the instant — that an all 
 absorbing fear took possession of the simple-minded father 
 — a blood-curdling fear mingled with that kind of feeling 
 
 the brutes must have whan defending their 
 
 young 
 
 from 
 
 danger. 
 
 He seized upon the dog who had come jumping and 
 fawning upon him and flayed him till he howled again. 
 
 Then he went to the innocent horses and laid about them 
 with the remnant of the whip he still clutched with a vise- 
 like grip in his strong, right hand until they scampered o£E 
 in terror to their stable. 
 
 m 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 17 
 
 13 around her 
 with loosening 
 :g this, amidst 
 )y-talk he had 
 allowed her to 
 ng him. 
 
 ,o hold fast to 
 33 the field to 
 
 ■>m her when 
 xNjnce, not ten 
 id them in the 
 md backwards, 
 lich for months 
 Jacques' grief- 
 le old fashioned 
 
 Left now some twenty feet from the motionless baby, 
 'lying where she had fallen in the silence of apparent death, 
 he turned towards the tiny prostrate form and with a horror- 
 thrilling sensation about the back of his neck and head and 
 nausea at his stomach he tried to speak but could not 
 
 Slowly and mechanically with tottering steps he ap- 
 proaches his little daughter with his left hand over his 
 mouth as if tp stop the noise of his involuntary , inward 
 shivering. 
 
 For one instant he stands swaying like a drunken man 
 over the unconscious child and then with a supreme eilort 
 he touches her little face and in an unearthly yelling-moan 
 cries out, "0^, Afon Dieuf Mon Dieul! Elle est Merte /.'" 
 and the strong man lay grovelling upon the earth beside 
 the old wooden harrow riven to the heart's core as the 
 lightening riveth the oak of the forest 
 
 2 and resound- 
 
 the very 
 
 it — that an all 
 
 -minded father 
 
 ind of feeling 
 
 ir young from 
 
 jumping and 
 wled again, 
 lid about them 
 ed with a vise- 
 ' scampered off 
 
^J 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A Malediction and an Inaugural Friendly Cor\fab, 
 
 'ACQUES "WAS never conscious of how he got to the 
 house. 
 
 His first realization of his reaching there was some three 
 ' iiours after the occurrence, when, on the arrival of the doc- 
 tor, he was induced to relinquish from his arms, where he 
 iad ever since clasped it with moaning inarticulate solici- 
 tude, the still scarcely breathing form of the injured, little 
 -child. 
 
 For days and weeks little Marie vibrated between life and 
 death, and for days and weeks Jacques oscillated twixt re- 
 gions of passive dementia and a sort of phrenzied indiffer- 
 ence of passing events outside the little, sick one's presenca 
 
 Whenever he continued to sleep he again acted out in his 
 ■dreams the terrible tragedy of the fifteen acre field until he 
 cursed its very existence and the labor he had wrought upon 
 it — calling Heaven to witness that it should ever remain un- 
 touched of plow or harrow so long as it continued in his 
 j>ossession. 
 
 Marie had fallen upon the back of her neck and head, and 
 the spinal column had been so effected by the concussion 
 that for weeks she hovered upon the confines of positive 
 Spinal menengitis. In any event, the doctor (who was a 
 clever allopath) pronounced her complete recovery from the 
 liffects of the shock as out of the question. She would surely 
 jemain a cripple as long as she lived, and in this diagnosis 
 ii the case he was thus far proved entirely correct 
 
 (19) 
 
20 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 Gradually the poor little thing struggled back to life an 
 consciousness again — in this regard, as it were, repeating th 
 history of her scarcely completed babyhood, until, by din 
 of years of patient suffering, she grew sufficiently strong bot 
 mentally and physically to wield the sceptre of acting drudg 
 and quasi-guardian angel to a numerous family of brother 
 and sisters, to say nothing of her self-condemnatory father. 
 
 The latter's sacreligious curse of the fifteen acre field mad^ 
 it desirable that he should sell the farm and move elsewhen 
 to live. Now that its cultivable area, in so far as he wai 
 concerned, was permanently fixed at seven or eight acres 
 there was very little hope of its ever outliving its facetiouslj 
 amphibious name of "Mushrat Farm." The field that h( 
 had so grunted and sweated over in his efforts to rescue f ron 
 the arid bogs and humid mosses of the marsh added to th( 
 black loamed, rich acres off which he had heretofore reaped 
 such generous yields, would have entitled it to consideratiou 
 as a holding available for almost any agricultural purpose 
 and greatly enhanced its value. 
 
 But this was out of the question now. 
 
 That he should have striven so hard and suffered so much 
 from malaria and mosquitoes during his long continued ef- 
 forts to rescue the field from stagnant waters — the whole 
 winding up with this fatal accident, the outcome of his own 
 careless stupidity — seemed to justify his cursing the scene 
 of his great trouble, and vowing that ever while he owned it 
 should it remain untouched of plow or harrow. 
 
 Manifestly his proper course was to sell out and move else- 
 where to live, but then where was he to find a purchaser? 
 "Who would be prepared to pay money — absolute money— 
 
BORDER CANCCKS. 
 
 21 
 
 jgled back to life and 
 it were, repeating the 
 yhood, until, by dint 
 ifficiently strong both 
 eptre of acting drudge 
 IS family of brothers 
 ndemnatory father, 
 fifteen acre field made 
 1 and move elsewhere 
 I, in so far as he was 
 seven or eight acres, 
 ,tliving its facetiously 
 " The field that he 
 efforts to rescue from 
 e marsh added to the 
 lad heretofore reaped 
 ed it to consideration 
 agricultural purpose 
 
 and suffered so much 
 is long continued ef- 
 waters — the whole 
 3 outcome of his own 
 is cursing the scene 
 -^er while he owned it 
 harrow. 
 
 3II out and move else- 
 to find a purchaser? 
 — absolute money- 
 
 tor "Mushrat Farm," with its malaria, its mosquitoes, its 
 Inusic of the frogs and its seven or eight narrow acres avail- 
 able for active cultivation ? 
 
 If some greenhorn from Lower Canada or foreign country, 
 inexperienced of ague and mosquitoes and very much in 
 l^ant of a place to call his own, oame along with a little 
 money he perhaps might be induced to purchase ; but no 
 5)ne with any savoir faire of the locality would be likely to 
 Invest his capital in " Mushrat Farm " as a place of resi- 
 <lence and a means of livelihood. 
 
 ;) So there seemed no alternative to his reconciling himself 
 io remaining where he was. 
 
 It was quite true that the farm had contributed but little, 
 agriculturally speaking, to the maintenance of himself and 
 liis family, but as heretofore, wiin the marsh or submerged 
 ; iportioQ of it as a base of operations, he had but very little 
 ^oubt but that in the future he would be enabled to shoot, 
 in their proper season, sufficient ducks and other fowl for 
 the market and secure suflBcient grebe's breasts and musk- 
 rats and occasional mink skins by trapping or otherwise 
 tilling them to make up for the circumscribed limits of his 
 ;5&gricultural operations. 
 
 V Nor was this Jacques' only source of income and profit- 
 |Bble occupation outside the product of the farm. 
 
 During five or six weeks of every autumn for several 
 jbeasonspast he had held the position of ^'jetteur dela seine, " 
 pr foreman at one of the white-fisheries on the Detroit river 
 iBituated within easy access of his home. 
 
 Of old time these fisheries were to their lessees or owners 
 prolific means of money-getting during the catch of these 
 
 1^ 
 
22 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 delicately delicious fiah which lasted while they continued 
 to wend their annual way up the river from the lake below 
 to spawn, from the beginning of October to the latter part of 
 November. 
 
 Owing, however, it is said, chiefly to the wholesale method 
 of taking them on their feeding grounds in the lake with 
 pond nets, so long permitted on both sides of the border, in 
 the absence of some reciprocal and concerted action on the 
 part of the two governments interested, the goose that lays 
 the golden egg has gradually been being put to death for 
 years past, until now the one time profitable industry of 
 taking white fish on the Detroit river is a precarious and 
 unpromising undertaking. 
 
 In addition to these means of assistance Jacques had in 
 keeping the wolf from the door, there was occupation for 
 his sturdy team of ponies during the winter months in 
 the hauling of logs out of the bush to the banks of the 
 Canard river for the local contractors and jobbers. 
 
 But none of his availabe sources of income had thus far 
 yielded returns so satisfactory as had his trapping of musk- 
 rats and shooting of ducks that frequented the marshes and 
 rivers at certain periods of each spring and fall. 
 
 With the muskrat skins, grebe's breasts and occasionnl 
 mink skins he had heretofore secured, he had set up a sort 
 of business connection with the firm of Eathbone & Ritter, 
 who had always dealt fairly and liberally with him in tak- 
 ing off his hands the product of each trapping season for 
 several years past. 
 
 It was while he was on one of these periodical visits to tlie 
 store of the firm with an unusually large and fine lot of skins 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 28 
 
 le they continued 
 tn the lake below 
 
 > the latter part of 
 
 wholesale method 
 in the lake with 
 of the border, in 
 rted action on the 
 le goose that lays | 
 y put to death for i 
 table industry of 
 J a precarious and I 
 
 ; Jacques had in 
 ras occupation for 
 winter months in 
 
 > the banks of the 
 jobbera 
 
 ome had thus far 
 trapping of musk- 
 I the marshes and 
 d fall. 
 
 ts and occasionnl 
 had set up a sort 
 ,athbone & Eitter, 
 with him in tak- 
 apping season for 
 
 odical visits to the 
 rd fine lot of skins 
 
 [that he first met and talked with young Master Jack Rath- 
 ibone, then only a boy of thirteen in jacket and Knicker- 
 [bockers. 
 
 Young Ratubone was a large, well developed boy for his 
 
 [age, and withal a remarkably handsome lad about the face 
 
 and head, which was well set on a pair of broad shoulders 
 
 and covered with a thick coating of flaxen hair slightly in- 
 
 |clined to frizzle and curl up at the ends. 
 
 While one of the clerks, an expert in the business, was 
 I busy sorting and classifying the furs Jacques had just brought 
 I in, Master Jack with a short riding whip in hand, and look- 
 ling flushed from exercise came in from the street and, ad- 
 1 dressing the clerk, said: "Good morning, Mr. Lomax, is 
 father in the office?" And then without waiting for an 
 answer he continued, " My goodness ! those are a fine lot of 
 skins, aren't they, Mr. Lomax ?" 
 
 " Yes, a pretty fair lot," answered the preoccupied clerk. 
 Then turning to Jacques the boy asked, " Did you catch 
 all those animals yourself, sir?" 
 
 "Ah, yas; Ah've kotch dem all bah meseff," replied the 
 ,^ hunter smilingly. 
 
 " Whereabouts? Up or down the river? " 
 " Down de riviere. Monsieur; down on de riviere Canard 
 mash." 
 
 " Oh, is that the big marsh on the Canada side opposite 
 Wyandotte?" 
 
 "Yas, dat's de wan." 
 
 " Well, I've always thought whenever I've passed there 
 "^on a steamboat that there must be lots to hunt and shoot in 
 
I 
 
 24 
 
 DOUDEIl CANUCKS. 
 
 SO big a marsh. I suppose there are lots of ducks down 
 there, aren't there? " 
 
 " Ah, yas; plentay dock on de sayson — on de spreeng an 
 fall tam." 
 
 "Anything else? " enquired this incipient Nimrod. 
 
 " Well, yas; dare was plentay ploovoir and snaps moss all 
 de tam," replied the Frenchman, " but me, Ah doan care nut* 
 ting 'bout dat; dey wus not wort shootin." 
 
 " What ! " cried the boy in amazement, " snipe and plover 
 not worth shooting I Well, I should remark that's a funny 
 thing to say ! Why, I'd rather have one golden plover or 
 jack snipe than any six old fish ducks that ever flew 1 " 
 
 "But" remonstrated Jacques, "dey wus not all feesh 
 dock what we's got down on de riviere Canard mash joar exam- 
 pie I We's got black dock, grey dock an teels moss all de 
 tam, cos dey breeds on de mash; an on de sayson we's got 
 blue beel, an cou Wouge an canvas back an " 
 
 "Canvas back!" interrupted the boy enthusiastically, 
 " are you sure that you've got the genuine, sure enough can- 
 vas back, sir ? " 
 
 "Aw, yas, am sure," responded the Frenchman nodding 
 his head confidently. 
 
 "Did you ever shoot any genuine canvas back? Mind 
 you, red necks look a great deal like canvas back, only they 
 are a great deal smaller, you know." 
 
 " Aw, yas," replied the Canadian, smiling; " Ah knows de 
 deeferance baytween de red neck and de canvas back. De 
 red necks, what we calls cou rouge een French, wus kin of dock 
 vary common; mats de canvas back par example was hard 
 to fine an hard to shoot, too." 
 
 u 
 
BOHDKR CANUCKS. 
 
 25 
 
 I of ducks down 
 
 on de spreeng an 
 
 It Nimrod. 
 
 id snaps moss all 
 
 ^h doan care nut* 
 
 'snipe and plover 
 irk that's a funny 
 golden plover or 
 . ever flew I " 
 us not all feesh 
 'd vci^sh par exam- 
 teels moss all de 
 sayson we's got 
 
 enthusiastically, 
 sure enough can* 
 
 nchman nodding 
 
 as back? Mind 
 s back, only they 
 
 r;" Ah knows de 
 ianvas back. De 
 1, wuskinofdock 
 example was hard 
 
 "Oh, yes, I suppose they're hard to shoot, and I know 
 they fetch a big price. Why, they say they sometimes pay 
 as high as five and even ten dollars a pair for them in the 
 New York market" 
 
 *' Aw, no! ten doUair fur wan pairs ov dock! " exclaimed 
 the Frenchman incredulously, "dat was too moch. Ah 
 guess you wus meestock, Monsieur." 
 
 "Oh, no, I'm not mistaken," persisted the boy, "I saw it 
 mentioned as a fact in one of the papers." 
 
 " Well, maybeso," said Jacques, doubtingly shrugging his 
 shoulders; "Ah knows dat dare wus pleutay reech folks 
 down on New York mats ten dollair wus too much fur wan 
 pairs ov dock! Why, mah fren, " continued Jacques orac- 
 ularly, " lass fall Ah have feel moss lac a teef acose Ah've 
 ax sich beeg prasse fur seven canvas back dock dat Ah wus 
 lucky nuff to shoot on wan day I De folks what keep de 
 Greeswold House on de ceety here have geeve me ten dol- 
 laire fur dem seven canvas back dock sure's Ah'm spoke to 
 you here now I" 
 
 " Oh, yes," replied the youth approvingly, " I've no doubt 
 they did." 
 
 "But you know," replied Jacques, "Ah have jews ax 
 dem ten dollair fur fun to start wit You see dare wus two 
 tree udder mans dare what wus ankchus for got dem; an 
 soon's Ah have ax dat ten dollair, de mans from de hotel 
 pool two fahve dollair beel hout of hees pockette an ban 
 dem to me an goes off lac he was varah mouch please, " and 
 Mr. Laforge smiled audibly. 
 
 " Yes, and I have no doubt he was, " replied the boy. 
 " Why, I'd give anything I had in the world to kill a can- 
 
,!ilP, 
 
 26 
 
 BOIIDEU CANUCKS. 
 
 vas back ! I'd have him stuffed and keep him as a cur- 
 iosity, you know." And confidentially continuing he said: 
 *' You know my father imported a lovely Westley Richards 
 double barrel breech loader for me. You ought to see it I 
 She's a beauty! Weighs only six pounds, is twenty-six inches 
 in the barrels and number ten gauge; and if mother didn't 
 make such a fuss every time I go off alone with it lest I 
 might shoot myself, I'm sure I'd have shot a canvas back by 
 this time if there's one at all to be found in the country." 
 
 " Well," said Jacques, amused with the boy's enthusiasm, 
 " Ah'U toll you v^hat you goan do; geet yo faddeur an mud- 
 deur t'allow you to come down wit me on mah plasse an Ah 
 goan took good care ov you an not let you shoot yoseff, an 
 we'll see eef dare was no canvas back on de contray ou no I 
 Not now, of course, acose dees was not on de sayson fur 
 dock; mais nex fall, you know," 
 
 "And will you be sure to take me with 3'^ou," exclaimed 
 the boy eagerly, "if I get mother's consent, because father 
 does not care how often I go shooting now." 
 
 " Aw, yas, fur sure Ah weel ! " assented Jacques. 
 
 " By Jiminy ! that will be jolly, won't it? And do you 
 live in the marsh, sir?" 
 
 "Oh, no, " replied he Frenchman somewhat disconcerted 
 at the bear thoii^^lit of his living absolutely in the marsh 
 like u bull frog or a muskrat. "Oh, no, Ah dean leef right 
 een de mash, you know mais jews long side you know. De 
 mash ees on part of mah farm which have hees front part 
 on de riviere road you know. " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I see you don't live in the marsh but just along 
 
DOKDEU CANlCKrf. 
 
 27 
 
 iim as a cur- 
 .ling he said: 
 tley Richards 
 ^ht to see it I 
 uty -six inches 
 mother didn't 
 vitli it lest I 
 nvas back by 
 e country." 
 s enthusiasm, 
 deur an mud- 
 pi asse an Ah 
 oot yoseff, an 
 ontray ou no I 
 e sayson fur 
 
 " exclaimed 
 jcause father 
 
 ques. 
 
 And do you 
 
 disconcerted 
 n the marsh 
 »an leef right 
 u know. De 
 jes front part 
 
 ut just along 
 
 side of it. That's jolly! and what is your name pleaso 
 sir?" 
 
 "Mahnam/" 
 
 " Yes. " 
 
 " Midi nam was Jean Jacques Laforge, but moss of de 
 folks calls me Jock. " 
 
 "^[r. Jock Laforge! Well you know Mr. Jock'' con- 
 tinued the lad confidentially, " My name is John Rathbone, 
 but most people, in fact everybody except father when he's 
 cross, calls me Jack and I'd far rather be called Jack too! 
 Jack Hathbone doesn't sound half so stilf and unfriendly as 
 John K'lthbone! You know I'm the only son of Mr. Robert 
 Rathbone the head partner in this store. " 
 
 *' Aw, an you was de son of Monsieur Ratbone! Well, 
 Monsieur Jack, Ah was glad for male acquaint wit you" 
 and he held out his hand and greeted the senior partner's 
 only son with a hearty shake. 
 
 " I suppose you are a French Canadian, aren't you, Mr. 
 Laforge?" queried the boy. 
 
 " Aw, yes, Ah was what you call un Canadien Francais 
 Mah faddeur'sgran-faddeur was wan of de fuss settleur on 
 dees riviere. " 
 
 "Yes, well then he must have known my mother's 
 grandfather, because you know he was a French Canadian 
 and one of the first settlers on Detroit river too. " 
 
 "Yas! ees dat a fae? Well, well! dat's sureprise me. 
 What was de nam of you muddeur beefor she have marry 
 wit yofaddeur?" 
 
 "My mother's name before she was married ?" 
 
 "Yas, " replied Jack. 
 
V, 
 
 I. i, 
 
 28 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 "Her name was LaTourneau — daughter of Mr. Edward 
 La Tourneau, who used to keep store here in the city a long 
 time ago. He is dead now you know. " 
 
 " Aw, yas, yas, yas, " responded the Canadian gradually 
 elevating his voice, "she was de datteur of Monsieur 
 Edwar La Tourneau, de ole Merchan what have he dead 
 long tam now ! Yas, Yas, Ah remembaire heem an where 
 he was use to keep store near de markette. Aw, well ! she 
 was wan of us peuple I she was French Canadien too, ain't 
 she?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, she is a French Canadian by descent, you 
 know, " assented the lad doubtfully. 
 
 " Ho, O, Ho, 0, " replied Jock musingly, " Ah nevaire 
 know dat beefore I Madame Ratbone was French Canadien 
 too ay ?" 
 
 " By decent you know, " interpolated the youth with 
 young American pride and remonstrance. 
 
 " Bah deescen!" enquired Jock as if in a quandary, "bah, 
 deescen 1 what's mean dat Monsieur Jack ?" 
 
 " Coming down you know, " explained the boy. " Coming 
 down — descending you know. " 
 
 " Comin down from de French Canadien I" exclaimed 
 Jock laughingly. " Well Ah coo'n't see how she's come 
 down I Moss of us Canadien Francais was pore lac de 
 tuckey of Job an she was reech lac Preencess 1 Ah guess 
 she mus have come up from us French Canadiens ! She's 
 not come down dat's sure thing 1 ha, ha, ha I " and he laughed 
 again at his own joke. 
 
 " Well, " said the senior partner's heir as if to finally dis- 
 pose of the question of whether his mother came up or 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 29 
 
 came down from the French Canadian race, "she can talk 
 French any way. " 
 
 "Aw yas, " assented the Canadian approvingly, "Ah 
 suepose so ! All ov us Canadien ken talk French you know ! 
 Dat wus hour laungage. " 
 
 " Yes and you can ask her in French to let me go shoot- 
 ing with you, can't you Mr. Jock ?" queried the youth 
 eagerly. 
 
 " Ah, yas, Ah suepose Ah could do dat, " assented Jock 
 doubtfully. 
 
 "And I know she'd let me go if you asked her in French 
 Mr. Jock, " exclainied the boy with enthusiasm. 
 
 " May be so, may be so, " abstractedly observed Jock 
 awed by the contemplation of interviewing so grand a lady 
 as the rich Mrs. Rathbone must be. " May be so. " 
 
 " By Jimminy I" exclaimed the lad demonstratively 
 striking the side of his right leg with his riding whip, " if I 
 had only driven down in my pony cart this morning 
 instead of riding dcwn on horseback, I should have 
 driven you up to tha house right off now and intro- 
 duced you to mother, i know she'd be awfully glad to see 
 you Mr. Jock. ' 
 
 "Aw, no, ua, some udder tam, some udder tam, " ner- 
 vously responded Jock. 
 
 " Some other time, " repeated the boy, " when will that 
 be ? how long will it be before the duck shooting season 
 commences ?" 
 
 " Bout tree mons from de present tam. " 
 
 "That will be about ib<» 1st of September, won't it, Mr. 
 Laforge?" 
 
» ■'*~2>5«*Sii 
 
 80 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 *' Yas, dat's when she's beegin de sayson. " 
 
 " Well now, " said the lad starting up, " I must go and 
 deliver a message to father. So I'll say good-by for the 
 present, sir,'* extending his hand to the Canadian. "But 
 you mustn't forget your promise to take me shooting with 
 you, you know, Mr. Laforge. " 
 
 " Oh no, Ah not goan to forgeet dat I You need not be 
 scare of dat ! Ah goan come an got you, " said Jock 
 shaking hands with the boy. 
 
 "Mind, " said the lad smilingly as he retreated backwards 
 towards the inner office. "I'll be on the lookout for you 
 here at the store from the 1st of September right on every 
 day until you put in an appearance. Mind you that Mr. 
 Laforge, " and he playfully shook his finger at Jock as he 
 turned to face the entrance to the counting room. 
 
 " All raght Monsieur Jack I all raght ! Ah goan be here 
 some tam bout de fuss week on Septambaire eef Ah leef at 
 dat tam, sure ting !" 
 
 And so in due course when the first week in September 
 came about Jacques put in an appearance at the store where 
 he found that Master Eathbone had been patiently awaiting 
 him for several hours each day for several days previous to 
 his coming. 
 
 After much persuasion the enthusiastic young sports- 
 man induced the shy Canadian to drive up with him to the 
 Eathbone mansion where in much trepidation and awe of the 
 luxurious surroundings, he was introduced to Mrs. Eath- 
 bone, mere. 
 
 She was a petite brunette, slightly on the shady side of 
 forty, with an easy grace and pretty little Frenchy manner, 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 81 
 
 aust go and 
 -by for the 
 ian. " But 
 noting witli 
 
 need not be 
 ' said Jock 
 
 i backwards 
 jout for you 
 ;lit on every 
 3u that Mr. 
 Jock as he 
 n. 
 
 roan be here 
 Ah leef at 
 
 September 
 
 store -where 
 
 tly awaiting 
 
 previous to 
 
 lung sports- 
 1 him to the 
 d awe of the 
 Mrs. Ratli- 
 
 lady side of 
 chy manner, 
 
 and not yet bereft of charms which twenty years previously 
 must have made her very attractive. 
 
 She talked French in a charmingly familiar way to 
 Jacques; questioned him interestedly about his family and 
 talked so affectionately, not to say confidentially, about her 
 only son and two daughters that the owner of Mushrat 
 farm was amazed to find how comfortable and at his ease he 
 felt. She made him take a glass of wine and wanted to 
 know whether aftei his long drive he didn't feel hungry; if 
 so, she would have him something to eat gotten at once; but 
 all these proffers of hospitality he politely and gratefully 
 declined. 
 
 After repeated stipulations as to the safety of her mani- 
 festly idolized boy she consented to allow him to accompany 
 Jacques back to his home on the Riviere Canard for two or 
 three days' shooting, and although from this expedition there 
 was not evolved any canvass back ducks, howbeit it estab- 
 lished an acquaintance which had ripened into a genuinely 
 sincere and earnest friendship between the simple-minded 
 habitant hunter and the prococious city youth at the outset 
 of the period of this veracious history. 
 
 Meanwhile little Marie, though a confirmed cripple, had 
 sufficiently recovered from the effects of the accident, which 
 befell her in the partially rescued mursh field, in the gloam- 
 ing of that lowering April evening, to use her still baby-like 
 fingers in the profitable braiding of straw for the firm of 
 Rathbone k Ritter. 
 
 The child seemed inspired with a preternatural industry 
 and imbued with an eager desire to make her crippled con- 
 dition as little burdensome to her parents as possible. 
 
jiSk-fmn 
 
 82 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 While the fifteen acre field itself, as if blighted by her 
 father's malediction, notwithstanding all the tedious labor it 
 had cost its owner, soon reverted back to its original condi- 
 tion — the blighting sway of stagnant, verdant marsh waters 
 and the dead and dying things therein contained. 
 
 Thus the partere of Monsieur Jacques Laforge on the con- 
 fines of the Riviere Canard marsh was inevitably relegated 
 back to its seven or eight acres of cultivable area, and 
 therel- le, confirmed in the possession of its amphibious 
 sobriqo.oi o* " Mushrat Farm." 
 
CHAPTER IV, 
 
 A Delightful Place to Live and Keep House in.— A Mixed Marriage. 
 
 'TXT'ITH ITS vast frontage upon St. Lawrence's mighty 
 waterway to the sea (at that point upon it which 
 has been aptly called the Bospherous of America) its wide 
 and cleanly streets, its imposing public buildings and busi- 
 ness blocks, its luxuriously artistic villas, its island park 
 and its ornate environs generally, how beautiful a city is 
 Detroit, the metropolis of the state of Michigan ! 
 
 Given the wherewithal to do so, surely no city on this 
 continent, or, for that matter, any other continent, oflerssur- 
 roundings more agreeably propitious to sojourn in or "live 
 and keep house in" in these utilitarian days, than does the 
 City of the Straits. 
 
 Albeit the citizen of enquiring mind or the student of 
 topography must perforce climb to the summit of that pre- 
 ternatural promintory, the city hall tower, to get his bearings 
 or accurately understand on what particular point on God's 
 footstool he lives and has his being — when he does attain 
 to that inevitable municipal apex he is well repaid for his 
 pains. 
 
 From this elevated point of observation on a clear day he 
 discovers that he is in the center of a huge cycloramma of 
 flood and field with magnificent monuments of labor, and 
 every other evidence of busy life and industry in the fore- 
 
 (33) 
 
mw-ntiHAH 
 
 84 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 ground, while the azure tinted horizon on all sides forms 
 the background to one of nature and art's imposing pictures 
 of a valley of plenty. 
 
 During the season of navigation the majestic river presents 
 an ever shifting scene of activity in its moving craft of every 
 description, from the graceful pleasure yacht and midget 
 sail boat to the grandly dignified grain or ore laden steam- 
 ship as she glides upon her devious way down the current 
 of the mighty river towards the sea, to return with coal or 
 'merchandise for the dwellers in the great Northwest. 
 
 Stretching out from amidst the miles of wharves, ware- 
 houses and manufactories along the border of the river, 
 acio3^ the imposing paralell thoroughfares, the broad well 
 built streets like so many life-giving arteries in a healthful 
 human body radiate and ramify to the north and west 
 across a net work of centering railways until they lose 
 themselves in green fields and variegated gardens in the 
 remote outskirts of the model city. 
 
 Across the river in the Queen's dominions, less than three 
 quarters of a mile away, is the thriving town of Windsor 
 over which the eye sweeps southward across the well-tilled 
 fields and verdant pastures of the thickly populated penin- 
 sular which constitutes the southernmost land's end of 
 Canada and which buries its pedal-like prow in the purply 
 haze of Lake Erie's cloud kissed waters in the far distant 
 blue horizen. 
 
 To Detroit is accredited somewhere in the neighborhood 
 of two hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants, "be the 
 same more or less," while Windsor slowly but surelv 
 
BORDER CAXrCKS. 
 
 So 
 
 all sides forms 
 iposing pictures 
 
 ic river presents 
 ng craft of every 
 tclit and midget 
 Dre laden steam- 
 own the current 
 irn with coal or 
 [orthwest. 
 : wharves, ware- 
 ler of the river, 
 3, the broad well 
 •ies in a healthful 
 north and west 
 3 until they lose 
 i gardens in the 
 
 ns, less than three 
 own of Windsor 
 OSS the well-tilled 
 
 populated penin- 
 3st land's end of 
 row in the purply 
 
 in the far distant 
 
 the neighborhood] 
 ihabitants, "be tlie 
 lowly but surely 
 
 struggles on with considerably less than one twentieth that 
 number. 
 
 Why this difference should exist is not within the 
 province of this humble pencil at this time to attempt to 
 elaborate. Suffice it to say that it does exist and that very 
 much the same disparit}' in favor of the American side is 
 observable wherever towns and cities have grown up 
 opposite each other throughout the long drawn out proxi- 
 mate borders of the two countries. 
 
 As a natural sequence to this state of things the prices of 
 land in these localities are respectively proportionately the 
 same, and it has been said that much of the annexation 
 feeling which exists along the Canadian frontier is aseribe- 
 able to an utilitarian setting aside of all sentiment of loyalty 
 to British rule in favor of a worship of Mammon and a 
 hankering for the flesh pots of Egypt. 
 
 It may safely be assumed however, that the existence of 
 this feeling to any noticeable extent is largely confined to 
 the speculative land owner, and general public opinion 
 would have to undergo a radical change from its present 
 condition upon the subjecterean amicable union of the two 
 countries of any sort could be brought within the range of 
 near probability. 
 
 However this may be, if Detroit be the great and grow- 
 ing metropolis it is at the present writing, it was but little 
 better than a village hamlet by comparison when in the 
 autumn of 1837 Robert Rathbone, Jack's father, found his 
 ^ way thither from Plymouth, England, in search of fortune. 
 ■ He landed in the incipient city at a time when it was 
 I being made to some extent the base of operations of the 
 
I{ i 'I' jllllll 
 
 Mil 
 
 
 86 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 so-called "patriots" in the prosecution of their war upon Brit- 
 ish rule in Canada, under the leadership of that advanced 
 thinker and statesman, not to say benefactor to his country, 
 the late William Lyon Mackenzie. 
 
 Finding the town in an abnormal state of excitement 
 growing out of its position as the seat of this filibustering 
 warfare with a corresponding liveliness in its business circles, 
 Mr. Rathbone, unmarried, with a good address and a fair 
 knowledge of book-keeping, found no difficulty in securing a 
 situation as clerk and man of all work in a leading general 
 store doing a large business in the furnishing of supplies to* 
 traders and trappers along the chain of upper lakes, for 
 which furs and fish were received in exchange. 
 
 Continuing in this employ for some half dozen years to 
 the satisfaction of all concerned, this frugal and methodical 
 young Englishman became thoroughly conversant with the 
 general trade of the locality and especially au fait in the 
 sorting and selection of furs of every description. 
 
 This expert knowledge he was in due course enabled to 
 put to his own permanently profitable use ; for, in common 
 with a very large proportion of native born middle class 
 Englishmen who find their way to this side of the Atlantic, 
 Mr. Rathbone had expectations which were shortly to be 
 realized. 
 
 The death of an ancient maiden aunt soon placed him in 
 possession of a thousand pounds, and with this capital added 
 to his own savings he was enabled to start business on his 
 own account on a very respectable basis. 
 
 Taking into partnership with him George Ritter, a prac- 
 tical German furrier, he opened an establishment in modest 
 
■) 
 
 BORDEK CANUCKS. 
 
 87 
 
 jM'emises on one of the then chief thoroughfares of the little 
 city, and thus was founded, upon what time has proved an 
 enduring basis, the important and now wealthy firm of Rath- 
 bone & Ritter, wholesale and retail dealers in furs, hats, caps 
 and straw-braid goods. 
 
 Having successfully launched this business firm, the sen- 
 ior member thereof bethought him that a matrimonial part- 
 nership would now be in order, and casting about him for 
 the desired partner he picked upon Miss Emily La Tourneau, 
 the daughter of a merchant doing business in a small way 
 in the city. 
 
 The course of true love in this instance was unproverb- 
 ially smooth. 
 
 Everything was propitious and plain, and prosaic sailing 
 the order of the day, 
 
 Mr. Robert Rathbone, aged thirty-two, unmistakably good- 
 looking, of steady habits and the head of a prosperous bus- 
 iness house, wanted a wife. 
 
 Miss Emily La Tourneau, a maiden fair, aged twenty-four, 
 if not absolutely heart whole or fancy free, for certain 
 specious reasons, at all events just at this time, prepared to 
 accept the first proffer of an eligible husband. 
 
 They met ! 
 
 They exchanged assurances of mutual love and admiration! 
 
 They became engaged in the respectable conventional 
 fashion of the time. 
 
 They married, and viola ce tout! 
 
 It was not altogether what is generally accepted as an une 
 mairriage de convenance, but it was what may be called a first 
 cousin to it. 
 
88 
 
 BORDEIl CANUCKS. 
 
 m 
 
 It was a mixed marriage. 
 
 He was a laissezfaire sort of Church of England Protest- 
 ant, while she was an actively observant Catholic. 
 
 But then that did not matter. 
 
 These kind of alliances, because of the denominational 
 peculiarities of the early French settlers along the Detroit 
 river, were of common occurrence on both sides of the bor- 
 der in these early days. 
 
 Nor did the religious discrepancy in these matrimonial 
 partnerships confine itself to their senior members — the 
 father and mother. 
 
 It was hnnded down to the sons and daughters — it being 
 the commonly accepted custom that the former should fol- 
 low their father to his Protestant church, while the girls 
 were trained up in the Roman Catholic faith of their mother. 
 
 Thus it came about that the two daughters of Robert and 
 Emily Rathbone were Catholics, while their only son, owing 
 to the indifferentism and religious lapses of his paternal par- 
 ent, was practically like the sinner who slipped between two 
 chairs. 
 
 The boy was made to go to church every Sunday, too 
 frequently of late without his father's escort, and beyond this 
 outward observance, from a psycological point of view, he 
 had been allowed to grow up after the manner of Topsy. 
 
 As to his secular education, he was not so far behind though 
 not by any means all that he ought to have been and prob- 
 ably would have been had he been the offspring of parents 
 professing one common faith. He had passed creditably 
 through the public school of the city, and for the previous 
 two years to the opening of this story, in a perfunctory sort 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 89 
 
 of way had attended the class of a private tutor, one Mr. 
 Hamilton, a pedagogue of the Dominie Sampson type. 
 
 Master Rathbone was a tall, robust and muscular, brown 
 eyed and light haired youth, with good features and a firm 
 set mouth, looking more like a young man of twenty than 
 a boy of eighteen as he actually was when first introduced 
 to the reader. 
 
 He was athletically inclined, a patron of the gymnasium 
 and a votary of any game or contest in which there was 
 any genuine sport. 
 
 Under Jacques Laforge's tuition he had become an expert 
 with the gun, and incidentally to his frequent expeditions to 
 the Riviere Canard had gotten to be passionately fond of 
 witnessing the grotesque trotting and pacing races frequently 
 held among the French in that neighborhood and other 
 localities up and down the shores of lake and river. 
 
 In the winter months it was very rarely that a French 
 race took place on the river Rouge below the city or any- 
 where within hailing distance on the Canadian side of the 
 main river that Jack Rathbone and his grey pony were not 
 found among the crowd attending the same. 
 
 He knew the style of gait and had a pretty fair know- 
 ledge of the speed capacity of almost every reputedly fast 
 French pony for miles around the beautiful city of the 
 Straits — the home of his nativity. " 
 
A 
 
 m 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 A Brush for the Lead. 
 
 "VTT"ITH Peter Bertrand, of Belle River, owner of a 
 
 ' * speedy cliestnut pacing pony, Jack Rathbone was 
 on eapecially intimate terms. 
 
 Peter was a native of the Province of Quebec, from 
 whence he had been imported years ago by a "jobber" 
 in square timber for whom he had worked in the getting out 
 of oak and black walnut along the Cauudian shore for the 
 Quebec market. 
 
 In this employment Mons. Bertrand had saved sufficient to 
 purchase a farm near to the village of Belle River on the 
 shore of Lake St. Clair, some eisjrhteen miles east of Detroit 
 on the Canadian side, and on this he now lived with his 
 family, consisting of a wife and a numerous tribe of 
 progeny. 
 
 Of late years he had had frequent dealings with the firm of 
 Rathbone & Ritter in the article of straw braid of which he 
 not only sold them all produced by his own household but 
 also bought on commission for them all he could contrive 
 to pick up from among his neighbors. 
 
 In this way Monsieur Bertrand had gotten to be well 
 known to the firm and its employes, and incidentally had 
 established a friendship with the sportive only son of the 
 senior partner, whom he had first met at the store, and sub- 
 
 (41) 
 
-> ^^'f 
 
 ly.i'!! 
 
 ■"11 
 
 
 II pi 
 
 i liiill 
 
 !i I I 
 
 42 
 
 BORDER CAXUCKS. 
 
 sequently at frequent habitant horse races on tlie Canadian 
 side. 
 
 Peter was a tall man, and as straight as the proverbial 
 arrow, slightly pock-marked, with pleasing grey eyes and 
 good features. 
 
 He wore a well trimmed moustache which blended into a 
 pair of cheek whiskers, giving him a not unmilitary or un- 
 martial like appearance. 
 
 Being about fifty-five years of age, his brown hair was 
 somewhat streaked with grey. In the winter he usually 
 wore a plucked otter cap with a peak, and a long, ulster 
 overcoat of home-made cloth, which was encircled about the 
 middle with the inevitable habitant red sash. 
 
 Monsieur Bertrand was one of a kind commonly met with 
 among the French Canadians, who, notwithstanding his con- 
 stant intercourse with English speaking people, never con- 
 trived to learn to speak the language fluently. 
 
 "When he did speak it, as of course he was constantly 
 obliged to do, he did so with a very marked accent in a 
 deliberate, jerky style of utterance, and in total ignorance of 
 the complex letters th^ that great stumbling block to the 
 French Canadian learner of the Queen's English. 
 
 During the week following the Christmas holidays, 
 immediately preceding the opening of this narrative, M. 
 Peter Bertrand had business at the store of Rathbone & 
 Ritter, and on that occasion met Jack Rathbone, who 
 happened to come in while he was there. 
 
 " Hello, Monsieur Rathbone, " cried Peter with out- 
 stretched right hand, '* glad to see you I Ah wus jews ax de 
 folks here where you wus. " 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 43 
 
 "Ah, Mr. Bertrand, how de do," replied Jack, shaking 
 hands cordially. He always called Peter Mr. Bertrand when 
 he chanced to meet him in the store. That was Peter's 
 dress parade name, as it were. A way from the store, their 
 friendship and Peter's guilelessness of manner seemed to 
 warrant Jack's addressing him by his Christian name — and 
 Peter it usually was, notwithstanding the disparity 'twist 
 their respective years. 
 
 " Ah hopes you wus goan anjye many 'appay ray turn 
 ov de sayson Monsieur Jack, " said Peter with hearty 
 deliberation. 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Bertrand, " responded Jack equally 
 heartily. "I hope that you'll live to see many, many 
 happy returns of the New Year. " 
 
 " Aw well, fur me you see Ah can't espec fur have 
 mouch more year you know, mats so long as Ah kin Ah was 
 goan have good tarn. '* 
 
 " Certainly, that's right I As big, and fine, and healthy a 
 looking man as you are ought to have a great many happy 
 years in store for him yet More particularly as you seem 
 to take so much pleasure out of life. By the way, talking 
 of pleasure, how is your chestnut colt getting on this 
 winter?" 
 
 " Come over dees way wit me, " said Peter in a mysterious 
 stage whisper, and they went up to the far end of the long 
 store ajid leaned up against the end of the counter. " 
 
 " Ah'll toll you Monsieur Jack, " mysteriously whispered 
 Peter, "Dat leetle chesnut colt wus flyeur! Ah'll toll you, 
 mah fren, he was flyeur I Sure ting he was flyeur I" 
 
44 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 !i 
 
 " Yes, " responded the youth smilingly, " I'm glad to hear 
 that. He was very speedy wlien I saw him up at the track 
 last fall, and I suppose he has improved very much on the 
 ice this winter. " 
 
 "You jews bet yo laf he haveamprove dees wintaire, " 
 replied Peter with frequent slow and de] x-ate nods of his 
 jockey looking cap. " Ah guess he muss be all ov tirtay 
 seconde fasser now on de hice dan he have be when you 
 have see heem up at de track lass fall. " 
 
 " Indeed 1 Well, I thought he moved like a future fast 
 one then, and I'm glad to know that I was not mistaken. " 
 
 " Nosirree, you was not meestook, Monsieur Jack, " slowly 
 articulated Peter with the same, slow confirmatory nods 
 of his head. " He wus llyeur, Ah'll toll you he was flyeurl " 
 And after a short, ratifying pause of silence during which, 
 with closely compressed lips, he gazed down into the eyes of 
 his young companion in solemn seriousness, lowering his 
 voice still more as he edged up towards Jack, he asked 
 " Deed you hear bout de race Ah was goan have wit de ole 
 'Crapaud ' of de Widday Martin?" 
 
 " No, when is it to come off ?" queried Jack in surprise. 
 
 " Two week from nex Sateurday, " whispered Peter. 
 
 " Two weeks from next Saturday I whereabouts ?" 
 
 " On de hice on de lac shore oposight wheres de widday, 
 she's keep tavern you know, " this very much soto voce, 
 
 " Why that must be near the mouth of Belle river then. " 
 
 " Yes, dat's de plasse, " assented Peter, " jews wheres de 
 Belle Riviere pass on de lac you know. " 
 
 " Well, but surely, " observed Jack, "your colt must have 
 improved very much to justify you in tackling Crapaud. " 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 45 
 
 I glad to hear 
 
 p at the track 
 
 much on the 
 
 es wintaire, " 
 e nods of his 
 ! all ov tirtay 
 be when you 
 
 ) a future fast 
 mistaken. " 
 Tack, " slowly 
 rmatory nods 
 e was flvsur! " 
 iluring which, 
 ito the eyes of 
 lowering his 
 ack, he asked 
 ave wit de ole 
 
 ik in surprise, 
 ■ed Peter. 
 
 )OUtS?" 
 
 res de widday, 
 I soto voce. 
 ile river then. " 
 !ws wheres de 
 
 3olt must have 
 iiig Crapaud. " 
 
 ■M 
 
 " Amprove I You bet yo laf he have amprove I Ah nevaire 
 see no kine ov horse amprove so fass in mah laf beefore, " 
 and Mr. Bertrand, with compressed lips, again gazed down 
 into Jack's eyes in serious and impressive silence, which 
 after a pause of an instant was broken by the latters say- 
 ing: " Well of course you know Peter that you have my 
 best wishes and I hope with all my heart that you'll win 
 the race, but Crapaud has a big reputation, and I have seen 
 him win several very fust heats. " 
 
 "Aw yes," said Peter, with repeated nods of assent, 
 "Ah knows all dat. Ah wus parfeclay well acquaint wit 
 dat. Ah knows dat de ole Crapaud liees carry de broom 
 now, viais you see eef dat leetle cliesnut doan geeve 
 heera pooty tuff poole fur dat broom two week from nex 
 Sateurday. " 
 
 " Well I sincerely hope so, " said Jack doubtfully, " but 
 how did you come to make the match?" 
 
 "Well you see eet wus jews lack dees, " replied Peter 
 taking off his skull cap and wiping his neck and low broad 
 forehead with a red bandanna })ocket handkerchief, "on de 
 day beefore New Year, what you call New Year Eve, Ah 
 wus come down to de town fur bah sum hoison an udder 
 freslirnent lac dat fur New Year (iixy. You koow dat wus 
 beeg day mongst us French folks. " 
 
 "Yes," assented Jack, "and I like your jolly, old 
 fashioned way of celebrating it too. " 
 
 " Well you see. Ah have see de Widday Martin on de 
 street on Winsorr. 
 
 " She wus foot, and I wus foot too, cos Ah have put mah 
 ponay on de barn, an Ah bow to heur an she's bow to me 
 
46 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 verrah polite, lac she's always do, an All nevaire taught 
 nutting more bout de widday . 
 
 " An so pootay soon Ah have feeneesh all mah beesness on 
 de town, got all mah grocaray, an boison, an all what Ah wants, 
 an den Ah wus to heetch up an start fur home slowlay , cos Ali 
 wusdrav deleetlechesnutan I don't want pooshheem cos de 
 road wus not verrah good nigh de town, " here Mr. Bertraml 
 paused while he replaced his otter cap upon his head, and 
 restored the red bandanna to its wonted pocket. Then, in 
 detached sentences with a slight pause between each he con- 
 tinued, " Well jews as Ah have reech de udder end of de 
 Grande Cote, dees side of de mout of Petite Riviere, Ah 
 ■wus to take de hice, cos she's fuss class from dure long de 
 lac shore to wheres Ah leev. 
 
 "Jews as Ah wus to turn fur took de hice, Ah heerd some 
 bell behine me an Ah looks 'roun, an dare wus de Widda}- 
 Martin all bah she's self lone, dravin de ole Crapaud on de 
 cutteur. 
 
 "'Hallo Pierrol' she's call hout to me, (een French of 
 course, you know). 
 
 " ' Ah wus hope Ah was goan kotch you. ' she say. 
 
 " ' All raght Meeses Ah say ' Eet wus heasy ting fur kotch 
 me Ah guess. ' 
 
 " * No, ' she say, ' dey tells me dat colt of yourn wus 
 am prove verrah fass latelay. ' 
 
 " ' Well, ' Ah say, * prhaps he have amprove leetle beet, 
 onais Ah doan know, ' an Ah wus to shuv hup mah shouleur 
 lac dat you know as eef I wus een doubt bout dat 1 
 
 " ' Hole on, ' she's cree hout, ' Ah goan geeve you brush 
 prcseutlay. ' 
 
 i i 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 47 
 
 aire taught 
 
 beesness on 
 it Ah wants, 
 ?lay,cosAli 
 heem cosde 
 Ir. Bertram! 
 3 head, and 
 ;. Then, in 
 each he con- 
 !r end of de 
 Riviere, Ah 
 lure long de 
 
 I heerd some 
 
 de Widday 
 
 apaud on de 
 
 1 French of 
 
 esay. 
 
 iig fur kotch 
 
 yourn wus 
 
 e leetle beet, 
 
 nah shouleur 
 
 datl 
 
 ;^e you brush 
 
 " ' Oh ' Ah say, ' you goan brush bah me whenevaire you 
 wus mine to Ah guess. ' 
 
 " Mais she's doan say nutting more^ an pootay soon we wus 
 to strike de good hice an den she's come up long side an 
 challenge me fur brush wit heur. 
 
 " ' Well all raght, ' Ah say, ' Ah goan see eef Ah kin keep 
 hanywares nigh you. ' 
 
 " ' You start fuss Madame, ' Ah say, an Ah have poole out 
 to geeve heur de bess track, what Ah was occoopy up to dat 
 tarn. 
 
 ** That was being properly polite to a lady, " interpolated 
 Jack. 
 
 " Ah yas, Ah hopes Ah nevaire wus goan forgot mah 
 poleettess to de layday, you know. 
 
 "Well, when Ah've offaire de widday de bess track an 
 poole bout fur let heur come hup long side me, she say, 
 * Aw nevaire mine fur de track, Ah goan took dat aftaire 
 awhile.. ' 
 
 " 'Jews as you wus a mine to Madame,' Ah say, an Ah bows 
 to heur varrah police, ' eef you doan want took de good track 
 all raght, Ah goan keep eet meseff, ' an at same tam Ah wus 
 say to mesefif, ' Now mah good widday womans eef you tink 
 you wus goan took dees track from me hany tam you wus 
 mine to, eef deesponay what Ah have got on dees cutteur 
 was jews as fassas Ah tink he wus to-day. Ah bleeve you 
 wus goan be pootay raoach meestook, Madame ! 
 
 " An so we wus to start. 
 
 "Aw well, at de fust ov eet mah pony was ancline fur ace 
 a leetle bad. 
 
ililf:; 
 
 48 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 " You see he wus feelin pootay good an he wus pinted 
 tourds home, you know, an he wus want to go too fass fur 
 hees foots, so Ah have pootay hard tarn fur hole heem down 
 to hees work fur de fuss half mile, an de ole womans she's 
 gain on me leetle beet. 
 
 " Mais afteur dat Ah have got mah leetle feller down to 
 hees work, an den de fun's begeen ! > 
 
 "Ah well, de widday she's baycome excite now. Ah'll 
 toll you she was excite I" and Mr. Bertrand looking down 
 at the floor here paused for an instant to emphasize the 
 widow's excitement on the occasion by silently and slowly 
 nodding his head repeatedly with compressed, firm set 
 lips. 
 
 " Presentlay, " continued Peter, rousing up, "we have 
 struck good wide piece of liice what wus jews so smoot 
 lack glass, an Ah suepose de widday she's say to heurseff, 
 ' Now Ah guess Ah goan leeve heem behine, ' an so she's 
 make brush for de leed an I have let heur pootay nigh got 
 bah me. 
 
 "Den Ah jews heasy up on mah Ian leetle beet, an bah 
 gosh 1 you otter see dat leetle feller got down to hees 
 work. 
 
 "Well, Monsieur Jack, you could bleeve me ou no, jews 
 as you wus mine to, but pon mah wurd he's fairly fiy I 
 
 "Eef he wus have reglar wing he coo'nt fly no fasserl 
 
 " Bah George, Ah nevaire wus ride so fass een all mah laf 
 beefore !" and Mr. Bertrand again paused, and with firmly 
 compressed lips gazed down into Jack's face with rigid 
 countenance. 
 
 iiiii 
 
 IplililillM 
 
BORDER CANUCZS. 
 
 Then starting u-p he resumed, " An so Ah wus go so fass 
 and leeve de ole Crapaud an do widday behine soqueeck, 
 Ah jews le2 de leetle feller broke an leeve hees foots so's 
 she was goan tink eet was honly bah acceedent he wus go 
 so fass fur dat tarn, you know. " And here the owner of the 
 chestnut *' flyeur " winked voluminously at his youthful 
 and sympathetic auditor. 
 
 " An beefore Ah could got de leetle feller down to hees 
 work agin de ole woraans wus hup long side me, an ole 
 Crapaud wus actin fuss class. 
 
 " So we goes long fur more's half a mile side an side. 
 
 "Den de widday wusankshus f ui got by and she beegeen 
 to poosh on de Ian, an poosh on de Ian, " here Peter held up 
 his hands and arras and threw himself in an attitude in 
 imitation of ihe widow's driving, " An poosh on de Ian I 
 an holler, an yell loud's she coo'nt ! 
 
 " An den Ah beegeen to heasy hup on mah Ian, an holler 
 an yell pootay good too. 
 
 *' An we wus go fass " and Peter here allowed his arms and 
 hands to drop down limp on either side of his commanding 
 form, " An poosh on de Ian, " he repeated bowing his head 
 forward and back slowly with each repetition, "an poosh 
 on de Ian, an go fass, bah gosh! We wus go fassl 
 
 " Pootay soon ole Crapaud's broked an leeve hees foots. 
 
 " Den de widday she's git mad. She zvusmadl Ah could 
 see she wus mad clean trough when she wus drop behine. 
 
 " She's Stan up on de cutteur an wheep de ole horse — lash 
 heem hard's she coo'nt 
 
 ■ 
 
 " Bah gosh, she wus mad ! 
 
 " An so when Ah have see dat Ah wus to slow up, an she's 
 
60 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 come long side agin, an Crapaud wus actin verrah well an 
 she wus try to go pass me, but no sair, she's coo'nt do dat ! 
 
 " An so we pace long side an side unteel we come to de 
 plasse wheres you turn up to go to Lemay's, de half ways 
 house, an Ah have stop dare an de widday she's go on hup 
 long de lac shore tourds home, '' and Mr. Bertrand while he 
 paused, again uncovered his head, and producing the red 
 bandanna proceeded to wipe the inside sweat band of his 
 conspicuous cap. 
 
 "So you think you were too much for Crapaud and the 
 Widow Martin that day do you ?" asked Jack laughingly. 
 
 " Ah doan tink so, Ah knows so, " replied Peter with 
 confidence, as he slowly restored his cap and handkerchief 
 to their respective places. 
 
 " Well, but you haven't told me how you came to make 
 the match, " suggested Jack. 
 
 " Aw, yas ; Ah wus goan toll you dat, " replied Peter, as 
 he straightened himself up to his full height 
 
 " Well, Ah have stop at Lemay's bout wan hour. Ah 
 guess — have tree four dreenk wit de byes, you know — New 
 Year tam you know. 
 
 " Den Ah have geeve tree four swallow ov wateur to de 
 ponay an start hup tourds home. 
 
 " When Ah have got oposight de tavern ov de widday, 
 jews beefore you come to de veellage, Ah have taught Ah 
 would go een an spent a quartair wit heur an see how she's 
 feel aftair our brush togedder. 
 
 " So Ah've stop an tie an covaire up de ponay and go een. 
 
 " When Ah wus arrive on de eenside ov de bar. Ah fine 
 
. 'f 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 61 
 
 €et wus foole ov all kine of fol\o an a good many ov dem 
 wus pootay much on de weevin way too. 
 
 " Ah suepose acose eet wus goan to be New Year's to- 
 morrow, you know. 
 
 *' Lots ov mall nabor wus mongst de crowd, an AhVe ax 
 all ov dem, evary wan what wus on de room, fur have a dreenk 
 wit me, an so, jews as we wus to took dat dreenk, de widday 
 she's come een from de back room. ' Well, Pierro, ' she 
 say, * Ah suepose you wus feel pootay good acose you have 
 hole so well wit me an Crapaud, dees aftairenoon; but you 
 need not to got drunk ovaire dat,' she say. 
 
 " Well sair, dat's mac me mad, Monsieur, dat's mac me 
 mad cleen trough ! An Ah say; * No, Madame, Ah wus not 
 goan got drunk bout sich leetle tmg lac dat, Ah wus jews 
 come on yo house fur spent two, tree shillin an Ah wus not 
 espec dat Ah wus goan be ansulte bah de laday ov dat 
 house. ' 
 
 " 'Oh, no, ' she say, ' you muss excoose me, Ah wus only 
 tink you wus feel leetle too good cos ole Crapaud have not 
 leeve you furdeur behine dees aftairenoon. ' 
 
 *' ' Madame. ' Ah say, ' yo ole creeple nevaire see de day 
 lie could leeve behine dat leetle chesnut ponay Ah've got 
 tie to de poss houtside. ' 
 
 " Well, sair, dat's mac de widday mad, Ah'll toll you ! 
 
 "Heur fass wus got pale lac sheet an she say, varrah 
 slowlay, wit tremble on heur vice, lac she wus try fur to 
 keep sumting down dat wus bylin hup heenside ov heur, 
 you know. 
 
 " * Well, Monsieur Pierro Bertrand, ' she say, * Ah jews 
 toll you what Ah weel do wit dat ole creeple, as you calls 
 
52 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 heem. Ah weel geeve you ten dollaire ef you wants to bet 
 me twentay dollair dat you kin beet dat ole creeple wit dat 
 chestnut plug ov yourn, mile heet, on de hice, tree week 
 fruni nex Satureday I' and den she have turn roun to de 
 crowd an say, 'dat's de way Ah talks to folks dat calls mah 
 horse creeple. ' 
 
 " ' Well, Madame Martin, ' Ah say, ' Ah doan tink dare 
 wus hany use fur you to got yo back up lac dat. * 
 
 " ' You have ansulte me fust, an Ah have not ansulte you !' 
 
 " ' Ah have onlay call yo ole horse Crapaud wan creeple, 
 an Ah guess Ah wus not fur wrong needer. ' 
 
 " Den she say een loud vice, an stomp heur foot on de 
 fleur, an shook heur head an arm : 
 
 " * Hany mans what ansulte mah horse Crapaud ansulte 
 me too, an Ah goan mac heem put up ou shut up sure 
 ting!' An when she have say dat some ov de crowd was cry, 
 * shame fur me fur ansulte a widday womans lac dat ' 
 
 " Well, bah gosh ! Ah have got mad den ! 
 
 " Ah wus fightin mad 1 An so Ah tooked hofl mah ovair- 
 coat an lay heem down on de conetaire, an Ah say, 
 an Ah have haddress evary wan on de compagnie : ' Ah 
 have come on dees house lac a peecefool ceeteezan, lac Ah 
 wus always try to be, an de fuss ting Ah knows de layday 
 of de house ansulte me. Mais, Ah doan ansulte heur on 
 rayturne for dat. 
 
 " ' Ah onlay say heur ole horse Crapaud wus wan creeple ; 
 an now Ah say furdeur dan dat. Ah kin prove hee's creeple, 
 an eef hany mans on dees room would lac to took dat up, 
 come right long an Ah goan try to geeve heem hees bellay 
 fool of sateesfaction.' 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 53 
 
 "Ifais noboday wus to answer dat^>ar exiunplel 
 
 "*Now, Madame,* Ah say, haddressin do widday, 'you 
 have say jewst now dat you would be willin to geeve me 
 ten dollair eef Ah would bet you twentay dollair dat Ah 
 coold beat yo ole horse wit mah lectle chesnut plug.' 
 
 *' ' Yas, * she say, 'an Ah say dat agin .' 
 
 " ' Well, Madam, ' Ah say, ' Ah doan want fur took no 
 a vantage ov you. 
 
 " * Ah doan want yo monnah unless Ah weens eet fair an 
 lioness lac a genseeman, lac Ah hopes Ah wus always goan 
 be, an so Ah'll toll you what Ah weel'do wit you. 
 
 " 'Ah weel bet you twenty-fahve dollair heven, and poot 
 de monnah hup on ban ov Ephraham Parent here, raght hoff, 
 dat mah leetle chesnut plug kin beat yo great Crapaud on 
 de hice hanywares you wus mine to tree week from nex 
 Sateurday.' 
 
 'An so de widday she's look seurprise at dat proposee- 
 shun, but she say dat wus greeble to heur, provide de race 
 wus to come hofi on de lac shore opposight heur tavarne. 
 
 "'Aw, well, madame,' Ah say, 'Ah doan care wlieres de 
 race come hoff ; Ah'm weelling eef we goes on de meedle of 
 de lac to pace! Eet wus all de sam fur me.' 
 
 " An so de widday she's go back on de back part ov de 
 house an pootay soon she's come back agin wit twenty-fahve 
 dollair an poot heem hup on han ov Ephraham Parent, an 
 so Ah have pool bout mah porte-monnaie an count hout 
 twenty-fahve dollair an covair eet, an dat wus de way de 
 race wus mac hup." 
 
 "Mile heats, ay? " queried Jack. 
 
 " Yas, mile heet, bess tree on fahve," replied Peter. 
 
il I'M 
 
 
 j 
 
 liiiiii 
 
 mm 
 
 I' 
 
 I 
 
 i'iiiiii 
 
 54 
 
 BORDEU CANl'CKS. 
 
 *' And I suppose there's a good tleul of bitter feeling about 
 the race, isn't there, Peter?" 
 
 "Oh, no; fur mah part Ah doan feel no bad ft'din. Aii 
 have shook Imn an mac eet hup wit de widduy beeforo Ah 
 have leeve de liouse dat evenin." 
 
 "I am glad to hear you did that," observed Jack, who 
 regarded the "\yidow Martin's horsey peculiarities with 
 favor, not to say admiration, and often had put up at lier 
 hospitable and cleanly hostelry on his various shooting and 
 sporting outings. 
 
 " Aw, yas," said Peter, " she have pologize fur what she 
 have say, an aftaire we poot hup de monnah on ban of 
 Ephraham Parent she have ax every wan what wus on de 
 bar fur took un petit JiUais at heur espence, and den Ah 
 have ax all of dem to took sumting wit me, and den sum 
 ov mah nabor what wus dare have treet, an udder folks 
 have treet, and seeng s,\xm. chanson Caiiadien, and ole Moyees 
 Duplesis wus dare wit bees veeoleen an play de feedle an 
 sum of dem have dance, an bah gosh I when Ah have drav 
 home bout ten o'clock dat naght, dar wus two black ponay 
 on de cutteur eensted ov de chesnut wan Ah have start wit 
 een de morning! " 
 
 "And 1 suppose the race is pretty well advertised," 
 remarked Jack. 
 
 " Avtrtize 1 " exclaimed Peter, " You bet y^u In dat race 
 wus well avertize 1 Every wan wus talk ' eet at dp 
 church doer lass Sunday, and dare wus two o Sunday y i 
 
 " Yas, I guess you goan see de beegc. crowd dare 
 Hevair was on de hice on de lac shore, sure ting." 
 
 if 
 
 !ii;::'!ii 
 
BOKDEU CANLCKS. 
 
 66 
 
 "By Jove," saidJack, with youthful impulse aiul outhus* 
 iasm, " I'd like to go aiul see it of all things ! " 
 
 "i/rtw you was goan come to de race, Monsieur Jack, 
 ay?" exclaimed Peter, remonstratively as, after fumhling 
 about inside the breast of his overcoat, he produced a mam- 
 moth silver hunting case watch which he opened with a 
 click, looked at, and closed with a snap. " Dat was goan be 
 de beegess race any wares long de shore dees wintare." 
 
 "Yes, I have no doubt it will be,'* assented Jack, "but 
 I'm doubtful if I'll be able to get to it." 
 
 "J/aw/ Mais!'' exclaimed the owner of "dat leetle 
 chesnutplug" with a surprised look, as he arose from his 
 leaning posture upon the counter, " What fur you say dat, 
 Monsieur Jack? You wus doubtfool eef you wus goan 
 come I " 
 
 " Well, you see, some of the folks up at the house, '* 
 explained Jack — meaning by "some of the folks" his 
 father — "have been kicking up a row lately because of my 
 running about, as they call it, to all the races. I was down 
 at one on the Rouge last week, and I got fits when I came 
 back, I can tell you." 
 
 " Well, bah George 1" exclaimed Peter with an intonation 
 of disgust in his voice, as he pulled on his left glove 
 preparatory to taking his departure, "I tiidv folks muss 
 have mightay queerious noshun what objec to go an see an 
 horse race on de hice. Dey muss have what we calls een 
 French, mauvaise pensee bout he very ting, Ah guess." 
 
 " Well, ' said Jack, rousing up desperately, " I'm going 
 to try my best to go, anyway." 
 
 ?/ 
 
56 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 I 
 
 
 " 
 
 " Dat's raght, Monsieur Jack, dat's raght, " assented Peter 
 approvingly, " you muss try you bess to cone, acose you 
 goan see de best race you nevaire see beefore, sure ting. " 
 
 " Yes, I'U be there if it's possible, " said Jack resolutely. 
 
 * An now I muss be go, " cried the sportive Canadian, 
 extending his ungloved right hand, *' mine you, Ah wus 
 goan espec you at Belle Riviere two week from ue^ Sateur- 
 day. So good-bye and took care ov yoseff on de meentam, " 
 and as he shook hands he patted the youth patronizingly 
 on the right shoulder. 
 
 " Good-bye Peter, " said Jack, heartily. " I'll be on hand 
 if it's on the cards, you can bet, " 
 
 " All raght, Monsieur Jack; Ah guess you goan be dare : 
 good-bye, " and Mr. Bertrand, with many graceful bows 
 and aurevoirs to the clerks behind the counter, strode up the 
 long store to the entrance and thence down to the ferry 
 crossing. 
 
 Peter was not wrong in taking it for granted that Master 
 Jack would be one of the large crowd who witnessed the 
 much talked of race between the Widow Martin's Crapaud 
 and " dat leetle chesnut plug " on that memorable January 
 afternoon on the lake shore near Belle Riviere. 
 
 Jack was there, and inasmuch as his being there marked 
 the outset of an important epoch in his life, a future 
 chapter will be devoted to a record of what transpired ou 
 that occasion. 
 
CHAPTER lY. 
 
 I'll be on liand 
 
 Tlie Widow Martin and Her Pacing Pony "Crapaud.*' 
 
 Ik 
 
 "TT WOULD be like carrying coals to Newcastle to tell 
 -^ any ordinarily well informed votary of the trotting turf 
 of America, that the parent stem in the geological tree of 
 many of the most noted trotting and pacing performers of the 
 present phenominally cultivated period of these kinds of 
 speed trials and contests — the names of which are as house- 
 hold words to the general public — found its origin in the 
 Canadian family of French ponies. 
 
 They are properly called French because their original 
 ancestry was undoubtedly the Norman horse of France, and 
 they are equally appropriately called ponies, because, in 
 size, they are in most cases greatly degenerate progeny of 
 their parent stock. 
 
 But it is only in point of size that they are thus degenerate. 
 
 In respect of speed and intelligence they have gained 
 much, and in point of endurance they are notoriously the 
 peers of any other family of horses on this continent 
 
 It is probable that the predisposition with so many of the 
 breed to amble, or pace, which normally is swifter than trot- 
 ting, and the popular gait in speed contests among the old- 
 time Canadian habitants, was primarily superinduced by 
 crossing the Norman horse, of La Nouvelle France, with the 
 so-called Narragansett pacer of the English American colo- 
 nies. The latter breed of horses, it is asserted by a well- 
 
 (57) 
 
 tfi 
 
58 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 
 Priiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 111 II 
 
 informed authority upon the subject, possessed "a line of 
 heredity that gave them certainty of speed and a certainty 
 of type as long ago as A. D. 1690." They were brought out 
 from Great Britain by the pioneer settlers of Virginia and 
 Ehode Island where it is said, by inbreeding, they estab- 
 lished a marked new-world identity of their own and attained 
 a speed of less than two minutes and thirty seconds to the 
 mile. 
 
 The same authority quoted above says that " the combi- 
 nation of these ( the Narragansett pacers ) with the French 
 stock imported from France in 1665 produced the Canadian 
 pacer." Then it is further probable that during the early 
 part of the subsequent English occupation of Canada, com- 
 mencing in 1761, these Canadian pacers were crossed with 
 the English thoroughbred, or well-bred hunter, from which 
 combination Old Piloi, a pacer, and the grandsire of Maud S, 
 probably originated. 
 
 Old Pilot was taken from Canada in a plebeian peddler's 
 wagon, and before he died in the States had made for him- 
 self the then unprecedented record of 2:26, with 165 pounds 
 on his back, and laid the foundation of a long line of reign- 
 ing kings and queens of the trotting turf. 
 
 Like the ancient progenitor of this dynasty of regal 
 horses, the large majority of Canadian ponies used in the 
 primitive habitant races ( chiefly on the ice ) in the lower 
 province fifty years ago were rackers or pacers. Through- 
 out the French settlements, on either side of the Detroit 
 river, these grotesque races were of frequent and common 
 occurrence, not only on the ice in the winter but also, 
 owing to the flatness of tbe country during the summer and 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 59 
 
 3ssed "a line of 
 and a certainty 
 vera brought out 
 of Virginia and 
 ing, they estab- 
 )wn and attained 
 ty seconds to the 
 
 hat " the combi- 
 with the French 
 jed the Canadian 
 during the early 
 of Canada, com- 
 ere crossed with 
 iter, from which 
 dsire of Maud S, 
 
 d 
 
 ebeian peddler's 
 made for him- 
 with 165 pounds 
 mg line of reign- 
 
 ynasty of regnl 
 lies used in the 
 e) in the lower 
 cers. Through- 
 of the Detroit 
 nt and common 
 pointer but also, 
 the summer and 
 
 Iry autumn months, on the straight and level highways or 
 ^urnpikes. 
 
 When purses were given in these contests, as they fre- 
 mently were, by the sporting country tavern-keepers 
 throughout the region, they usually consisted of a cow, or 
 
 sheep, or a pig — the reputed value of the animal being in 
 )roportion to the importance of the event and the amount 
 >f patronage it was likely to draw to the Boniface's hostelry. 
 
 If une vache de lonne race was offered, it meant that the pro- 
 josed contest was an affair above the ordinary, while a pig, 
 )r a sheep, or ten bushels of oats denoted a common every- 
 Saturday pastime for practic* and the training of incipient 
 iyers. 
 
 But this is, of course, representing a state of things which 
 Existed years ago. 
 
 During the period of this story, as we have learned from 
 
 'eter Bertrand's relation of how he came to match his 
 
 I'leetal chesnut plug" with the Widow Martin's renowned 
 
 Jrapaud, horse racing among the French along Detroit river 
 
 ^nd Lake St. Clair had come down or gone up ( whichever 
 
 jrm the reader may deem best ) to a money basis. 
 
 The match twixt the v uow and Peter Bertrand was no 
 >rdinary event 
 
 It was the all-important race on the ice of the season, as 
 iqW because of the heretofore invincible reputation of the 
 ridow's Crapaud, as because of the fact that the general 
 public, not knowing what had transpired in the widow's 
 j>rush for the lead on New Year's eve, regarded the owner 
 ^f the chestnut's pretensions as little short of insane. The 
 ridow had often before owned reputedly fast horses — in 
 
60 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 I ' 
 
 i 
 
 111 I 
 
 
 fact, for years past slie had never been without a flyer of 
 some sort, either trotter or pacer — but no pony in point of 
 speed she had ever owned could compare with her present 
 black pacer, "Crapaud." 
 
 She had corae into possession of him through a judicious 
 trade made with a needy neighbor some five or six years 
 ago ; before he had developed the remarkable turn of s])eed 
 which had since vanquished so many contestants and gained 
 her so many wagers and purses. She never drove him in 
 any of his races herself. She left that usually to an expert 
 who rejoiced in the sobriquet of "Budd Doble, junior," but 
 whose proper patronymic was David Laduseur, whom Peter 
 Bertrand had been heard to describe as a " fuss class 7nac- 
 an-ique fur drav a pacin horse." 
 
 The widow, however, constantly drove Crapaud on the 
 road, and he had never failed to show his heels to anything 
 in the shape of a horse she wanted to pass, until she failed 
 to give " dat leetle chesnut plug " the go by, during that 
 memorable drive on the ice from town on New Year's eve, 
 This had been a potent cause of chagrin and disappointment 
 to her, and though she counted much on the superiority of 
 Mr. Budd Doble, junior's, " mac-an-ickal " powers as a 
 driver over her own pretensions in this regard, she none the 
 less looked foward to the coming event with secret forebod- 
 ings of a possible repetition of her previous experience in a 
 much more humiliating and disastrous form. 
 
 But to the outside world who visited her hostelry to talk 
 horse generally, and the'coming race in particular, she man- 
 ifested every confidence and scoffed at the bare idea of the 
 lijttle chestnut's having the slightest ghost of a show to win. 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 61 
 
 ixperience in a 
 
 The truth is that this widow was a very remarkable per- 
 sonage. Not, as the reader might very naturally infer from 
 her occupation and manifest prediliction, a coarse, mascu- 
 line and repulsive creature, but on the contrary an exceed- 
 ingly agreeable mannered, and by no means unattractive 
 woman in point of personal appearance. 
 
 On the shady side of fifty with raven black hair, untinged 
 with gray, straight Grecian-like features, large expressive 
 brown eyes, a complexion rather ^nclined to a swarthy tint, 
 good firm mouth, and a straigUt upright figure, slightly 
 above the medium height, without the slighest tendency to 
 embonpoint or grossness, the widow Martin still possessed 
 the not uncomely remains of what in her youth must have 
 been very remarkable beauty. 
 
 She had been married twice. The first time because she 
 loved the man she became the wife of, and at his death 
 being left with a family of five children to provide for; 
 after a widowhood of two years, she had taken unto herself 
 as husband one Ebeneezer Martin, who was a short 
 remove from an imbecile, because she either did not care or 
 could not afford to pay a man for doing the chores about 
 the tavern and looking after the work about the farm. 
 
 She had kept tavern for many years, and it was always 
 known to the general public as her tavern. 
 
 About the only legacy the late Ebeneezer left her apart 
 from two additional children to look after, was the privilege 
 of thenceforth prefixing that attractive appellation " widow " 
 to the name of the hostelry. 
 
 As the Widow Martin's tavern, it was known throughout 
 the region as a very fair, cleanly maison de pension for trav- 
 
fiisiil - 
 
 •62 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 
 ellers, a local headquarters for aspiring politicians during 
 parliamentary election contests, and the winter place of 
 rendezvous of local horsemen for training and racing their 
 ponies on the lake ice near by when the weather permitted. 
 The hostelry, an unpretentious square frame building, was 
 situated on the lake side of the public highway, which runs 
 parallel with the shore, and a short distance from where 
 Belle river debouches its sluggish, turbid waters upon the 
 sandy shores of the St. Clair. 
 
 Back from the highway a short distance, the Great "West- 
 ern Kailway intersects the narrow farm very nearly at right 
 angles with its length, and this circumstance served as a 
 perennial source of litigation to the sportive and deter- 
 mined proprietress of the Widow Martin's tavern, in that her 
 animals were constantly being run over and maimed or 
 killed by the passing trains. 
 
 For several consecutive years she carried on a sort of 
 litigious vendetta against the railway company because of 
 these constantly recurring casualties among her kine, until 
 her name became a household word in the courts and 
 among the lawyers of the judicial district. 
 
 Indeed it was said that she was no mean lawyer her- 
 self. Albeit she was unable to read or write, her adroit- 
 ness and finesse m the witness box frequently elicited the 
 admiration of a crowded court room at the old County 
 Town of Sandwich. 
 
 During a spring term of the court, when the roads were 
 usually well nigh impassable for heavy vehicles, she in- 
 variably mounted an old-fashioned red wheeled trotting 
 sulky, and with a foot stretched out on the thills on either 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 63 
 
 side of her pet pony she would reach the scene of her 
 pending legal battle witn comparative ease and expedition. 
 
 In short, Widow Martin was an enthusiast as to any matter 
 of serious concern she had in hand, and whatever she did she 
 did vigorously and with an eye to the triumphant carrying 
 of her point. 
 
 On the morning of the race the sun was still " held a 
 prisoner in the yet undawning East '* when she arose after 
 a night of fitful and uneasy rest, and, going to the stable 
 before Mr. Budd Doble, Junior, had put in an appearance, 
 with her own hands she sifted the oats and shook out the 
 small wisp of sweet timothy hay intended for Crapaud's 
 breakfast, which, after removing his crude muzzle she gave 
 him and watched him devour in a manner sufficiently 
 voracious to give her renewed courage in her contemplation 
 of the coming momentous event 
 
 "When Mr. Budd Doble, Junior, made his appearance in 
 due course, she thoroughly aroused him from his semi- 
 s Dmnolent condition by a vehement dissertation on the evils 
 of drink in respect of its bearing upon the nerves and 
 judgment of a driver of fast horses, which she wound up 
 by saying, " Now Dawveed, if you drink a single swallow 
 of whisky or any other kind of hoisson — mind you, one 
 single swallow — except what I give you until the race is 
 over, you and I part company forever, and I think you'll 
 travel a long way before you find a friend who will take as 
 good care of you as I have done. " 
 
 This conversation was of course carried on in French. 
 
 " Yes, Madame, " said David, yawning as if his jaws 
 would dislocate, at the same time stretching his arms out to 
 
 I 
 
 'r-' 
 
64 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 iMi! ■.'■■■! ;l;i:ili!li™ 
 
 their full length above his head, " you have always been 
 very good to me. " 
 
 "Now last night, " pursued the widow, "I did not want 
 to interfere with your fun but I saw that you were drink- 
 ing too much and making too free with the people in the 
 bar, and I know that you went to bed drunk. " 
 
 " No, I didn't go to bed drunk either I" contradicted David 
 fiercely, as he pulled at the strap to unloosen the buckle of 
 the surcingle, which secured the blanket around the old 
 horse. 
 
 " Yes, you did, persisted the widow. . ' 
 
 "No, I didn't." 
 
 " Yes, you did, I say, " repeated the relict of Ebeneezer 
 positively. , ' 
 
 *' Well then, " loudly proclaimed David as he walked out 
 of the stall leaving the surcingle and blanket still on the 
 pony " if you will have it that I went to bed drunk I guess 
 I'd better not drive this horse in the race to-day !" and he 
 proceeded to button his thin coat at the top button close 
 under his fat double chin with trembling fingers. 
 
 " Aw I you needn't talk that way, " sneered the widow; 
 "you mustn't suppose that you are the only one I can get 
 to drive my horse. I can drive him myself if it comes to 
 that. " 
 
 " Well, then, drive him yourself ! " loudly exclaimed 
 David, as he moved his fat, short, dumpy figure towards 
 the stable door; "and groom him and take care of him 
 yourself, too I I don't care 1 You are always fussing and 
 fuming about the horse and interfering with my work. " 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 66 
 
 " I don't want to interfere with your work, Dawveed," said 
 the widow, coming down from her perch of independence, 
 "and 1 don't want to drive the horse myself, either. Your 
 driving suits me very well, as I have told you before; but I 
 want you to keep sober for your own sake." 
 
 " I don't care a picayune for my own sake ! '* responded 
 David, " I only care for your sake and the old horse's sake." 
 
 " Yes, Dawveed, I believe you do think a great deal of the 
 old horse," said the widow, feelingly, "and I know you 
 know how anxious I am that he should win this race to-day. 
 Not for the sake of the money bet on the result, but only 
 because I don't want poor old Crapaud, who has been such 
 a good friend to me and cock of the walk for so long, 
 to be beaten. So we must, try to win this race." 
 
 " Win this race ! " exclaimed the much mollified Mr. Budd 
 Doble, junior, in tones of disgust at the bare thought of a 
 possibility ot the old horse not winning the race, "why, the 
 only way he can lose against that little chestnut rat is to fall 
 down or break through the ice, and I don't think either of 
 lliose accidents will happen him to-day. I only wish I was 
 as sure of getting to heaven as that the old horse will win 
 this race." 
 
 " "Well, my boy, I hope the result will prove that you are 
 right,'' doubtfully replied the widow, now completely 
 restored to good humor, with, however, a mental reserva- 
 tion of irrepressible inward doubt as to whether David 
 would ever get to heaven if his doing so depended upon 
 Crapaud's coming to the front to-day. 
 
 The fact was that Mr. Budd Doble, junior, did not know 
 the true inwardness ot what had taken place during the 
 
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 jiiriiiiii i I 
 
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 66 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 widow's repeated brushes for the lead on New Year's eve. 
 She herself, of course, did, but she had never had the abne- 
 gatory nerve either as to her own pride, or the prestige 
 attaching to her beloved Crapaud to tell David or any 
 one else of it, and she eagerly devoured the crumbs of com- 
 fort evolved from his ignorance of how great had been the 
 improvement in the speed capacity of Peter Bertrand's iive- 
 year-old chestnut in the last three months. 
 
 The threatening breeze of discord 'twixt the owner and 
 driver was, however, now entirely dispelled by the v/idow's 
 conciliatorily asking the latter whether he had had his bit- 
 ters yet. "You must feel like having une petite Jilb.is, 
 Dawveed," she said; "You haven't had anything yet this 
 morning, have you? " 
 
 " No, of course not," sulkily replied David ; "how could 
 I have got anything yet this morning? The bar is closed, 
 and I suppose you have got the key in your pocket!" and 
 with the collar of his closely buttoned coat turned up and 
 his coon skin cap pulled far down over his forehead and 
 eyes, with hands in his trouser pockets, he leaned up against 
 the tall oat bin near the stable door. 
 
 Upon this stood a coal oil lantern, with the flickering rays 
 of which the early dawning twilight now struggled for 
 supremacy. 
 
 "Come along then Dave, " said the widow as she took the 
 lantern up from the oat bin and proceeded towards the 
 entrance to the stable, "come to the house and I'll give you 
 an eye-opener, and then you can come out here and clean 
 the old horse off and do whatever else 3'ou have to do 
 before you take him out for his morning exercise. I 
 
 i'llii 
 
-R 
 
 BORDEU CANUCKS. 
 
 67 
 
 y> 
 
 suppose the crowd will commence to arrive early as we are 
 lilvely to have a fine, clear day and I'll be too busy to look 
 after it myself, so you must not neglect to take liim over to 
 the shop and liave his shoes, and particularly the hind ones, 
 set all right. " 
 
 "All right Madame, " responded Dawveed gruflly, as he 
 followed in the widow's wake to the house for his morning 
 bitters. " I'll look after everything all right, you can 
 depend. " 
 
 " And keep sober Dawveed for my sake ?" interrogated 
 the widow nervously and appealingly. 
 
 "Oh shawl of course I'll keep sober for everybody's 
 sake ! What do you take me for?" which exclamatory 
 query still remained unanswered as they reached the kitchen 
 door and passed into the house. 
 
 I :• 
 
 
 
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 li! 
 
 liiiil 
 
CHAPTEll VI r. 
 
 TheFakert. 
 
 rX^IIE "WIDOW was right in her cstimato of tho weather 
 -^ prospects. 
 
 After struggling through an opaque bank of leaden grey 
 clouds which fringed the soutiieastcrn horizon, old Phoebus, 
 as if bent upon making the most of his brief journey 
 "down to the roscy west" shone forth in all his refulgent, 
 shimmering, winter glory, making the snow-clad, low-lying 
 shores and the vast, ice-bound, glittering lake tryingly 
 dazzling to the naked eye to contemplate. 
 
 By twelve o'clock noon a sufficiently large, eagerly 
 expectant crowd had arrived to tax to its utmost capacity 
 the widow s accommodation for man and beast. 
 
 The bar and sitting room, the former to the right and the 
 latter to the left of the front entrance hall of the hostelry, 
 were filled to overflowing with a jabbering, good-natured 
 crowd of sportive French yoemanry, interspersed with a 
 sprinkhng of English-speaking sharps and flats from the 
 town and city who had been attracted thither by the 
 unwonted importance of the coming event 
 
 The inevitable *' sweat board " and "Wheel of Fortune" 
 fakirs from the purlieus of urban civilization were duly repre- 
 sented. The former, by a dapper little man with glittering, 
 ratty eyes, who wore upon his greasy, frizzled head, a high 
 silk hat, a little cocked to one side, and in other respects as 
 well, bore the outward signs of an inward speculative spirit. 
 
 (G9) 
 
w? 
 
 70 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 He had not worn the high shiney hat on his journey from 
 town, but carried it carefully in the same box which con- 
 tained his gambling outfit, after the manner of peripatetic 
 actors in the transport of their wardrobes. Evidently he of 
 the ratty eyes deemed a reflective silk hat as indispensable 
 to a proper plying of the " sweat board " busimjs as was the 
 paste diamond cluster, which ornamented his Chinese- 
 laundried shirt front, and the huge Brumagei.i watch chain 
 which, after encircling his fat, rotund neck, ostentatiously 
 crossed his stifHy starched- immaculate bosom and modestly 
 terminated its utilitarian career by unobtrusively passing 
 through one of his low-cut waistcoat button holes and appear- 
 ing at his fob as an unpretentious and serviceable watch 
 guard. 
 
 He was an oleaginous little man, was this "sweat board " 
 speculator, and withal courteously polite and insinuatingly 
 diplomatic in Ids business method of address. 
 
 He had ens(!onced himself in a corner of the large bar- 
 room, and by a specious and mildly earnest and sincere 
 manner of putting the enriching qualities of the game of 
 " sweat board " to the crowd, was quietly plying his beguil- 
 ing vocation with moderately satisfactory results. After 
 repeated taps on the " sweat board " table to attract the 
 attention of the crowd he said : " Now, gents, here is the 
 little game we call " chuck-a-luck " in my country — an old 
 and familiar game to sporting speculators in ail parts of the 
 world. 
 
 " We play it a great deal in the country I come from. 
 
 "We play it there because it is a fair game, a square 
 game, a game of honest and legitimate chance, in which the 
 
BOKDER CANUCKS. 
 
 71 
 
 novice stands as good a show as the oldest man in the 
 business. In fact, it Las been my experience of this honest 
 pastime that the man who plays it for the first time in nine 
 cases out of ten comes out a winner. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, here's your opportunity." Here the 
 specious little man dived his right hand down into his 
 trouser pocket and pulled forth five twenty-dollar gold 
 pieces, and as he tossed them up from one hand to the or uer 
 he continued his preliminary remarks : "I brought these five 
 twenty-dollar gold pieces and a roll of United States 
 national currency along to-day, and if I don't do one of two 
 things with them before I go back to the city after the race 
 is over, I'll be a disappointed man. I am either going to 
 leave it here with you to invest in whatever charitable or 
 other institution you may deem worthy of your patrouage, 
 or in default of this, I fain would take the roll back so fat- 
 tened as to enable me to increase my already large contri- 
 bution to the Young Men's Christian Association Benevo- 
 lent Fund. 
 
 " Now, here's your chance gents, here's your chance ! It 
 will be two hours yet before the horses start in the race and 
 until that begins we are better here beside the fire than we 
 would be shivering with the cold outside. Come right along 
 then, gents, and try your luck. Twenty-live cents on the six, 
 he says. There you are, sir. Now then, sir, throw the dice 
 to suit yourself, remembering always that it is an invariable 
 rule of the game that you must cover them. Raise the box 
 with your own honest hands sir. Two sixes and a deuce. 
 
 There you are, sir ! You win twenty-five cents twice, 
 twenty-live cents two times, making a grand total of fifty 
 

 i 
 
 ,;» 
 
 Y 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 ' ■-.■ 
 
 72 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 cents. There you are, sir. Now drop the dice back into 
 the box — do it with your own honest hands — make your 
 bet and shake ' em up again ' *1^ suit yourself. Ah, there 
 you are again ! You win once again, sir. Keep right on 
 that way and I'll resign my membership in the Young 
 Men's Christian Association in your favor and seek 
 oblivion in the walks of private life." 
 
 However much of Greek to many of hia» hearers there 
 may have been in this stereotyped manner of address, it was 
 not without material results and the unctuous little faker 
 for a time drove a lively traffic in iive-, ten- and twenty -five- 
 cent pieces. 
 
 Ill the sitting room across the hall, the wheel of Fortune, 
 at a ten-cent basis, rotated ephemeral gains and ultimate 
 inevitable losses to its adventurous votaries. 
 
 It was manipulated by its owner who, in point of physique, 
 was an animated demonstration of u geometrical straight 
 line as possessing length without breadth. He was a tall 
 man with light tow-like hair and mischievously twinkling 
 grey eyes, and withal pigeon-toed and preternaturally long- 
 armed. He spoke English with a slight Yankee-French 
 twang and a humid splutter, as if his tongue performed some 
 sort of acrobatic somersault within his mouth at the 
 beginning and ending of each sentence he uttered. 
 
 Whatever he said, as Arbiter of Dame Fortune's specul';- 
 tive wheel, he said solemnly and with a sphinx-like rigidity 
 of countenance ; but while his outward form, and long 
 drawn-out, deliberate method of articulation savored of 
 church yards, and kindred sepulchral things, his small eyes 
 dazzled and danced beneath their quivering lids as if his 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 73 
 
 whole personal make up and immediate surroundings were 
 a very amusing joke. 
 
 He stood forward to the left of the wheel, which was 
 placed within a few inches from the wall on an impromptu 
 platform so that any one in the room could easily distin- 
 guish the numbers upon it " Here, my friends," called out 
 this bizarre funereal -looking import in sonorous and stentor- 
 ian tones, " here is the Wheel of Fortune, the fairest and 
 '.'riendliest game known to man. It is so fair and so friendly 
 that the first time I ever saw it operate on the race track at 
 Detroit last fall I won enough money playing agin it to 
 become its owner; and here it is in all its original 
 innocence." Here he gave the wheel a push downwards, 
 which sent it flying around its axis \7ith lightning speed. 
 " Anybody can see that there is no chance for a gouge 
 here," he continued solemnly. " Anybody can see how she 
 works. Anybody can work her. That's the reason a 
 respectable gent from the country like yours truly owns her. 
 Nuthin mysterious about this ere gamel These are the 
 paddles ( holding them up ) , twenty of them, with five of 
 the one hundred numbers on the wheel on each one of 
 them. At ten cents a paddle there will be two dollars in the 
 pool. I turn the wheel in this manner, and whenever she 
 stops that there Injun rubber indicator will pint to a certain 
 number, and whoever holds the paddle with that number on 
 it rakes in the pot, less ten per cent for the poor. Here is a 
 charitable game for you, my friends. A simple game for 
 honest folks. A. fair game ; a square game. Every man 
 who plays it is on equal terms with every other man in the 
 pool. Only ten cents per paJdle. One shove of the wheel, 
 
74 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 and when she stops rollin, two dollars to the winner, less 
 ten per cent for the deservin poor I Come, my friends; 
 here are your puddles. Ten cents ? Yes, only ten cents. 
 Five of em to or>e gent! There, sir, hope you'll git thar, 
 my friend. Only one .more paddle — here you are, my 
 friend ! One more paddle to sell and the game is made. 
 Come, be quick about it I or here she goes, and I keep it 
 myself; and I'll probably win the pot, cos I'm terrible 
 lucky play in agin this ere wheel. Do you want it, sir? 
 Yes, sir, only ten cents. Here's the lucky one! Who 
 wants it? Ten cents? Yes, sir. Thank you, my friend. 
 And now, gents, the game is made, and here she goes I " 
 
 Thus the game once started, the Doctor, as this serio- 
 comic sepulchral-looking faker was familiarly nicknamed, 
 found no difficulty in keeping it going until the news 
 reached the house that the start for the first heat in the race 
 was about to take place, whereupon there occurred a general 
 stampede of his speculative patrons to the track along the 
 frozen lake shore, now glittering in the sunshine, and 
 marked well nigh throughout its entire straight mile of 
 length by groups ^nd detached patches of every description 
 of man and horsekind known to the neighborhood. 
 
 Every sort of winter conveyance used by the habitants 
 was there represented, from the crude jumper and traino, 
 with its tall, upright wood rack, to the cariole and old 
 fashioned family sleigh, which usually contained two or 
 more of the tenderer sex in holiday attire. 
 
 Meanwhile, every available inch of shelter afforded by 
 the widow's tavern, and the sheds and stables of her 
 neighbors were filled to overflowing with horses and ponies 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 ?«► 
 
 of the better sort driven thither by' sporting patrons from a 
 distance, 
 
 Amonp; the last of these to arrive were Jack Kathbone 
 and his boon companion, Charley Ford, of Detroit, in a 
 half-famished condition after their long drive. The former 
 by a russe which will hereafter be referred to, managed to 
 steal away from the paternal domicile with his grey pony 
 and well appointed cutter, and picking up his friend as 
 previously arranged, had succeeded in making a late start 
 from the city. They had made up for lost time a bit by 
 driving the distance, about twenty miles, in two hours 
 and five minutes by the watch, and the grey pony, a little 
 thing not quite fourteen hands in height, presented a some- 
 what jaded appearance in consequence, when they pulled up 
 in the back yard of the widow's tavern. Jack, who was 
 always considerate of animals, not without considerable 
 difficulty, because of the crowd, personally saw to the com- 
 fortable bestowal of the little mare before he and his com- 
 panion sought the house for refre^ment and food to 
 hurriedly appease their vigorous, youthful appetites. 
 
 The widow had driven a great trade, both in the dining 
 room and bar, but notwithstanding this, throughout all the 
 incidental din of crush and crowd, anxiety as to the result 
 of the coming event was ever uppermost in her mind. 
 
 She could not rid herself of constantly reviving thoughts 
 of how futile had been her efforts to give Peter Bcrtrand 
 and the little chestnut the go-by on New Year's Eve. 
 
 "Crapaud" was still the favorite with the crowd at oddj 
 and she had been on the point of remonstrating with several 
 
%i:wvf 
 
 76 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 of lier acquaintances who had betted two and three to one 
 on the old horse, but then this would have betrayed her 
 rankling, inward doubt of the result, and entailed an 
 explanation of the circumstance of her lamentable failures 
 in her brushes for the lead during that memorable drive 
 from town on the last day of the year just past. What ! 
 let the world about her suspect the chagrin and humiliating 
 annoyance she had felt because of that episode? No, 
 indeed, she was a woman every inch of her, albeit her 
 horsey tastes, and like a woman she clung to the impression 
 of what there might in the end prove to be no necessity for 
 mentioning to anybody. 
 
 The old horse might win in to-day's race. 
 
 In fact, with the exception of a few of Peter Bertrand's 
 nearest friends, it was the very general opinion that it would 
 prove a walk-away for Crapaud, and although she felt from 
 what she had seen of the little chestnut's speed that this 
 could not very well be, still, the old horse as driven by Mr. 
 • Budd Doble, Junior, might come to the front, aud in that 
 event her silence upon the subject of her futile brushes for 
 the lead during that drive from town would prove the proper 
 thing to have done ; and she certainly never would allow her 
 dear old horse to start in a race again. 
 
 If Peter Bertrand's pony had only had an established 
 reputation on the local turf she would not so much mind 
 being beaten by him ; but to be vanquished by a green five- 
 year-old, whose owner she had patronized with such absurd 
 and annoying consequences, was more than she could com. 
 fortably contemplate. 
 
'1 ■' 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 77 
 
 She was full of these nervous misgivings when, leaving the 
 work in the dining room and kitchen for her eldest daughter, 
 Rosalie, and hired girl to look after, she hurriedly encased 
 herself m a fur jacket and close-fitting, fur trimmed hood 
 and sallied forth to witness the first heat 
 
CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 Tfie Race on the Ice. 
 
 "TUST AS the widow flounced out of the back door 
 ^ entrance of the hostelry, Jack Rathbone and Charley 
 Ford crossed the yard from the barn. 
 
 Seeing the young men she called out, excitedly, *' Hello, 
 Monsieur Ratbone ; Ah v^us glad to see you not forgot to 
 come to de race. And you, too, Monsieur Ford, I wus glad 
 to see you here to-day." 
 
 " How de do, Madame Martin," said Jack as he approached 
 her with outstretched hand. "No, we couldn't keep away 
 from the race, and we have arrived here pretty nearly starved. 
 Have you got anything to eat left in the house? " 
 
 "Well, Ah doan know; Ah guess so, dough," said the 
 widow, shaking hands with the young men hurriedly; 
 " come een dis way trough de keetchen an ax Rosalie eef she 
 coon't git you sumting." 
 
 "Is Miss Rosalie in the house?'* eagerly enquired Mr. 
 Ford, with whom the young lady in question — a pretty, 
 brown-eyed girl of eighteen — had flirted on the ocoasion of 
 ft previous sojourn at the widow's during one of his and 
 7ack Rathbone's shooting expeditions in the neighborhood. 
 
 " Oh, yes, you will fine Rosalie een de keetchin, Ah 
 guess. We have be so beesay; dare wus such a crowd 
 here for dinner dat we wus moss run oU of our leg. Ah have 
 only jews be able to got way now, and eef Ah doan hurrjr Ah 
 goan mees de fuss heat; so you muss please excoose me." 
 
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 80 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 "How is the race going to come out, do you think, Mrs. 
 Martin ? " cried Jack as the widow swiftly and excitedly 
 set out for the lake shore. 
 
 "Oh, Ah doan know," she called back, shrugging her 
 shoulders and smiling nervously ; "Ah goan toll you bet- 
 taire aftaire de fust heat." 
 
 " I have never seen the old lady so excited about any- 
 thing before," observed Charley Ford to Jack. 
 
 "Neither have I. She has evidently set her heart upon 
 winning this race, and is not by any means certain as to 
 how it's coming out But we must hurry and interview 
 Eosalie and see whether she can't get a sandwich or a cold 
 bite of something we can carry in our hands and eat on our 
 way down to the track, or we'll miss the first heat See ! 
 Look I The horses are warming up for the start now." 
 
 " Yes, I see," replied Ford, " You can get there as soon as 
 you please. I'm going to take it easy and wait until 
 Eosalie is ready to go." 
 
 " Perhaps she is not going to the race at all," suggested 
 Jack. 
 
 " In that case I'll not go to the race either," replied Mas- 
 ter Ford, laughing, as they passed through the little lean-to 
 outside summer -kitchen into the larger inner one, still redo- 
 lent of comfortable warmth, fried onions and other culinary 
 odors, ravishingly tantalizing to the young men's sharpened 
 appetites. 
 
 Meanwhile the widow reached the coming-in score ( upon 
 which, in a two-seated cariole, sat the three judges ) in ample 
 time to see the horses start from the other end. 
 
B0RDFT7 CANUCKS. 
 
 81 
 
 •* Clar de track ! Got off de way, " shouted the stoutest 
 and most important looking one of the judges standing up 
 on the forward seat of the judicial sleigh. " Clar de track 
 dare ! De horses wus jews goan start — mac dose folks stan 
 beck dare Ephraham ! Look out, d'ave start ! No, she's no 
 start ! Dey wus go back agin. " 
 
 And they did go back again a half a dozen times before 
 they got the word for the start, with the experienced old 
 Crapaud, famous as a rapid scorer, having a little the best 
 of it. 
 
 But he did not retain this advantage long. 
 
 " Dat leetle chestnut plug " soon demonstrated the fact 
 that he possessed quite as much speed as his competitor by 
 drawing up on even terras with the old horse, and for two- 
 thirds of the mile they whizzed along at a 2:30 gait so nearly 
 abreast of each other and so close together that the pro- 
 verbial blanket could have covered the pair. 
 
 It was a very exciting heat — every inch of the way 
 being struggled and striven for with stubborn persistency 
 by both horses and their drivers, who yelled unearthly 
 howls of caution and encouragement, commencing slowly 
 with the lowest note in the gamut and gradually ascending, 
 with accelerating speed, to the apex of the scale, would burst 
 forth into a series of yelps and whoas, and " gee-long dare, 
 mon sacre poUison." 
 
 The little chestnut completely astounded the gaping, noisy 
 crowd of excited on-lookers, who lined either side of the 
 last quarter of a mile of the track, by actually out-footing 
 the heretofore invincible Crapaud, and driving him to a 
 break, the gamy old horse irretrievably lost at least 
 
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 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 two lengths — about the distance between the two when 
 the triumphant chestnut crossed the winning score, amid the 
 loud acclamations of the astonished on-lookers. 
 
 Great was the excitement of the enthusiasts as they 
 circled around, and pressed forward to pat the little chestnut 
 with their homespun mittened hands as he returned to the 
 winning post to await the arrival of the starting judges 
 from the other end of the track to report to their confreres at 
 the finish whether or not the start was a fair one. 
 
 Impressive was it to behold Peter Bertrand's countenance 
 beaming with surpressed triumph and excitement as he 
 nimbly moved his Herculean form about, tremblingly 
 assaying to tuck within the shafts a disreputable-looking, 
 old, wadded, patch quilt he had succeeded in throwing over 
 the steaming equine hero. 
 
 In reply to the congratulations of surprised friends he 
 exclaimed, " Comment mes amis / voits me prendre pas pour 
 un fou eh ?" and then catching Jack Rathbone's eager eye, 
 "You see Monsieur Jack, what Ah wus toll you have 
 come true ay? Dee'nt Ah toll you we wus goan geeve de 
 widday's great Crapaud pootay hard poosh to-day?" 
 
 "Yes, Peter!" exclaimed Jack with fervor, "you're a 
 true prophet, and no one on this ice is better pleased than I 
 am," and struggling through the surging crowd of jabber- 
 ing admirers of " dat leetle chesnut plug " he shook Peter's 
 brawny, outstretched hand with all his might. 
 
 " Tank you, tank you, Monsieur Jack ; Ali taught you 
 would not mees dees. Ah wus look fur you beefore" 
 
 The starting judges not having yet arrived to give their 
 report, Peter's pony and sleigh was slowly led back and 
 
 i«l 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 83 
 
 
 ff, 
 
 forth past the judges' sleigh by his driver, a stubby little 
 man of any age, with bandy legs and a suspiciously rubi- 
 cund complexion, from the corner of whose thick lipped, 
 half-open mouth there trickled down a liberal oozing of 
 tobacco juice. 
 
 "Have you got much beside the stake bet on the result, 
 Peter," enquired young Kathbone as he walked along side 
 the latter. in the wake of the pony and sleigh. 
 
 " No, Ah have not got nutting wort speaking bout on de 
 race, and dat what's mac me feel lac keeckin meseff now 1 " 
 
 "How much have you got bet? " enquired Jack. 
 
 "Beesides de stakes wit de widday ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Honlay tree to fahve two tarn," deprecatingly responded 
 Peter, "an eef Ah honlay hav nuff confeedence Ah could 
 have ween more's wan hundred dollair, sure ting." 
 
 " And you have only bet three to five twice. Do you 
 mean in dollars?" 
 
 " No, not bote of dem. One of dem wus een quarteur, an 
 de udder wan wus een dollair." 
 
 " Then you only stand to win six dollars and twenty-five 
 cents outside the stake." 
 
 " Yas, Ah guess dat's all," regretfully assented Peter as 
 he shifted the bucket and large sponge he was carrying 
 from one hand to the other. "Dat's what mac me feel so 
 mad wit meseff now, acose Ah'm sure we wus goan ween." 
 
 "Well, I am glad that you feel so certain about it," 
 replied the youth. " Glad for my own sake, too, because 
 ril win five dollars which I bet since I arrived here on the 
 strength of what you told me the other day m the store 
 
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 84 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 
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 about your brush with the widow on New Year's eve. But 
 do you feel quite sure the little fellow will last the race 
 out?" 
 
 "What! JLaas out de race?" indignantly exclaimed 
 Peter with sidelong glances at his young friend. "WI13', 
 mon ami, dat pony wus de son ov mah ole trottin mare 
 'Lizay Durand,' and she's nevaire know how to quit 1 An 
 hees faddeur wus de St Louis pacin horse, and he wus good 
 wan, too. Oh, no! Ah doan scare fur dat wuss a cent." 
 
 " Then you must have raised the colt yourself. I always 
 thought you bought him from somebody a year or so ago. 
 Didn't Charley Maisonville, of the Dew Drop Inn at Walker- 
 ville, have him at one time? 
 
 "Aw, yss, Farrow Maisonville have him leetle while 
 bout wan year ago now. But he wus honlay break heem 
 an train heem fur me, you know. Aw, yas. Ah have raise 
 heem mesefE," and Mr. Bertrand lowered his head in ratify- 
 ing satisfaction. 
 
 "Have you given him any name yet?" 
 
 " Well, we alway calls him Deck to home," replied Peter, 
 shrugging his shoulders doubtfully. 
 
 "But I mean have you given him any racing name? " 
 
 "Aw well, de byes mongst de nabor 'roun whores Ali 
 leeve calls heem ' Hup-an-go consan' or 'Hop-an-go- 
 consan. ' Ah doan know what's dat mean. Does you 
 Monsieur Jack?" confidentially enquired Peter with a 
 bewilded expression of countenance. 
 
 " Up-and-go-constant !" repeated Jack laughingly, " Oh 
 I don't know whether I can explain what it means, but I 
 do know that the boys must have meant to make fun of 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 85 
 
 I 
 
 him when they gave him such an absurd name as * Up-and- 
 go-constapx. ' " 
 
 '' Yas, Ah guess dat's a fac, " ruefully assented Peter, 
 "dey want's to mac fun an fooleesliness ov heem, but Ah 
 tink dey wus goan change dare toon aftaire dees, an Ah 
 goan geeve heem good nam you see. ' 
 
 "What do you think of calling him?" queried Jack. 
 
 "Well Ah doan know, " said Peter, dubiously shrugging 
 liis broad slioulders. " Ah have not zaclay feex on dat yit 
 you see — mais how does you tink Yelier Deek would 
 soot?'» 
 
 " Yellow Dick 1" exclaimed Jnck, with an effort to keep 
 his face straight. *' Why nobody ever heard of a yellow 
 horse !" 
 
 " Well, Ah guess he wus pootay nigh yelier, wus'nt he?" 
 expostulated Peter. 
 
 " Oh, no ; he is a good many shades off being yellow, " 
 remonstrated Jack. 
 
 " Yas, " admitted Mr. Bertrand, doubtingly, " praps he 
 wus not zaclay yelier, what you calls reglar yelier pure et 
 simple you know, mais he wus dirtay yelier — jews luc as 
 eef he wus go and roll een dee dirt somewares ain't eet?" 
 
 " Oh, no, he is a long way off from being yellow. He is 
 a chestnut; that's the proper name for his color — and one 
 of thf; prettiest shades of chestnut, too. Why not call him 
 Chestnut Dick?" 
 
 " Aw, no ; Chesnut wus too ole fur young horse lac he 
 was. No, we lyiuss tink ov sum udder nam." 
 
 At this juncture, the starting judges having arrived and 
 reported that the start for the first heat was all fair and 
 
 i^ 
 
 J-.ft 
 
 ,! - •■ 
 
 
 
 
ml 
 mm 
 
 86 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 right, the fat, winning post judge scrambled to an upright 
 posture upon the front seat of the judicial vehicle, and call- 
 ing out "Seelancel Seelance, mes amis! Sliut hup you 
 mout, dare! Hole on, dare I Leesen 1 " managed to bring 
 the crowd to a sufficiently long period of quietude to 
 announce the result of the heat. He said: " De horse ov 
 Peirro Bertran have ween de fust heat all fair an square; 
 so we have deside we goan geeve dat heat to heem. No tarn 
 wus took.'* 
 
 Evidently this ponderous judge was disposed to be loqua- 
 cious and spin out his official announcements to as great 
 length as might be ; but the crowd, in its excitement, was 
 in no humor for unnecessary verbiage, and any further 
 remarks from the judges* sleigh would have been drowned 
 amidst the cheers and counter cheers and yells of the 
 noisiest portion of the crowd as they stampeded for the 
 widow's hostelry for refreshments. 
 
 " How does you tink de nam ov " Louis Papineau " 
 would soot mah ponay, Monsieur Jack ? " enquired Peter, 
 resuming the conversation interrupted by the judge's 
 announcement 
 
 "Yes, that wouldn't be a bad name," responded Jack. 
 "Neither would 'Louis Kiel.' " 
 
 " Aw, no, no ! " objected Mr. Bertrand ; " ' Louis Riel * 
 wus too onluckay. De udder wan wus bettaire. Ah guess 
 dare wus no wan mongst us French Canadien dat have da 
 so much good fur bees compatriots as Papineau." 
 
 "Yes, I have always heard that Papin^-au was a great 
 man, and quite a benefactor to his country, " 
 
^npi^i 
 
 BORDER CANUCKa 
 
 87 
 
 
 "Well, Ah (loan know what's dat mean, mats Ah'ra sure he 
 wus grate mans an grande hero, too !" asserted Peter whose 
 limited knowledge of the historical status of Papineau was 
 purely an outcome of hearsay tradition. 
 
 "But Papineau has been dead some years, has he not?" 
 asked the youth. 
 
 " Aw, yas, av course he wus dead long tarn ago, more as 
 feeftay year, Ah guess — but bah gosh ! Ah toll you he 
 wus grate mans dough 1" and the Herculean owner of " dat 
 leetle chesnut plug' confidently, and with an air of 
 mystery slowly nodded his head back and forth as if he 
 could a tale unfold illustrative of the prowess and acumen of 
 his dead compatriot, which would paralyze his youthful 
 listener. 
 
 But he desisted, and Jack, pursuing the subject of a 
 suitable name for the pony said, "But do you think 
 Peter that it's quite the right thing to call a living horse 
 after a dead man ? It's scarcely fair to the horse, and I don't 
 think it could exactly be regarded as a very high honor 
 to the dead to call a race horse after him. " 
 
 " Well, maybe not, " responded Peter with a demonstra- 
 tive shrug of his shoulders. 
 
 " Now, I'll tell you what I'll do with you Peter, " con- 
 tinued Jack, blushing as if he were about to perpetrate a 
 most audacious suggestion, "If you call that pony after me, 
 I'll give him the best and thickest blanket I can buy for 
 money, and have his name marked upon it in handsome 
 letters. " 
 
 " What ! " cried Peter, coming to a stand, " Call heem 
 Jack Ratbone? " 
 
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 ll 
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 ' $, 
 
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 88 
 
 BORDER CAXUCKS. 
 
 "Yes," said Jack, timidl}'^, nodding his head. 
 
 "Bah gosh, Ah'U do eetl Ah goan call heem Jack Rat- 
 bone ; shook han wit me 1 " and he changed the half filled 
 water bucket from his ham-like right, to his left hand, and 
 shook Jack's diminutive palm with a vigorous confirmatcry 
 grip. 
 
 Then approaching the judges he said, "Genseemans, 
 jewjes, beefore dees race beegin Ah have toll you dat mali 
 horse have got no nam. Dat was de trute at dat tarn. 
 Mais now eet ees deeferant ting; Ah have jews chreesen 
 heem. Aftaire dis he weel be know bah de nam ov " Jack 
 EiiLbone." Then turning to the crowd behind him he 
 launched out into a mixture of French and English explana- 
 tion. ^^Cette jeune homme,^* he said, putting his hand 
 lightly on the blushing Jack's shoulder, " est lefils de Mon- 
 sieur Robert Rathone de Detroit^ un de mes grandes amis. Moss 
 ov de folks roun here knows heem, Ah guess." 
 
 " Aw, GUI I Nous connait bten. II est un de nous autresP* 
 shouted certain of the large-lunged crowd. 
 
 " Oui mes amis Jack Ratbone," reasserted Peter deliber- 
 ately, as he slowly nodded his head back and forth. " Jack 
 Ratbone wus goan be de nam of dat leetle Deeck aftaire 
 dees." 
 
 " Hoorah pour Jack Ratbone I " 
 
 " Uestun de nous autres 1 " 
 
 " Eh bien / Comment? Hoorah pour nous autres den I " 
 variously exclaimed the effervescent admirers of the pony's 
 new name among the crowd. 
 
 And what were the feelings of our bipedal young friend 
 Jack Rathbone himself while this was going on ? 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 89 
 
 Had tho Crown of Great Britain and Ireland, or what in 
 his own estimation would have been far better, the Presi- 
 dential toga of the United States suddenly fallen upon him, 
 the mantling glow of proud satisfaction, which sent his 
 warm young blood coursing through his veins to his bright 
 young face and well shaped head, could not have thrilled 
 his heart with greater momentary happiness. To have so 
 promising and fast a young horse named after him! What 
 beatitude! And as if to signalize the auspicious event the 
 temporarily hidden sun now emerged from behind a flying 
 cloud and again shed forth his dazzling rays upon the 
 hilariously gathering crowd (now rapidly returning from the 
 widow's tavern) in gratefully warm and resplendent glory. 
 
 There was an indefinable something about this precocious 
 young American, which drew older, middle-aged people and 
 very young childien to him. 
 
 He had inherited a certain sort of Frenchy vivacity from 
 his mother which the English stolidity of his father had 
 toned down into a remarkably unassuming and agreeable 
 manner. 
 
 He could not carry on a sustained conversation in French, 
 but he could understand the Canadian patois and appre- 
 ciated the quaintness of the habits and customs peculiar to 
 these simple minded people. "While they, on the other 
 hand, through his mother, regarded him as partly, if not 
 wholly, one of themselves. 
 
 As we have seen, from his early youth he had mixed 
 much with them in his shooting outings along the lake and 
 river, and in attending the sort of gatherings he was at 
 
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 ■ I 
 
 Y'. 
 
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 Hl^ 
 
90 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 to-day; and his popularity had grown with his increasing 
 acquaintance and his advancing young manhood. 
 
 So that Peter Bertrand, apart from considering the 
 promised horse blanket as an incentive (and it is only fair 
 to say that it had but little weight in inducing him to do 
 so) was not far astray in naming his equine hero after his 
 young Detroit friend. In fact it had the effect of increasing 
 the little chestnut's popularity with the crowd, if that were 
 possible, in view of his amazing performance in the first 
 heat. 
 
 " Hoorah pour Jack Ratbone I" went up on all sides, and 
 was becoming more universally acceptable, when one of 
 the winning post judges vociferously rung a large dinner 
 bell, preliminary to calling the horses up for the second 
 heat 
 
 " Now genseemans I" shouted the fat judge, after he had 
 succeeded in balancing himself in an upright position on 
 the forward seat of the judicial sleigh. "You muss keep 
 ordeurl Took yo horses down to de startin poss f ur de 
 seconde heat Does you hear me, you draveurs ? " 
 
 " Aw, yas, Ah hears you Monsieur Badeeshow, " replied 
 the bandy-legged driver of " dat leetle chesnut plug." 
 
 *' Does you hear me, Dawveed ? " yelled the judge to the 
 driver of Crapaud, 
 
 " Aw, yas. Ah hears you," sulkily responded Mr. Budd 
 Doble, junior. 
 
 The bandy-legged driver of the chestnut now stopped his 
 vibratory leading of his charge, and taking the bucket of 
 water from Peter, gave the little fellow two or three swal- 
 lows preparatory t shecking him up and getting ready to 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 91 
 
 obey the judge's behest. Nudging Peter, who stood al<^ng- 
 side him, ready to remove the patch quilt oflE tlie pony at 
 the last moment, he said : *' Regard done la vielle atw sa 
 bouttiele noiVe!" and then he shouted out to the driver of 
 Crupaud : " Aw, Dave, you kin geevc de olo feller all (U; 
 wheeskey you wants j Ah kin beat him drunk or sobeur 
 to-day!" 
 
 " Oh, jrou goan drown youseff," snarled back Mr. Doble, 
 junior. 
 
 " Not beefor Ah've berray you ! " yelled he of the bandy 
 legs, as he drove off up the glistening track to warm up for 
 the second heat. 
 
 Meanwhile, with dampened ardor, a small crowd of 
 doubting supporters surrounded Crapaud as he was being 
 made ready to go up for the start. Dave, his driver, was 
 vainly trying to staunch the oozing blood from a small cut 
 on the gamey old fellow's quarter, when the widow, excited 
 and out of breath, with a black quart bottle in hand, elbowed 
 her way through the sympathetic little crowd and put her 
 unoccupied hand upon the driver's shoulder as he bent over 
 the mjured near forward foot, which he held between his 
 slightly bent knees. . ■ 
 
 Handing the black bottle to Mr. Doble, junior, she said : 
 " Dar, Dawveed, put some of dees on dat cut ; took a swal- 
 ler yoseff, and den geeve de balance to de poo ole feller 
 heemseff," and in response to her equine pet's whinny of 
 recognition either of the bottle or herself, she affectionately 
 patted him upon his arched neck. "Nevaire mine, mah po 
 ole feller; you not goan cut yo foot agin does heat. Ah 
 hope. You goan show dem what you kin do dees tam, 
 
 
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 i'<i 
 
92 
 
 BORDElt CANl'CKS. 
 
 ifevtiiliilllii 
 
 ftint you?" Then, na If tlerlving renewed courngc and con- 
 fidence from tliis monologue, she placetl her arms nkimbo, 
 her hands resting on her hips, and turning to the small 
 crowd behind her, she confidentially and with an intonation 
 of banter said : " Ah nevalre see de ole horse go back on 
 hees wheeskey yit 1 Eet always macs hecm bout ten secon 
 fasser when he gits eet at de raght tani. "We'll see what we 
 goan see beefor decs heat ecs ovaire I" and wanning into n 
 throe of confidence she called out loudly: "Anybody on 
 dees crowd dats want bet ten dollair hove.i on dees heat 
 come decs way, an Ah goan commodate hecm 1 " 
 
 But no one responded to this banter. . Ten dollars over- 
 sized their pile. Many of them had already bet odds on 
 Crajiaud before the first heat, and having spent the remain- 
 der of their available capital in Bacchanalian refreshments, 
 were left without a stiver to hedge with. "Whistling to keep 
 theircourage up, and demonstrative sympathy for the widow 
 and her black champion with a view to future free drinks, 
 were the only recourses left open to them. 
 
 After a religious observance of the widow's instructions 
 as to the "swaller " for his own inner man, Mr. Budd Doble, 
 junior, elevated the old horse's head, and inserting the 
 mouth and neck of the black bottle in the corner of his 
 jaws, poured its contents down his throat, to the manifest 
 satisfaction of Crapaud himself as well as of his witnessing 
 bipedal sympathizers. 
 
 Then the relict of the late Ebeneezer the Second held the 
 reinvigorated pony by the head and encouragingly patted 
 him upon his head and foretop, while Dave, having gotten 
 into the sleigh, gathered up the reins, and tucking in a well 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 93 
 
 nigh hairless old yellow bufTalo skin closely about his 
 unpoetic, dumpy body, was ready for the wanning up, just 
 ns tl»e fat judge called out: "What's de maltaire dare, 
 Dawveed ? Eef you doan hurray up wo not goan got trough 
 to-night, for suro!'' 
 
 "All rnghtl All raglitl" yelled Mr. Doble, junior, in 
 reply; "Lefi go hees head, MeessesI'* 
 
 " Say, Dawveed ! " excitedly excl rned the widow as she 
 let the anxious pony's head go, and ii rriedly going to the 
 side of the cutter ( unconsciously adopting Enp'ish in her 
 flurry ) she audibly whispered : ' Wlion you gits up to do 
 tartin poss, Dawveed, call Moyees L: leur to wan side au 
 wheespear to heem dat eef he doan c^eeve you good start, 
 Ah goan mac heem pay dat monnay i right away I Iloes 
 know what you mean! Mine you doan forgib dot, Daw- 
 veed 1" And David, nodding his coon skin cap in assenr^ 
 gave the old horse his head and drove rapidly up the track 
 towards the starting post. 
 
 It may be well here, by way of explanation of this final 
 enjoinder of the widow's to mention the fact that Moses 
 Lafleur, one of the starting judges, was a delinquent debtor 
 of hers in the sum of six dollars for an alleged well-bred 
 ram lamb. 
 
 And now all was in readiness for the start for the second 
 heat. 
 
 Jack Rathbone, still radiant with pride and excitement, 
 had secured a seat along-side his friend Peter Bertrand, on 
 top of a peddler's van sleigh; while his campagnon de voyage 
 and fdus achates, Charley Ford, true to his expressed deter- 
 mination, had become the cavalier of Eosalie Martin, and 
 
■ }■ " 
 
 
 'ii\:m 
 
 u 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 shortly after their arrival at the track they had joined a jolly 
 party of by no means ill-looking girls, who had^ a com- 
 fortable double-box sleigh with plenty of straw at the 
 bottom of it, and was otherwise supplied with robes and 
 wraps, all to themselvea 
 
 The sleigh had been pulled up about a hundred yards 
 from the winning post immediately alongside of the last 
 quarter stretch and here, as the solitary male guardian 
 escort, apart from the old habitant driver and chaperon, 
 father of one of the girls, Mr. Ford wa:; in his most 
 acceptable element , » 
 
 Indeed this young gentleman was essentially a ladies' man 
 and ever on the alert for conquests among the fair sex. He 
 was a tall, well developed, light haired youth, a year or two 
 older than young Rathbone, whom he sufficiently resembled 
 to be easily taken for his brother, and in fact, strangers 
 meeting them lor the first time together invariably set them 
 down as eminating from one common parental source. They 
 were, however, the very opposite of each other in respect of 
 their tastes and inclinations, a not very infrequent peculiarity 
 between near friends — and from their childhood up had 
 been boon companions. Young Ford had often accompanied 
 Jack Rathbone on the latter's frequent shooting and fish- 
 ing outings over the border into Canada, not so much because 
 of his fondness for fishing or field sports as for his love for 
 the incidental adventures these expeditions sometimes 
 afforded. 
 
 " Hello there. Jack !" called out this dude-like Lothario 
 from his seat amidst the bevy of girls. 
 
 "Hello yourself, " shouted Jack back cheerily. 
 
BORDE.. CANUCKS. 
 
 95 
 
 " These young ladies, " yelled Mr. Ford "want to know 
 whether we won't stop for the dance at the widow's to-night. 
 They say it's going to be a grand allair. I tell them it all 
 depends upon you, and they want to know what you're 
 going to do about it?" 
 
 " Time enough to answer that after the race is over!" cried 
 Jack, "but I know I'll catch Jessie if I don't get home 
 to-night I" 
 
 And then Mr. Ford was subjected to a rigid cross- 
 examination by his fair companions as to who the inevitable 
 Jessie was who stood so imminent a chance of catching so 
 desirable a parti as " Monsieur Jack Ratbone. " 
 
 " Clar de track ! Clar de track !" shouted the fat judge 
 after one of his confreres had attracted the attention of the 
 noisy crowd by demonstratively ringing the resonant dinner 
 bell. " Clar de track I Got hoff de way ! de horses ees bote 
 at de startin poss and weel be comin een a meenit now I 
 Git to wan side or udder, you folkes what stan een de meedle 
 of de road dare! Clar de track genseemani Got hoff de 
 way, mes amis. 
 
 "Dare hoff! Dare hoff! Dare dey goes! Hooray!" 
 shouted a maudlin old countryman, whose ^^'^rsistent prac- 
 tice at the bar of the widow's hostelry throughout the day 
 had rendered him totally unable to distinguish a hole in a 
 ladder fifty feet away. None the less, the crowd took up 
 the refrain " Dare off! Dare off ! Clar de track, here dey 
 comes!" and all was eager, palpitating excitement among 
 the abbreviated specimens of the crowd and those who, not 
 being upon bome elevated foothold, were unable to see any- 
 
 
 
 w 
 
iii : 
 
 111!!, ' 
 
 96 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 thing of what was going on at the starting score at the 
 upper end of the track. 
 
 There were a great many false alarms of this kind among 
 the thickest of the gathering along the quarter stretch before 
 the word was given for the start — as much time having been 
 consumed in scoring as often aggravatingly takes place in 
 an important race for a large purse upon the regular turf. 
 
 When, however, the ponies did get away, as in the first 
 heat, Crapaud had rather the best of it, thus making it a 
 fair matter for speculation whether or not Monsieur Moses 
 Lafleur's ram lamb indebtedness to the widow had at all 
 influenced him in the exercise of his judicial futictions. 
 
 However that may be, Crapaud did not long retain his 
 advantage, for the chestnut, coming with a rush, soon lapped 
 him, and they paced on side and side — their drivers sending 
 forth the most unearthly j^ells — to the half mile. 
 
 Here, owing to a little unsteadiness on the part of "dat 
 leetle chesnut plug,"' Crapaud got a slight lead — perhaps 
 half a length or so — which he held to the commencement of 
 the last quarter, amidst the approving yells and acclama- 
 tions of the widow's division of the assembled crowd along 
 the stretch. But the poor old horse's bolt was shot, how- 
 ever, for the newly, christened "Jack Rathbone," coming 
 with an unprecedented burst of speed, threw the old fellow 
 off his feet, utterly demoralized and unable to regain his 
 lost advantage, while the little chestnut, coming on as steady 
 as a steam motor, crossed the score four or five lengths to 
 the good, amidst the wildest shouts of excited approbation. 
 
 Then there was a rush and a scramble for positions as 
 near as possible to the judges' sleigh, as the victorious chest- 
 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 97 
 
 nut, having stopped and turned about, was being led back 
 to the winning post by his highly elated owner. 
 
 This was a triumphal march difficult of accomplishment, 
 owing to the eager desire of every man and boy composing 
 the concourse of enthusiasts through v/hich the victor had 
 to pass, to put their hands upon him or give him a pat of 
 approval 
 
 But with poor old Crapaud, how different was it I 
 
 The heretofore invincible victor of many a hard-fought 
 contest had come to grief. He had again cut his quarter, 
 this time far worse than in the first heat, and the blood 
 trickled down from his near fore foot, as with bowed head 
 he held it up off the ice in manifest pain. Mr. Budd Doble, 
 junior, his driver, had gotten out of the cutter and, uncheck- 
 ing him, stood at his head patting his drooping neck in 
 helpless sympathy, as dejected looking as the poor old horse 
 himself — while the widow bent over the injured foot in tear- 
 ful and speechless lamentation. Evidently her idolized 
 Crapaud was hors de combat, and to start him for the third 
 heat would be too cruel to think of. 
 
 Silently she turned from this melancholy spectacle and, 
 going to the judges, she announced her withdrawal of her 
 horse and her relinquishment of the stakes in accents broken 
 with irrepressible grief. 
 
 After a short consultation among themselves, the resonant 
 clangettay-clang of the dinner bell again arose above the 
 din of excitement, presaging a judicial pronunciamento of 
 some sort 
 
 Monsieur Badeeshow, the Falstaffian spokesman-judge, 
 having struggled to his feet on the forward seat of the judicial 
 
 7 
 
.i ^;,, 
 
 98 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 sleigh, after comparatively silent attention was secured, 
 cleared his throat and said, • Genseemans! Madame Martin 
 have witdrawed Crapaud iiom de race an geeve hup de 
 stake I" 
 
 This announcement was met with conflicting acclamations 
 of approval and loudly vehement expressions of dissent, 
 and the judge could deliver nothing further of his pro- 
 nunciamento and be heard. 
 
 Those who had bet upon the little chestnut, or who were 
 otherwise in sympathy with Peter Bertrand, were unstinted 
 in their expressions of approval of the widow's course in 
 withdrawing Crapaud from the contest. 
 
 It was the very thing she ought to have done, because he 
 did not stand the ghost of a show to win. While those 
 who had bet upon the poor old horse said the whole thing 
 was a put up job to rob them of their money, and the 
 individual sportsmen among this division who had respect- 
 ively lost all the way from twenty-five to fifty and seventy- 
 five cents were especially chagrined and loudly demonstra- 
 tive in their manifestations of disapproval. 
 
 At one time the hub-bub arising from these contentious 
 expressions of opinion appeared to forebode a free fight, and 
 the atmosphere seemed redolent of war; but happily the 
 dogs were not slipped and the cloud rolled by. 
 
 After much vociferous ringing of the dinner bell, which, 
 for a time rather contributed to the pandemonium-like con- 
 dition of things than otherwise, the judge, by dint of not a 
 little violent gesticulatory yelling, succeeded in calming the 
 crowd sufficiently to proceed with what he *had to say, 
 "GenseemanI mesamisi Silence un moment i Wan horse," 
 
mmm 
 
 f 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 99 
 
 i. 
 
 he continued, "coo'nt run agin heemseff ! (Cfe bien vrais! Ce 
 la verite from the crowd.) Wan horse coo'nt pass heemseff 
 een de race. (Dat's a fac.) Wan horse coo'nt come 
 behine heemseff een wan race! {Vous avez raisoni Pour 
 le sure. ) Needer go head ov heemseff I ( Dat's a fac ! 
 Bullay for you ole boy.) Een faceetwas amposseeb to have 
 a race baytween two horse eef wan ov dem wus drawed hoff 
 dat race!" and the judgt here shrugged his shoulders and 
 extended his outstretched palms to the full length of his 
 short fat arms in forensic attitude over the heads of the 
 nearest of his audience, the same being loud in its expres- 
 sions of acceptance or rejection of so self-apparent a plati- 
 tude. "So on konseekonce of dat," continued Mons. 
 Badeeshow, "sence Madame Martin have witdra wed Cra- 
 paud from de race, an geeve hup all she's clam ov de stake, 
 we have deecide to geeve dees heat an de race to de horse 
 ov Monsieur Pierro Bertrand, which eet wus now call bah de 
 nam ov 'Jack Ratbone, ' an so she's feeneesh !" 
 
 ^^ Hoorah pour Jack Ralhoiie! II a gwjner!^^ shouted a 
 large majority of the dispersing crowd. 
 
 *' Hoorah pour Pierro Bertrand T^ yelled the thirsty, impe- 
 cunious division. 
 
 " Hoorah pour Jack Raihone f^ again and again. Verily, 
 a new hero had arisen in the land ! 
 
 Poor, maimed old Crapaud, who had so long held the 
 blue ribbon of the local ice races for his sportive mistress, 
 had been deposed, and " dat leetle chesnut plug " was the 
 hero of the hour. 
 
 Le rot est mort / Vive le roi! 
 
 Standing at the outskirts of the rapidly thinning crowd, 
 
 :# 
 
m 
 
 100 
 
 BOIiDEU CANUCKS. 
 
 near to where Jack Rathbone, the biped, and Charley Ford 
 were discussing the question of going home or staying to the 
 ball at the widow's in the evening, there stood a somewhat 
 dilapidated looking old habitant, apparently slightly over- 
 come from gazing upon the wine when it is red. Indeed, 
 from his appearance he might have been Bacchus himself 
 in sufficiently characteristic and ante-diluvian habiliments. 
 
 He was rotund of form, round of face and rubicund of 
 complexion. He was dressed in a large, brownish-grey 
 homespun overcoat with capuschon and red seams, which was 
 fastened about his obese waist with what i,- known as a rain- 
 bow sash — one of many striped colors. He wore long- 
 legged shoepacs, into the legs of which his ample trousers 
 were stuffed, and on his head, pulled as far down over his 
 ears as it would go, was a much-worn muskrat skin cap. 
 His beard was normally grey, but that portion of it imme- 
 diately below his capacious mouth was bronzed with the 
 burnished hue produced by the trickling of much " black- 
 strap " tobacco juice. 
 
 He had backed the Widow Martin's Crapaud ! 
 
 He had lost 1 Aye, Sapnsti, every sou he had in the 
 world I And now he felt like an impecunious veurien. 
 
 He could only abandon himself to grief and vain discom- 
 forting regrets. 
 
 He came to the race in good time in the morning with a 
 superabundance of confidence in Crapaud's capacity to shut 
 out Peter Bertrand's colt in the first heat, and the whole of 
 one dollar away down in his inside pants' pocket. 
 
 One half of this capital he had bet on the old horse with 
 a friend of his, a Windsor butcher ; the other half he had 
 
5- 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 101 
 
 k 
 
 }iut down inside of himself. At least lie had started it in a 
 downward direction all right enough, but from the way he 
 felt he strongly suspected that some of it must have circu- 
 lated around until it found lodgement in his head. He felt 
 so top heavy, and things — men and sleighs and horses — 
 seemed so jumbled up and unsteady on their pins. 
 
 He could see better with one eye shut, but Afon Dieu ! 
 Hon Dieu I how thirsty he was! If he could only get one 
 drink of hoisson it would straighten him right up, and then 
 he could take his conge and go right away home. 
 
 Mais un petit fillais avant de partir was absoluement neces- 
 saire I 
 
 Ah ! "Who was that sitting in that fine cutter over there? 
 Tie would shut one eye and take a good look. Aw, voildl 
 It was the Windsor butcher, who had won his fifty cents I 
 The man who had reduced him at once to the ignominious 
 condition of a disappointed Canadien Francais^ and a thirsty 
 pauper I Suppose he went over and congratulated the 
 butcher upon having won his fifty cents. Wonder if he'd 
 take the hint? Perhaps he might, and if he did he'd ask 
 him to drink with him, and pay for it with his (Bacchus') 
 own alienated fifty cents. At all events, there would be no 
 harm in trying the experiment. ^^ Allons f En avant! Ho!^^ 
 
 Sat the butcher in a fashionable, well-appointed Portland 
 cutter, with a wolf skin robe pulled high up, and closely 
 tucked in about his burly form. 
 
 In the shafts before him, quietly stood pretty Butcher 
 Maid, brown of coat and speedy of gait. 
 
 The butcher's good-natured face is suggestive of cherubs 
 and good things to eat, with an occasional glass of " bittah 
 
 ft 
 
' '"wT^i^K 
 
 102 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 beeah " thrown in, while the mare and sleigh bring back 
 to memory many happy reminiscences of pleasant rural 
 drives and hair breadth 'scapes in dashes for the lead on 
 Detroit's Lafayette avenue. 
 
 "Hallo Porteur! (hie)" said our thirsty supporter of Cra- 
 paud, as he balanced up towards the cutter, " Ah guess you 
 ween dat monnah, ay?" 
 
 "What money, boss?" enquired this knight of the block 
 and cleaver, as he turned his head from a knot of admirers 
 he had been talking to and gazed upon Bacchus. ^ 
 
 " Why dat monnah you wus bet (hie) wit me I" 
 
 " Let me see, " ruminated Sir Knight, " how much was it 
 Boss?" 
 
 "(Hic)Feeftay cen!(hic.)" 
 
 "Oh, sugar! fifty cents, ay, boss?" 
 
 " Yas (hic), an b;ih gosh ! (hie) dat's buss me !"» 
 
 " Bust you, ay ? Well, that's too bad; but you're not going 
 to kick about it, are you boss?" 
 
 " Keek about eet (hic), " indignantly exclaimed Bacchus 
 as he steadied himself by grasping the side of the cutter. 
 
 "What you took me (hic) for? No sirree Monsieur I 
 (hic.)" 
 
 " You're no quitter are you ?" queried Sir Knight ser- 
 iously. 
 
 "No sair, ah'm no queeteur! (hic) Ah nevaire fleesh 
 undair(hic) de flag Breeteesh, lac ole Charllo Deedeen wus 
 use ter say. " 
 
 "That's right, " approvingly exclaimed the owner of 
 Butcher Maid, " I always thought you were a stayer boss !" 
 
BOUDElt CANUCKS. 
 
 103 
 
 " Aw, yas, hcvery tam ! (hie) you's bet, mats Porteur, 
 (hie) All goan toll you wan ting (liic). " 
 
 "What's that, Boss?" 
 
 " Well, bah gosh, (hie) Ah was mighty dry, dat's a fac I 
 (Uic) " whispered Bacchus confidentially. 
 
 " Dry are you ?'* 
 
 " Yas, jews lac powder horn. " 
 
 " Well, get right in here Boss, " said Sir Knight as he let 
 the robe down and moved to make room for the " powder 
 born " on the seat alongside him, " we'll drive over to the 
 widow's and I'll buy u drink. '' 
 
 "What! you wus goan treet me?" queried Bacchus, his 
 face lighting up with a momentary flash of pleasurable an- 
 ticipation, mingled with satisfaction at the rapidly successful 
 result of his little scheme. 
 
 " Why of course, " replied the jolly knight, " what do 
 you take me for ? I'm no hog I" 
 
 "Oh, no. Monsieur Porteur I you wus no hog (hie) fur 
 sure, '* exclaimed Bacchus as he scrambled in beside the 
 other, "but you wuss fuss class butcher dough. Iloorah! 
 Hoorah pour nous autresT and as Butcher Maid rapidly 
 headed towards the widow's hostelry, he scratched off hia 
 seedy old muskrat cap, and waving it aloft at the dispersing 
 crowd again gave vent to his superabundant satisfaction in 
 repeated cheers for " nous autres^ " and the assurance, " Ah 
 nevaire fleesh undeur de flag Breeteesh. Am no queeteur! 
 (hie) Dat's de kin ov a mans Ah am, bah gosh I (hie) Ain't 
 eet Monsieur Porteur ? Yep 1 Yep 1" 
 
 Thus the beautifully bright and dazzling day was draw- 
 ing to its early close. 
 
 
 
104 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 <1! ' 
 
 So much time had been consumed in tlio appointment of 
 mutually acceptable judges, and the satisfactory settlement 
 of other preliminaries before tlie horses started in the match 
 ( between the heats of which several impromptu scrub races 
 had been allowed to take place ), tliat by tlie time the Fal- 
 staffian Judge Badeeshow delivered himself of his final 
 mandate, the blazing sun was rapidly nearing his southern 
 resting place beneath the glowing red horizon. 
 
 And now, the shadows having attained their maximum 
 length, the shades of evening were fast stealing on, and as 
 the southwest wind freshened and wafted a colder tempera- 
 ture from ofif the bosom of the vast frozen lake, Old Sol bid 
 his last adieu to the memorable day, which marked the 
 defeat of the Widow Mr.rtin's famous pacing pony, Crapaud, 
 by Peter Bertrand's chestnut colt on the ice on Lake St. 
 Clair. 
 
■i 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Widows Ball 
 
 T"ACK RATHBONE had been persuaded into remain- 
 ^-^ ing over for the widow's ball, much against his own 
 better judgement, knowing as he did that the mythical 
 Jessie, who had so excited the curiosity of the girls on the 
 quarter stretch, would impatiently await him at the paternal 
 mansion, armed cap-a-pie, if he did not show up there, figur- 
 atively speaking, ere curfew sounded lights out that night. 
 
 But the persuasive eloquence of Charley Ford and the 
 blandishments of his acquaintances among the young ladies, 
 to say nothing of his sympathy for the sportive widow in 
 her bereavement and concern for poor old Crapaud, in his 
 lamentable plight, were far too potent influences to success- 
 fully resist in his present frame of mind. 
 
 The christening and subsequent victory of his equine 
 namesake had given him that sort of feeling of intense 
 elation, which inspires to deeds of gallantry and disregard 
 of consequencea 
 
 Charley Ford, in his pleadings that they should stop over 
 for the dance, had said that Blanche Bertrand, Peter's vivac- . 
 iously pretty daughter, had assured him that if he didn't, 
 remain over to it she would get her father to withdraw from 
 the pony Jack Rathbone's name, and call him after some 
 more obliging personage. 
 
 (105) 
 
 I 
 
 |.? 
 
•'■U' 
 
 Wi' 
 
 10« 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 To this Jack answered, "Oh, shawl I'll bet Peter 
 wouldn't do that Wliy, I have, ah — ay — " and he was just 
 going to mention his promise of the horse blanket, but he 
 checked himself in time, as the thought flashed upon him 
 that it had best be left unsaid, else his very much magnified 
 honor might be belittled into a very empty afTair, indeed. 
 
 Boy like, he felt embarrassed, and he was conscious of 
 the blood tingling in his cheeks and ears, as evincing his 
 discomfiture ; while tlie gathering suspicion that he was a 
 very near approach to a fraud, began to assert itself upon 
 his inner ideality. 
 
 But this, of course, was purely due to the fact of his still 
 being a comparatively unsophisticated boy, unacquainted 
 with this fleeting show's methods of the why and the where- 
 fore of the bestowal of honors. 
 
 If he lived to some day become a politician and had a 
 " doubtful " constituency in congress or parliament offered 
 him, he would have to get bravely over any maudlin senti- 
 mentality or pricks of conscience in respect of the purchase 
 of earthly honors before he could judiciously accept the 
 proffer. 
 
 Peradventure he might some day get to understand that 
 his promise of the horse blanket, provided Peter named the 
 little chestnut after him, was a transaction strongly typical 
 of well-nigh every phase of relationship in life, and that the 
 fundamental plank in the platform of modern social ethics 
 is that you shall scratch my back if I scratch yours I 
 
 Albeit Master Jack Rathbone had not as yet become 
 acquainted with the process of Time's tempering crucible as 
 afforded by daily contact with men and things in the real 
 
UOIIDLH CANUCKS. 
 
 107 
 
 buttle of life, he vvns,none theless, from the fountain of liis bet- 
 ter ''organism undefiled," moved to feel somewhat conseienco 
 stricken wlien it first flashed upon him that the faneied 
 lienor recently conferred upon him by the guileless Peter 
 Bertrand was simply a purchased bit of empty immater- 
 ialism. 
 
 Still he withheld any reference to the horse blanket and 
 wound up his unfinished reply to Charley Ford's cha£f in 
 respect of Blanche Bertrand's threat as to the change of 
 the J riy's name by saying, "Oh never mind, I'll tell you 
 about it some other time. " 
 
 "But you've made up your mind to stop for tbe ball, 
 haven't you old chap ?" persuasively queried the festive Mr. 
 Ford. 
 
 "Oh, yes, I'll stop, but I know that my doing so means 
 the devil to pay when I get home. You know how down 
 the governor has been on me of late, and I know that when 
 he finds out that I have been here at all to-day he'll want to 
 annihilate me. " 
 
 " Well he's sure to find that out, " remonstrated the other, 
 "and you might as well be killed for a sheep as a lamb. I 
 know that my mother will be as mad as a meat ax when 
 she realizes that I am not to be home to-night to go to 
 church with her in the morning, as I invariably do every 
 Sunday, as you know when I'm in the city but I should 
 have been prepared to risk a good deal rather than miss 
 this ball to-night. I'm sure we're going to have a great time 
 and lots of fun. " 
 
 " Well I dare say youm enjoy yourself, " replied Jack 
 dismally, " because you go in strong for girls' society, but 
 
108 
 
 BORDEK CANUCKS. 
 
 I'm blowed if it isn't a bore half the time to me to be 
 among the petticoats. The only girl I care about meeting 
 and talking to in the city is that fat, ungainly specimen of 
 incipient womanhood, Emily Eitter. " 
 
 "Emily Ritter!" exclaimed Charley deprecatingly, "you 
 might well describe her as an ungainly specimen of woman- 
 hood ! She's my abomination, and whenever I see that 
 lovely little sister Grace of yours and she together, the 
 story of the beauty and the beast always suggests itself. " 
 
 "Yes, I quite agree with you that there's a great contrast 
 between the two, but then Emily's got more wit and fun in 
 her little finger than any other girl I ever met possessed in 
 her whole composition." 
 
 "She's got a long tongue, if that's what you mean!" 
 snapped Mr. Ford, with keen recollections of Miss Ritter's 
 capacity for caustic chaff. 
 
 " Yes, and it's as witty as it is long," smilingly observed 
 Jack. 
 
 "Well, you're welcome to her, tongue and all," laugh- 
 ingly remarked Charley, as he hurried away to join the 
 bevy of girls in the large box-sleigh, who were anxiously 
 awaiting his report of the result of his conference with Jack 
 in reference to their remaining for the ball. 
 
 This conversation had taken place at the track on the ice 
 just after the race was over, and now evening had come, 
 and for Jack Rathbone the active ephemeral enjoyment of 
 this expedition was over ; but he would stop at all hazards 
 and endeavor to make himself agreeable and enter into the 
 spirit of the ball. 
 
 Yet the all-pervading feeling he had within him that he 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 109 
 
 was doing that which he should not do, by not goiug home 
 at once, would continually struggle for supremacy with his 
 desire to enjoy himself. 
 
 And it was in this negative frame of mind, begotten of 
 these conflicting feelings, that he sat down to a sumptuous 
 supper of fresh fish and new-laid eggs, and an endless 
 variety of pies, cakes, jams and confitures^ which well-nigh 
 hid the immaculate table cloth from view 
 
 The dining room was to be the ball room of the evening, 
 and after the repast the chairs and dining table were 
 removed, and a large, empty, squart deal box, brought in 
 from outside, placed in the ni^rtheast, corr-jr of the room, 
 and a solitary chair put thereon for the band. 
 
 The band was a pock-marked, ruddy-faced little French- 
 man, with onion-like looking eyes that never blinked but 
 siared, not unkindly, at anything and everything they fas- 
 tened themselves upon with imperturbable absorption. 
 
 He was evidently a man of great good-nature, and 
 inclined to take life pleasantly, as the mischievous smile 
 which played about the capacious orifice, which served the 
 purposes of a mouth in the feeding of a corpulent stomach 
 au 1 abdomen, would seem to indicate. 
 
 He was a rural fiddler by profession, and an imbiber of 
 strong fluids whenever opportunity offered. He had had a 
 successful day in the latter capacity to-day, and he was now 
 disposed to be jocund, not to say hilarious. 
 
 On first entering the ball room from the bar, after a 
 modest little " Hoop, la ! Yep, Yep I " he proceeded to 
 shullle his shoepacked feet in a sort of pas seul, until his 
 
110 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 breathings suggested the exhaust outside of an over-charged 
 
 n' 
 
 steam engine. 
 
 This, however, was soon put a stop to by the widow, who 
 swooped down upon him and marched him oft" to.the ros- 
 trum in the northeast corner, from whence he was told not 
 ^o move, but to tune up and make ready for the first 
 quadrille. 
 
 •' Bah gosh 1 Meesses, " he gasped in remonstrance, " Ali 
 nevaire see nobody lac you beefor! You wus all datam stop 
 it a feller from anjy heemseff. " 
 
 " Taissez vousV* exclaimed the .widow per Jtorily, as 
 she stamped her foot upon the floor, and then to Jack 
 Rathbone, who had just now approached her, she said with 
 an affectation of temper and scorn, as she pointed her 
 finger at the gasping orchestra, " Monsieur Ratbone dat ees 
 de moss trooblesome, ole wortless ting datscome about mah 
 house !" 
 
 " What !" exclaimed the band as with difficulty he rose 
 from the chair on the box upon which he had that instant 
 sat down, •' What ! you calls me wortless ole ting does you 
 Meeses? Well bah gosh ! den you kin git someboday helse 
 to play for dees dance I" and as he proceeded to descend 
 from the rostrum he added, "eef Ah wus wortless ole ting, 
 mah moosique muss be wortless too, bah gosh 1" As he 
 was about to deposit his fiddle and bow in their pine deal 
 box Jack Rathbone took him in hand and by dint of much 
 persuasion and the gift of a silver dollar induced him to 
 remain and tune up. 
 
 This operation of tuning up by a rural fiddler is by no 
 means a matter of small importance to be hurried over per- 
 
 'if- 'Ay.:- ■ /S! 
 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 functorily. Its duration much depends upon the temper of 
 the fiddler and the tenacity of the cat-gut involved. 
 
 If the former is out of temper the latter will fail of the 
 requisite tenacity for the occasion and the absorption of 
 much time is the inevitable result. 
 
 In this instance the fiddler was rufiled, and the cat-gut 
 manifestly in sympathy with his perturbed mental and 
 moral condition. 
 
 As he assayed to see-saw each string up or down to cord 
 with tooth-edged, soul-disturbirg discord he audibly mut- 
 tered to himself, " call me wortless ole ting eh ? Ah goan 
 show heur eef Ah wus wortless ole ting ou no I Ah wus 
 glad she wus beat to-day I Serve heur raght, bah gosh ! Calls 
 me wortless ole ting eh? Waugh!" and away would go a 
 string with a startling snap as if in resounding harmony 
 with these vengeful mutterings. 
 
 Then after grunting and perspiring the patched cat-gut 
 back into place again, he would slowly and deliberately, 
 and with oscillating under jaw screw it up again, and resume 
 his direful mutterings in respect of the widow, until another 
 snap of the string and a vehement point of exclamation was 
 reached — and so on, da capo. 
 
 Meanwhile the guests of the evening were rapidly 
 arriving — among them Peter Bertrand, who had come to 
 chaperone his pretty daughter Blanche, . nd as he con- 
 fidentially communicated to Jack, "shook mah foot lac Ah 
 use to do when Ah wus young mans. " 
 
 " Well, but you're not old Peter, " remonstrated Jack, 
 "you don't look more than forty. " 
 
 " Fortay ! Aw, Bon Dieu I Ah hav moss tweutay year 
 
 1^ 
 
 I 
 
112 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 ,;l 
 
 more as dat I Jews bout de sam age as de Widday Martin 
 hav." 
 
 "Well, the widow doesn't look more than forty -five." 
 
 "Aw, yas, she doan look much oler dan dat Mais she's 
 hav bout feeftay-faf ou feeftay-seex year hole.'* 
 
 "I'll bet she doesn't feel more than forty," remarked 
 Jack. 
 
 " No, sair ; sometam Ah guess she doan feel more dan 
 sexteen," said Peter with a chuckle; "but she say she have 
 geeve hup dancin. You see eef she have geeve hup dancin 
 ou no beef or dees ball ees ovaire," and Monsieur Bertrand 
 winked portentously at his youthful auditor. "Eef she 
 doan dance wit me, Ah goan toll heur dat she was mad 
 acpse Ah have beat heur to-day ; an you see eef she not 
 goan dance wit me den. Ah toll you de widday wus spun- 
 kay," and he moved his head slowly back and forth in 
 admiring commendation of the widow's pluck. 
 
 "Did you get home with the pony all right?" enquired 
 Jack. 
 
 " What, wit Jack Katbone? " Bah gosh, Monsieur Jack, 
 yo nam mac fuss class nam for a horse, aint eet ? " 
 
 "Well, I don't know," replied the youth smiling; "but 
 at all events I hope it won't prove an unlucky one for 
 either yourself or the little horse. " 
 
 "Oh, you need not fear of dat; de nam wus all raght. 
 Every boday on de veellage know dat wus hees nam now, too. 
 You see we have go home wit flyin coleur, and everyboday 
 wus cry, * Hoorah poii7' Jack Ratbone ! ' Some ov our byes, 
 you know, have fetch wit dem a lot of dem small, square 
 flag dey use on celebration days, and dey have stuck wan 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 113 
 
 ov dem on bote side ov de bridle ov de ponay and four 
 more on de harness on hees back, an de driver have fassen 
 wan beeg new broom to de dash board, and den we wus to 
 drav trough de veellage at a pootay livelay gait, foUored bah 
 long percession ov all kin ov reeg— cutteur, cariole, new 
 fashon, ole fashon, evray kine of sleigh wus dare ! Ah toll 
 you, de people wus excite I You orter see dem run hout ov 
 dar house and cheer as we pass by. De womans wave 
 dare hankfeesh, an de chillen hoorah loud's dey can't." 
 
 "You see," confidentially added Peter as he lowered his 
 voice to a whisper, "some ov de fokes roun here doan tink 
 much ov de widday. Dey ses she wus too much lac a 
 mans, an eet wus not raglit dat she keeps a fass horse." 
 
 " Oh, shaw ! " exclaimed Jack, earnestly, " I don't see 
 anything wrong in her keeping a fast horse if it suits her to 
 do so." . 
 
 "Needer me!" cried Peter, vehemently; "Ah honlay 
 was toll you what some udder fokes ses." 
 
 "Yes, I know," replied his young city friend ; "but I'd 
 tell all such people to go to the devil and mind their own 
 business!" 
 
 " Aw, dare ees de widday now ! " interrupted Peter, as 
 his eye fell upon the hostess just as she entered the door 
 from the kitchen. "You see Ah goan mak heur open de 
 ball wit me," and, accompanied by Jack, who was curious 
 to see the result of this gallant determination, he made his 
 way to the widow. ■* 
 
 Jack was the first to speak. He said: "Mrs. Martin, 
 Peter has just been telling me that if you don't honor him 
 8 
 
 'i^ 
 

 mU 
 
 w 
 
 
 114 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 by opening the ball witli liim, he'll think it's because you 
 are mad because he beat you on the ice to-day. 
 
 "Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the relict of the late Ebenezer 
 the Second, " Pierro kin go to grass. Ah aint dat kine ov 
 a womans, an mah dancin day wus ovaire long ago. Mad 
 wit heern, par example! Quel ahsurdite! " and she laughed 
 again more heartily than before. 
 
 "Well," interposed the owner of " dat leeile chesnut 
 plug, " "you need not to laugh lac dat Meessesl Mafoieei 
 you doan dance de fust dance wit me Aligoan tink you wus 
 mad wit me !" 
 
 " Aw, vatan done, " exclaimed the widow, assuming the 
 scornful ^^ EsttufouV 
 
 *' Aw yas, praps Ah wus fool, " replied Peter, ^'•maU Ah 
 knows what kin of a womans you was I" 
 
 "Yas, well, what kin of a womans you tink Ah wus 
 den ?" 
 
 " Ah tink you wusbeetaire an foole of vengeance agin folks 
 when dey doan let you ride over dem 1" and Mr. Bertrand 
 with solemn countenance winked an aside wink at Jack as 
 if he would say, "you'll see if that don't fetch her to 
 trumps 1" 
 
 "J.A Pierro won Aomme .^" and the widow's straightened, 
 olive-hued features blended into a melancholy smile, " Ah 
 have always taught you wus wan ov mah good fren 1 Ah 
 deed not tink you would say dat bout me ! De honlay ting 
 Ah reegret an wus sorry fur today wus de anjuray mah 
 pore ole Crapaud have meet wit, an j'^ou hurts me when you 
 ses Ah wus foole of vengeance !" 
 
 " Oh, Ah doan want hurt you I" apologetically exclaimed 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 115 
 
 T 
 
 Peter, " nutting lac dat for sure I Ah onlay wants to dance 
 wit you!" 
 
 " Yes, " interposed Jack, " and you had better dance with 
 him Mrs. Martin! Open tlie ball with Mr. Bertrand, and 
 you'll find that everything will go off pleasantly for the rest 
 of the evening. 
 
 " Eut, " remonstrated the widow, " Ah doan know dem 
 new dance. " 
 
 ^^ Mais you knows how to dance a two-ban reel, " cried 
 Peter, "acose Ah remembaire you wus de bess dancer een 
 dees part ov de conetray tirty 3'ear ago !" 
 
 " Ah yas, tirty year ago ! mats Ah wus too ole fur dat 
 now!" 
 
 "Too ole!" indignantly exclaimed Mr. Bertrand with an 
 intonation of trembling scorn, "Too ole! Why, bah George! 
 Ah weel bet ten doll air to fav cent dat you wus younger 
 dan half de gell een dees room now !" 
 
 This was too much for Crapaud's plucky and sportive 
 owner. 
 
 "Well Ah goan try a two-han reel wit you den, " she 
 said, as with a playful smile lighting up her comely coun- 
 tenance she took Mr. Bertrand's arm to go over and instruct 
 Monsieur le Proffesseur Moyees Duplessis, which was the 
 domestic name and professional title in which the band 
 rejoiced, to attune his instrument for a reel as the initial 
 dance of the evening. The professor had by this time dis- 
 solved a considerable modicum of his avoirdupois into a 
 wreaking perspiration, which streamed from every pore of 
 his face and hands and dropped off the end of liis nose in 
 plenteous drops, redolent of whisky and black strap tobacco. 
 
 ■v. 
 
 ^ 
 
 t 
 
116 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 &'i 
 
 w. ' ^' ■ 
 
 This, however, seemed to have the effect of smoothing 
 his ruffled feathers, and when, after a few final sonorous 
 scrapings of his f reshly-resined bow across the now accorded 
 strings, he burst forth into the Arkansas Traveler as a sort 
 of introductory overture, his face wore an unmistakable 
 smile of inane beatitude. 
 
 The Arkansas Traveler was the modern piece de resistence 
 of Monsieur Duplessis' repertoire — tlie Arkansas Traveler 
 in its entirety — both the first as well as the second part, the 
 execution of which, by the peripatetic "strawnger, " so 
 delighted Davy Crocket, of historic and dramatic memory. 
 
 Modern melody might, perchance, have produced a tune 
 more calculated to inspire to deeds of terpsichorean prowess ; 
 but if it had, Mons. le Proffesseur had as yet failed to dis- 
 cover it and in the execution of the always popular, grotesque 
 old air, as a rural fiddler proved himself no mean per- 
 former. 
 
 This finished, he held his upright fiddle on his left knee, 
 and his perpendicular bow on his right, and called out in a 
 voice of command, "Took yo pardneur fur de fus kad- 
 dreel." 
 
 " No, no, Paul ! " interposed Peter, as he approached the 
 orchestral throne with the mischievously smiling widow 
 leaning upon his arm, after she had transformed her black 
 dress into a costume more picturesquely appropriate for the 
 occasion by tucking up a la draperie the outer skirt thereof 
 and displaying a scarlet Balmoral petticoat, and a not 
 unshapely pair of feet and ankles; '•^Pas un quaddreel sil 
 vous plait, Paul I Me an de Meesses, and hany wan else dats 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 117 
 
 want to jine een, wus goan dance a two-han reel a la vielleux 
 fassonl''^ 
 
 " What you say ? " exclaimed the astonished band ; " you 
 an de Meesses wus goan dance two-han reel a la vielleux 
 fasson f " 
 
 " Yas, dat's what we goan do," assented Peter, positively. 
 
 "^/i hieii honte comme je sius content I -^ and then in a 
 louder, jubilant voice he called out : " Ladies an gensee- 
 mans, took yopardneur fur an two-han reel a la vielleux fas- 
 son, an Ah goan play you someting dat's goan mac yo 
 shook yo foot, whedder you wants to ou yo doan wants to I 
 Revielle done mes amisl " with which enjoinder befell to 
 tuning up again with greasy satisfaction. 
 
 The announcement of a reel as the opening dance was an 
 innovation upon the customary programme on such occa- 
 sions, and for the moment, somewhat disappointed and 
 chilled the youthful ardor of the expectant dancers, wlio, 
 pending the prolonged tuning struggle of the professor with 
 his refractory fiddle strings, had been promenading the floor 
 in impatient, albeit joyous couples. But all feeling of 
 momentary discontent soon made way for a good-naturedly, 
 eager curiosity, as the brawny Peter and comely widow 
 faced each other with arms akimbo ready for the ancient 
 terpsichorean fray. 
 
 " Come on, some ov you fokes, an jine een." supplicated 
 Monsieur Bertrand. But no one responded to this appeal, 
 and he and his sportive partner were left sole occupants of 
 the middle of the floor, around which was formed a circle of 
 gay and festive participants in this one of the widow's more 
 memorable balls. 
 

 • <A 
 
 *r, i 
 
 ii 
 
 118 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 As they stood there, this well-dressed Herculean specimen 
 of French Canadian manhood, and interesting, low browed, 
 raven haired, well formed widow, surrounded by a conloyi of 
 intently happy faces in this low ceiled room, dimly lighted 
 by the rays of bracket lamps, hung in tlie centre of three of 
 the four walls thereof, and presided over by the rural fiddler 
 perched upon his rostrum in the northeast corner, the scene 
 suggested one of Vandyke's realistic dreams upon canvas 
 or perhaps better, a scene ivorw one of Moliere's pla3's. 
 
 As Monsieur Duplessis with beaming, albeit shiningly 
 greasy «ountenance, and the measured palpitation of his 
 right foot in jerky resonance, sawed out the inspiring bars 
 of an old fashioned reel, the inaugural dance of the Widow 
 Martin's ball began. 
 
 There certainly are things impossible of description, and 
 the tuneful gyrations of the human form divine in an old 
 fashioned reel must be one of them. At all events, it is so 
 with this stubby little pencil in the inexperienced hands of 
 its latest owner. 
 
 It, however, goes without saying, that the opening dance at 
 this especially auspicious ball at the "Widow Martin's 
 tavern, on the shores of Lake St. Clair, was a huge success, 
 and loud were the plaudits of the assembled merry-makers 
 at the festive widow's power of endurance as she continued 
 her timely and fantastic steps after her burly partner, from 
 an affected exhaustion had sunk, laughing and very much 
 blown, to the floor. 
 
 " Ha, ha, " gasped the widow, as she came to a palpitating 
 stand after a final pirouette of wondrous agility, "you could 
 beat mah pore ole Crapaud on de hice dees afternoon, but 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 119 
 
 you coo'nt hole a cannel to hees meestress on clees floor 
 to-night, '' to which Peter, in breathless {\ccents, and shaking 
 with good-natured laughter as he lay prone upon the floor, 
 replied, "Ahgeeve up! Ah geeve up! You wus too many 
 for me Madame — Whew ! Ah'm moss dead !" 
 
 *' Bravo I Bravo ! dat wus de bess ting Ah nevaire see fur 
 long tarn !" shouted the band enthusiastically, as, with one 
 final, discordant swoop of his bow he tucked his fiddle under 
 his left arm, and descending from the orchestral throne pro- 
 ceeded to elbow his way through the hilarious crowd to the 
 triumphant widow. 
 
 He seized her limp, unresisting hand, and shaking it 
 demonstratively, in tones of admiration exclaimed, " Bravo ! 
 Bravo 1 Madame ! bah gosh, eef you is'nt good wan ! Dat wus 
 de bess ting Ah've not see for more dan twentay year, an 
 Ah goan forgeeve you for what you have call me jews 
 now I" 
 
 " Dat's all raght, Moyees !" replied the panting hostess, 
 "Dat's all raght! Go on de bar and tell Albert to geeve 
 you a dreenk on mah espense, " which enjoinder the 
 perennially thirsty band, now entirely restored to good 
 humor, at once proceeded to carry out. 
 
 Meanwhile, Peter had arisen from the floor, and under a 
 fire of good-natured badinage from the laughing crowd of 
 gay onlookers, followed Monsieur Duplessis to the tap 
 room to cool off, and superintend the liquid provisioning of 
 that worthy's inner man. 
 
 This done the professor, under the close surviellance of a 
 coterie of eager young gallants, was soon made to return and 
 resume his perch upon the rostrum, and as he took his seat, 
 
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 pr^ 
 
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 120 
 
 BORDER CAM'CKS. 
 
 he wiped liis face with a much used red bandanna hand- 
 kerchief, and in commanding tones called out " Iloorali 
 boy 1 We weel now beegeen de noo fashon style to dance ! 
 Took yo pardneur for de fuss kaddrcel !" 
 
 Like the initiatory reel, this first quadrille, too, was a 
 grand success. Jack Kathbone, with the pretty Blanche 
 Bertrand for a partner, danced visa vis toChark'y Ford, and 
 the gusliing Eosalie — the widow's fair daughter — while the 
 remainder of this and the other sets on the floor were made 
 up of gay and good-natured couples of the beaux espriis and 
 fair daughters of the neighborhood. 
 
 Right merrily did the evening grow on apace, and the 
 abandon and bon- homie engendered by the widow and Peter 
 Bertrand's old-time opening reel continued to pervade every 
 incident of the memorable occasion until the midwinter's 
 night closely trenched upon another Sabbath morn. 
 
CITAPTER VII. 
 
 A Turkey Gobbler Parent — An PJmbarrassing Son and Ileir — A Retro- 
 $pect — An Apology For a Jlero, Etc. 
 
 \ LBEIT a prosperous merchant, Mr. Robert Rathbone 
 -^-^ was a man of many and variously uncertain moods 
 in respect of his social : nd domestic entity. 
 
 Emily, his eldest daughter, recently married to an officer 
 in the United States army and gone with her husband to 
 sojourn at one of the far western military posts, understood 
 him thoroughly. He had been very much averse to her 
 marrying an American military man at the outset, but this in- 
 timate understanding of him diplomatically taken advantage 
 of, had, in the end, changed his opposition into acquiescence. 
 
 Shortly before her marriage, Miss Rathbone had said to 
 her mother, during one of their confidential confabs before 
 the slowly dying grate fire in the dining room after the 
 others of the family had retired, one night: "You know, 
 mamma, I wouldn't be one bit surprised at anyihing papa 
 might do at any time. Of course, you know, I mean within 
 a due observance of law and order, and all that sort of 
 thing. He seems so influenced by the mood he happens to 
 be in for the time being. And so whimsical I Why, 
 mamma, he's just like a great, big, overgrown school-boy in 
 some things, and his temper is so variable and uncertain, 
 that one never can tell what he's going to do next." 
 
 " My dear, my dear," remonstrated the placid little mother, 
 "you shouldn't talk that way of your father." 
 
 (121) 
 
 ■t. [), 
 
m 
 
 ft? , 
 
 122 
 
 130KDEK CANL'CKS. 
 
 \iA 
 
 )\i,K:f'^'L-. ,;i.\ ..^'iijjB 
 
 " "Well, you know, mamma, that what I say is true I " 
 
 " That doesn't matter, dear, if it does happen to be true. 
 In fact, it makes it far worse if what you say is true. It's 
 not at all nice to hear a grown-up child commenting ill-nat- 
 uredly upon her parent's weaknesses." 
 
 "Oh, mammal you mustn't think that I said what I did 
 illnaturedly. Oh, no ! not at all. I only mentioned what I 
 know that you know is a fact." 
 
 "Well, my dear, even if it is a fact, that's the very reason 
 you should say nothing about it, and endeavor to cover it 
 up. My! Supposing you went to your father and talked 
 to him of my manifold faults I " 
 
 " Your manifold faults ! You stupid little mother, you I " 
 and the incipient bride arose with a start from the easy 
 chair in which she had lazily reclined, and going over to the 
 little woman seated at the opposite Jiide of the fire-place, she 
 gushingly threw her arms about her neck in a throe of 
 demonstrative affection. 
 
 " Your faults 1 Oh, you poor, dear, little, old, thing, you ! 
 as if you had any faults I " and seated upon the diminutive 
 mater's lap, she kissed her again and again. 
 
 " Yes, my faults," repeated the mother, with a sad smile, 
 
 as she tenderly stroked her eldest daughter's soft, brown 
 
 ' hair. " I hope you'll endeavor to forget them aftei you are 
 
 married, and only think of whatever few good qualities I 
 
 may possess, when you are far away." 
 
 " Oh mamma, mamma, don't talk like that ! you make me 
 feel so wretched ! The very thought of being far away 
 from you and this dear old home makes me very unhappy!" 
 and her pretty blue eyes grew dim with loving, regretful 
 
BOi{DEu ca:-:l'cks. 
 
 123 
 
 tears as a premonitary symptom to V.'e joint " good cry " this 
 mother and daughter indulged in on this occasion while 
 contemplating tlieir early separation. 
 
 Yet though Mr. Kathbone, as a husband and father, was 
 uncertain of temper and even at times whimsical he did 
 periodically conduct himself in a commendably parental 
 way and, in fact, so unbent and relaxed his sometimes strin- 
 gent paternal and marital mandates, as to become for the 
 time being a reasonably affectionate and indulgent head of a 
 well regulated domestic household. 
 
 Howbeit there ever smouldered within his abnormally 
 jealous breast the latent germs of a petty tyrant within the 
 precincts of his own fold, to suppress which and avert a 
 troublous irruption often required the diplomatic treatment, 
 and defferentially judicious coddling of his ever patient 
 wife and appreciative daughcers. 
 
 To these two last, he was inclined at times to be if any- 
 thing overindulgent, and in the long run they usually 
 carried their point with him, as witness the ultimate mar- 
 riageol* the fair Ei. lily to her handsome military^awce. 
 
 It, however, m;iy be said of Mr. Robert Rathbone that he 
 wastheso>tof man one but too frequently meets with in 
 the busines.i places a id counting houses, of large as well as 
 small comrivircial centres, who take off thp r more obnoxious 
 incongruities of character, and lay them upon the threshold 
 of their domiciles on their departure for their offices in the 
 morning of each working day, and resume them on their 
 return with the hangiiig up of their uats in the entrxnce hall 
 in the evening. 
 
 To the outside work' he w.'i"; ever the same self-possessed, 
 
 I 
 
 si 
 

 lUI lUi^^L* 
 
 
 124 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 conciliatory business man, dignified and pre-eminently 
 respectable withal — while within the confines of his own 
 demestic hearth, he was the jealously tyrannical head of the 
 family, whom to be unremittingly tabbied and coddled by 
 the females of the household was as indispensable to his 
 equanimity as was meat and drink to the proper preser- 
 vation of his rotund, obese body. 
 
 Like many another Englishman, possessor of a patient, 
 long-suffering wife, he treated her as a sort of incident to his 
 creature comforts, and especially of the gastronomic depart- 
 ment thereof. 
 
 He had been a very good looking man in his early man- 
 hood, about the medium height, with a light-haired, straight- 
 featured, Saxon-like ensemhle, end a pair of fishy-looking, 
 light blue eyes, rather too much prone to staring absorbedly 
 at given objects. 
 
 Upon his devoted and growing son and heir, Jack, these 
 searching orbs now seldom rested with anything other than 
 a fierce expression of questioning suspicion, not to say 
 dislike. 
 
 In fact, if the theory of fore-ordination had been in active 
 operation when Robert Rathbone made his dehut upon this 
 terrestrial sphere, it would have been well had it been 
 arranged that in his capacity of husband and father, he 
 should confine himself to the propagation of daughters. 
 
 To these, as has been said before, he was a fairly indul- 
 gent and affectionate parent. • 
 
 But with his only son, John, his second born, he had 
 latterly gotten to be the very opposite, and manifestly 
 
PORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 125 
 
 increasiDgly so, as his heir-apparent approached his man- 
 hood, 
 
 Mr. Rathbone, in respect of his growing antipathy to his 
 son, might have been likened unto a jealously aggressive 
 and much inflated turkey cock. 
 
 It is said of these imperious birds, who are sharp enough to 
 distinguish the individual sex of the growing young brood, 
 that they will systematically, after the manner of Herod, peck 
 and put to deaih all their male off-spring before they begin 
 to gobble and strut about with elevated tails, and otherwise 
 interfere with the old bird's supremacy as head of the 
 domestic circle In view of this ornithological peculiarity, if 
 the Chinese theory as to the transmigration of souls be 
 correct, then the soul of a turkey gobbler must have slipped 
 aboard at the launching of Robert Rathbone's hull upon its 
 terrestrial tour, and become its psycological and propelling 
 motive power. 
 
 If a father ai all ( the desirabilty of which was altogether 
 questionable ) he was designed essentially to be rather 
 a father ot daughters than of sons. 
 
 The daughters, in their gushing defferential way, in more 
 or less degree pandered to his vanity and aggrandized his 
 importance as author of their beings But the growing 
 popularity and importance, in the esteem of his mother and 
 sisters, of his only son, on the contrary, seemed to threaten a 
 belittling ot the father's importance in the household, or, at 
 least, a division of the honors, comforts and other perquisites 
 ot the position of Tabbie-in-chiet thereof. 
 
 It marriage with Robert Rathbone had proven a failure, 
 
126 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 it had been because of his whimsicallj jealous temper and 
 overbearingly selfish nature. 
 
 It would have been better had he never married at all — 
 better for himself and better for liis wife, whose real or 
 fancied exploits as a society belle of the city previous to her 
 marriage, and in fact previous to his having met her at all, 
 had allowed his vile imaginings to manufacture into a 
 p' • -. -M of ever lurking jealousy. 
 
 W-.t!"" his son Jack was a small boy in knickerbockers 
 and jacket, he was proud of his good looks and pre- 
 cocious sayings, and gratified with the sense of proprietary he 
 felt when he looked at him. 
 
 But as the boy grew older and gradually developed into a 
 tall, fair-haired, good-looking specimen of incipient man 
 hood, the gnawing phantom of suspicion, which haunted 
 him in his morbid moods, caused him to discover a marked 
 likeness twixtthe handsome youth and his wife's one-time 
 girlhood lover, Gustavus Ford. 
 
 This Gustavus Ford, now long since dead, had been a 
 dashing young gallant, conspicuous at all the better class 
 social gatherings in the fashionable quarters of the town, 
 while Robert Rathbone, yet unmindful of aught else save 
 business progress, plodded on as clerk for the firm he had 
 engaged with on his first arrival in the city. 
 
 Mr. Ford had subsequently given the local Mrs. Grundies 
 large cause for gossip by unexpectedly eloping with the 
 only daughter and only child of one of Detroit's richest 
 citizens at a time when it was very generally supposed he 
 was shortly going to marry the pretty and popular little 
 Miss La Tourneau. 
 
LOUUEIl CANUCKS. 
 
 127 
 
 The flight of the fugitives rendered society aghast for the 
 time being, but it proved to be only the proverbial nine 
 days' wonder with the F. F's. of the little city, and, like all 
 else in this fleeting kaleidoscopic life, was soon forgotten 
 when the truant couple, forgiven by the bride's parents 
 returned home to assume their surreptitiously obtained 
 res}:onsibilities to themselves and to society. 
 
 Mr. Ford was a lawyer by profession, and, aided by his now 
 influential associations as husband of an heiress to a large 
 fortune, and son-in-law to a distinguished citizen in a large 
 way of business, his native wit and brilliant talents soon 
 secured for him a conspicuously commanding position at 
 the state bar. 
 
 But while his professional life grew in prosperity, bis 
 inner domestic life year by year waxed proportionately 
 wretched and unenviable. 
 
 His perturbed and peripatetic honeymoon was not yet 
 over ere he discovered that, on the impulse of the hour, he 
 had allied himself, until death or the divorce court should 
 separate them, with one whom he never could love or 
 tenderly sympathize with. 
 
 At the outset of his married life, Mr. Ford's struggles for 
 distinction at the bar were so absorbent of his thinking 
 power, that his domestic surroundings and appurtenances 
 received a very small modicum of his attention ; but as the 
 noveltj- »of professional success gradually wore away, and 
 the disenchanting circumstances of daily matrimonial con- 
 tact with one to whom his heart would not and could not 
 go out, month by month grew more and more trying, he 
 chafed and fretted under the marital yoke. 
 
[ 
 
 128 
 
 BORDEli CriNUC£S. 
 
 /'''• I , '^ 
 
 He took to politics as a means of distracting his mind 
 from the contemplation of this irrevocable cast of the dye, 
 and, as at the bar — which, by the way, both in the States 
 and Canada, constitutes the most prolific nursery for, and 
 stepping stone to, the political arena — he met with marked 
 acceptance. 
 
 But, though his short and brilliant career as a legislator 
 was in every way agreeable to his ambition and soothing to 
 his vanity, and for a time a seemingly effective panacea for 
 ,.ie discords of his domestic situation, his struggles towards 
 the summit of Parnassus, in the end inevitably proved 
 ^her: ^ves purely tentative and altogether ephemeral in 
 their consequences. 
 
 For, incidentally to his success as a politician, he became a 
 confirmed drunkard, though a quiet, melancholy and unob- 
 trusive one. As a drunkard he came to his death, though 
 the fact was not generally known to the outside world ; and 
 some ten years before the opening of this history he was 
 quietly laid to rest in Elmwood cemetery, amidst an halo of 
 general public regret, and the sincere lamentations of many 
 friends, leaving behind him a rich widow and two briglit- 
 eyed little sons, " to mourn his loss, " to use a much-worn 
 and much-abused phrase. 
 
 On his death-bed Mr. Ford had sent a surreptitious mes- 
 sage, through his devoted!}^ forgiving, albeit too much neg- 
 lected, wife, to Mrs. Rathbone, beseeching her to come to 
 his dying bed-side, that he might, in bidding her a last 
 adieu, make his peace in respect of that which iiad over- 
 shadowed his conscience as an all-pervading pall for many 
 
 MflZ 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 129 
 
 an unhappy hour during the heyday of his success at the 
 bar, and his triumphs in the field of politics. 
 
 Mrs. Rathbone, unable to resist this melancholy appeal in 
 fearful and trembhng anticipation of the trying ordeal had 
 gone, and an unwitnessed interview had taken place, which 
 had so effected the tender-hearted wife of Robert Rathbone 
 that in her subsequent effervescent feelings of grief and 
 remorse, she had gushingly told her husband for the first 
 time since their marriage the nature of her one time close 
 intimacy with the dying man and of how much she hud 
 loved him in the days gone by. 
 
 A foolish, single-hearted, forgiving little woman this ! but, 
 in view of her more than ten years' experience of her 
 jealously suspicious husband, how injudicious in this 
 instance ! 
 
 Looking at it from the standpoint of a conservator of 
 Robert Rathbone's peace of mind, this was manifestly a case 
 wherein the bliss ot ignorance was incomparably better than 
 the folly of overburdening wisdom. 
 
 Unquestionably it would have been better (in that it 
 would have been the properly honest course to take under 
 the circumstances) if at the outset of her encouraging 
 acceptance of the attentions which led u]) to their marriage, 
 she had told her future husband of the true character of her 
 intimacy with Gustavus Ford. 
 
 But, having omitted the performance of this self-apparent 
 duty at the proper time, it was little short of cruel to tell the 
 unfortunate man so many years after the facts were at all 
 reparable. 
 
 9 
 
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 130 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
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 She had wanted to tell him at the proper time ; and she 
 had felt not unlike a guilty thief in not having unbosomed 
 herself and trusted to his generosity to overlook anything 
 in her girlhood intimacy with Gustavus Ford, which, from 
 a strictly decorous point of morality, might have approached 
 what could be properly called an indiscretion. 
 
 The probabilities are that had she possessed the veiy 
 unusual faculty of at will transfering her affections from her 
 first lover to her second serious suitor, she would have, 
 without much difficulty, contrived to tell the latter of the 
 true nature of her one-time intimacy with the former. 
 
 But it will be remembered that it was, from the outset, 
 understood that the betrothal of Robert Rathbone and Miss 
 Emily La Tourneau resulted m a very near approach to un 
 marriage de covenance, in which the feminine heart involved 
 was but a scarificed, second-hand appendage; and with that 
 feminine reticence, which is the invariable outcome of dis- 
 appointed, outraged love, the affianced bride had, in the 
 light of her experience as tho erstwhile fiancee of Gustavus 
 Ford, shrunk from the idea of entrusting the man she was 
 about to marry with the knowledge he was justly entitled 
 to in the forming of an opinion of her fitness to fill the post 
 of a loving and loyal wife to him. 
 
 The dead man had not absolutely jilted her — that is to 
 say, he had not, while engaged to her, taken French leave 
 and clandestinely gone off with the prospectively rich girl 
 he had made his wife. 
 
 Miss La Tourneau and the comparatively briefless young 
 lawyer had been engaged to be married for well on to four 
 years, and during that period had seen much of each other 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 131 
 
 iu the close confidences of a betrothal intimacy, which, 
 however, in keeping with the invariable experiences in 
 most cases of protracted engagements, had been periodically 
 visited with the temporarily fatuous storm of a lovers* 
 quarrel. 
 
 For more than a dozen times had they at intervals during 
 their lengthened engagement mutually rated each other in 
 criminatory and recriminatory terms, and separated for the 
 nonce with vehemently bitter words upon their lips — always 
 however, again to come together in the ecstatic throes of that 
 sweetest mutual forgiveness of reinvigorated love so aptly 
 covered by a certain time-honored Lalin proverb bearing 
 upon the subject. 
 
 On the last occasion of these periodical outbreaks, which 
 had originated with her lover uprading her in jealously 
 angry terms for having danced too often and otherwise 
 having rendered herself far too conspicuous with a certain 
 elegible and popular man about town, a notorious flirt, Miss 
 La Tourneau had given Mr. Ford his conge apparently as if 
 she meant that their heretofore understanding, looking to 
 their marriage so soon as his circumstances might warrant 
 it, should cease and determine from that hour. 
 
 He had assured her, in bitterly resounding philippics, that 
 he should take her at her word, and he had thus taken his 
 departure from the La Tourneau domicile for the last time, 
 untrammelled of his long existing plighted troth, to one, 
 whom, in his subsequent morbid moods of mind, growing 
 out of the real and fancied miseries of his ill assorted 
 fugitive match, he had allowed himself to get to think that 
 life was not worth living without? 
 
132 
 
 BOKDER CANUCKS. 
 
 im^- 
 
 n < 
 
 Of course, coquettish woman-like, she had acted out her 
 part, as if she really were in earnest when she unrelentingly 
 dismissed him with a repellant cold good-bye; but she was 
 only acting a part, and she confidently looked forward to a 
 blissful restoration of peace and harmony again before the 
 week was out. 
 
 However, in this anticipation she was somewhat shaken 
 when on the evening following their angry separation a 
 messenger brought her a coldly formal letter and a package 
 from Gus (as she always called Mr. Ford), the latter con- 
 taining her letters to him, a locket, and certain other little 
 souvenirs she had from time to time given him throughout 
 their protracted engagement. 
 
 This circumstance was considerably dampening to her 
 coquettishly assumed indifference in the premises, but did 
 not altogether rob her of her confidence in the ultimate 
 resumption of their intimacy. 
 
 , She promised herself that, in the course of a week or so, 
 she would write Gus a letter acknowledging that she was to 
 blame, and beg his forgiveness ; and she felt, judging from 
 past experience, that that would inevitably bring him to 
 her feet again. 
 
 She, of course, knew where his office was situate, and she 
 also knew that shortly after four o'clock on each week day 
 he was usually to be seen going to the postoffice on Gris- 
 wold street. 
 
 She had often met him between these two points in keep- 
 ing with a previous understanding when they had arranged 
 for one of their many charming little afternoon outings on 
 the river, a stroll in Grand Circus Park, or a visit to one of 
 
BOUDEU CANUCKS. 
 
 133 
 
 the matinees ; and, for three consecutive, briglit, afternoons, 
 after arraying her graceful, little person in neatly, becoming 
 attire, she had made it a point of being seen (piietly walking, 
 without an escort, along the route he was in the habit of 
 taking. But all to no purpose 1 
 
 Either he had gone out of the city, or she had too griev* 
 ously ofEended him, and he was purposely keeping out of 
 her way, in virtuous indignation 
 
 She was becoming nervously fretful and subduedly cast 
 down about it. 
 
 Had she met him on the street, she, of course, wouldn't 
 have gone up to him and asked his forgiveness, and begged 
 him to forget their quarrel. 
 
 Oh, no I She wouldn't have done that ! 
 
 But she'd have bowed to him dignifiedly and with 
 empressemeni, and stealthily taken especial note ot the 
 method and manner of his response, and regulated lier sub- 
 sequent course accordingly. 
 
 The truth was, that Miss Emily La Tourneau was becom- 
 ing very unhappy, as a victim of that noxious feeling of 
 remorse — the sure outcome of self-condemnation in all such 
 instances. 
 
 What, then, must have been the bitterness of her sensa- 
 tions when, before she had contrived, at the sacrifice of her 
 pride, to indite the letter begging his forgiveness and ask- 
 ing him to return to her, which she intendc .f> send him, 
 society was paralyzed by the announcement that Mr. Gus- 
 tavus Ford, the young attorney, and the wealthy heiress. 
 Miss Julia Perkins, had together taken flight from the city. 
 
 No one had ever known, but lierself, how much she had 
 
 41 
 
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 M 
 
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 184 
 
 BOKDEU CANUCKS. 
 
 '!4 
 
 suffered under this death-dealing blow to all her tenderest 
 and fondest, albeit coquettish, capacity for passionate love 
 for a man. 
 
 The crucible of an agonized mingling of bi.jjiiced love 
 and soul-racking remorse, through which she hud gone at 
 this time, had so chastened, subdued and purified her of all 
 coquettish tendencies, that in due course she grew to be 
 fitted to become the faithfully loyal and patient wife of the 
 methodical and exacting Robert R.itlibone. She had not, 
 as she should have done, told the latter the substance of all 
 this before their marriage. 
 
 Thus their matrimonial barque had been launched upon 
 life's treacherously uncertain sea, freighted down with all 
 the burdening influences of an ante-marital secret 
 
 But under the influence which that death-bed, ♦^^nessed 
 
 interview with her one-time betrothed lover had upon her 
 conscience and her nervous system, or perhaps in fulfillment 
 of some last, dying, expressed wish of the dead man, in an 
 abandon of hysterical grief and self-abnegation she had 
 told her husband aU that he properly should have learned 
 from her own lips at the outset of their courtship. 
 
 It had happened on the evening of the day on which the 
 death-bed meeting had occurred, after the children had gone 
 to bed, leaving their father and mother alone seated on 
 either side of a large centre table before a crackling, open, 
 wood fire. 
 
 Mrs. Rathbone had introduced the subject of that which 
 had secretively lain nearest her innermost being, as a pall 
 upon her conscience, by putting down the fancy work she 
 had nervously been attempting progress with and going 
 
BOHDEIl CANUCKS. 
 
 136 
 
 over to wlicro her liusbaiul riat, rending liis ovcnitig paper, 
 .she tremblingly knelt beside his easy ch.air, and buried her 
 face upon the palms of her liands as they rested upon its 
 arm. 
 
 "Robert dear, " she had said beseccliingly, without look- 
 ing up at him, " put aside your paper for a few moments 
 won't you please?'' 
 
 "Why Emily, what is the matter?" he asked, rousing up 
 and not unkindly putting aside the paper in a far better 
 humor than usual. " I have noticed that you were out of 
 sorts all the evening. Are you ill wife?" and he took her 
 limp unresisting little hands in one of his and smoothed her 
 bowed head unusually sympatheacally, for him, with the 
 other. 
 
 " No, not ill in the sense you mean, Robert, " she had 
 answered, beginning a burst of tears, "but I have got that 
 to tell you of my life before we were married which you 
 ought to have known before we became man and wife. " 
 
 " You have ?" exclaimed the husband with rising inflection, 
 of voice and kindling suspicion. ^ 
 
 " Yes, dear," she replied with a trembling sob. 
 
 "And what is it at this late day you have to tell we?'* 
 and he emphasized the me with resounding vehemence. 
 "What is there I should know, that I do not already know, 
 of your life before our marriage?" he demanded, with 
 hardening countenance. 
 
 "You know that Gustavus Ford died this afternoon, don't 
 you, Robert ? " she gushed forth amidst a volley of choking 
 sobs. 
 
 "Yes! And, pray, what may Gustavus Ford's dying 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
a'-JI 
 
 136 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 this afternoon have to do with what happened to you before 
 we were married ? " he demanded, sternly. 
 
 •' OA, Mon Dieu! Mon Dieii/^^ she tearfully exclaimed. 
 in subdued tones, as if communing and struggling with her- 
 self ; and then, as if with a great effort, she steadied herself 
 and answered: "Nothing, Robert, except that I was at 
 one time engaged to be married to him. " 
 
 " Is that all ? " he queried, in a doubtingly questioning 
 tone of voice. 
 
 "Y-e-s." 
 
 " Are you quite certain it is? " he almost shouted. 
 
 *' Y-e-s, yes, Robert I " 
 
 " Well, then, if that is certainly all you have to tell me at 
 this late day, " he answered, after a short pause, in a less 
 aggressive tone of voice, " I have only to say that, notwith- 
 standing that you have heretofore withheld what you your- 
 self now say I ought to have known before I became your 
 husband, I have been for some time past aware of the 
 humiliating fact that you would have been that drunken 
 reprobate's wife, instead of mine, if he had not thought 
 proper to jilt you ! " 
 
 He jerked this out in spasms of irrepressible bitterness. 
 
 "No, Robert, you're mistaken, he did not jilt me, " she 
 tearfully objected, with a tremulous catching of the breath. 
 
 " Then, I suppose, he seduced you ! " he venemously 
 hissed forth, as he motioned to get up from his chair, which, 
 however, she succeeded in preventing by throwing herself 
 upon him and exerting her full strength in a fiercely sup. 
 plicating manner. 
 
 "Oh, Robert! how dreadful that you should think oi 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 137 
 
 say such a thing of your own wife! "she gasped, in her 
 efforts to keep him seated in the chair. 
 
 *' It is true, nevertlieless, is it not? " he demanded, loudly. 
 
 •' As Heaven is my witness, here upon my bended knees, 
 Robert, I swear it is not ! " and with tightly olas})ed, 
 extended hands, and a large tear slowly coursing down 
 eacli of her blanched cheeks, she gazed heavenward. 
 
 "Well, then, " he exclaimed in a slightly lowered tone of 
 voice, " why have you made this a mystery for all these 
 years — practically „living a lie for all this time, as you 
 certainly have — by not having told me freely and unreserv- 
 edly of all that had transpired between yourself and that 
 dead inebriate?" 
 
 " Because I was a moral coward," she replied, hyster- 
 ically, " and afraid that you would spurn and despise me as 
 your wife. " 
 
 " But, pray, what was to prevent your telling me before 
 you became my wife, I'd like to know ? " 
 
 "Because the wounds," she gasped, with a shudder, 
 between her well-nigh suffocating sobs, "which my own 
 folly had inflicted upon my wicked heart, were then too 
 fresh to exhibit to anybody ! " 
 
 " Your folly ! your wounds 1 and your wicked heart ! 
 Why, what do you mean ? " 
 
 To this she had replied by painfully giving him the 
 burden of the particulars, already known to the reader, of 
 the history and rupture of her one-time betrothal to the dead 
 Gustavus. 
 
 " And now, Oh Robert," she had hysterically pleaded, as, 
 rising from her kneeling posture beside him, she clingingly 
 

 It, ■•' 
 
 138 
 
 liOr.DEli CANUCKS. 
 
 Struggled her arms about his neck, " in God's name, my 
 husband, I implore your forgiveness for having withheld 
 this from you for all these years. If you could but realize 
 how much I have suffered because of the omission, I'm sure 
 you would forgive me, " and she squeezed his head against 
 her tear-stained face in a suppliant throe of genuine con- 
 trition. 
 
 It was a remarkable, though not an uncommon thing in 
 real life, that among several other contradictory peculiarities 
 of this Robert Rathbone — this sternly exacting, jealous, 
 domestic tyrant — was a susceptibility to woman's tears, but 
 whether because of the impatient irritability they made 
 him feel or of a not at all times discernible generosity, it 
 would have been difficult to determine. 
 
 No matter in how towering a rage he might be, if for some 
 especially aggravated cause, he had driven his wife to tears 
 — rare things with her in her acquired evenness of temper 
 and patient resignation — he had always been measurably 
 quieted. 
 
 He had an abhorrence of a scene involving grief, and any 
 manifestation of lachrymose sentimentality in man or 
 woman, put him out of all patience, and caused him to pull 
 himself inside of his coldly impenetrable dignity with the 
 disgust of a thwarted snapping turtle. 
 
 It was this uninviting shell of dignity, mingled with an 
 English taciturnity of pride, and a repugnance to admitting 
 discomfiture in anything which had enabled him to assume 
 ignorance of his wife's love experience with Gustavus Ford. 
 
 He had become aware of the facts in respect of it shortly 
 after their marriage through a garrulous younger brother of 
 
 ijj 
 
 m 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 139 
 
 an 
 
 hers; and after a searching investigation (of course unknown 
 to his wife), having become convinced that nothing 
 absolutely criminal had ever taken place between the 
 erstwhile lovers, he had held his pence. 
 
 Ilowbeit from the information so obtained, there had 
 incontinently germinated a shadowy, all -pervading phantom 
 which got into the way of mounting guard over his morbidly 
 jaundiced secret broodings. 
 
 Now, however, that he had heard the long withheld story 
 from his wife's own trembling lips, a transfiguration had 
 forthwith taken place. 
 
 The aforesaid shadowy phantom, instead of vaporizing 
 into the ethereal blue of unclouded confidence, from that 
 hour gradually assumed the impalpable proportions of a full 
 fledged skeleton, destined periodically to stalk abroad with 
 discordant and disturbing footfall amidst the lares and 
 penates of the Rathbone domestic household, having its 
 habitat within the proverbial closet thereof. 
 
 The transformation which had thus taken place, it will 
 therefore be understood, had been inaugurated on that 
 memorable evening, before the crackling, open wood fire in 
 the favorite little sitting room of the Rathbone mansion, 
 when the head of the establishment negatively forgave his 
 suppliant, tear-stained little wife on the evening of the day 
 which marked the death of Gustavus Ford. 
 
 Mayhap if the now freed spirit of the dead man had con- 
 tinued in the flesh, the metamorphosis would never have 
 taken place. 
 
 Is there not such a thing as greater jealousy of the dead 
 than of the living ? 
 
 ;■; i 
 
 ■ .! 
 
»., tj 
 
 140 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 Is it a rare thing in this wretched round of misery of ours, 
 called life, that the peace of mind of the living should be 
 put to flight by the post mortem developments in respect of 
 a deceased, one-time lover — one's predecessor in the change- 
 ful affections of the living relict, as for instance? 
 
 At all events, it was in this way that the death of his 
 wife's girlhood lover affected the morbidly jealous mis- 
 givings of Robert Rathbone. 
 
 
 ''"■'r^ 
 
 I 
 I 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Vagaries of a Domestic Skeleton, and One of the Remits of a 
 
 Mixed Marriage, 
 
 npHE READER, gentle or otherwise, would seem to be 
 -^ entitled to an apology for the " ancient history " in 
 respect of these chronicles perpetrated in the last chapter. 
 
 The retrospect, however, seemed indispensable to a proper 
 undei'standing of the raison d'etre of the Rathbone domestic 
 skeleton ; and in that there would be but little left herein 
 to record that that grimly immaterial ogre had not some- 
 thing, directly or indirectly, to do with the digression, will, 
 perhaps, be kindly condoned. 
 
 Domestic skeletons, both material and immaterial, are 
 like race horses ; they " go " in ail shapes, and, the proverb 
 to the contrary notwithstanding, their abode is not neces- 
 sarily always within the mysterious cubbie-hole or secret 
 closet of the family habitation. 
 
 In this instance the abiding-place of the Rathbone skele- 
 ton was largely within the jaundiced imagination of 
 Robert Rathbone ; and although its raison detre was seem- 
 ingly based upon a wholely insufficient and unwarrantable 
 foundation, on occasion it was wont to swoop forth and do 
 yeoman's service as a despoiler of the peace and harmony of 
 the Rathbone family. At one time during the earlier 
 period, after its incubation, its favorite object of attack was 
 the alleged priestly influence the wife was subject to ; and 
 
 (141) 
 
142 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 f-. 
 
 
 any marked attention, however conventionally correct, 
 shown by a gentleman acquaintance to the long-suffering 
 little woman invariably caused an ominous rattling of 
 impalpable bones and a discordant clanking of jealous mar- 
 ital chains within the inner domestic sanctum. These two 
 erstwhile, ever-fertile causes of the skeleton's depredations 
 upon the happiness and contentment of the family were, in 
 due course, largely lived down by reason of the imperturb- 
 able amiability of the little wife and mother, coupled with 
 her diplomatic management of her exacting lord and master. 
 
 Eobert Rathbone, voluptuary that he had gotten to be of 
 late years, had gradually grown to regard his wife as a sort 
 of female butler and caterer to his household, and coddler- 
 general to his increasingly obese person. 
 
 Upon his wife's staff in the latter capacity his two 
 daughters had of late proven themselves effective aids, but 
 not so his unfortunate son and heir, Jack. 
 
 Around and about this adventurous youth there now 
 hovered— ever upon mischief bent — all the portentous 
 promptings of a green-eyed, abnormal imagination. 
 
 Many a Machiavelian stroke of policy and finesse had 
 Mrs. Rathbone and the girls perpetrated in the interests of 
 their beloved Jack within these last two years. 
 
 Often had his banishment from the household been 
 threatened in the privacy of the parental bedroom; but, 
 thanks to the diplomatic methods of the mother and sisters, 
 up to this time nothing had been openly enunciated in 
 respect of what disposition there was to be made of him. 
 
 Things certainly could not continue as they had done 
 for the year last past. 
 
BORDER CAXUCKS. 
 
 143 
 
 Within the last eighteen months the comparatively 
 small boy had merged into a well-developed youth now 
 upon the verge of manhood; and his father's apparent 
 indifference of him at the outset of that period, had now 
 grown into a feeling closely trenching upon an active and 
 progressive dislike. 
 
 He had never been a bad boy, though from a strictly 
 ethical point of view, he had perhaps not been an especially 
 good one. He had unquestionably been what is commonly 
 known as a generously good-natured, wild boy; but his 
 wildness chiefly consisted in the practice of those sports and 
 pastimes his father had actively encouraged him in a fond- 
 ness for when he was an urchin. 
 
 He was much given to shooting and fishing, and in the 
 prosecution of these sports had occasionally overstepped 
 the limits of parental discipline, but not to any heinous 
 extent. 
 
 He was passionately fond of horses, and as has been 
 shown, an enthusiastic votary of any kind of horse racing, 
 but in this he was only following the example of his father, 
 who himself was a warm supporter of the turf and a mem- 
 ber of the local trotting association. 
 
 He had a prediliction for game fowls, which his father 
 too had at one time encouraged him in the breeding of. 
 
 With something of credit to his discernment as a judge of 
 of the points of a cock, he had gone through the " rooster 
 swapping" period of early boyhood with not a little ec^ai 
 among his contemporary small boys who had cocks to 
 barter and exchange. Later on he had been generally 
 
 IM 
 

 w%, i 
 
 
 144 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 recognized by local cock fanciers, as an appreciative 
 connoisseur of what constituted a good bird. 
 
 This reputation had led him into frequent temptations to 
 surreptitiously attend the occasional cocking mains held in 
 the neighborhood, and it must be reluctantly confessed 
 that he had two or three times been inveigled into giving 
 away to the same, but always with a negative sort of grati- 
 fication. Each time he had gone to witness a battle he had 
 felt like an outlaw (as in truth he was) while the so-called 
 sport was in progress, and a guilty culprit after the excite- 
 ment was over. 
 
 It is therefore safe to say that he will have outgrown any 
 taste for cock-fighting as a sport or pastime with the coming 
 of maturer years. 
 
 But it will thus be seen that Master Jack Rathbone had 
 never at any time been one of the goody-good order of 
 youths. Yet his father in view of the part he had taken 
 in fixing the tastes and inclinations of his one-time little 
 boy, was scarcely justified in treating his well-nigh full 
 grown son with the impatience and harshness he had several 
 times of late exhibited towards him. 
 
 The truth was that the sepulchral ogre fostered and 
 cherished within the fetid confines of the father's abnormal 
 and unnaturally jealous inner consciousness, having tired of 
 its one-time frequently recurring attacks upon the patient 
 mother, had within the last two years settled upon her 
 idolized son. 
 
 Thus it was that Jack's premonition of trouble for having 
 allowed himself to be cajoled into remaining over at Belle 
 
 iil; 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 145 
 
 River for the Widow Martin's ball stood a very fair chance 
 of realization. 
 
 Oil that evening Mr. Robert Rathbone returned from his 
 counting house to his luxuriously comfortable home in an 
 especially disordered frame of mind. 
 
 Things had not gone rightly with his business during the 
 day. 
 
 The mercantile house of Rathbone & Ritter had, that 
 morning, received intelligence of the fraudulent failure and 
 flight to Canada of one of their wholesale department's 
 heaviest country customers, entailing an inevitable loss to 
 the firm of some three or four thousand dollars — a meie 
 bagatelle, it is true, but aggravating withal because of cer- 
 tain exceptionally annoying circumstances attending the 
 transaction involved. 
 
 The commercial traveller for the house, who had sold the 
 last bill of goods to the fugitive delinquent, happened to be 
 in the city, and the senior partner had sent for him, taken 
 him into his private office, and, after locking the door, with 
 a sternly determined mien proceeded to give him a going 
 over in good set terms. This, however, the characteristic- 
 ally cheeky and independent, albeit blameless, drummer 
 neither did not deserve nor would not take. 
 
 Reference to the letter book went to show that the order, 
 which now could be debited to Profit and Loss, had been 
 filled in pursuance of Mr. Rathbone's own personal instruc- 
 tions, and that his peripatetic agent had only acted under 
 the firm's peremptory instructions, and much against his 
 own individual judgment in having filled the order at all. 
 
 The drummer, at down-town lunch that day, had said to 
 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 
 another knight of the road : " I tell you, the old man was 
 hot this morning about that Simpkins failure, and proposed 
 coming down on me with both feet. But I wouldn't have 
 it ! It didn't take me long to prove to his mightiness that 
 he, individually, alone was to blame in the matter, and that 
 if I had been allowed to have my way in the premises, there 
 wouldn't have been any loss at all, however small. Of 
 course, the loss in the case doesn't amount to anything to a 
 house like ours ; but old Ratty was just wild when he found 
 that he, and nobody else, was to blame. Admit it? Well I 
 should smile I He had to ; but he kicked' like a Texan 
 mule all the time, you bet r 
 
 Mr. Rathbone had carried this Texan-mule humor back 
 to his mansion in the evening, and didn't take it off with 
 his hat and overcoat and his outside-world suavity and 
 hang it up on the hat rack in his spacious entrance hall, to 
 be donned again on his departure for down town in the 
 morning. 
 
 He kept it right by, with and in him all the time, and 
 mixed it up and blended it in with his aforementioned tur- 
 key-cock disposition as to his absent son and heir. 
 
 "Where is John? " he peremptorily demanded of Grace, 
 his youngest, gum-chewing daughter, as after kissing him 
 on his arrival, with askant countenance, she gazed up into 
 his face searchingly, while he removed his hat and overcoat 
 and hung them upon the hat rack in the hall to the left of 
 the entrance. 
 
 Something in his demeanor and the tone of his voice 
 denoted more than usual disaster to Jack, her beloved ally, 
 whom she cared for with that sort of blindly enthusiastic 
 
ii! 
 
 BOUDEU CANUCKS. 
 
 U/ 
 
 devotion known alone to short -dressed school girls of fifteen 
 summers for their big brothers. 
 
 Immediately her incipient woman's instinct was put upon 
 the alert, and all that she knew of policy, f,)iesse, diplomacy 
 or any other sort of art she had the slightest knowledge of, 
 was at once made available in shielding her precious bipedal 
 paragon. 
 
 Lie? Why, of course she'd lie for Jack's sake! What 
 wouldn't she do for dear old Jack, who was always so good 
 to her — so considerate of her in a patronizing, manly, 
 undemonstrative sort of way ? 
 
 If Jack's welfare or happiness seemed to require that she 
 should make her way through an army of blue-coated 
 guardians of the peace to the inevitable city hall tower, and 
 there upon its apex stand upon her head, she would have 
 undertaken to do so with the utmost sa7ig froid. 
 
 A pretty little thing was this gum-chewing petite sylph 
 with her bright, long lashed, dark blue eyes, and burnished 
 brown hair. 
 
 Even that abomination in female attire known as a 
 Mother Hubbard of some light blue material, trimmed with 
 white, failed to disguise the gracefulness of her well- 
 developed little figure, with its shapely little foot and 
 ankle. 
 
 She was an immense favorite with the entire household 
 and understood her father like a book. So practiced was 
 she in the arts of finesse ond diplomacy in her general 
 bearing towards him and withal so affectionate, that she had 
 frequently been called upon to mtervene in behalf of some 
 
 •iCeHl! 
 
148 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 k :ll 
 
 delinquent member of the household that oil might be cast 
 upon an existing domestic sea of troubles. 
 
 She knew exactly where Jack had gone. In fact, by 
 feigning inability or unwillingness to walk to the convent 
 for her music lesson that morning, she had enabled him, as 
 per previously arranged programme, to take his pony and 
 sleigh away from the premises without being questioned as 
 to where he was going before he came back. 
 
 She liked Charley Ford. Yes, she liked Charley Ford — 
 at first because he was a friend of Jack's ; and anybod}' 
 Jack liked she also must like, as a matter of course. 
 
 If Charley Ford had not been a friend of Jack's the prob- 
 abilities were that she would never have known him at all, 
 and then, of course, she never could have had any feelings 
 towards him of any kind whatsoever — good, bad or indif- 
 ferent. 
 
 Jack was always so good and so noble, and Charley Ford 
 was so worthy a friend for him to have. 
 
 And, oh, how handsome he was this morning in his fur- 
 trimmed, well-fitting coat and becoming cap as he stood 
 upon the curb near to the convent gate waitmg for she a) id 
 Jack to drive up and find him there as previously arranged ! 
 How courteously and pleasantly he had handed lier out of 
 the sleigh, and, after a few words of 'leV itful <jiiat, 1 'uv 
 deferentially ho had shaken her ' o hand a"d said 
 good-bye. 
 
 She was so glad that he and Jack h;. ' go* o to the race at 
 Belle River together, and she so hoped tuat they might 
 have "a real good time." 
 
 She felt that their joint interests had been left under her 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 149 
 
 especial care dnring their absence, and tlicy might depend 
 upon her protection and defense of tliem to the utmost of 
 her ability. 
 
 So that when her father asked " Where is Jolm ? " with a 
 little tremor of nervousness at the sternness of the demand, 
 she answered : " I d(jn't know for a certainty where ho went 
 to, papa; but I believe when he went out he intended driv- 
 ing up to see how Mr. llamilton is — poor old man ! One 
 of the day scholars at the convent, who lives up near where 
 tilt* Hamiltons do, told me that he was very low, indeed." 
 and a benign hjok of scrai)hieally sympathetic melancholy 
 over-spread the innocent, young fiuie. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton, an old Edinborough University man, had 
 occupied the position of private tutor to Jack and two other 
 gentlemen's young sons until a fortnight previous, since 
 which he had been confined to his house, two miles up tlie 
 river road, with a severe attack of bronchitis, and had been 
 obliged to forego his teaching. 
 
 This circumstance had furnished Grace, our mendacious 
 young sylph, with what, it had suddenly flashed upon her, 
 might prove a plausible and commendable means of 
 accounting for her brother's absence from the house at the 
 dinner hour. 
 
 "Stuff and nonsense," exclaimed Mr. Rathbone, scoffingly ; 
 "he is much more likely to be consorting with some of his 
 congenially low, cock-fighting companions somewhere about 
 the slums of the city." 
 
 "Oh, no, papa," remonstrated the romantic Grace, "I 
 really do think he has gone up to the Hamiltons ; and," she 
 
 ■Mi 
 
150 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 liilk.,.. 
 
 
 hesitatingly added, "I think that Charley Ford has gone 
 with him." 
 
 " That young Ford gone with him, ay ? Boon compan- 
 ions, both I What one doesn't know about scampishness, 
 the other will teach him — arcades ambof " 
 
 "Oh, papa, you shouldn't say that Charley Ford is a 
 scampi" and having let this remonstrance ■ xape her 
 unwittingly, her face became very much flushed as she 
 nervously clasped her father's coat sleeve above the elbow 
 and accompanied him into the dining room. " Every- 
 body," she tremulously added, as they passed the thresh- 
 old, " says that he's a very good young man." 
 
 " Good young man, ay? " cried her father. *' So was Jesse 
 James a good young man 1 " 
 
 "Oh, papa, I think it's real mean of you to compare 
 Jack's friends with thieves," and the color left her bright 
 young face for the instant, as if she had been suddenly 
 startled through fright. 
 
 As father and daughter entered the brightly lighted, cozy 
 dining room, with its ready laid dinner table and crackling 
 grate fire, Mrs. Kathbone emerged through the rear door 
 from the kitchen, whither she had been to personally sup- 
 erintend preparations for the dishing of the dinner. 
 
 This meal of late years had gotten to be a matter of very 
 large importance to the daily peace and harmony of the 
 Rathbone household. 
 
 At the outset of their married life Mr. and Mrs. Rathbone 
 had begun housekeeping in a modest little home situated 
 conveniently to the store, and there each day's comparatively 
 frugal dinner was partaken of with dispatch and sans cere- 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 151 
 
 monie at one o'clock sharp on working days, and perhaps 
 an hour or so later on Sundays and holidays. They had 
 lived but six or seven years in this simple, unostentatious 
 way, when the firm of Rathbone & Ritter bad sufficiently 
 prospered to enable the senior member thereof to wi .'idraw 
 five thousand dollars from the concern and invest it in ten 
 acres of one of the narrow French farms upon which Detroit 
 is built. 
 
 This was thought to be an enormous price to pay for so 
 small an area of land at the time, but this methodical 
 Englishman, with that business foresight which so distin- 
 guished him, knew what he was about when he made the 
 purchase, as the sequel proved. 
 
 He simply laid the foundation of an unusually liberal 
 fortune by this one investment. 
 
 He saw that the old, original French settlers and their 
 descendants, who owned a large proportion of the narrow 
 farms upon which the beautiful city was to grow, with that 
 conservative disposition to preserve everything as it is 
 which so characterizes them as a race, were going to cling 
 to their holdings for at least a generation to come, despite 
 the specious blandishments of the speculative land agent 
 
 This would have the inevitable effect of circumscribing 
 the limits of available land for actual building or si)ecula- 
 tive purposes, and thus, by limiting the supply, increase the 
 demand and, of course, the price, as a natural sequence. 
 
 This feature in the history of Detroit's building up is not 
 alone peculiar to that city. 
 
 St, Louis, Missouri, notably, has undergone a very sim- 
 ilar experience, arising from exactly similar causes. 
 
 iij 
 
152 
 
 BOr.DEIl CANUCKS. 
 
 J Ji1 
 
 Each of these large, mctroj)olitan centres were founded 
 and originally settled by the stuidy pioneers of La Nonvelk 
 France, and it is probable that much of the solidity and pci- 
 manent character of their present wealth and magnificence 
 is not a little due to the go-ahcad-slowly spirit engendered 
 by the quaint conservatism of their old-time French habitant 
 settlers. 
 
 However this may be, Mr. Rnthbone's speculation turned 
 out an immense success and, apart from any other of his 
 resources, made him prospectively a rich man. 
 
 He divided the property into building lots, and reserved 
 for his own occupation an entire square, surrounded on all 
 sides by broad, well laid out streets. 
 
 In the centre of this, fronting upon what is now one of 
 the chief wealthy residence streets of the city, he erected a 
 si)acious, square, brick house, with suitably commodious out- 
 buildings, and proceeded to plant ornamental trees and lay 
 out a lawn and garden, now become one of the sights of 
 the city. The house itself, at the time of its erection, was 
 thought to be a magnificent structure; but, by comparison 
 with the imposing modern mansions now so common in this 
 city of suj^fM'bl}' commodious residences, as it nestles in the 
 centre of its s]\ncious grounds beneath the shadow of tall 
 trees and its garnishment of well trained shrubbery, presents 
 the appearance of a well preserved old English manor house 
 as nearly as may be. 
 
 Its plan inside is unpretentious, and its decorations and 
 furniture designed moie for comfort and long service than 
 for fleeting ornamental show. 
 
 As one enters the lofty main entrance hall from a pillared 
 
 \^K,.l 
 
BOIIDEU CANUCKS. 
 
 l-o 
 
 oo 
 
 vestibule at the front, if lie be a social caller, he is ushered 
 into the large drawing room to the left, running the full 
 length of the building — furnished, upholstered and decor- 
 ated after the luxuriant manner of households of American 
 gentlemen of fortune. While visitors who call to see any 
 member of the family, informally or upon business, on the 
 other hand, are shown to the right, past the foot of the 
 broad staircase leading to the ui)per story, into an ante- 
 room of moderate dimensions, which is also largely used as 
 a living room and general place of rendezvous for the family. 
 
 In this cozy little room before a cheerful, open, wood fire- 
 place, with brass andirons and other glittering appoint- 
 ments, the family, when they are alone, after a late dinner, 
 are wont to pasp. the long winter evenings. It also serves 
 as a library, as evidenced by the tall black walnut book- 
 case enclosed with glass doors, which occupies the space 
 from floor to ceiling between the two low, French windows 
 at the front. 
 
 This contains a judicious selection of standard works 
 upon popular topics — historical, scientific and political — 
 and is fairly veil stocked with works of fiction from 
 Theodore Hook's "Jack Bragg" down to the latest conven- 
 tional "study" of the latest "gudiiing maiden fair," or 
 hankerer after ephemeral notoriety. 
 
 Here, too, upon an ornamental writing desk with folding 
 toj), in the far right-hand corner as you enter the room, the 
 private letters of the family are indited. A graceful gas 
 chandelier hangs suspended over the large, round centre 
 table, refulgent in a bright scarlet broad-cloth cover. 
 
 The walls, wherever otherwise unoccupied, are covered 
 
il;;yi;- 
 
 
 
 ;f 
 
 154 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 ■with well mounted, rare, old steel engravings of English 
 rural scenes, and upon the broad, low, tiled mantel shelf 
 and filagreed brackets suspended here and there about the 
 walls are quaint and unique objects de vertu and bric-a-brac 
 of various descriptions and qualities. 
 
 In the rear of this apartment is the dining room, fur- 
 nished and upholstered d VAnglaise, in black walnut and 
 scarlet with a profusion of bright gilt-framed oil paintings — 
 some of them works of no mean merit — covering the red 
 papered walls in every direction. 
 
 From the large bay window looking to the west, and over 
 the one at the south leading to the conservatory, bright red 
 damask curtains hang suspended to the floor in graceful 
 and ample folds. 
 
 The large oval dining table is laid ready for dinner and 
 beneath the brilliant light of the overhanging chandelier 
 with its variegated colored lamp shades presents a refinedly 
 appetizing spectacle. 
 
 Mrs. Rathbone, her petite and still youthful figure 
 enveloped in a black merino gown, with scarlet trimmings, 
 a Dolly Varden cap upon her head and an Elizabethan ruff 
 about her neck, enters the rear door, which leads through a 
 passageway to the kitchen and servants' apartments just as 
 Mr. Rathbone, with the mendacious little sprite, Grace, 
 clinging to the sleeve of his right arm, enters from the front 
 entrance hall. 
 
 " Ah, Robert, " gently exclaimed Mrs. Rathbone greeting 
 her husband with a cheery little smile as she fussily 
 approached the open grate fire place, and proceeded to take 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 155 
 
 the poker in hand and give it a stirring up, "back home 
 again, ay, dear?" 
 
 *' Yes, " he responded sententiously, as he pulled out his 
 watch, "Is dinner ready?" 
 
 "It will beat half past six as usual, " and then looking 
 at the clock on the mantel piece, she added, " In just ten 
 minutes from now it will be on the table. " 
 
 "That old Jacobin clock, " he asserted sharply, "is just 
 ten minutes slow. " 
 
 "Oh, Papa!" exclaimed Grace, now standing ou the 
 hearth rug beside him, " that can't be — let me look at your 
 watch," but he snapped the case together and put it back 
 into his pocket without allowing her to see it. 
 
 " It was right at one o'clock to-day," persisted Grace whose 
 ardor was somewhat dampened since her father's com- 
 parison of Charley Ford with the redoubtable Jesse James. 
 "I know it was, because when I came home from my music 
 lesson to lunch to-day I compared it with the city hall 
 time and it was exactly right." 
 
 " Well, it's not right now, then, " he asserted positively. 
 " I've no doubt it has been regulated to suit the delinquincies 
 of that precious boy John, as everything else in this house is 
 apparently. " 
 
 "Has anything gone wrong in the business today 
 Robert?'' asked Mrs. Rathbone, with hardening countenance 
 as she replaced the poker in its stand. 
 
 "No, nothing of anj^ material consequence," he replied 
 gruffly, " why do you ask ?" 
 
 He knew that in view of the Simpkins failure, this was 
 
 n^ 
 
ir.3 
 
 ]iOUI)KR CANUCJC3. 
 
 ':{;,;,■ 
 
 not true, but he had ever made it a rule never to discuss 
 his business matters at home. 
 
 This would have been trenching too much upon the 
 supremacy of his domestic dictatorship, and his wife had 
 therefore been kept as much in the dark as to the actual 
 condition of his business affairs as the veriest stranger. 
 
 He had periodically talked with her and given her a 
 showing of the investments he had made of the compara- 
 tively small patrimony she had inherited from her father, 
 but with reference to his own business proper he was ever 
 silent. 
 
 Hence it was, that to her well-nigh unprecedented request 
 to know whether anything had gone wrong in the business 
 he had made the mendacious reply he had, and asked why 
 she wanted to know. 
 
 " I only thought, " she said, in a voice with something of 
 a nervous tremor in it, " that you seem to have come home 
 in a very bad humor. " 
 
 " I won't at all admit that I have come home in a bad 
 humor, " he oracularly insisted, " and even if I had it 
 wouldn't have originated in my office. 1 think by this time 
 you ought to know that I never allow the state of my busi- 
 ness to influence my conduct at home. I must say, how- 
 ever, that the state of my domestic surroundings are day by 
 day becoming more disagreeably unpleasant !" 
 
 And then having seated himself in an arm chair, facing 
 the fire-place, with his back to the chandelier, he proceeded 
 i;0 open up the evening paper with a sort of " You-daren't- 
 knock-the-chip-o2-my-shoulder " air. 
 
 To this, the now much disturbed little wife, pursuing her 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 157 
 
 usual policy of silence until the clouds rolled by, would 
 liave responded nothing but for the interposition of Grace. 
 
 That sylph-like ati J somewhat rufllcd young person, seat- 
 ing herself on her father's knee, with a pout and in injured 
 tones coqiiettishly observed: "It's too bad that you don't 
 like any of us any more 1 " 
 
 "What stuff and nonsense 1 " he exclaimed, as he threw 
 down the paper at the side of his chair and arose to his feet 
 again. "My feelings towards you and your mother and 
 Emily are as they ever have been, and I hope always will 
 be ; but I'm free to admit that I am becoming tired of being 
 made a convenience of and of having this house made a 
 boarding and lodging quarters for the more especial accom- 
 modation of an idle, worthless young cub ! " and, after glar- 
 ing for an instant at the now agitated little wife, he pro- 
 ceeded to pace back and forth across the room with scowl- 
 ing countenance. 
 
 The cat was out! 
 
 Mr. Rathbone had succeeded in working himself into a 
 rage at his truant hete noir son, and in doing so had made 
 the patient mother rather more uncontrollably out of temper 
 for the moment than she had ever allowed herself to be 
 before throughout their whole married life. She had suc- 
 ceeded heretofore, by the practice of a studied system of 
 forbearance and self-denial, in at least curbing the trucu- 
 lence of her exacting husband's jealous temper. Perhaps, 
 if she had been somewhat more self-assertive and com- 
 bative in her treatment of him when he had been seized 
 with these periodical tantrums, she might have contrived to 
 tide them over with less of humiliating jibes and jest to 
 
 % 
 
 I 
 
158 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 bear. For Mr. Ratlibone was essentially one of those genus 
 lords of creation whose blustering bark, being more bitter 
 than their bite, would have, in all likelibood, been managed 
 better by a little determined opposition and retaliation. 
 
 But the chastening and subduing influence her girlhood 
 disappointment as to Gustavus Ford had had upon her 
 interest in her early married life, coupled with the inner 
 consciousness that she was every day living in the guilt of 
 having withheld from her husband that which he sliould 
 have known before he had made her his wife, had enabled 
 her to practice all her inherent amiability and evenness of 
 temper with fairly successful results — not, however, with- 
 out much to bear of misery and humiliation. For herself, 
 in looking back upon these bitter trials, she did not so much 
 care. But this comparatively new feature in her crown of 
 sorrows — this perpetual scolding about her darling boy, 
 Jack, for no sufficient cause, was more than she could bear. 
 And tocall him a worthless young cub I This was outrageous, 
 and nothing had occurred between them for a long time that 
 had made her feel more pugnaciously retaliatory than this. 
 
 She understood her husband thoroughly. 
 
 She knew his every indiosyncrasy. She knew that as a 
 sort of freak in human motives he was insanely jealous of 
 the love and consideration shown by herself and the girls 
 for Jack; and she had long ago cautioned both Emily and 
 Grace not to be unnecessarily demonstrative of their 
 affection for their brother in the presence of their father. 
 
 For herself, she had often dissembled or disguised her 
 intense love and devotion for her son that his father's 
 temper might not be ruffled. 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 159 
 
 Oftentimes she had apparently seemed coldly indifferent 
 when Jack's interests were involved, while in fact she had 
 felt the most absorbing anxiety about them. 
 
 When he had finished at the local public school and it 
 became necessary to consider the best means of topping off 
 the elementary teachings obtained there with the higher 
 instruction furnished by a finishing school or college, she 
 had fondly wished that he might be sent to one of her own 
 denominational institutions either in the States or Canada. 
 
 But in view of their marriage compact with reference to 
 the rearing of the children she had hesitated about giving 
 utterance to the wish. 
 
 She had been allowed free scope in the religious and 
 secular bringing up of their daughters, and under these cir- 
 cumstances it was only just that her husband should be 
 equally untrammeled in the education of their son. 
 
 With insular superciliousness, sometimes the outcome of 
 ignorant prejudice, and sometimes the offspring of an 
 ineradicable j^^nchaiit for "every thiJik English you know." 
 Mr. Kathbone regarded the great institutions of learning on 
 this continent en masse as Brummagum establishments of 
 the most pronounced kind. 
 
 He would have liked to have sent his son home to 
 England to finish his education at one of the ancient schools 
 or colleges of his fatherland, but to this suggestion his wife 
 had raised the objection tLtt it would be sending him too 
 far way from home, and that it would make her very 
 unhappy to have the broad Atlantic 'twixt her and her 
 idolized boy. 
 
 Eecognizing the naturalness of this feeling on the part of 
 
160 
 
 BORDER CAXCCKa 
 
 '% 
 
 <.!# 
 
 m^ 
 
 
 1 -f ' i' 
 
 
 his patient wife, and having become measurably indifferent 
 about what concerned his half-fledged son, Mr, Rathbone 
 had proposed that the services of a private tutor might be 
 secured and the boy's education completed at home. 
 
 This had been done accordingly, to the profound satis- 
 faction of the mother — the foundation thereby being laid for 
 much paternal snarling and growling. 
 
 Nothing, however, up to this time had occurred which 
 wifely diplomacy and maternal devotion had been unable to 
 cope with. Certainly nothing so portentous of disaster to 
 Jack as this outbreak had ever manifested itself before. 
 The idea of calling her poor, dear, unjustly abused boy "an 
 idle, worthless young cub," and that in the presence of his 
 little sister, tool This was more than she would silently 
 put up with ! She must say something in remonstrance ; 
 but, oh, how tremblingly agitated she was with indignation ! 
 She became as pale as the white rufi about her neck and 
 she shook like a leaf as, straightening herself up, with flash- 
 ing eyes, she said : " Robert, you ought to be ashamed of 
 3'ourself for feeling the wickedness you do towards your 
 own son, whom everybody gets on well with except his 
 own, unnatural father ! " 
 
 " I suppose by everybody," cried the head of the house, 
 still emulating the perambulating, caged tiger, "you mean 
 every stable boy and cock-fighter in the neighborhood ! " 
 
 "I do not !" vehemently rejoined the little mother, her 
 pent up temper now fully aflame; "I mean his own equals, 
 everywhere 1 And as for his present fancy for fowls and 
 horses, he will grow out of that — and he never would have 
 had it at all to the extent he has if it had not been for your 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 161 
 
 her 
 uals, 
 
 and 
 have 
 your 
 
 example and encouragement of it when he was a little 
 fellow 1" 
 
 This was a long speech for the tremulously amiable, little 
 woman in her present unusually excited condition, and 
 from sheer exhaustion she leaned her head uj)on her right 
 arm as it rested upon the low chimney mantel and panted 
 for breath. 
 
 "That's right ! " he replied, bitterly, as he wheeled about 
 in his pacing of the floor, " blame me ; I get the blainc for 
 everything ! Perhaps I am responsible for his whereabouts, 
 God knows where, at the present moment! Probably in 
 the harness room of some public stable in the city, or maybe 
 in some cock-pit in the purlieus of the town ! Perhaps I 
 am to blame," he continued, with rising intonation, as he 
 pursued his vibatory walk, " for his constantly repeated 
 absence from his meals with the rest of us, and his prowling 
 into the house at all hours of the night and day that hap- 
 pens to suit his convenience ! " 
 
 "Oh, papa! " poutingly remonstrated Grace, seated upon 
 an arm of her father's recently vacated chair, " Jack doesn't 
 prowl ! " 
 
 "Silence, miss!"' he thundered, as with a stamp of his 
 foot he came to a stand, and flaslied down upor^ his young- 
 est born with glittering glare and reddening countenance. 
 
 This outbreak so startled the unfortunate sylphide that 
 she involuntarily jumped to her feet, and gazing agliast for 
 an instant into the gleaming eyes of her ferocious parent, 
 she burst into tears and rushed out of the room. 
 
 There was now a pause of fiercely palpitating silence, 
 11 
 
162 
 
 BORDEK CANUCKS. 
 
 ■which, after an instant or so, was broken by the little 
 mother. 
 
 " Robert Rathbone 1 " she said, as she straightened herself 
 up from the mantel piece, " you can be the most uncon- 
 scionable bully in the world when you like ! It would 
 seem as if you could not help being so; but surely Goil 
 will some day punish you for the unnatural feelings you 
 have towards your own son ! " 
 
 It is safe to say that this was an unprecedentedly bitter 
 speech as eminating from this subdued and patient little 
 woman ; but 
 
 "The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on," 
 
 and her lord and master was brought to a stand and ren- 
 dered dumb for the instant by the novelty of it. He glared 
 at her aghast, at a loss what to say, while the old-fashioned 
 hall clock painfully resounded forth four or five slowly, 
 deliberate ticks of its long pendulum. 
 
 Then his momentarily suspended rage fumed forth again 
 with redoubled vigor, and the family skeleton emerged from 
 its closet in self-assertive sway as, resuming his pacing of 
 the floor, with a demoniacal chuckle, he said : "ii^son, 
 ay ? Ha, ha, umph ! My son ? I have very grave doubts 
 about his being my son ! " 
 
 If this venomous insinuation, before it was uttered, had 
 been materialized into a billet of wood and thrown at her 
 full in the face, it could not have subjected her nervous 
 system to a greater shock, or been more paralyzing in its 
 effects. 
 
 She recoiled, and her face blanched as with the startled 
 
BOHDER CANUCKS. 
 
 163 
 
 liorror she might have felt luid she suddenly come upon a 
 threatening snuke. 
 
 She gave two or three long, gasping gulps for breath and 
 looked for an instant as if she might sink limp and prone 
 upon the hearth rug. 
 
 Then, with great apparent effort, she straightened her 
 petite figure up to its full height and, throwing back her 
 head, put her kit hand to her forehead as she steadied her- 
 self with her right upon the mantel piece, while she mut- 
 tered a prayer f.)r patience. 
 
 Then, with solemn dignity, she followed her husband 
 with her eyes as he pursued his vibratory walk, and in sub- 
 dued and deliberate tones said : " Robert, if you had said 
 that five minutes before, while Gracie was? in the room, I 
 should have left this house, never to return to it ! " 
 
 And, without further parley, she slowly, and with faltering 
 steps, as one weakened from illness, glided out into the 
 entrance hall and thence up the broad stair case to the floor 
 above, leaving her lord and master and the family skeleton 
 in full and undisputed possession of the regions below. 
 
 But this undisputed possession profited the skeleton 
 nothing, as the lord and master became conscious of a 
 rising suspicion that he had made a brute of himself. 
 
 Was marriage a failure ? Yes I most emphatically, yes. 
 Marriage ivas a failure. 
 
 He wished to God he had never been married. Ilowbeit 
 since he was married he would not shirk its respons- 
 ibilities. One of these was the enforcement of a proper 
 observance of discipline in his own domestic household, and 
 this lie was bound to do from this time forward. 
 
»,! St; <■'.■■ j^ 
 
 164 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 He ceased his pacing of the heavily Turkej-carpeted 
 floor and threw himself down into his own especial arm 
 chair, and gazing absorbedly upon the glowing grate fire, 
 ruminated upon the situation. 
 
 Under the baleful influence of the family skeleton, for 
 the first time in all his married life, he had openly referred 
 in so many words to the disturbing phantom of jealous sus- 
 picion, which, for its first few years, had periodically black- 
 ened his innermost thoughts and gnawed at his jaundiced 
 heart. 
 
 He had harked back to a tentative night-mare period of 
 existence, which his wife's long-suffering patience and 
 attention to his every wish and want had, to some extent, 
 lived down years ago. 
 
 And who had driven him to this ? John ! That incor- 
 rigible boy, John, whom his wife and daughters, dissemble 
 as they might, regarded with greater consideration than they 
 did himself. 
 
 How could he decently, without laying the foundation 
 for a scandal among the friends of the family, get rid of this 
 incubus upon his happiness in his own househeld? 
 
 He would see if something could not be done in the 
 premises to-morrow. 
 
 Meanwhile his better nature and his sense of justice 
 were beginning to assert themselves. There was no manner 
 of doubt but that he had been unwarrantably brutal to his 
 wife and little Gracie. 
 
 The trim wai Ling-maid here appeared at the rear door 
 with the first installment of the dinner. 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 165 
 
 He would run up to liis dressing room and wash his 
 hands and brush his hair as was his wont before sittinor 
 
 O 
 
 down. 
 
 As he came to the head of the stairs on his return to the 
 dining room, he paused for an instant, and facing the 
 lighted transom over the door of his wife's and his own joint 
 bedroom, he called out in as conciliatory and apologetic a 
 voice as he could command, "Come Emily, dinner is on! 
 Come Gracie!" 
 
 But there came no audible response. 
 
 A painful and ominous silence pervaded the upper floor 
 of the Eathbone mansion for the nonce. 
 
 Down stairs in the dining room, while the inviting repast 
 smoked upon the snowy damask-covered table, with its 
 costly dinner service, and well appointed plate and glass 
 ware, the hushed stillness of everything was still more 
 apparent, and the crackling, grate fire brought out in 
 bold and disagreeable relief the discordant condition of the 
 domestic atmosphere. 
 
 He would not sit down to dinner alone. lie would wait 
 for liis wife and daughter. Surely they could not ignore 
 his pacific announcement of its being on the table. 
 
 Meanwhile, with noiseless slackened footfall, he resumed 
 his ante-bellum pacing of the floor until the opening and 
 closing of a door upstairs, followed by light and hesitating 
 descending footsteps upon tlic stair case, betokened the 
 coming of his wife or youngest daughter. 
 
 He had time to take two or three leisurely turns up and 
 down before he at last veered about at the far end of the 
 room and' beheld Grace nervously absorbed in plucking at a 
 
MmM 
 
 166 
 
 UOUDEli CANUCKS. 
 
 thread of yarn she held between the first finger and thumb 
 of her left hand, standing iu the doorway leading to the 
 entrance hall. 
 
 The unfortunate sylphidc was very mucli swollen of eye- 
 lids and flush'^d of face — her cheeks shining in thegas-light 
 with refulgent polish. 
 
 " Is your mother not coming down to dinner, Gracio ?" he 
 asked as he slowly approached her. 
 
 "No, papa," she replied, with an involuntary volley of 
 childlike inward sobs, "' she says she has a headaclie and 
 ho}>es you will excuse her if she doesn't come down. ' 
 
 "Ah, she's not coming to dinner, ay?" he re[)eated as 
 going up to his youngest born, he took her hand in his '.nd 
 patting her upon the bowed head, he stooped over and 
 kissed her swollen, glistening cheek, whereat the sylphide's 
 pent-up, injured feelings again burst forth into a flood of 
 gushing tears. 
 
 " There, there now, '* he said in deprecating voice, as he 
 put his arm around her little figure and endeavored to 
 pacify her, "don't cry, my dear! Don't cry, there's a good 
 child. Let bygones be bygones and forgive your old father 
 who is sorry for being harsh with his poor little girl, " and 
 he kissed her again. 
 
 This was enough for the forgiving, albeit coquettish, pet of 
 the house. 
 
 She looked up smilingly through her sobbing tears, and 
 gushingly throwing bor arms around her father's neck, she 
 gave him a resounding smack upon the cheek with her 
 burning, quivering lips. 
 
 "Come now, dear, there's a good little girl," he said, 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 167 
 
 gently disengaging liimsclf from her twining arms and 
 straightening liiniself up "Come, since your motlicr is not 
 corning down, you and I must make the best of the dinner 
 all by oura<L'ives. 
 
 " Now, dear, you take your mamma's place at the 
 head of the table and be mistress, and I'll take mine at the 
 other end am] be your abject slave for the rest of the even- 
 
 ing. 
 
 But out of this arrangement there came but little joy or 
 satisfaction. 
 
 To her father's spasmodic cfTorts to cheer her up and 
 smooth matters as if nothing had happened, the j)oor syl[)h 
 was far too nervously anxious because of the portentous turn 
 alTairs had taken in respect of Jack. 
 
 She would do anything ir the world in Ler power to help 
 her brotlier out of the trouble she felt was inevitably in 
 store for him on his return from Belle River. She of course 
 was not afraid that Jack would be flogged. She knew that 
 the days of that kind of punishment in the household had 
 gone by; and she derived one further bit of consolation by 
 bringing to mind some of the numerous previous occasions 
 on which her mamma, in her quiet way, had contrived to 
 rescue dear old Jack from threateningly direful con- 
 sequences. 
 
 There was one thing, however, she could not rid her 
 thoughts of, and that was that it was very wicked and 
 uncharitable of her father to compare Charley Ford with 
 that horrible outlaw, Jesse James. 
 
 She icnew that the ferry boats across from the Canadian 
 side of the river ran until a late hour, and up to this time it 
 
?ral 
 
 .J!* 
 
 168 
 
 BOllDEK CANUCKS, 
 
 MM 
 
 had never occurred to her but that Jack would return some 
 time during that evening. 
 
 If she had known the true state of the case, and that at 
 that very moment both Charley Ford and Jack respect- 
 ively, with a pretty French girl hanging upon their respect- 
 ive right arms, were hilariously witnessing the struggle for 
 supremacy in the two-handed reel twixt the sportive Madam 
 Martin and Peter Bertrand at the widow's ball, her ner- 
 vously troubled condition might not have been quite so 
 poignant as it actually was. 
 
 Perhaps her anxiety about the outcome of it all in res])ect 
 of Jack might not have abated much; but she certainly 
 wouldn't have thought her father so bad a man after all for 
 having compared Charley Ford to Jesse James. 
 
 As it was, the dainty little Miss Gracie Rathbone con- 
 trived to bear herself with a semblance of cheerfulness, 
 until Mr. Rathbone, i'ising from his seat and taking up his 
 evening paper, invited her to accompany him into the library 
 and sit with him there for a time as was her and her mothers 
 wont when tluy were alone, and peace and harmony pre- 
 vailed t^.iroughout the presently distracted household. 
 
 Mr. Rathbone was not a smoker. 
 
 He had been far too dapper and circumspect (some might 
 say too sensible) in his youth and early manhood to con- 
 tract the habit, and now, of course, he was too old to acquire 
 a knowledge of the consolation to be gotten out of a judicious 
 use of tobacco. 
 
 Had he smoked, it would doubtless have exercised 
 a benignant and otherwise improving efl'ect upon his temper 
 and home conduct. 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 169 
 
 Are not all uncertain-tempered and irritable men improved 
 by a moderate use of a good sample of the aromatic weed ? 
 
 Do not the puffs pulled forth from a pipe of good tabacco 
 or from a fragrant cigar act upon the superabundant bile of 
 one of these, as do the pufl exhausts from a surcharged 
 engine boiler? 
 
 However that may be Mr. Eathbone did not object to the 
 smell of smoke. 
 
 In fact, he really liked the aroma of a good Ilavana cigar 
 and always kept a supply on hand for visiting friends. 
 
 After having occupied himself with his paper for half an 
 hour after he had seated himself before the crackling wood 
 fire in the so-called library, he turned to the demurely silent 
 Gracie, as she mechanically turned over the leaves of a 
 pictorial magazine at the other side of the centre table and 
 said, " I wish my dear, that you'd go out and tell the house- 
 maid to fetch the little brass kettle filled with hot water in 
 here and set it besi'^d the fire place. I think I should like 
 a glass of grog presently, and Mr. Chase may come in for a 
 game of cribbage and he'd want one too." 
 
 " Yes, papa, " responded the sylphide slowly and languidly 
 rising from her chair anc', going over to him, held up her 
 cheek to be kissed, "and I think I'll say good-night before 
 I go papa. Fm not feeling quite right and I think I'll go 
 to bed. " 
 
 A diplomatic young person was this youngest d 'rxghterof 
 Mr. Robert Rathbone. 
 
 She purposely avoided all reference to her mother's non- 
 appearance lest it might lead to the subject of Jack's con- 
 
170 
 
 LORDEll CANUCKS. 
 
 tinued absence from the parental roof and thereby revive 
 the smouldering embers of paternal wrath. 
 
 "Very well, my dear," replied her father, "you had 
 perhaps better go up and see how your mother is getting on, 
 too. " 
 
 Manifestly the tyrant of the Kathbone household was 
 relenting of his ante-prandial treatment of his patient wife 
 and affectionate little daughter. 
 
 Not so, however, with regard to his complete loss of 
 patience with that growing red rag of his existence, his only 
 son and heir. 
 
 Annette, the pretty Frencli Canadian housemaid, having 
 brought in the hot water, he himself went to the sideboard, 
 and securing the other ingreilients made himself a hot 
 Scotch toddy. Over this and a succeeding, rather stronger 
 one, in undisturbed solitude he thought out the problems: 
 " What is to be done with that boy ? How is his presence 
 in the house decently to be gotten rid of?" 
 
 No matter what it cost, ere another week passed some- 
 thing definite rfust be decided upon in answer to these 
 embarrassing queries. 
 
 His friend and neighbor, Mr. Chase, did not c;)me in for 
 the game of cribbage and cigar after all, and he tried to 
 concentrate his thoughts upon along article in one of the 
 daily papers ( an extract from a labor journal ) upon the 
 iniquity of commercial trusts ; but he soon tired of this 
 and gradually nodded oS. into a sound sleep in peaceful 
 oblivion of domestic broils and embarrassing sons. 
 
 Waking up in due course he found the fire nearly gone 
 Qut and the hands of the clock on the mantel piece showing 
 
 i^t 
 
BOKDEK CANUCKS. 
 
 171 
 
 the evening far enough spent to warrant liis going to bed, 
 which he was very glad of. 
 
 He wondered whether that boy John liad come in yet or 
 not? 
 
 He would look into the servants' sitting room and ask 
 Annette. 
 
 Pulling himself together he accordingly went. "lias 
 Master John come in yet? " he asked, as he opened the door, 
 to find Annette and another of the female servants busy 
 sewing at a brightly lighted table. 
 
 "No, monsieur, he have not arrive home yet," responded 
 the girl politely, in her pretty, French accent. 
 
 "Then, before you go to b'xl, Annette," he replied, "if 
 he still >^i.ould not have come in, \^lease see that all the 
 doors and windows are properly fas*^ened, as usual. The 
 house shall not be left open all night to suit anybody's con- 
 venience ! " 
 
 "No, monsieur, dat ees parfactly correc," assented 
 Annette, with a serious bow of her head. 
 
 "If Master John should C(jnie and want to get in an}"- 
 time after we have all gone to bed, I shall get up myself 
 and let him in." 
 
 " Verrah well, sair, " replied the urbane Annette, 
 demurely nodding her head — never intending ta comply 
 with the enjoinder, however. 
 
 She was far too loyal to her mistress and liked Jack too 
 well to think of doing so. 
 
 The master of the house now ascended to the joint parental 
 bed room, deserted of its mistress (who was quartered for 
 the night with Gracie, across the hall) and, after dismally 
 
172 
 
 BOKDEK CANUCKS. 
 
 undressing, rolled himself in the luxurious coverings of the 
 capacious bed, and courted nature's sweet restorer in single 
 dissatisfaction. 
 
 His last thoughts before he fell asleep were a sort of 
 gloating over the probability of his being called up some- 
 time during th'^, night — the later the better — to let his 
 offending son in. 
 
 This would furnish tangible fuel for his wrath, and 
 further justify the peremptory course he had partially made 
 up his mind to adopt within the next week or so. 
 
 When at last he did drop off to sleep he dreamed that 
 Jack had grown suddenly to middle-aged manhood, and as 
 the son of Gustavus Ford was about to marry his mother 
 and take her off on a European trip, leaving him alone 
 with Gracie, who went about with her face all smeared with 
 blood. 
 
 Thus in grimly fantastic and indefinable shadows did 
 the head of the house of Rathbone & Ritter, slumberously 
 live the troubles of the evening over again. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A Sylph-like Albeit Artful Nurse. 
 
 XT;rHEN MR. RATHBONE had called out in con- 
 
 ' * ciliating tones to his wife over the open transom of 
 her bedroom that dinner was ready and then had gone down 
 stairs to the dining room, the latter had gone across the hall 
 to Grade's luxuriant little sleeping apartment, where she 
 found that incipient young woman prone upon ber bed 
 struggling with a series of gradually subsiding sobs of 
 injured feelings. 
 
 Gently going over to her, the little mother sat down on 
 the edge of the bed and endeavored to pacify her youngest 
 born. "There now Gracie dear,'* she said soothingly, 
 "don't cry any more, there's a good girl! Your father 
 didn't mean so to ofiend you. I'm sure he didn't dear !" 
 
 " Yes he did too 1" insisted the pet of the house with her 
 handkerchief over her eyes. 
 
 " Oh no, I know he didn't, dear. " 
 
 "Yes, he did," persisted the sylph, with a long-drawn 
 shuddering sob, " I never saw him look so mad before. " 
 
 "But he wasn't mad with you, de;ir. He was as usual 
 annoyed with your brother Jack, and now unfortunately 
 that means me, too " she added with a deep-drawn sigh. 
 
 "I think he's a very unreasonable aud a very wicked 
 man ! " 
 
 " Well, he's sorry for it now, dear. Didn't you hear 
 
 (173) 
 
174 
 
 BOHDEli CANUCKS. 
 
 him calling us to dinner before he went down stairs a 
 moment ago ? " 
 
 " Yes, I heard him," sobbed Grace, *' but I'm not going ! " 
 
 ** Not for my sake, dear? " and bending over, she kissed 
 the pet of the house. "I'm sure you'll go down for my 
 sake, won't you, dear? One of us ought to go down, ami 
 your poor mother is really ill — yes, dear, really ill, with 
 such a sick headache," and the little woman laid lier 
 blanched cheek down upon the pillow along-side her 
 daughter's reclining head. 
 
 Rousing herself up to a sitting posture and gazing at her 
 pain-stricken face for an instant, Gracie gently stroked the 
 little mother's throbbing forehead and kissed her cheek in 
 gushing sympathy. , 
 
 " I do hope you're not going to have one of those dread- 
 ful sick headaches of your's. Can't 1 do anything to relieve 
 you, mamma dear? " 
 
 "You can saturate a handkerchief with that alcohol 
 mixture and put it on my forehead, if you will, dear," lan- 
 guidly suggested the mother. 
 
 " Yes, of course I will, mamma," and she sprang from off 
 the bed, utterly forgetful of her own injured feelings. 
 " Where is the alcohol bottle mamma ? " 
 
 " I think it's in the bathroom. " And straightway the bottle 
 •was brought, the handkerchief saturated, and the old 
 fashioned woman's remedy for sick headache placed in 
 position. " Now dear, I'll be all right in a short time, " said 
 the mater in a subdued voice, as Gracie covered her with a 
 thickly wadded bed spread, " I hope her mother's own little 
 
BOUDEll CANUCKS. 
 
 175 
 
 girl will go down and join her father at dinner, won't you 
 dear? kiss me, there's a good girl I" 
 
 " Of course I'll go down, mamma dear, since you're so 
 anxious that I sliould; but I'm not a bit hungry, and I'd 
 rather be whipped than go," she said, as she kissed the lit- 
 tle woman. 
 
 " I know, dear; I dare say you dislike going down very 
 much, but you'll feel all the better for having done your 
 du.y." 
 
 And thus, after washing her face and hands, the pet of 
 the household was instigated, with faltering, hesitating step, 
 to take her way down the broad staircase to join her father 
 at dinner, as recorded in the last cha})ter. 
 
 Albeit this dainty little youngest daughter of Robert and 
 Emily Rathbone had yet to see her fifteenth birthday, she 
 had even now become a typical child-woman of the period, 
 and like an affectionate, generous-hearted woman, capable 
 of the most self-sacrificing acts in the interest of any one 
 she really loved. 
 
 When, after the trying ordeal of that distasteful dinner, 
 she bade her father good night in the library, she returned to 
 her own room to find her mother lying upon the bed where 
 she had left her, 
 
 " Are you awake, mamma dear ? " she enquired, gently 
 going to the bedside on tip-toe. 
 
 "Yes, dear," whispered the little woman, sleepily. 
 
 " It's all over ! " with a sigh ; " I have said good- night to 
 papa." 
 
 "What's all over, my dear?" demanded the mother, 
 starting up out of a half doze. 
 
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176 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 "Why, the dinner, of course," smilingly responded Gracie. 
 
 " Has Jack come in yet, dear ? " 
 
 " No, mamma, he hasn't come back yet." 
 
 " Oh, my God I what is to become of us ? " sighed the 
 little mother.. 
 
 " Why, you mustn't talk like that, mamma I Jack's all 
 right." 
 
 " How do you know that he is all right, dear? " 
 
 " Because I know where he is — at least I know where 
 he started to go to." 
 
 " And where did he start to ? " asked the little woman, 
 anxiously gazing into the eyes of her daughter. 
 
 " Why, he and Charley Ford went to a race at Belle 
 
 j» 
 
 nver 
 
 "Well, my dear, why couldn't you have told me that 
 before? And I shouldn't have worried to the extent I have 
 about him." 
 
 " Well, mamma, I thought that they'd surely be back by 
 this time. And although they did not tell me not to tell 
 anybody where they had gone, I thought it best to keep 
 it a secret, because they might think it mean of me to tell 
 anybody without their authority, you know." 
 
 "They are both very bad boys to have stolen away in 
 the manner they did ! " vehemently asserted the mater, 
 rousing up from her recumbent posture on the bed. " And 
 I'll give Charley Ford a piece of my mind, about his lead- 
 ing Jack off to horse races, the first time I see him 1 " 
 
 "Oh, but mamma!" remdnstrated the sylph. "I don't 
 think Charley Ford led Jack to the race. In fact, I know 
 that if Jack hadn't told him about it Charley never would 
 
iw>ri 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 177 
 
 later, 
 
 And 
 
 llead- 
 
 lon't 
 :now 
 l^ould 
 
 have known that there was to be a race at Belle River 
 to-day." 
 
 " Well, but Charley Ford is older than Jack, and he 
 ought to know better," sharply observed the mother. 
 
 i'He is only fifteen months older than Jack, mamma, " 
 weakly observed the sylph as she proceeded to take the 
 ribbon out of her long plait of braided brown hair. 
 
 It was quite evident that Mrs. Rathbone had made up 
 her mind to share her little daughter's bed for the night. 
 While Gracie was gone down to dinner the little woman had 
 aroused herself sufficiently to go across the liall to her own 
 apartment, procure her night gown, and robe herself for the 
 night; so that shortly after the sylphide's return to her 
 room after dinner, mother and daughter found themselves at 
 least physically comfortably bestowed along-side each other 
 in Gracie's luxurious bed for the night. 
 
 It was not absolutely iine mat blanche for either mother 
 or daughter. Now that the former was assured of the 
 whereabouts of her son she had found some consolation in 
 knowing that he had not fallen a victim to the many snares 
 and pitfalls extant witliin the city limits. It was her 
 exaggerated idea of the blanishments of these that to a large 
 extent reconciled her to Jack's frequent expeditions over 
 into the French settlements across the river. 
 
 Of that nationality herself, she knew that as compared 
 with the methods of others, tlio amu.sements of her own 
 primitive habitant people were measurably free from guile. 
 
 It was therefore in some sense with a feeling of relief 
 that she received Gracie's assurance that Jack had gone 
 over into Canada — notwithstanding that his object in going 
 
178 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 thither was to witness a horse race on the ice. Yet in view 
 of her husband's outrageous exhibition of temper because of 
 Jack's absence from the house at that hour without leave, 
 she looked forward with dread to the scene which would 
 surely attend his return either that night or on the morrow, 
 and it was well on towards morning ere her nervously 
 anxious consciousness drifted awaj'^ into peaceful rein- 
 vigorating sleep. 
 
 Meanwhile the young person who laid along-side her 
 mother, after frequent attemj)ts to engage her troubled 
 parent in desultory conversation of a designedly cheering 
 kind with indifferent success, lapsed off into a cor. 'emplation 
 of her own inneimost mental promptings. 
 
 She had great confidence in her patient little mother's 
 ability to manipulate Jack out of any serious consequences 
 of his escapade, and she therefore fell to elaborating a 
 little scheme especially designed for her own individual 
 delectation. 
 
 It must somewhat regretfully be admitted that this little 
 scheme upon her awakening on this Sabbath morn was not 
 without its impelling influence upon her religious designs 
 for the day. 
 
 " Mamma," she said on getting up and peeping througli 
 the side of the window blind at the weather outside, " do 
 you think you feel well enough to go to church this 
 morning ? " 
 
 " Not just now, dear," faintly replied the mater, not yet 
 out of bed ; " but perhaps after I have had a cup of tea I 
 may feel better." ^ . 
 
 m\\ 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 179 
 
 " Would you like one now, mamma ? " ^ ^ the eager 
 enquiry. 
 
 " Yes, I think I should, dear. Call out from the head of 
 the back stairway to Annette and ask her to make me a 
 strong cup of tea. I feel as though I wanted something to 
 strengthen me before I attempt to get up." 
 
 "Call out to Annette I" exclaimed the pet of the house, 
 with assumed disgust ; "I'd be a pretty one to call out to 
 Annette to fetch you up a cup of tea when you're not feel- 
 ing well, wouldn't I, now ? I, myself, who can make tea 
 with any man, woman or expert cook in the city or sur- 
 rounding country! Why, mamma," she went on, as she 
 hurried on her stockings and slippers, " what do you think 
 is going to become of your precious, youngest, female 
 daughter when she grows old and toothless and still in the 
 'jints', as Michael calls them, if, when she's young and 
 with suppleness endowed, she'd let any other person in the 
 crowd ( which it is poetry ) get the dearest little mother in 
 the world a cup of tea when that dearest little mother is not 
 feeling as well and happy as she deserves to feel every 
 second of every minute of every hour of every day of every 
 week of every month of every year of every decade of her 
 dear, precious, sweet, useful, invaluable life? Why, what 
 am I here for, I'd like to know? Am I ever to confine 
 myself to the purely ornamental in this transitory sphere? 
 Am I " 
 
 " Oh, Gracie, Gracie, you silly child ! " interrupted the 
 mother, laughing, " do stop that nonsense I " 
 
 " Yes, mamma dear, of a truth I think there's quite suf- 
 ficient nonsense in my having forgotten where I put that 
 
 i 
 
 
180 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 wrapper when I took it off yesterday morning. Ah, liere 
 it is I Here is the variegated garment of ample fold ! Thus 
 arrayed in matutinal attire," she continued with serious 
 face, elaborate bow and much affected importance, as she 
 left the room, '* I shall proceed to the culinary department 
 of this mansion in quest of that aromatic herb known to 
 commerce, society and the gastronomic world as /ea/" 
 
 Not a word had been said of Jack. In view of last 
 night's experience that young gentleman's continued absence 
 had become a subject too awful for discussion with the 
 anxious little mother. As for Grace, she had felt quite 
 certain before she went to sleep last night that her brother 
 would, in all likelihood, not return until ten or eleven 
 o'clock in the morning. 
 
 She thought it quite likely that he would have been 
 detained by the race until near dark, and an eighteen mile 
 drive on a dark night over indifferent sleighing was a seri- 
 ous undertaking. She, therefore, hoped that Jack and his 
 companion had remained over at Belle River for the night, 
 and the wish became father to the thought. 
 
 If she were correct in coming to this conclusion, then 
 they would be likely to come over from the Canadian side 
 on the ten o'clock ferry. 
 
 " Mamma dear," she said, demonstratively sniffing at the 
 fumes arising from the hot tea, as she handed the cup to her 
 mother, "if this should make you feel very, very much bet- 
 ter, and I am sure it will, for the aroma arising from it is of 
 itself e-normously revivifying — excuse my large language, 
 please — don't you think that in that case you might be 
 

 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 181 
 
 induced to do what Mis. Dombcy didn't — make an effort 
 to get up shortly and take me to ear v muss?" 
 
 '' Why do you want to go to early mass my dear?" 
 '• Well one reason is that it's such a lovely morning. " 
 '' But you know there's no sermon preached at the early 
 service, " remonstrated the mother. 
 
 " Troth thin, ma'm,'' replied the sylph in Irish dialect, " if 
 we're to have foire and brimstone flujig at ns in bowld Irish 
 brogue to the extint we had by that rivcrend Irish gintle- 
 man last Sunday, I think we're well out of it, ma'm, an so I 
 do, ma'm ! Sure, ma'm, is the tay all right and to your loiking, 
 ma m : 
 
 "Yes dear, it's just right," replied the little woman, 
 laughing. 
 
 *' As good as Annette could have made it ?" 
 " Yes indeed, as good as anyone could have made it " 
 " There's the dearest and most grateful little mother in 
 the world for saying so, " and the gushing pet put her armb 
 around her mother's neck and kissed her voluminously. 
 
 Straightening herself up she resumed, "And you're sure 
 it's quite satisfactory to your palate and quite strong enough, 
 is it mamma?" 
 
 "Yes, quite satisfactory in every way." 
 "Then, " said the sylj)h dramatically, addressing the ceil* 
 ing with cla.«ped hands, " blessed be the Grand Mogul, the 
 Grand Mandarin or other supromel 3' elevated Chinese poten- 
 tate who first discovered teal Yes, tea! that beverage 
 which cheers but not inebriates — alike indispensable to the 
 palaces of the rich and consoling to the cabins of the poor! 
 Bless thee! bless thee, oh tea! Thou art about to' restore 
 
182 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 to the arms of a doting and somewhat demented daughter, 
 the fondest, the fairest, the most amiable, the most indul- 
 gent, the most affec — " 
 
 •'Oh, Gracie, my child," laughed the mother, "do stop 
 that nonsense. What on earth has come over you this 
 morning? I'm sure things are not so very bright with us 
 just now." 
 
 "Hem — ha — what did you say, darling mamma? Tell 
 Michael to have the horses and sleigh ready to take us to 
 church in half an hour' — is that what you said, darling 
 mamma?" and putting her hand to her ear, in imitation of 
 an old female benejiciare of the family, she continued, 
 "Excuse me, misses, I'se a leetle hard o'heerin; but if 
 that's what you ses, ma'm, I'll be right peert about givin' 
 the order.'* 
 
 " Well, then," said the little woman, laughingly, "you 
 can go and tell Michael to get the horses and sleigh ready 
 in half an hour," and as the diplomatic pet forthwith took 
 her departure to give Michael, the coachman, the desired 
 instructions, Mrs. Rathbone got out of bed. 
 
 Why Gracie was so bent upon going to early mass was 
 because she knew that there she would meet her friend and 
 quasi-conjidante, Emily Ritter, whom she particularly wanted 
 to see. 
 
 Why she wanted to see and confer with Miss Emily 
 Ritter will be made apparent in a subsequent chapter. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 An IdealUtic Stray Sfieep. 
 
 "TT was close upon nine o'clock with the bright unclouded 
 -^ sun's rays pouring in through the open topmost halves 
 of the two Venetian blintls, which shielded the windows of the 
 family bedroom looking eastward, ere Mr. Kathbone 
 aroused himself to a thoroughly awakened condition on the 
 morning after the events last recorded of him. 
 
 It had become his habit of late years to lie abed at least 
 two hours later on Sunday morning than was his wonted 
 hour for rising on week days. 
 
 He had fallen into the lazy habit of looking over the 
 Sunday morning's voluminous loc:\l papers, now become 
 so conspicuous a feature in Detroit's journalistic enterprise, 
 before he got up to leisurely dress and breakfast. 
 
 His wife usually brought him the papers and a cup of 
 coffee and a bit of buttered toast before he got out of bed 
 on the morning of the first day of the week. 
 
 But she had not done so this morning. 
 
 He supposed that she was too greviously annoyed with 
 him for what he had said to her last night to do so. W^ll, 
 he would try and make amends to her for what he had 
 said — but he was determined upon one thing, he would not 
 tolerate that boy John's presence in the house one day 
 longer than he could decently help. John it was who had 
 caused all the unpleasantness in the household since Emily's 
 
 (183) 
 
 -•^ 
 
181 
 
 BOUIJEU CANUCKS. 
 
 marriage more than a year ago, and John, therefore, must 
 be got rid of. 
 
 However, it was time to get up now. 
 
 The bells of certain of the churches throuffhout the citv 
 were clanging forth the first installments of their invitations 
 to their followers — to the unregenerate sinner alike, widi 
 their pious front pew pillars — to the wolves and the lambs 
 — the goats and the sheep of their resjieetive folds — all were 
 being called to worsliij) at the sacred shrine of Ilim who 
 died for sinners. 
 
 Of late years the head of the prosperous firm of Rathbone 
 & Hitter had greatly fallen away from the tenets and active 
 observance of the faith of his fathers for so many genera- 
 tions })ast, and now his luxuriously upholstered front pew 
 in St Pancras' knew him but seldom. 
 
 In his early struggles to commercial success in the city — 
 when he was laying the foundation of his present generous 
 fortune — lie had found great satisfaction, not to say encour- 
 agement, in a regular attendance at his church and an active 
 participation in all moves looking to the advancement and 
 good of his communitj-. 
 
 "When Jack was a little boy in small clothes he had felt a 
 paternal pride and an unspeakable sense of well doing 
 when, leading his handsome, dapper little son by the hand, he 
 walked up the main aisle of his church, and in the sight of 
 his fellow-worshipers, took his seat in his pew each Sunday 
 morning with unfailing regularity. 
 
 But during these latter prosperous years he had become 
 impregnated with idealism and, like the sage of Chelsea, 
 had imbibed a predisposition to sco£E and inwardly sneer at 
 
■■■ 
 
 BOKDEU CANUCKS. 
 
 185 
 
 all conventional signs and visible outward exhibitions of a 
 j)urely, presumedly, inward spiritual grace. He now looked 
 upon the large majority of ostentatious religious observ- 
 ances as a means — and a moat efficacious means — to a 
 materialistic end, to-wit, the accumulation of wealth and the 
 consequent respect of one's fellow citizens. 
 
 Any set of religious tenets, faith or theor;, , not absolutely 
 repugnant to one's reasoning faculties ( albeit the same 
 might be founded upon superstition pure and simple), 
 might be advantageously utilized in the interest of one's 
 material advancement during this pending, fleeting show. 
 But when this was the case the higher transcendental aims 
 of a divine faith must be set aside or be made subordinate 
 thereto. 
 
 lie had always felt a vague sense of the existence of two 
 separate and distinct departments in the orthodox faith in 
 which he had been reared, which held the same rela- 
 tive attitudes as to each other that the humam soul holds to 
 the human body. The one was the ideal or sentimental 
 head, while the other was the materialistic outward sign of 
 a not necessarily existent inward spiritual grace. To serve 
 one without slighting the other, or to serve each equally 
 well at one and the same time was as much out of the ques- 
 tion as is the proverbial impossibility of serving two 
 masters. 
 
 These kinds of reasonings and contemplations had 
 brought about in Mr. Rathbone, if not a total recantation, 
 at least a sad fallmg off from his early religious precepts. 
 
 Of late years this change had become so marked that for 
 
186 
 
 BORDEIl CANUCKS. 
 
 montlus nt a stretch liis pew in St Pancras' virtually 
 knew liim not. 
 
 At first his wife, notwithstanding the difTercncc of licr 
 fnith, was wont to remonstrate with him because of this 
 falling ofT and especially because of the bud example it 
 afforded their son John. 
 
 This, for a time at theoutsetof his decline, had frequently 
 instigated him to attend divine service when he would 
 have far rather remained at home and read his Sunday 
 papers. 
 
 Later on it grew less potent in its influence, and now that 
 tne turkey-gobbler spirit had taken such apparently com- 
 plete possession of him as to his son and heir, he had for a 
 long time ignored church attendance altogether. 
 
 Jack was old enough and ought to know enough to go 
 to church without an escort, and he was always made to go 
 if he ever manifested any disposition to remain away, which, 
 however, had been very rarely the case. 
 
 This morning, however, Mr. Raihbone bethought him 
 that he would attend divine service himself. 
 
 It might have the effect of showing his wife and Oracle, 
 without his being obliged to tell them in so many words 
 that he was as penitent as he could be about anything which 
 involved his position as supreme head of the household, 
 for the violence he had exhibited towards them last 
 evening. 
 
 And besides it would be a fitting prelude to the mandate 
 he was about to promulgate m respect of his son's dis- 
 position. 
 
noUDKIl CANl'CKS. 
 
 187 
 
 IIo supposed of course that Jolm had gotten home by 
 this time. 
 
 How lie had contrived to yet in without his having hoard 
 him he couhl not well understand, because sleep liad only 
 come to him in fits and starts until well on towards 
 morning. But he supposed that Grace or liis mother, as 
 they were wont to ilo when the boy was out late, had 
 waited and .watched and surreptitiously let him in when he 
 had returned. 
 
 He would not say anything to him this morning-- atiy- 
 thmg in anger he meant. lie would be very dclibc-'le and 
 determined in what he was about to do, and lio would 
 commence by (;\Mng the boy to church with him this 
 morning To-morrow, witnout any ceremony, he v,ouId lay 
 before his son and heir the plan he had laid out for him 
 and insist upon his adopting it forthwith. 
 
 With this resolved upon as Iiis plan of campaign, he got 
 out of bed, dressed himself and went down stairs to the 
 dining room. 
 
 There he found his wife with her bonnet and furs on 
 alone at the breakfast table. 
 
 "Good morning Emily," he said, with a conciliatory 
 smile as he approached the blazing grate fire with out- 
 stretched palms. 
 
 "Good morning," responded the little woman with 
 serious countenance as she alternately sij)ped and gazed 
 down into her cup of coffee without looking up at him. 
 
 " I suppose that you're just going to church?" he remarked 
 cheerfully. 
 
 / 
 
188 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 " Just come from there, " she replied frigidly, " we went 
 to early mass." 
 
 " Oh, you did, ay ? and where is Gracie ?" 
 
 " I left her to walk home with Emily Ritter. She will be 
 hero ahoitly, " she added after a short pause, during which 
 he hesitatingly, as if about to ask another question, 
 approached the rear door leading to the kitchen and servants' 
 quarters. • 
 
 He was about to ask at what time Jack had returned, but 
 something in his better nature instigated him to forego the 
 question. - 
 
 Albeit as frigid and repelling in her manner as his wife 
 was to him, there was something in the pallor of her drawn 
 face and general appearance which betokened much suffer- 
 ing, and for the instant a pang of remorse shot through him 
 for his utterances of last evening. 
 
 He would go out and ask Michool, the coachman, at what 
 time that scapegrace of a boy had got in last night or this 
 morning, and he left the room without saying anything 
 further. 
 
 " What time did Master John get in last night, do you 
 know, Michael?" enquired Mr. Rathbone as, on entering 
 the commodious brick stable of the establishment, he found 
 his Irish retainer busy rubbing down the horses, which had 
 conveyed his mistress to church and back this morning. 
 
 " Sorra bit of me knows that, sor,"' replied Michael, con- 
 tinuing his currying and brushing. 
 
 " Isn't his pony in her stall ? " and he went over to look. 
 " No, she's not there," he said to himself rather than to the 
 groom. 
 
■T 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 189 
 
 "Sure, his pony wouldn't be loikely to come home wid- 
 out himself, sor, though she be a mighty wise pony, that 
 
 sanie, sor. 
 
 " Where do you think he went to, Michael ? " 
 
 " Well," said Michael, suspending his grooming and tak- 
 ing oS. his cap and wiping his face with his shirt sleeve, 
 "You see I'd not be loikely to know where he wint, sor, 
 unless Masther Jack towld me himself f where he was goin' 
 before he wint away." 
 
 As a matter of fact, Michael was very well aware of 
 where Jack had gone, but being a warm admirer of that 
 young gentleman, he certainly was not going to admit it. 
 
 " I suppose he is somewhere over in Canada, " observed 
 Mr. Rathbone, as he turned to leave the stable. 
 
 " Maybe so, sor, maybe so — that's very true, sor," assented 
 Michael, hissing and rubbing away demonstratively. 
 
 "Gone over to some low-down, French horse race, I sup- 
 pose. I'll see whether I can't put a stop to this sort of 
 thing!" added the turkey-gobbler spirit, as he proceeded 
 on his way across the yard back to the house with rising 
 choler. 
 
 " Bedad, thim Frinch is great for racin', sor, and no mis- 
 take," and ceasing his carrying and hissing for an instant 
 to glance at the retreating form of his em iloyer, he added, 
 " Tare an houns, but the bass is great at guessin,' and no 
 mistake," and then he resumed his grooming and hissing 
 with renewed vigor. 
 
 As Mr. Rathbone wended his way back to the dining 
 room he ma}' be said to have worked himself into a white 
 heat of passion. 
 
190 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 But upon the principle that extremes meet, these 
 excessive tempers often induce a quieter and more delib "ate 
 style of utterance than do the red faced frothy spells wh.^h 
 are so often the besetting sin of mortals otherwise com- 
 paratively unobjectionable. 
 
 When he entered the room where he found his wife still 
 seated at the breakfast table, his blue eyes flashed forth a 
 venomous gleam of wickedness, pnd the flesh upon his 
 prominent cheek bones became abnormally white, while his 
 side-whiskered jaw and large thin-lipped mouth were set 
 with angry determination. 
 
 As he entered and stood upon the hearth rug with his 
 back to the glowing fireplace, Mrs. Rathbone arose from her 
 seat and turning, glanced at her husband with a look of 
 trembling enquiry. 
 
 *' Emily, " he said in subdued voice. 
 
 *' Yes Robert, " she responded nervously. 
 
 " Of course you are aware that that boy has not got back 
 yet?" 
 
 *' Yes, Robert, " she muttered with a little sob. 
 
 " Do.you think his not having done so is a proper obser- 
 vance of the lenient rules and mild forms of discipline I 
 have laid down for his guidance while he remains under 
 this roof? Here it is church time, and yet he is away 
 gallivanting about the country with some of his blackguard 
 boon companions I've no doubt, " and then he resumed the 
 caged animal perambulation of the floor of the previous 
 evening. 
 
 She would have remonstrated with the last part of this 
 speech, but to do so would have obliged her to say that 
 
ml 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 191 
 
 Jack had set out with Charley Ford, and the name of Ford, 
 of old time recollection after what had occurred last evening 
 had better be left unspoken. 
 
 Finding that she received his question in silence, he 
 flared up in louder, irrepressibly angry tones, "Yet you 
 say that I am unjustifiably severe with him, and you and 
 the girls have fallen into the habit of petting him and show- 
 ing him as much consideration as if he were the most import- 
 ant personage in the world, and indispensable to the welfare 
 and happiness of this household I You do this, I presume, 
 to make amends for my alleged severity I " 
 
 The truth is much more likely of utterance in a passion 
 than it proverbially is in jest 
 
 "For well-nigh two years, now, I have had but little 
 peace or satisfaction at home, here," he continued, "because 
 of this absurd lionizing of the graceless, young ruffian ! " 
 
 " Eobert ! " she said, with a flash of anger, as she straight- 
 ened her petite figure up to its full height, while two large 
 tears slowly coursed down her drawn cheeks, " Robert, 
 though you doubt his being your own child, he does not 
 deserve your calling him a graceless, young ruffian 1 " 
 
 He turned in his walk and paused for an instant before 
 he said in a measurably apologetic manner: "Emily, I do 
 not doubt his being my own child, and I have since 
 regretted what I said last night. It would have been better 
 unsaid. " 
 
 " Oh Robert, " she exclaimed, as if stricken to the heart, 
 as she raised her hands above her head and fell limp into an 
 arm chair. " You well-nigh broke my heart wlien you said 
 that you doubted my honor as your wife !" and putting her 
 
192 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 face in her hands upon her lap she sobbed as if her heart 
 would really break. 
 
 Then he went to her, and raising her up from the chair in 
 which she sat in such abandonment of grief, he took her in 
 his arms tenderly and patted her upon her seal skin covered 
 shoulders and soothingly begged of her not to take on in 
 that manner. 
 
 "It makes me very unhappy to see you in this condition, 
 Emily, " he said in a very much mollified and conciliatory 
 voice. "Come, don't cry, there's a good little woman. I 
 was very much annoyed when I said what I did to you last 
 night and I hope you'll forget it and put it away from your 
 mind altogether. " 
 
 The man though a consummate bully within the precints 
 of his own family circle, and a victim of one of the manifold 
 and mysterious forms that all-absorbing passion, jealousy, 
 sometimes assumes, was none the less on occasion capable of 
 generous impulses. 
 
 He always was used to say of himself that he could never 
 stand a woman's tears. This fact his wife and daughters 
 were well aware of, and, the girls especially, in their con- 
 tentions with him had often assumed the demonstratively 
 lachrymose when they really did not feel to that extent 
 effected for the sake of carrying their point with him which 
 they rarely failed to do when this method was judiciously 
 practiced. 
 
 There was, however, no assumption of an outward and 
 visible show of grief that did not exist within the bosom of 
 his wife now. 
 
 Last night's raking up of the skeleton of their early mar- 
 
and 
 )m of 
 
 mar- 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 193 
 
 ried life had greatly shaken her, and the perturbed frame of 
 mind which Jack's continued absence had thrown her into 
 had not failed of adding fuel to the flame of her sorrows, 
 and abject discomfiture. 
 
 It was, therefore, a great relief to her pent-up, harrowed 
 feelings when the assurance fell upon her ears that he was 
 sorry for what he had said last evening, and that he doubted 
 not the legitimacy of her son, and a genuine overflow of 
 down-pouring tears was the natural womanly c jnsequence. 
 
 In reply to her husband's saying that he had a proposal 
 to make with reference to what had best be done with Jack, 
 amidst her gradually slackening sobs, she said : " Oh, 
 Robert, I earnestly pray that something may be done that 
 will bring greater harmony and contentment to us all." 
 
 " Well, then, this is what I propose to do with John, 
 Emily," he replied, as he kissed her and slowly resumed 
 his pacing of the floor ; " You know that I have not been 
 over-exacting with reference to my religious faith in the 
 education of John thus far ? " 
 
 " Yes, Robert, you have been very good and liberal, I'm 
 sure," she assented, drying her eyes with a dainty lace 
 handkerchief, as she stood upon the hearth rug. 
 
 " It was out of consideration for what I presumed to be 
 your wishes upon the subject that I suggested, as a sort of 
 compromise between us from a religious point of view, old 
 man Hamilton's employment as his private tutor that he 
 might complete his education under your own eye at 
 home." 
 
 "Yes, Robert," she replied feelingly, with a shivering 
 
 13 
 
 '.■■%S 
 
 ff 
 
194 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 sob, "and I ha^e always felt the deepest sense of appre- 
 ciation of your consideration for me in having done so." 
 
 "Unfortunately," he continued, "I have found out that 
 in doing this I made a grave mistake, and that my good 
 intentions to you in the premises have only resulted in 
 bringing about a state of things which, I am resolved, shall 
 no longer continue." 
 
 She might have said much in explanation of how this 
 juncture had been reached — how that the lack of harmony, 
 which had existed for these last past months, had been 
 largely brought about by his own unnatural feelings of 
 jealousy of his own son — but the spirit of recrimination, 
 never strong within her, had left her altogether now, and 
 she said nothing. 
 
 *'>Jow this is what I propose shall be done and done at 
 once, " he said peremptorily. " John must be packed off bag 
 and baggage to some one of the colleg^ in the country — 
 Yale, Fordhara oi' Havard. I don't care to what school he 
 goes — so long as he leaves this house before the end of the 
 weekl" 
 
 The vehemence of the latter part of this speech again 
 brought irrepressible tears to this doting little mother's eyes 
 as she quietly acquiesced by saying: "Well, Robert, I 
 suppose that is the best thing that can be done under the 
 circumstances and I shall endeaver to have him ready to 
 start whenever you say." 
 
 " I don't want to have anything more to say upon the 
 subject, " he said decisively, " when or how he shall start, so 
 long as he starts before the end of this week, I leave to you 
 entirely. I am too much out of patience with him to want 
 
^ 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 195 
 
 this 
 
 to have anything more to do with him until he has mended 
 his ways. As to what particular school or college he goes 
 to, that I shall also leave entirely to you — or perhaps, " he 
 added bitterly, "on second thought, you had better let the 
 precious young scapegrace choose for himself what institu- 
 tion shall have the distinguished honor of developing his 
 brilliant attainments." 
 
 After delivering which magnanmious mandate he ceased 
 his pacing of the floor and took his seat at the head of the 
 breakfast table. 
 
 "Very well, Robert, " patiently assented the little woman, 
 "Just as you say," and taking her seat at the table opposite 
 him she remarked: " Shall I pour you out some coffee ?" 
 
 " Yes, please. I think I shall go to church this morn- 
 ing. " 
 
 "Going to church are you?" she exclaimed with irre- 
 pressible surprise. " I'm very glad you're going to church, 
 Robert." 
 
 Thus it was that on this particular Sabbath morning the 
 congregation of St Pancras' Episcopal Church was furnished 
 a cause for rejoicing in the tentative return to the fold of a 
 long strayed sheep. 
 
 m 
 
10^1^; 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 Firat Love'a Conspiracy. 
 
 /^ RACE WAS not disappointed in respect of finding her 
 ^^ friend and boon companion at early mass. 
 
 There sat Miss Emily Ritter in the adjoining pew in all 
 her native 7ion chalant grace of inanimate-looking flaxen 
 hair, and premature tendency to embonpoint for one of 
 scarce sixteen summers. 
 
 Howbeit, becomingly dressed in a close-fitting surtout of 
 black fur with cap to match, she was not altogether ill to 
 look upon so long as she allowed her capacious mouth and 
 substantial lips to remain in repose, which, what with gum- 
 chewing and voluble conversational powers, was a matter 
 of rare occurrence, however. 
 
 She chewed gum continuously throughout the short ser- 
 vice, while the expression of her pale-blue eyes took on a 
 sort of far-away look, as if ineffectually attempting to dis- 
 tinguish objects at a distance through turbid water. 
 
 When she met Grace in the vestibule of the church after 
 service, she chewed out her surprise that she and Mrs. 
 Rathbone should have so departed from their usual practice 
 of attending half past ten o'clock high mass. 
 
 "Well, now, Grace Rathbone!" she exclaimed, as that 
 young person and her mother emerged from the sacred 
 edifice, " who'd have ever thought of seeing you at early 
 
 Pray, whose yoke of oxen hauled you 
 (197) 
 
 m 
 
 mass this morning? 
 
19S 
 
 BOKUKK CANUCKS. 
 
 out of bed in time to got hero at eight o'clock ? Whoever 
 they belong to, they're prize animals, any way, because my 
 experience of you is that you're the greatest stay-abecl in 
 Michigan! Good morning, Mrs. Rathbone; early rising 
 doesn't seem to agree with you either, because you're look- 
 ing unusually pale. Hope you haven't been sick?" with 
 which tender, albeit brusque, enquiry this flaxen-haired 
 maiden came to the end of her tether as to breath, as it were. 
 
 " Oh, no, Emily," replied Mrs. Rathbone, smilingly, " I've 
 not been ill ; and we're not such slow coaches in the morn- 
 ing as you seem to think we are," she added, reprovingly. 
 "How is your mother, my dear? " 
 
 "Oh, as well as could be expected, thank you, Mrs. Rath- 
 bone. You know, for a long time past, I have been com- 
 ing to early church Sundays so as to let ma come to high. 
 
 »» 
 
 mass. 
 
 " That's a very good and considerate thing to do, dear," 
 assented the little woman, pleasantly. 
 
 "Because, you know, we couldn't both be away from the 
 house at the same time," continued Miss Ritter. "That 
 confounded rheumatic gout of pa's has made him so nervous 
 and crotchety, that one of us must be within call every 
 minute of the day and night If he didn't have one of us 
 always handy by to order around and nag and scold at, I 
 believe he'd take a fit and go off in a blue flame, like 
 Jacob Faithful's mother! I really do believe he would! 
 Why, Grace, what's the matter with you this morning ? " 
 
 " Nothing's the matter with me," responded the sylph. 
 
 "Does early rising affect your tongue? You're as silent 
 as a wooden Indian and look as glum as one too." 
 
' ] 
 
 BOUUKU CANUCKS. 
 
 199 
 
 "If you'd have said blind Indian you'd have been nearer 
 the mark, " observed Grace as they reached tlio outer 
 threshold where Mrs. Ratlibone stopped to talk with one of 
 her pensioners among the indigent of the congregation. 
 
 ** Why blind Indian pray?" queried MissRitter. 
 
 "Because you've pretty nearly talked me l)lind already." 
 
 "Oh, pshaw! You get out! You're always saying or 
 insinuating that I talk too much. Well, I dare say I do 
 talk a good deal — but I suppose I was born that way." 
 
 "What! Surely you don't mean to say that you could 
 talk when you were born do you?" laughingly exclaimed 
 Miss Ruthbone. 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! Oh, no, of course I didn't mean that, but I 
 am quite sure that I could cry." 
 
 " Any baby can do that. " 
 
 •'Well, crying is next to talking. " 
 
 " Then 3'ou must have done a heap of crying when you 
 were an infant," and having reached the sidewalk thedainty 
 Miss Gracie, out of hearing of her mother, gushingly and 
 confidingly changed the subject abruptly by exclaiming: 
 
 " Oil, Emily I I vvant you to give me a pressing invitation 
 to go home with you this morning — but of course you 
 musn't let mamma know that I suggested to you to do so." 
 
 "Why, what do you take me for?" queried Miss Ritter 
 with disgust in her voice, "Talking about being born, that 
 event didn't happen with me yesterday. " 
 
 " I have got something very especially particular to talk 
 and advise with you about," continued the sylph, "very 
 particular indeed. " 
 
200 
 
 IJOUDKU CANUCKS. 
 
 "Well, what's the matter with you're telling a fellow 
 about it now tlicii. " 
 
 *'No, no, wait till mamma goes home, haven't time now ! 
 Here she comes. Now don't fail me Emily I" 
 
 As Mrs. liiithbone, having fiiiislied liur interview with 
 her im])euuni()U3 j^^oiege joined the girls at the carriage 
 which was drawn up along-side the curb, Emily gushingly 
 exclaimed in appealing tones: "Oh, Mrs. lltilhbone, I do 
 so wish you'd let Giaee come home to breakfast with mo 
 this morning. I want to sliow her the new dress I got home 
 from the dressmaker's last niglit, and I'll walk home with 
 her afterwards. " 
 
 "W_'ll, dear," said Mrs. Rathbone looking at Grace, 
 " would you like to go home with Emily for a little while?" 
 
 "Yes, mamma, I'd like to go very much if you don't 
 mind going home alone, " and a pang of remorco flashed 
 across the inner conscience of this arch schemer. 
 
 •'Oh, no, I don't mind," remarked the amiable little 
 mater as she stepped into the carriage, " I shall expect you 
 to come home early. Mind you come home with her Emily, 
 and ask your mamma to allow you to stop to dinner with 
 us. Good-bve, " and the little woman nodded her head 
 "milingly to the two conspirators as the carriage drove off 
 rapidly. 
 
 "Well, now, Madame Von Bismarck," exclaimed Miss 
 Ritter, masticating her quid of gum with renewed vigor, 
 turning to Grace, "what is your little game? Propound 
 your pol'cy, fulminate your project I Anything special in 
 the wind ? " and they proceeded to walk leisurely along. 
 
UOUUER CANUCKS. 
 
 201 
 
 "Well," replied the sylphitle, as she nervously gazetl 
 down at lier dainty little feet us they alternately bobbed 
 forth from beneath her dress skirt, " I suppose, Emily, you 
 would do anything in reason for Jaek, wouldn't you ?" 
 
 "Yes, you can just bet I would, and a good deal out of 
 reason, too, if it came to a pinch ! Jack's one of my kind ! 
 No nonsense aboui Johnnie — but just level-headed and 
 reliable. I just think he's the nicest young fellow in the 
 city ! I know he doesn't think me a regular, full-fledged 
 houri in point of perso; 1 aj^pearance, but I know he likes 
 me in a friendly way, auw I reciprocate his friendship. But 
 it's only friendship, you know; no such thing as namby 
 pamby love could exist 'twixt Jack and I." 
 
 "Well, then, said the. sylph, looking up at her voluble 
 and rotund friend, "I must tell you that Jack's got into 
 great trouble, and I'm afraid something awful is going to 
 happen ! " 
 
 "Why, what's the matter with him? What's he been 
 doing?" and Miss Ritter ceased her gum-chewing and 
 gazed upon her nervous little companion with anxiety and 
 concern depicted upon her countenance. " Has he been 
 doing something he ought not to have done ? " 
 
 "Well, papa thinks so, anyway ; and he's in a towering 
 rage about it" 
 
 "What is it? What has he done — robbed a bank or 
 murdered anybody ? " 
 
 "Oh, no! nothing so very dreadful. He went up to 
 Belle River to a race yesterday morning and hasn't got 
 back yet J and you know papa had forbidden his going to 
 any more of those kind of races without his express per- 
 
lift' 
 
 202 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 mission. I am sure if I'd supposed that there was going to 
 be such a fuss made about his going, I should never have 
 helped him away," 
 
 "Why, how did you help Vim away?'* 
 
 " You know I go to the convent for my music lesson on 
 Saturday mornings, and yesterday I pretended that I didn't 
 feel well enough to walk, and asked mamma to let Jack 
 drive me. In that way he contrived to get Bijou and the 
 sleigh out of the stable without being obliged to give an 
 account of where he was going." 
 
 " That was very sisterly and very proper of you — just 
 what I'd have done. Only I think I'd have left the music 
 for some future day and gone to the race with him." 
 
 " Oh, Emily !" exclaimed the sylph blushing. " I could 
 not have gone with Jack yesterday. " 
 
 *' Well I should have if I'd been in your place — that is if 
 he'd have consented to take me of course — and your father 
 is kicking up Dido about it, ay ?" 
 
 " Yes, he's just rampant !" asserted Gracie. 
 
 " Well, confound those old men anyway ! I know what 
 they are when they get their backs up, you bet !" oracularly 
 observed Miss Eitter. " We've got one at our house who, 
 from morning till night, now that he's got that rheumatic 
 gout, day in and day out, week days, Sundays, holidays and 
 holy days — it makes no difference when — wears a hump 
 on his back as big as a camel. I'll back him for cantanker- 
 ousnesss against any aged gentleman citizen of these United 
 States and pay anybody that'll take the bet. Oh, yes, I 
 know what a grumbling, nagging old man is I It's only 
 
BORDZR CANUCKS. 
 
 203 
 
 sometimes with you at your 1 Ous?, but it-'s come to stay 
 with us." 
 
 "Well, I hope it's not come to stay with us, " tremulously 
 exclaimed Miss Rathbone. " I never saw papa so beside 
 himself as he was last night, and I've seen him angry with 
 Jack very often." 
 
 " Well, what do you think is going to be done with him 
 when he returns on this occasion?" 
 
 " I'm sure I don't know, " replied the sylph nervously, 
 forgetting for the moment the main object of her morning's 
 expedition. " Mamma has always heretofore contrivfAi to 
 smooth matters over for Jack with papa, but I am u'raid 
 something awful is going to happen this time. " 
 
 "Your father is certainly not going to try to whip him, 
 is he ? because from what I know of Jack, that would be a 
 big undertaking if he didn't choose to submit. " 
 
 "Oh, of course papa would not attempt to whip Jack! 
 My brother is too much of a man for that now, " proudly 
 assented the sylph with confidence, " but I'm afraid he's 
 going to do something far worse. " 
 
 "Why, what on earth can he do? lie is not going to 
 shoot his own son, surely ! And he can't have him pat in 
 juil, because going to a race at Belle River is not a criminal 
 offense, if I know anything about the laws of this great and 
 glorious country ! '' 
 
 "No," responded Grace, with a little sob, as she put her 
 handkerchief up to her eyes, "I think he'll be sent away 
 from home — banished, you know — at least for a short time." 
 
 "Well, worse things than that might take place, I'm sure. 
 It might turn out the best thing that could happen Jack to 
 
 Hi 
 
 ■). 
 
204 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 be sent away somewhere for a time. To see a little of the 
 world outside of Detroit would certainly not injure him 
 But what are you going to do about it? What has all this 
 got to do with your wanting me to in\lte you to breakfast 
 this morning?" enquired Miss Eitter, with vibratory jaws, 
 as they reached the corner of the street leading to the Bitter 
 habitation. 
 
 "I'll tell you, Emily," siraperingly replied the dainty 
 little schemer, as she became intent upon her pretty little 
 feet again ; " I thought it would be a good thing to go down 
 to the ferry and meet Jack when he comes over, and tell 
 him how matters stand at home ; and I'd like you to go 
 with me." ' 
 
 " Why, of course I'll go with you," assented the other 
 gushingly, " and right glad if I thought it would do Jack 
 any good" she added, as she took her quid of gum out of 
 her mouth ^nd kneaded it between her fore finger and 
 thumb. "Bat I must say that I fail to see the merit of 
 telling a fellow beforehand that he's going to be annihil- 
 ated when he returns to the parental roof after a truant 
 abseuce." 
 
 To this, the now subdued and crest-fallen little schemer 
 made no reply as they turned and took their way in the 
 direction of the ferry landing. 
 
 "Did anybody go to Belle Eiver with Jack?" asked 
 Miss Hitter as, after inspecting her chew of gum intently 
 and absently for an instant,, she restored it back to her 
 mouth again. 
 
 " Go to Belle River with Jack, did you say, Emily? " 
 
 " Yes, did anybody from the city go to the race with 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 205 
 
 him?" repeated Emily pointedly, gazing upon the mantling 
 little face of the conscious sylph and munching away at her 
 gum voraciously. 
 
 " Why, yes, Emily, " replied the little one with affected 
 surprise. " Didn't I tell you before ? Why, Charley Ford 
 went with him, you know." 
 
 "Oh, pshaw I" exclaimed Miss Ritter in tones of disgust. 
 " I'm just too green to live in the winter time. Why, of 
 course ! Now I know why you're so anxious to go down 
 to meet Jack at the ferry !" 
 
 "Oh, Emily!" remonstrated the sylph with face aflame, • 
 " No, you don't, either." 
 
 " Yes, I do, though," insisted the other as she demonstra- 
 tively munched away. "Of course 1 do! and all I've got 
 to say is that you're welcome to your fancy." 
 
 " I haven't got any fancy ! you know I haven't, Emily I" 
 intent upon the sidewalk. 
 
 " No, I don't know anything of the sort Miss Rathbone, 
 either! I've got ears to hear as any one who'll con- 
 descend to look at me will see for himself or herself with- 
 out the aid of magnifying glasses ; and my eyes, although 
 they may not be absolutely dazzling orbs, suit me well 
 enough to see with." 
 
 " But you're wrong about my having any special fancy 
 for anyone," deprecated the blushing little schemer. 
 
 "Oh, no, I'm not wrong," urged Emily confidently. 
 "But what Jack can see in that dude to be always toting 
 him about with him is more than I can explain to my own 
 satisfaction." « 
 
 ' 1 
 
206 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 " "What do you mean by a dude?" demurely asked Grace, 
 looking ahead of her. 
 
 "A dude! why he's a thing in tight pants and pointed 
 shoes, a high, shiny, sti£E dog collar — the chief foundation 
 of his little head, and a beard, (if he's old enough to grow 
 one) that looks like another man's back hair parted in tlie 
 middle, plastered.on his chin, a tight fitting cut-away coat, a 
 round top hard hat, and when he's an extra fine sample of 
 the breed, he wears a short stick and a rimless eye glass 
 stuck in his right eye. " 
 
 " But Charley Ford doesn't wear a short stick and an eye 
 glass," interposed Gracie deprecatingly. 
 
 " No, I know he doesn't — at least I never saw him wear 
 one," qualified Miss Eitter, " but if he doesn't, it's because 
 he's only half-fledged as yet. You just wait until he gets 
 all his feathers and you'll see that he'll blossom forth into a 
 dude with the closest observance to details of costume, as 
 theatrical managers say of their performances. Well, 
 there's the boat just coming in now, " added this gum- 
 chewing despiser of the genus dude as they neared the ferry 
 landing at the foot of the street, " and I don't see any grey 
 pony and sleigh on the forward deck. " 
 
 " No, neither do I, " assented the sylph disappointedly 
 absorbed in an inward contemplation of what a queer com- 
 pound of human idiocyncrasies a dude and a prototype of 
 Jesse James all rolled up into one man would make. " It's 
 the Victoria too, the boat Jack usually crosses on, " she 
 added. 
 
 *' Well, we'll wait until the people get off, " suggested the 
 practical Miss Eitter, " and then we'll go on board and ask 
 
 y 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 207 
 
 the Captain if they came over with him on any of his pre- 
 vious trips this morning." 
 
 And following this suggestion the two girls silently stood 
 without the exit gangway and waited until the passengers, 
 a large number of them intending worshipers at the various 
 churches in the city that morning, streamed off the ferry 
 boat. 
 
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CHAPTER XIL 
 
 Friendly Relations, or Ultimate Annexation t 
 
 rpo STRANGERS visiting the neighborhood for the first 
 •^ time — those having a proper understanding of the 
 hampered nature of trade relations between the two coun- 
 tries — the constant stream of travel and traffic between 
 Detroit and Windsor is ever a matter of surprise, not to say 
 wonder. 
 
 If that at present problematical chimera, annexation, were 
 ever brought about, while Detroit would be enormously 
 advantaged as a trade centre, in that it would make her the 
 entrepot of the most fertile and productive portion of south- 
 ern Ontario, in addition to her already tributary possessions 
 in that regard, Windsor would feel the transition less from 
 a social point of view and be more materially benefited in 
 the enhancement of values of real estate than would any 
 other Canadian town along the frontier. 
 
 At present a quasi suburb of the City of the Straits, with 
 annexation, she would inevitably become a sort of South 
 Detroit — as Brooklyn is to New York, if not absolutely 
 part and parcel of her fair metropolitan neighbor — so strong 
 is the social and commercial affinity 'twixt the two cities. 
 
 But, for that matter, do not advocates of closer national 
 relations claim that this same affinity, to a marked degree, 
 belongs to the two countries at large, albeit they each of 
 
 14 
 
 (209) 
 
210 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 them have a brusque way of showing it at times, to use a 
 mild phrase? 
 
 Yet, from a Canadian's point of view, there would seem 
 to he something touchingly mch^ncholy in the bare thought 
 of his being cajoled, negotiated or forced into relinquishing 
 so fair a national heritage as he possesses in his vast and 
 prolific domain, and the superior judiciary laws he enjoys 
 under a more utterly democratic form of government than 
 have his brothers at the south of him. 
 
 lie argues that he has everything to be proud of in the 
 twenty-two years of his young national life ; that the devel- 
 opment of his country's boundless resources, though still 
 upon the threshold of its being, has thus far been produc- 
 tive of marvelous results, and that with an abiding faith 
 and pride in his national birth-right, he can work out his 
 own destiny and maintain his own national identity upon 
 the lines laid down with the inaguration of confederation 
 in 1867. 
 
 It goes without saying that this will be the attitude 
 assumed and firmly upheld by the French portion of 
 Canada's population when the question of annexation takes 
 on a tangible form or shape with a definite coloring as a liv- 
 ing issue before the Canadian people. 
 
 In the meantime certain of their politicians, to serve 
 ephemeral party ends, may find it in them to coquet 
 with the question ; but when the time comes, if come it 
 must, the descendants of La Nouvelle France, judging them 
 by the light of their heroically unique and conservative 
 history upon this continent, will be found to a man shoulder 
 to shoulder, defending the identity of their language and 
 
BOliDEB CANUCKS. 
 
 211 
 
 the maintenance of their " peculiar institutions" which, in 
 the event of Canada's absorption into the Union, would of 
 necessity cease and determine as guaranteed privileges. 
 
 The untrammelled exercise of these guaranteed privil- 
 eges, since confederation, in that part of the Dominion 
 known as the Province of Quebec, has made that part of 
 Canada more French than many parts of old France, and 
 from a religious point of view perhaps the most so-called 
 ultra Montane country in the civilized world. 
 
 From the vantage ground of that Province during the 
 last dozen years and more, have been promulgated teach- 
 ings designed to set aflame in vigorous glow an esprit de corps 
 as to its national origin and entity which had languished 
 and declined to the condition of slowly dying embers with 
 the descendants of the French race outside the limits of its 
 own confines. 
 
 Hence it is now that we hear of French aggression in 
 Ontario and Manitoba, and an irrepressible conflict would 
 seem to have been inaugurated. Nor has the influence of 
 these teachings been confined to the limits of the Dominion. 
 
 It has extended itself to Northern Michigan, Wisconsin, 
 the eastern manufacturing states, and wherever communities 
 of French Canadians are to be found established throughout 
 the union. 
 
 While fifteen years ago it was no uncommon thing in the 
 states bordering on the dominion, to hear two French Cana- 
 dians carrying on a conversation in broken English with each 
 other, as if they were ashamed of their own mother tongue, 
 now they prefer and seem proud of their own native patois 
 as a means of inter-communication. 
 
212 
 
 BORDER CANUCEa 
 
 In respect of Quebec's attitude with reference to the 
 English speaking, provinces, which constitute the great bullc 
 of the Dominion confederation, if one chose to indulge in 
 analogy one might plausibly demonstrate that, with her 
 guaranteed " peculiar institutions, " her position as to the 
 union of the British provinces on this continent assimilates 
 very strongly to what was that of the Southern States and 
 their institution of slavery in respect of the American union 
 before the late civil war in this country. 
 
 Then there is another coincidence belonging to the two 
 positions which might be profitably speculated upon by 
 Canadians, and that is that while the Southern States prac- 
 tically controlled the government of the union up to the 
 first election of Mr. Lincoln, the Province of Quebec has 
 been the de facto ruler of the destinies of Canada, since the 
 union of the two Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada 
 in 1841. 
 
 When the South lost her control she withdrew from the 
 Union, fired upon Fort Sumpter and let loose the dogs of 
 war; and there are those who say that they can see a hand- 
 writing upon the wall, indicating a similar course on the 
 part of the French province as to the Canadian Union so 
 soon as the time shall become ripe for it. 
 
 Should history repeat itself, as it were, in this manner, 
 then would annexation become a tangible issue and per- 
 chance a practical proposition ; but until then, Canada will 
 be likely to prefer to paddle her own canoe after her own 
 democratic methods as part and parcel of the British Empire. 
 
 However this may be, the present neighborly intercourse 
 existing between the two sides of the border at Detroit and 
 
BORDEIi CANUCKS. 
 
 213 
 
 
 Windsor, despite custom's exactions, is likely to continue ; 
 and the latter city, because of the number of Detroiters 
 who are constantly taking up tlieir residences there, is prac- 
 tically becoming a handsomely embellished civic adjunct 
 to her larger and fairer cousin across the noble river. 
 
 Nothing has contributed more to bringing about this 
 state of things than the admirably systematic and puncturl 
 ferry service which exists between the two cities. This is 
 performed by an organization known as the "Detroit Belle 
 Isle and Windsor Ferry Company," whose five large 
 steamers, for the purpose they were designed, are unique 
 specimens of marine architecture. 
 
 Tlie harbinger of the line and peculiar style of model d 
 the " Victoria " which was designed by her one-time Captain, 
 now the manager of the line. 
 
 When that gallant mariner descended from his pilot house 
 to the main deck of the vessel after landing on the American 
 side on the })articular Sunday morning referred to in the last 
 chapter, little Grace Rathbone and her loquacious friend 
 Emily Ritter approached him. " Good morning captain, " 
 said Emily. 
 
 " Good morning, young ladies, good morning, " replied 
 the skipper with unctuous hospitality, "going over to Europe 
 with us?'' 
 
 It may be well to explain that the Canadian side of the 
 river at this point is often facetiously called "Europe" by 
 both ferrymen and their patrons. 
 
 "No, we're not going across this morning, we simply 
 wanted to know whether young Mr. Rathbotie and his pony 
 and sleigh have crossed with you from the other side this 
 
 * ii 
 
 
214 
 
 BOllDKU CANUCKS. 
 
 morning or not?'* and Miss Ritter's jaws paused for reply. 
 
 *' You know him when you see liim, don't you captain ?" 
 queried Grace. 
 
 •'Oh yes, miss, I know young Mr. Rathbone riglit well. 
 No, he hasn't crossed the river this morning, that I'm sure 
 of, because you see this being Sunday, we are the only bout 
 running up to this time this morning. " 
 
 "Then I suppose we'd better go back and loaf about 
 until he does come over, hadn't we Gracie?" suggested 
 Emily. 
 
 " Yes, I suppose that's the only thing we can do. " 
 
 " Mr. Rathbone crossed with me yesterday morning, " 
 observed the captain, " and I had some conservation with 
 him as he drove aboard on this side. He told me that he 
 was going up to the "Widow Martin's at Belle River to a 
 race. " 
 
 " Yes, that's where he went and he hasn't got back yet, " 
 replied Grace regretfully. 
 
 " I suppose he couldn't get away. Those French races 
 sometimes last till after dark, and if he stopped at the 
 widow's all night he will probably have started from there 
 to drive back along about eight o'clock, and if so he ought 
 to be along pretty soon now, " and then the genial mariner, 
 assuming a quizzical tone, continued, " but see here young 
 ladies, ain't this pretty early Sunday moiring to be looking 
 for your fellahs ?" 
 
 " We're not looking for our 'fellahs * captain, " exclaimed 
 the ready witted Emily. " This is Miss Gracie Rathbone and 
 shd is looking for her brother who crossed with you yes- 
 
BOHDKU CANUCKS. 
 
 2lo 
 
 terday morning, " thid with such stress upon tlio brotlicr 
 as niatlo tlie sylphitlo's cliccks tingle. 
 
 " All, that's it, is it? Glad to know you ]Miss ll:ithbono, " 
 and the skipper touched liis cap gallantly. "I've ktiovvn 
 your father well on to thirty years now, and Mr. Hitter, his 
 partner too, I have known for very nearly ns long. " 
 
 "This is Miss Emily Rittcr, Mr. Hitter's daughter,"Haid 
 Grace, aihlre.s.sing the Captain as with her hands in her 
 pretty little muH she nodded her head at that young lady. 
 
 " Oh, I see, this is Miss Rittcr, ay ? Pleased to know you 
 miss, " and the captain again touching his cap politely con- 
 tinued, "Well then, we have the whole firm of RathboneA; 
 Ritter represented right here, haven't we?" 
 
 " Yes, captain, " replied Emily as she ground away at her 
 gum, " we represent the domestic interests of the firm of 
 Raihbone & Ritter on this occasion and I want you par- 
 ticularly to understand that the representative of the junior 
 partner hasn't got a ' fellah * and what's more isn't hanker- 
 ing after one either. " 
 
 "Ha, ha, ha, " laughed the skipper, "well that's a kind 
 o'remarkuble I must say. Why, a good-looking young 
 lady like you — " 
 
 •' Oh, you get out, captain !" interposed Miss Ritter with a 
 toss of her head, "none of your blarney — I know just how 
 good-looking I am. " 
 
 " Well then, how is it that you have'n't half a dozen 
 'fellahs* dangling after you?" demanded the captain 
 chalfingly. 
 
 " Because I don't want them." 
 
 1/ 
 
216 
 
 BOKDEK CANUCKS. 
 
 " Ah^ yes, that must bo it ; but you mustn't take oHense 
 at what I say, Miss Ritter." 
 
 "Oh, I'm not oITonaea." 
 
 "That's right," remarked the skipper, approvingly. "You 
 see if we ferry-men weren't allowed to joke with our pas- 
 sengers sometimes, ours would be a very dull and monoto- 
 nous business." 
 
 "Yes, I suppose it would," assented the voluble one, 
 "and you can. joke with me whenever I cross with you — 
 pleased to have you." 
 
 "Well, now, since we've had our joke this morning, 
 come along and go over with us for a ride. You'll prob- 
 ably find Master Rathbone on the dock waiting to come 
 rtcross when we get over there." 
 
 "Well, what do you say, Grace, ' asked Emily, "shall 
 we go ? " 
 
 " Yes, thank you, captain," replied the sylphide demurely; 
 " 1 think it would be nice to go over when there's so much 
 ice in the river ; its so exciting." 
 
 "That's right, come right along, young ladies. I must 
 go back to my post in the pilot house now," and he turned 
 to move away. 
 
 "See here, captain!" cried Emilj^, jocularly, "wait a 
 moment; I want to tell you before you go that I guess I'm 
 the only girl on this boat this trip that hasn't got a ' fellah,' *" 
 and she motioned meaningly towards Grace. 
 
 " Oh, I twig ! " exclaimed the jolly ferry-man. " I think 
 I understand how the land lies now. Mr. Charley Ford 
 went up to Belle River with Mr. Rathboue yesterday, and I 
 
BORlJEK CANUCKS. 
 
 217 
 
 suppose he'll be coming back with him this morning, won't 
 he?" 
 
 Poor little schemer ; how her face burned I ' * 
 
 " Yes," assented Miss Rittcr, with a twinkle in her eye 
 and a nod of her head, as she munched at her gum, *' that's 
 the calculation." 
 
 " Mr. Ford is a great friend of mine. Knew his father, 
 Gustavus Ford, well, too. I think Charley is about the 
 handsomest young man in the city — but I must get into 
 that pilot house and leave now. Good-bye for the present, 
 young ladies ; see you on the other side," and the master of 
 the Victoria rapidly ascended the stairway leading to the 
 pilot house. 
 
 And now the poor little schemer, with mingled feelings 
 of pride and shame, tremblingly said to the cruel Miss 
 Eitter: "Emily, I think you're just a real mean thing I 
 and the captain, with all his politeness, is an impudent old 
 fellow ! that's what he is !" 
 
 " Well, I like that !" exclaimed the other ; " what's struck 
 you. Miss Rathbone? Why, didn't you hear the captain 
 say that Charley Ford was the handsomest young man in 
 the city? How could you call him ao nipudent old fellow 
 after that?" 
 
 " Well, I don't care whnb he juid ; he's, an impudent old 
 thing!'' exclaimed the sylphidc sharply, with changing 
 color. "I don't see how it is th!it you are always down on 
 Charley Ford." 
 
 Because he's down upon me. 
 
 " • Our love is mutual, this wc know.' " 
 
 a ' 
 
 V 
 
 ••• 
 
 '■' 
 
 
 i*^.? 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
218 
 
 BORDEU CAXUCKS. 
 
 And Miss Rlttcr pioceedetl to hum the air of the song. 
 
 *' Well, then, I don't see why you should be constantly 
 introducing his name when there's no necessity for it." 
 
 "I am not constantly introducing his name !" 
 
 ^' Yes, you are ! and I'm very sorry I asked you to come 
 — there now !" and the dainty little Grade's face was aflame 
 with tremulous anger. 
 
 " Well, so am I sorry you asked me to come on such an 
 expedition!" chewed out Miss Eitter with indifference as 
 they went to the side of the now moving steamer. 
 
 As the powerful vessel moved away from her wharf and 
 breasted the thickly frozen water field the girls gazed over 
 the railing at the receding ice over which with loud sound- 
 ing vibration they seemed to fly. 
 
 Further crimination and recrimination as to Mr. Charley 
 Ford was therefore put a stop to between them for the time 
 being. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Jacobin Clocks and " Le ehemin de croia.^ 
 
 rriHERE WAS a remarkable coincidence in the conduct 
 -^ of the two clocks ^hich marked the hours and regu- 
 lated the going and the coming, the rising and retiring at 
 the Widow Martin's tavern on the memorable Saturday 
 night of the particular ball involved in these chronicles at 
 that hospitable caravansary. 
 
 When the highly respectable-looking, old-fashioned, 
 heavy-weighted, long-pendulum gentleman, standing in the 
 southwest corner of the dining-hall ball room, who slowly 
 ticked Time's fleeting sands away, reached the twenty- 
 second hour plus the fortieth minute of the twenty-third 
 hour of that memorable day, a close observer might have 
 perceived that his hands had ceased to move and his ticks 
 had ceased to tick. " 
 
 While the square shaped, Sam Slick plebian party, who 
 scored time for the Avenger behind the bar counter, sus- 
 pended operations justpthree minutes later, or at exactly ten 
 forty -three P. M., to be accurate. 
 
 This, it is presumed in the case of the venerable and 
 vibrator}"-, albeit dignified and upright, gentleman in the 
 dining-hall ball room was due to a tender feeling of solici- 
 tude for him in his headlong, irrevocable career on the part 
 of a bevy of laughing, giggling girls, who hovered about 
 his tall, black-walnut frame at precisely the moment of his 
 cessation of business ; while the hourly and vulgarly reso- 
 
 (219) 
 
 1 1 
 t 
 
 ./i 
 
220 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 nant Sam Slick, perched amidst the bottles and decanters 
 on the shelves behind the bar counter, was induced to sus- 
 pend his occupation of second clipping by the accommodat- 
 ing and sympathetic barkeeper. 
 
 Meanwhile the only intermissions of varying lengths 
 between the dances were caused by the constantly recurring 
 desire for refreshment on the part of the band which 
 seemed, however, not perceptibly to influence his mental or 
 physical condition. 
 
 *' Mons. Duplessis, " said L j/ai^e Martin in French to him 
 on his return to the ball rooui \im. one of his periodic 
 foraging expeditions, " if you'll not go into the bar again 
 before supper I'll make you a nice present of something, 
 you'll see if I don't!" 
 
 "But when are we going to have supper ma chere Madam- 
 oiselle ? I'm sure it must be past twelve and 3fon Dieu ! but 
 I am hungry." 
 
 " What are you saying to the professor?" asked Charley 
 Ford, on whose arm Rosalie leaned — Mr. Ford's knowledge 
 of French was somewhat crude and imperfect 
 
 " Ah am telling heem " she explained in her pretty accent, 
 "dat eef he weel not go into de !5ar any more beefore 
 suppeur Ah weel mac heem a present of someting. " 
 
 " Yes Moses, and I'll give you a half a dollar if you'll not 
 take another drink before supper, " added Charley. 
 
 " Tank you, monsieur ! tank you ! but Mon Dieu I when 
 we wus goan have suppeur? Ah wus moss starve now! 
 Bah gosh I Ah wus hungray lac a peeg. " 
 
 " But you don't look hungry, " observed Charley as he 
 quizzically gazed upon Monsieur Duplessis' ungainly and 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 221 
 
 greasy proportions as he ascended to his perch on the dry 
 goods box in the southeast corner. 
 
 "Well, Ah feels hungray jews de sam, " grunted Moses, 
 " an tirstay too ! Ah'll toll you. Monsieur, dare wus nutting 
 lac play de feedle fur mac a mans hungray an tirstay bote at 
 de sam tam 1" 
 
 " Well, play a polka for us now and I guess supper will 
 not be very far off by the time you finish. Will it Miss 
 •Kose?" 
 
 " Oh, no, eet ees most near ready now. " 
 
 " Eh hien mes amis /" called out Mons. Duplessis as he 
 resumed his seat on the rostrum, " took yo pardneur fur a 
 polkay an afteur dat Ah guess we goan have sum suppeur," 
 and as he leant over to take his fiddle out of its box he 
 oracularly continued, " eef you doan feed yo hoss he coo'nt 
 wuck! Eef you doan wine yo clock she's not go I an eef you 
 doan geeve yofeedleursumtingto heat an sumting for drink 
 he coo'n't feedell, dat's sure ting ! " 
 
 But when, after a due amount of discordant see-sawing in 
 the preliminary process of tuning up, Monsieur le Professeur 
 did commence the production of an antediluvian air with 
 resonant pedal taps upon the rostrum as an accompaniment, 
 the polka did not prove an especially huge success. 
 
 At least not to the extent an old-fashioned waltz or 
 quadrille or cotillion would have been with the heaux esprits 
 of the neighborhood. 
 
 Not more than four or five couples out of the large num- 
 ber present were on the floor at any one time during the 
 jiggy stuccatoand not always concordant measures of Mons. 
 Duplessis' fiddle and bow ; while the onlookers gazed upon 
 
222 
 
 BOllDEll CANUCKS. 
 
 these, if not with envious eyes, at least with askant air, as 
 if they felt they were being practiced upon by reason of 
 their lack of knowledge of fashionable metropolitan airs and 
 graces. 
 
 Hence it shortly came about that Madamoiselle Rosalie's 
 sense of the proprieties as assistant hostess on the occasion, 
 soon prompted her to forego the beguiling delight of being 
 swung about the room on the strong right arm of the grace- 
 ful and handsome Mr. Charley Ford ; and coming to a stand- 
 still for lack of breath near to the professor's rostrum, she 
 gave the latter to understar '^ that the polka might come to 
 a finale^ which was i.ccou.|jiished on the instant without 
 unnecessary flourish by the half famished and ever thirsty 
 band. 
 
 Jack Rathbone was not an enthusiastic lover of dancing 
 and, as has been said before, not an especial votary of the 
 tenderer sex of his own age. 
 
 He had danced twice with Blanche, Peter Bertrand's 
 pretty daughter, and once each with Rosalie Martin and 
 other girls, but he was more particularly attentive to the 
 widow, and in a spirit of badinage even went so far as to 
 assure that festive matron that he would like to try conclu- 
 sions with her in a two-handed reel, which only made her 
 laughingly say: "Oh, no. Monsieur Ratbone, Ah weel 
 nevaire dance no more aftaire dees. Ah have revenge ole 
 Crapaud bah beatin Pierro Bertrand to-night, an Ah am 
 well sateesfy." 
 
 "But wouldn't you like to revenge yourself upon me, 
 too, in the same way?" remonstrated Jack, quizically. 
 
 " What Ah want revenge meself on one of mah good fren 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 223 
 
 lao you wus, Monsieur Ratbone ? " queried the widow, 
 opening her pretty eyes to their widest and gazing upon 
 Jack smilingly. 
 
 " Why, because Peter has named the little chestnut after 
 
 ij 
 
 me. 
 
 " Ila, ha, ha 1 " laughed the owner of Crapaud, " dat wus 
 good joke. Why, Monsieur Jack, de way Ah feel jews 
 now acose he have beat us today, Ah tink hees nam wus 
 de bess part ov de ponay. Oh, no, ole Crapaud have 
 reetire from de race beesness an hees meestress have reetire 
 from dancin. Why don't you go an got one ov dem 
 young gell standin bah de clock een decorneur ovaire dare, 
 Mons. Ratbone ? " and lowering her voice to a whisper she 
 bent her head over towards Jack's ear and said : " Ah kin 
 tell you one ting: dey wus all een love wit you!" and 
 squeezing Jack's arm with both hands, with many confirm- 
 atory nods of her head, she passed out into the kitchen to 
 look after preparations for supper. 
 
 But any little flattering episode of the evening like this, 
 or any of Jack's attempts at jollity, were pervaded by con- 
 stantly recurring thoughts of his return home on the 
 morrow. He was haunted by a premonition that something 
 unusual was in store for him against his return to the 
 parental roof; and while he was not physically one jot 
 afraid of any possible consequences that migiit accrue from 
 his presence there that evening, he was made morally 
 nervous whenever he contemplated the probable results of 
 his father's attacks upon his mother's comfort and happiness 
 in consequence of this surreptitious outing. 
 
 Ill the pauses of conversation with his various partners. 
 
 < V 
 
 li 
 
224 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 'A, 
 
 I 
 
 commencing with Blanche Bertrand in the opening quad- 
 rille, throughout the night his thoughts would ever revert 
 back to this and he cannot be said to have enjoyed himself 
 unless it was when absorbed in listening to Peter Bertrand 
 and other elderly male guests talk horse and racing exper- 
 iences in the comfortable sitting room across the front 
 entrance hall from the bar. 
 
 Here assembled around the open chimney fire-place cer- 
 tain of the non-dancers of the occasion which, since the open- 
 ing of the two-hand reel, included Peter Bertrand, and, with a 
 number of other congenial spirits as well, no less a per- 
 sonage than Monsieur Badeeshow, the loquacious judicial 
 spokesman at the race during the ati cirnoon. 
 
 In the far corner of the room around a small unpainted 
 pine table lighted by a solitary, smoky, coal oil lamp sat 
 five undemonstrative and silent individuals absorbed in a 
 game of draw poker at " five-cent ante. " • 
 
 These consisted of the dapper and oleaginous little sweat- 
 board faker of the afternoon, the solemn, twinkle-eyed 
 Franco- Yankee, Wheel of Fortune man, a dark-eyed man of 
 sombre, swarthy feature, whom his familiars addressed as 
 " Denis, " (and the small faker as *' Mistoo Goathere, ") Mr. 
 Budd Doble, Junior, otherwise Dave, the driver of Crapaud 
 in the race, now keenly and soberly on the alert to retrieve 
 his losses on " dat leetle cbesnut plug's " victory, and last 
 but not by any means least, a bald headed party somewhat 
 below the medium height when he stood upon his feet, who 
 was addressed as " Faro " a nickname given him by his 
 intimates in signification of his partiality for games of 
 chance and who was understood to be the sportive pro- 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 225 
 
 prietor of the "Dew Drop Inn," a well known hostelry, 
 situated on the river bank down towards the city. 
 
 The latter was manifestly a man of serenely good humor, 
 who possessed the faculty to a marked degree of uttering 
 facetious observations in a mixture of French and English 
 jargon peculiarly his own. 
 
 Around the card players sat and stood a cordon of eager 
 lookers-on, who were even more silent than the players 
 themselves. The absorbed taciturnity of this far corner 
 made the not infrequently chaotic conversation of the sitters 
 at and around the table in the centre of the room, immedi- 
 ately before the fire-place, more conspicuous than it perhaps 
 otherwise would have been. 
 
 And thus above the din and discord of incoherent French 
 and English discussions there would periodically arise the 
 sonorous and authoritative colloquial strains of the rotund 
 Monsieur Badeeshow. 
 
 Flushed with the effects of good company and the fumes 
 of congenial beverages, that gentleman was now unbended 
 as far as his wonted jealous preservation of his dignity, 
 drunk or sober, would permit, and withal disposed to be 
 discursively oracular upon any subject included in the 
 repertory of his information which, apart from his knowl- 
 edge of the rules governing habitant horse races, chiefly cen- 
 tred itself in municipal politics. 
 
 With two grown-up sons at home to look after the farm, 
 he had long since become a man of leisure, and for the ten 
 years last past a perennial candidate for a seat in the coun- 
 cil of his native municipality. 
 
 He knew the history and apparent cost of every bridge, 
 
 15 
 
226 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 ditch and culvert within the limits of the township in which 
 he lived, and was at any time eagerly prepared to join 
 issue with any one who might venture to dispute the wis- 
 dom of any of his votes in the council. 
 
 Much of the evening in the bar and sitting room had been 
 consumed by Councillor Badeeshow in an animated discus- 
 sion with several of his quondam supporters as to the judic- 
 iousness of his having leant his vote and influence towards 
 the expenditure of certain county moneys in the opening 
 of a certain new road. 
 
 In his own estimation Mr. B. had completely vindicated 
 his action in the premises, and now, redolent of victory and 
 many incidental drinks, he was prepared to talk horse, tell 
 a story or join in the chorus of U7i chanson de ramme. 
 
 "Ah, Monsieur Ratbone," he said benignly to Jack, as 
 that young gentleman edged up towards the fire-place in 
 sitting room, "Ah hopes you was anjye yoseff all raght, 
 monsieur." 
 
 " Oh, yes, thank you, Mr. Badeeshow, I'm getting on all 
 right" 
 
 " Come an took dees chair here, Monsieur Jack, and talk 
 wit Monsieur Badeeshow," exclaimed Peter Bertrand, as he 
 arose from his seat near the councillor. 
 
 *' Oh, no, no, Peter, " remonstrated Jack, " I'd prefer to 
 stand here with my back to the fire, thank you. " 
 
 " But weel you keep dees chair for me for wan meeneet, 
 see you please, " appealed the other. " Ah wants to go an 
 spoke wit mah dautteur, " and he handed the chair over to 
 Jack politely. 
 
BOKDEll CANUCKS. 
 
 227 
 
 " All right then," said the latter, " I'll keep it until you 
 come back if you're not too long. " 
 
 "What you want goan see yo dautteur fo Pierro?" 
 demanded Mons. Badeeshow taking his long clay pipe out 
 of his mouth and gazing up towards the top of Mr. Bert- 
 rand's tall form, " Ah hopes you wus not goan spile heur 
 funl" 
 
 " Aw, no, Ah doan want spile heur fun mais Ah doan 
 want lose mah fun some udder tarn needer, " responded 
 Peter as he straightened himself up to his full height and 
 with both hands excavated his huge hunting case silver 
 watch from his fob pocket, and opening it, gazed upon its 
 veracious face, muttering to himself the while. 
 
 "What do you mean by losing your fun some other time, 
 Peter? " enquired Jack, settling himself in the chair along- 
 side Mons. Badeeshow. 
 
 " Well, you see," replied the owner of "dat leetle ches- 
 nut plug," as he restored his watch to its fob, "eet was jews 
 lac dees: De las tam Ah wus to a ball eet wus bout dees 
 tam las year, up to Stony Pint, on Sateurday night, too; an 
 Ah wus go dare fur chaperon an took care of mah dautteur, 
 jews de sam as Ah wus come here dees evening. Well, de 
 fokea at dat ball have stop all de clock on de house an 
 dance teel bout tree clock on de morning, an mah dautteur, 
 Blanche, have dance wit it. Eh hein! Ah have taught 
 nutting bout dat at de tam, an, een fac, Ah have nevaire 
 taught nutting bout dat teel Ah have go to de sacristy of 
 our church fur do mah Easter dooty lass spring. Den, par 
 example, de pries have mac me reecollec dat all raght, Ah'll 
 toll you I " and Mr. Bertrand again put into practice his 
 
228 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 peculiar fashion of emphasizing his meaning by compress* 
 ing his lips firmly and solemnly, and slowly nodding his 
 head repeatedly. 
 
 " But the priest was not at the ball, was he, Peter? " asked 
 Jack. 
 
 " Aw, no, de pries wus not at de ball, fur sure," with a 
 smile at Jack's lack of sophistry. 
 
 " Well then how did he come to know what went on there 
 then Peter?" 
 
 " How deed de pries know what's go on at dat ball ?** 
 asked Mr. Bertrand in tones of withering pity for Jack's 
 ignorance of the cure's all-pervading knowledge of what 
 transpired in the parish, " why av course de pries know 
 every ting what's go on- on de/)arowstf." 
 
 " But you did not dance yourself, did you Peter ?" queried 
 Jack, " I remember that you told me that the two-hand 
 reel you had with Widow Martin this evening was the first 
 time you had danced in ten years." 
 
 " Yas, an dat wus a fac too, but you see de pries have 
 say dat Ah have do wuss dan eef Ah have dance on Sun- 
 day morning meseff! Ah have 'low mah eenocent chile 
 which Ah have go to dat ball een de cappasseetay of heur 
 faddeur an fur took care of heur to dance afteur twelve 
 o'clock Satuerday night an dat wus wuss dan eef Ah have 
 do dat meseff! An so, par cowsee^once," continued Mr. Bert- 
 rand authoritatively, as he pulled down his waistcoat and 
 brushed off the lappels of his frock coat with the palm of 
 his right hand, " Mon pere have say dat Ah wus rayspon' 
 sayble fur dot." 
 
BOKDEU CANUCKS. 
 
 229 
 
 "Aw, yas, for sure you wus !" oracularly assented Mons. 
 
 Badeeshow with confirmatory nods of his partially bald 
 
 head, and a judicial air, "you wus raysponsible for dat an 
 
 '"lepose you have git i)ooty good beeg penncetannce too, 
 
 eni* Dee'nt you, Pierro? * 
 
 " Well, you could jews bet yo laf Ah have got beeg pen- 
 neetannce for dat! " exclaimed Peter, solemnly nodding his 
 head as he sidled towards the door. "Ah have crawl roun 
 de chuch on mah han an knee tree tam an raypate tree 
 chaplet at every station ! dat'a what wus mah penncetannce 
 fur leave mah dautteur dance afteur twelve o'clock on Sat- 
 eurday naght, an Ah wus not very ankshus fur do dat agin, 
 Ah'll toll yu! So Ah guess Ah goan do mah dooty di^cs 
 tam," and Mr. Bertrand bowed his Herculean frame through 
 + door on his way to the dancing room to enjoin Blanche, 
 'aughter, from shaking her foot after twelve o'clock. 
 
 ■%^\ |j 
 
TY 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A Little Theology and a "Pat Hand." 
 
 AS YOU Cattiiloeck, Monsieur Riitbone?"' asked 
 Mr. Biidcoshow of Jiick, after Peter's departure 
 from the sitting room. 
 
 "No, I go to tiie English Episcopal church." 
 
 "Aw, you WHS Aiigleech Pecscoi)al, ay? Well, Ah 
 have hcerd dat dat releejohn wus mo lac our chuch dan any 
 of de udder wan wus, aint ect?" 
 
 "Yea, I fancy what is known as tlie ritualistic or high 
 church section of the English Episcopalians are more like 
 Roman Catholics in their methods of worshi[) and observ- 
 ances generally than any other Protestant faith is." 
 
 " Den you wus divide mongst yousefT, ay ? " 
 
 "Yes, I don't think we all thirdv alike, and I know we 
 don't all say our prayers or worship God alike." 
 
 "An none of yous go to confess, ay? " queried Mr. Bad- 
 eeshow, lowering his voice to a stage whis[)er as he removed 
 his long clay pipe from his mouth and expectorated upon 
 the glowing log fire-place. 
 
 "No," replied Jack, " I don't think that even the high 
 church ritualists in our church have gotten as far as con- 
 fession yet." 
 
 "Well, Monsieur Ratbone, Ah goan toll you dees, an 
 Ah hopes you wus not goan be mad wit me when Ah'll 
 toll ycu," said Mr. Badeeshow, as he bended over to secure 
 
 (231) 
 
 I'! 
 
232 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 the fire tongs to procure a coal from tbe fire to relight his 
 pipe with. 
 
 "No, no, Mr. Badeeshow," replied Jack, "I never get 
 mad with anybody because of his religious opinions." 
 
 " Well, den, Ah goan geef you mah opeenj'on bout dat,'' 
 observed the obese councillor between vigorous draws at 
 his pipe as he pressed down the glowing coal on the top 
 thereof with the index finger of his right hand. "Wheres 
 an releejohn have no confesshun dey coon't have no raglit 
 kin of peneetannce, and suepose dey doan have no raght 
 kin of peneetannce an no confesshun dey coon't have no 
 deeceepleen mongstdem! An suepose dey doan have no 
 deeceepleen mongst dem dey coon't have no releejohn 
 wheres all de fokes tinks alike an do jews de sam tings wit 
 un esprit de corps an honhomie!^^ and further dropping into 
 French, with a shrug of his huge shoulders, he continued : 
 " Ce mon opinion ton jours mon tres cher ami / " 
 
 " Well perhaps you're right," complacently assented Jack, 
 "confession and penance may be well in the interest of dis- 
 cipline and consequent harmony of action in any given 
 church, and I have even sometimes had my doubts whether 
 or not it is not best that the church should think for the 
 people rather than that the people should think for the 
 church." 
 
 "Sartainly eet ees!" assented Mr. Badeeshow with 
 alacrity, taking the pipe out of his mouth, "you see eet ees 
 jews lac dees wit de protestans, every man wus fur heem- 
 sef an wus tink fur heemsef an every mans wus try to got 
 to heaven on hees own h(^ok I But wit us Cattaleeck eet wus 
 deeferent ting, par example I Eef we doan got to heaven 
 
 tr 
 
 ai 
 wl 
 all 
 jJ 
 
 u 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 233 
 
 -r 
 
 trough de chucli we cloan got dare at all. Eef we doan got 
 a teecat ou cairteefeccat from hour pries ou beesliop dare 
 wus no use fur try, we coo'nt got to de good plasse — 
 aldough sum ses we might possihlement got half ways dare! 
 Mais fur mah part Ahcoo'n't say nutting bout dat. Well, 
 how we wusgoan got dat teecat oi* cairteefeecat?" demanded 
 Mr. BaJeeshow forensically extending his fat hands, palms 
 upwards, and gazing at Jack benignantly. The latter, 
 however, seemed so utterly absorbed in the contemplation of 
 pictures in the fire that he made no answer. " "We muss go 
 to confess!" continued the councillor oracularly after a short 
 pause. "We muss do peneetance for our seen! We muss 
 faire le chemin de crois lac Pierro Bertrand have do ! We 
 muss be wortay of absolution! We muss took absolution! 
 We muss took de sacremaw ! An den suepose a mans wus 
 fur die right away queeck aftaire he have do all dat, well 1" 
 continued Mr. Badeeshow soliloquizingly contemplating 
 the fire, " Ah tink he would stan pootay good show fur be 
 a angel mongst de bless wans what wus een heaven! Dat's 
 what Ah tink fur mah part," and he arose from his seat 
 with satisfied mien and, approaching the fire, cast therein 
 from out his pipe the coal which had now amply served its 
 purpose. 
 
 Meanwhile the silent division in the far corner pursued 
 the fluctuating tenor of its way with that beguiling pre- 
 occupation peculiar to players of poker at "five-cent ante" 
 with frequently recurring "Jack Pots" as an important 
 feature thereof. 
 
 It was amazing how often the bejewelled little chuck-a- 
 luck faker with a rashness, not to say recklessness, rarely 
 
234 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 
 Mr..' 
 
 manifested in one of his profession at games of chance^ 
 would open these "Jack Pots " with. a bet of two dollars — 
 the highest limit of the game. 
 
 But these oft repeated efforts to capture the stakes more 
 frequently resulted in loss than gain to the opener and in 
 fact his efforts in this direction as a whole was a veritable 
 case of the biter bitten. 
 
 Mons. Goathere and the sportive proprietor of the Dew 
 Drop Inn would generally "stay in" with the opener and at 
 the come out, after the draw, "raise him out of his boots," 
 as the dapper little man himself graphically expressed it. 
 
 "If this thing can only last long enough," observed the 
 Dew Drop's proprietor to Mons. Goathere in French, as the 
 latter deftly shuffled and dealt the cards, " we'll get that 
 diamond in his shirt front and that long watch chain. My 
 wife's been bothering me about getting her a diamond 
 lately, and I think that one would just suit her, if it's not 
 glass. I'll use the chain for hauling logs for the balance of 
 the winter, and in the spring I'll brush it up, buy a sweat- 
 board and follow the races with it to catch suckers with." 
 
 "See here, Faro !" exclaimed the individual alluded to, 
 "talk white!" This game is slick enough without back- 
 capping a fellow with that French lingo of yours." 
 
 "I wasn't sayin nutting bout de game," seriously replied 
 the proprietor of the Dew Drop; "I was only jews tellin 
 Denis bout some log I want to geet out of de bush dis 
 win tour." 
 
 " Well, talk logs in French some other time ; we're play- 
 ing poker in English now." 
 
 i ! 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 235 
 
 Iplied 
 
 Itelliu 
 (lis 
 
 Iplay- 
 
 " Aw, yes, by jlminy, we air playin pokar, aint we ? But, 
 you see, Aii don't unstan Anglish verrah well." 
 
 "No, it's a pity about you," solemnly drawled the wbeel- 
 of-fortune man, upon whose lantern-jawed countenance 
 great beads of perspiration glistened in the lamp light. 
 " It's a pity the Ontario government didn't start an English 
 school in this ere French settlement! Ef poker was made 
 one of the subjects of instruction in that ere school and you 
 was an attendin' pew pill, I'd bet a ten-dollar bill to a roast 
 peanut that you'd know enough English by the end of the 
 fust month to beat the school master out of his year's salary ! 
 How many chips did you shove up, Dave ? " 
 
 " Ah've got up twenty-fave cen bline," replied the driver 
 of Crapaud, upon whom, judging from the number of chips 
 and currency before him, Dame Fortune had, to some 
 extent, smiled. 
 
 "Well, David, I'll stay with the blind a spell, jest out 
 o' compliment to you." 
 
 "Tank you; tank you, Doc." 
 
 " An I'll do de sam, Dave, ' blandly observed the pro- 
 prietor of the Dew Drop, as he put up his ten chips. ' Ah'm 
 always stickin mah nose where I've got no business." 
 
 "I guess I'll give you a whirl at business myself this 
 time, my friend," insinuatingly remarked the knight of the 
 sweat board. "I'll just see the blind and raise it the limit 
 — a couple of cases." 
 
 " And I'll stay out of such rich company this time, I 
 guess," slowly and Jiesitatingly said Mr. Goathere, the 
 dealer, as he apparently reluctantly restored his cards to 
 the bottom of the pack he held in his left hand. 
 
236 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 *' An Ah guess Ah goan jump hoff de fiel too," mum- 
 bled Dauveed to himself reflectively, as he finally ran his 
 cards over before throwing up his hand, "de compagnie ees 
 too fass fur dees picters Ah guess." 
 
 " So you didn't have em Dave, and couldn't stand the raise, 
 ay ?" reflectively drawled the long drawn faker. " Well ! 
 I reckon your hand is as good as this ere one is," he con- 
 tinued as he slowly and deliberately ran his cards over, 
 " and I presume I orter to quit too — but by goll ! I won't, 
 though! I'll jess chance a two-dollar bill on the draw," and 
 he placed that sum in the centre of the table with the rest 
 of the stakes. 
 
 "It's all in de draw, ain't it Doc?" queried Faro as he 
 stealthily peeked at his hand. 
 
 " "Well sir, I ain't exactly settled on that pint; but I kin 
 say that 'draw' is this kind of poker's fust name. " 
 
 "Any how, Doctor, I guess I'll keep you company dis 
 time. I'm a little winner an kin lose two dollars just 'like 
 a chicken on de doe,' as ole John Curry use to say ; mine's 
 up, " and two dollars more were added to the pot before the 
 draw. 
 
 " How many cards do you want Doc ?" now demanded 
 Mr. Goathere of that eccentric speculator. 
 "Well, I guess I'll take one this time," doubtfully drawled 
 the latter as he held his cards between his hands high up, 
 leaning his elbows upon the table. 
 
 " Be sure an take all you want Doc," suggested the pro- 
 prietor of the Dew Drop. 
 
 "Thanks I Thanks, Mr. Faro! solemnly responded the 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 237 
 
 faker. "Thanks, sir! Small favors are always thankfully 
 received at this department." 
 
 " Comment voulez vous Faro ?" asked the dealer. 
 
 "Here now !" interpolated the cliuck-a-luck gentleman. 
 " None of that 1 Come off that dark language !" 
 
 "Well then how many cards do you want Faro?" 
 repeated the dealer with a suspicious twinkle in his bright 
 brown eyes. 
 
 " I tink I want two dis time ef I ain't making a fool of 
 meself an not drawin enough," observed the worthy pro- 
 prietor of the Dew Drop, as he discarded and coolly put his 
 right hand, containing the three cards he held up over the 
 two the dealer had just dealt him while with his left hand 
 he absorbedly proceeded to arrange the solitary, long lock 
 of blonde hair which, eminating from a point immediately 
 behind the right ear, was carefully plastered diagonally 
 across his hairless, oval pate until it reached a point near to 
 the lobe of the left ear when it became lost amidst a lan- 
 guishing growth of tow like fringe which ornamented the 
 base of a rather striking looking head. 
 
 In short, the tout ensemble of this facetious and hospitable 
 boniface's headpiece might have been likened unto that of 
 a typical mediaeval monk. 
 
 But this was as far as sacerdotal or monastic association 
 went with Faro's head. 
 
 Its inner organization would be found replete with utili- 
 tarian materialism (if such an expression may be permitted 
 for the occasion ), while the same was pervaded by an 
 ineffable sense of the ridiculous, and withal a quixotic 
 generosity. 
 
 I'l 
 
 •V: 
 
238 
 
 BOBDEB CANUCKS. 
 
 " And how many cards do you want, my friend ? " 
 enquired the dealer, addressing the little sweat board faker. 
 
 " I guess I'll keep what I've got this time," was the mild 
 and unconcerned answer. 
 
 " Whew ! " exclaimed the wheel of fortune doctor ; 
 " you've got 'em bad this time, aint you, sonny ? Standin' 
 pat at this embarrassin stage of the game I " 
 
 "What kind of a game you givin* us now, stranger?" 
 asked the proprietor of the Dew Drop, as he cautiously 
 peeped at the two cards he had just drawn. 
 
 " I'm trying to give you back one of the bluffs you've run 
 me out several times with this evening.'* 
 
 " Well, all right, make your bets then, gents,** solemnly 
 interpolated the doctor. "It's my age and your first bet, 
 Mr. Dew Drop Inn." 
 
 " Very well ; I guess I goan chance a chip against the 
 pat hand." 
 
 "And I'll chance two dollars and a chip on the pat 
 hand," subduedly observed the little faker. 
 
 "Wall, now, that's corain' rather brash at a feller, aint it, 
 sonny?" queried the doctor, as he ruminatingly rolled his 
 quid of tobacco from one side of his mouth to the other 
 and carefully ran his cards over again. " Hope that air pat 
 hand aint threwn your jedgment off its ke-base, sonny, old 
 boy ! '* 
 
 " Never you mind about my judgment," moodily observed 
 the dapper one, as he settled his face between his uplifted 
 hands, while he rested his elbows upon the table. "Go 
 right ahead and make your bet if you're going to. Fish or 
 cut bait ; put up or shut up | " 
 
•-■ -r 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 239 
 
 "Fish or cut bait ; put up or shut up," solemnly repeated 
 the knight of fortune's wheel, as he preoccupiedly gazed at 
 his hand. " That's what this smart and gentlemanly little 
 sportin' sonny from the metropolis tells me I must do. Fish 
 or cut bait! Put up or shut up! I wonder what my 
 sonny friend takes me for? Jay Gould, Jim Keene or 
 some sich a pampered capitalist, I'll bet." 
 
 "Oh, go on, will you, and don't make such a damn fool 
 of yourself! " angrily exclaimed the holder of the pat hand. 
 
 " Well now, sonny, you have jest succeeded in com- 
 pellin' me to see your raise," drawled the doctor, with 
 imperturbable countenance, " and goin' you jest a leetle two 
 dollars better out of consarn for your politeness and 
 patience." 
 
 " Well, then, put your money up I " snapped the bejeweled 
 one. 
 
 " That's all right, sonny I Just you keep your shirt on, 
 please! I'll put my money up all right enough you bet! 
 Four dollars and a check ain't it ? and there it is right in 
 the pot. A monstrous pile to bet agin a pat hand in this 
 ere bass wood kind of a game, ain't it? And now Mr. Dew 
 Drop what air you going to do about it ?" 
 
 " What I goan do bout it ? Well, I ain't goan let you 
 ruin me on one hand if I kin help it, dat's sure ting! Let 
 me see what I got here !" and he cautiously and carefully 
 inspected the corners of his cards, which by holding in the 
 palm of his left hand he enveloped from the gaze of all on- 
 lookers. " Well, bah gosh !" he continued after a short 
 pause, " I'll be dang eef I doan stay too ! I'm always doin 
 some dam foolish ting anyways 1 I couldn't quit ahead 
 
 7i 
 
 y 
 
240 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 unless some one sets fire to de house right off ! Here's my 
 four dollars 1" and he recklessly shoved four silver dollars 
 up to the centre of the table as if he were desparately giving 
 them away. 
 
 " How about supper Dave ? Is the old woman going to 
 give us anything to eat to-night for our seventy -five cents?'' 
 enquired Mr. Goathere of the driver of Crapaud. 
 
 "Aw, yas, Ah guess so. Ah nevaire see nobody go way 
 from dees house hungray yit. We goan got sum tuckey, 
 an goose, an shicken, an couchon de lait, an all what you want 
 presenlay, you see." 
 
 "Well, I'll see the raise in the meantime, " observed the 
 chuck-a-luck knight after a short pause, during which he 
 carefully and thoughtfully inspected his cards again. " I've 
 got to put up four dollars I reckon, haven't I?" 
 
 " That's precisely what you've got to do, sonny, to make 
 your word good," sepulchrally assented the doctor, " and 
 that," he continued, " is the amount to a knock down you've 
 jest put in the pot all far and squar and keerect as a axiom ! 
 And now I presume you're countin' on me playin sucker 
 and stayin' in with you ! Well, by jehosaphat I but it 
 would be shockin mean to lose that ere six dollars and fifty- 
 five cents I've got in that ^re pot a'ready without a 
 struggle I My jedgement," he went on ruminatingly " says 
 stay out. Don't send good money after bad. While my 
 spunk says stay in, the Lord hates a coward I Well, I guess 
 spunk takes the cake most every time with this chicken — 
 specially when it doan take more'n two dollars extray to 
 stay into a sixteen-dollar pot ! So here's my two dollars 
 gents I Let her flicker !" 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 241 
 
 "You don't raise her den, Doc?" enquired the Dew 
 Drop's proprietor with affected indifference, mingled with 
 surprise. 
 
 "No, sir, I leave that fur you to do ef you've got the 
 gaul or the keerds to do it with. For my part I simply 
 calls," drawlingly assented the Doctor, simultaneously 
 exuding a huge splash of tobacco juice into a convenient 
 and capacious earthenware cuspidor. 
 
 " Well, den, by gosh, I guess I goan be just dang fool 
 enough to raise her meself I Here's my two dollars to make 
 it good, and here's the two-dollar raise I That's the kin of a 
 Frenchman I am, by golly 1" 
 
 " Well, I reckon you must have filled that hand of yours," 
 remarked the small faker meditatively, " I have never 
 caught you making a drive or a bluff to-night and I have 
 watched you pretty close — but I must raise you on principle 
 this time, anyway ; here she is," and he added four dollars 
 to the pile of chips and money in the middle of the table, 
 making the amount approximate twenty-five dollars, or 
 thereabouts. 
 
 "He's a'stickin' to that 'ere pat I He's got 'em all right 
 enough, I should jedge," soliloquized the doctor in a voice 
 scarcely audible across the table. " I wonder what she 
 is ? " he queried to himself. " Ef she's a reasonable sized 
 flush, I'd stay; ef she's a moderate sized straight, I'd 
 still wrestle with the enemy; but ef she's a full of any 
 kind, why, I'd have to pause and think about it, and that's 
 what I'm a'doin' now," and again the earthenware cuspidor 
 was made the receptacle of a copious splash of tobacco juice, 
 
 16 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
242 
 
 liOUDEU CANLCKS. 
 
 while his cards were held in both hands outstretched on a 
 level with his face. 
 
 "Well, don't be all night making up your mind ! Play 
 cards 1" impatiently exclaimed he with the "pat hand." 
 
 "Keep your seat, sonny, keep your seat!" solemnly 
 enjoined the doctor, as he continued to absorbedly gii/o 
 upon his still uplifted cards; "your anxious bussum will 
 be chock full of anguish a'fore you git through with this 
 'ere hand, or I'm no proi)het ! " 
 
 "You're acting like a bloody fool just now, that's what I 
 know I "and the bejewelcd and dapper little man impa- 
 tiently turned in his scat half way around from the tabic, 
 resting his face upon the palm of his unoccupied hand, 
 with elbow on the table, while he watched his adversaries 
 from the corners of his eyes with a scowl upon his not 
 uncomely countenance. 
 
 "Well, now," preoccupiedly drawled the doctor, as he 
 continued to gaze upon his still uplifted hand of cards, 
 "that's rayther tough talk, I must say. Call a man a 
 'bloody fool all of a suddent like! Well, sonny, I aint a bit 
 annyed at you, but I'll jest make that 'ere honored titlr 
 good by stayin' with you another whirl for blood. The 
 Lord helps a fool and tem])ers the wined to the woollcsi- 
 sheep, or some sicli a matter ; I don't jess now recommcn 
 bar how the sayin' is worded — but here's my two dolhn 
 agin that 'ere pat hand and all comers, anyhow," and h' 
 slowly and deliberately placed a two-dollar bill on the fat 
 tening pile in the centre of the table. 
 
 "An' now it's my turn for some remarks, I guess," sa 
 
BOIIDER CANUCKS. 
 
 243 
 
 the Dew Drop's boniface as ho peeked at the figures in the 
 corners of his cards. 
 
 'Leave the remarks to the doctor," suggested the holder 
 of the " pat liund '' ; " that's his best lioUl. You can bet or 
 draw out. It costs you four dollars to stay and nothing to 
 draw out" 
 
 "Nutting to draw out," meditatively repeated the Dew 
 Drop's landlord ; " nutting to draw out! \V(!ll, dat's cheap 
 enough, anyhow ; but de Lord hates a coward — aint dat 
 what you said jess now, Doc? " 
 
 " Kcercct as a axiom, sir. That's "what I said." 
 
 " Well, den, I guess I goan squander 'bout four dollars 
 more so's to show the French aint no coward." 
 
 "What do you mean? " asked the little faker, straight- 
 ening himself up to the table. " You raise it two dollars, 
 do you ? " 
 
 " Dat's -what I calcalate to do." 
 
 " Well, see here I " exclaimed the holder of the " pat 
 hand," " will you agree to set aside the two-dollar limit 
 rule and let me bet what I like ? " 
 
 " I suepose a man's always got a show for his money, 
 aint he?" ' 
 
 " Why, to be sartainly he's got a show for liis money at 
 any stage of the game," drawled the doctor assuringly. 
 
 "Well, what do you say, Doc? Shall we bet outside 
 Ifee limit this once ? " 
 
 " Jest a^ you're a mind to, sonny. Anything for peace 
 ar i harmony is alius my motto." 
 
 " And do you agree, Faro ? " 
 
 " Well, I don't care if Doc doesn't. Jila's of course if 
 
 I f 
 
 ♦ i 
 
244 
 
 PORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 you oversize a man's pile he's got de right to call you for 
 what he's got, aint he ? " 
 
 " Of course he has," patronizingly replied the dapper one. 
 
 " "Well, den, go ahead and bet yo' bet." 
 
 " All right, I'll raise her fifty, then," said the holder of 
 the pat hand. " That'll be fifty-two dollars I've got to 
 put up." 
 
 " Yes, sonny, that's the amount you must bid adieu to," 
 assented the wheel of fortune's proprietor, solemnly. 
 
 " Well, I'll run my chances on bidding adieu to it," 
 replied the other banteringly, as he pulled the five twenty- 
 dollar gold pieces, referred to in a previous chapter, out of 
 his trousers* pocket and placing three of them on the pile 
 drew down eight dollars. 
 
 This was the largest bet of the evening. 
 
 The onlookers who encircled the table several tiers deep 
 were hushed into palpitating silence and spellbound with 
 overwhelming excitement. 
 
 The small faker was the cynosure of many an awe- 
 stricken eye, while the serio-comic wheel of fortune specu- 
 lator, as he demonstratively worked his jaws in the process 
 of tobacco chewing and gazed with wrapped absorption 
 upon his uplifted cards, presented a picture of those mingled 
 manifestations of failing confidence, doubt and regret, only 
 to be seen at a poker table. 
 
 " Well, sonny, said the latter slowly and solemnly, " ef 
 you think you're skeering this 'ere unsophisticated child of 
 nater by flashin* that 'ere gold at him, you're wrong! 
 You're way off! 'Taint me that's skeered, sonny; it's 
 
 -^ 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 2rt5 
 
 
 these 'ere keerds. They aint quite stout and robust enough 
 to stand the pressure." 
 
 "Well, lay them down, then," suggested Mr. Goathere, 
 the dealer; "Hand them over here." 
 
 "No, sir, I guess I'll jest keep *em whar they air for a 
 minute. They're terrible good lookers, though they can't 
 stand the raise. I pass, gents." 
 
 And now there was a whispered buzz of comment 
 throi-qhout the growing crowd of onlookers, some of whom, 
 accepting it as a foregone conclusion that the proprietor of 
 the Dew Drop inn would never call the raise of so large a 
 sum as fifty dollars, turned away in relief from the table. 
 
 Several of the more excited gave vent to their bottled-up 
 feelings by commenting admiringly in undertones upon the 
 pluck and sangfroid exhibited by the dapper little chuck-a- 
 luck operator. 
 
 This last raise, in the estimation of a large majority of 
 the lookers-on, would surely knock out the bald-headed 
 boniface. - 
 
 But in this they miscalculated. 
 
 " By gosh ! " he soliloquizingly exclaimed, going through 
 the form of again slyly inspecting his card'j, which he held 
 in the outstretched palm of his left hand. "I guess you 
 goan ruin me before you git trough. But I'll die like a 
 game Frenchman eef I've got to! " and laying down his 
 cards, backs upwards, he picked up th(* shabby, old pocket- 
 book, which lay on the table before him, and taking out the 
 notes it contained, he proceeded to carefully count them 
 over. This done, he deposited the entire sum upon the rest 
 of the pile in the middle of the table. 
 
 ■'■I :. 
 
246 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 " There, " lie said with a perceptible quiver of excitement 
 in his voice, " there is a hundred and fifty dollars 1 I raise 
 it a hundred I" 
 
 A considerable proportion of the gaping crowd became 
 absolutely frightened at this. 
 
 Never had they dreamed that the world contained such 
 recklessly extravagant idiots as these two players were 
 showing themselves to be. 
 
 One could have heard the proverbial pin drop — the only 
 audible voice in the room being the scarcely mellifluous 
 organ of Monsieur Badeeshow in the concluding sentences 
 of his theological dissertation for the benefit of Jack Rath- 
 bone, who sat beside him before the chimney fire-place 
 gazing intently a.id abstractedly thereupon. 
 
 When the orimilar councillor lapsed into silence the 
 suppressed excite nent at and about the players* table 
 became so apparent that Jack's attention was distracted 
 from the pictures in the fire and he and the voluble 
 municipal legislator, as if by tacit consent, arose from their 
 seats and joined the silently perturbed crowd by standing 
 on their tip toes on the outside edge thereof and craning 
 over the intervening heads in an effort to catch a glimpse of 
 what the cause of all the excitement at the table was. 
 
 The little faker, as if ta reassure himself of the strength of 
 his hand again stealthily peeked at the diminutive denomi- 
 nations imprinted upon the corners of his cards which he 
 cautiously held in his two hands joined together. 
 
 "You raise me one hundred dollars, do you?" he said 
 preoccupiedly intent upon his hand. "Then, I reckon, 
 you must have filled. Well, I can't help it if you have. 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 247 
 
 I'll try to call you if it busts me ! Here, I'll put up these 
 two twenty-dollar gold pieces and this pin, wliich is worth 
 three times the amount, for sixty, and call you, if it's the 
 last thing I ever do ! " and he unscrewed the solitaire from 
 his shirt front and laid it before him on the table. 
 
 " now much you say yo' pin is wurt ? '' enquired Faro, 
 taking it up and inspecting it closely. 
 
 "It cost me a hundred and seventy-five dollars; but, of 
 course, I reserve the privilege of redeeming it from you for 
 sixty." 
 
 " Well," observed the proprietor of the Dew Drop, lay- 
 ing the jewel back upon the table, " I'll take your word for 
 it and give you a show for your money." 
 
 '•It's a go, then?" . 
 
 *' Yes, she's a go." 
 
 " What have you got? It's your first show down ; I call 
 
 you." 
 
 " Four kings." 
 
 " Good hand if you've got 'em," assented the dapper little 
 man, seemingly altogether self-possessed and unruffled. 
 
 " Dare dey are," and the bald headed boniface turned 
 over his cards, which showed four kings and an ace. 
 
 "That beats four Jacks," obsevv* '' the faker. " It's your 
 money and sixty dollars in the pin. and, as he turned over 
 his cards displaying four knaves and a queen, he con- 
 tinued: "I'll tell you what I'll do with you, Faro. Give 
 me fifty dollars and you can have the pin cut and out." 
 
 " Well," replied the other, " I doan tink dare ever was 
 much hog bout me. Here's your fiftj^," and he pushed 
 back to the gamey little chuck-a-luck knight two of the 
 
24S 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 latter's alienated twenty-dollar gold pieces and a ten-dollar 
 bill. 
 
 Then the crowd gave vent to its long suppressed feelings 
 by everybody's talking at the same time, and a chaos of 
 sounds was the result for a moment or so. 
 
 The widow entered the room at this juncture. 
 
 Elbowing her way through the crowd to the table, she 
 said in peremptory tones. " Now mah frens you muss not 
 play no more card tonight. Eet ees pass twelve o'clock an 
 Ah nevaire low no gamblin on dees house on Sunday! 
 Suppeur ees ready an you muss come an got sumting to eat 
 — dare wus no seen to eat on Sunday, you know." 
 
 *' Well misses," solemnly exclaimed the "Wheel of Fortune 
 Doctor, " that ere proposition hits my present complexion 
 both inwardly and outwardly to a knock down. You know, 
 madame," he continued deliberately, especially addressing 
 himself to the widow, " this ar poker game is a mighty inter- 
 estin amusement when it's played far and squar on the top 
 of the table — but it makes a man a kind ©'suspicious and 
 skeery when a party stands pat with four Jacks in his hand, 
 another feller holds up three kings and gets the other king 
 with a ace in the draw, and you yourself is obleeged to throw 
 down a ten full on fours jest as a matter of cautious 
 jedgement! I tell you misses thar's a heap of good jedge- 
 ment involved in playin agin a pat hand !" 
 
 To all of which the hospitable hostess only answered : 
 " Hoorah, come to suppeur ! come to suppeur 1 " and scur- 
 ried away back to the kitchen, from whence she had just 
 come. 
 
■Mtl 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Th« Supper —Peter Berirand's Toast and Monsieur Badeeafiow'a Reply. 
 
 rpHE PREDICTION of Mr. Budd Doble, junior, at the 
 -^ card table that no one should go away hungry was 
 arroly fulfilled. 
 
 The supper was partaken of in the spacious kitchen, with 
 its sanded floor and scrupulously bright and clean appoint- 
 ments. 
 
 Upon a table covered with fleckless cloths and capable 
 ot accommodating thirty at a sitting was spread "tuckey," 
 " shickan'' and '^couchon de lait,^' together with a profusion 
 of pies, cakes and other concomitants more than sufficient 
 to satisfy the sharpened appetites of every one. 
 
 Wnen the ladies, waited upon by their escorts and gal- 
 lants, had partaken of coffee and whatever of substantials 
 they cared for, the men took possession of the table and 
 were indiscriminately waited upon by the ladies. 
 
 Peter Bertrand insisted upon supplying native wine for 
 all who chose to imbibe that inspiring beverage, in order 
 that he might be furnished an opportunity of proposing the 
 widow's health in a bumper, which he did in due course in 
 a surprisingly appropriate and dignified little speech in 
 French. 
 
 He said, among other polite things, that Madame Martin 
 had for years dispensed greater hospitality and contributed 
 more to the enjoyment of her neighbors than any other resi- 
 
 (849) 
 
 ■Hin 
 
250 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 dent in the community, and that her pluck and enterprise 
 ■were the admiration of every one who had the pleasure of 
 knowing her. He felt certain that every one present would, 
 therefore, heartily join him in drinking her very good health 
 and wishing that she might long live to own as good a horse 
 as Crapaud and dance a reel in the manner she had shown 
 herself capable of by vanquishing liim, Peter, that evening 
 in the opening dance of one of the pleasantest reunions at 
 which it had ever been his lot to be present. 
 
 It goes without saying that this gallant toast was received 
 with three times three and a tiger. Even the little chuck-a- 
 luck faker, all bereft of much of his money and his sign 
 manual, his diamond solitaire, and barely understanding a 
 word of what Mons. Bertrand had said, was none the less 
 so impressed with the latter's dignity of delivery that he 
 was among the most vociferously demonstrative of approval. 
 
 The truth is, that Peter Bertrand, although unable to 
 sign his own name, when speaking his own language, pos- 
 sessed, in a marked degree, the quality of dignified and 
 even courtier-like utterance, so frequently met with in the 
 illiterate French Canadian habitant of the old school 
 
 This species of representative of le ancien regime of La 
 Nouvelle France was a common figure in the French settle- 
 ments on either bank of the Detroit river twenty-five or 
 thirty years ago ; but the contaminating influence of mod- 
 ern methods and pending social peculiarities have largely 
 robbed the present generation of descendants of a noble 
 race, in the districts referred to, of that charm, and easy, 
 self-possessed grace of manner which, by comparison, made 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 251 
 
 of an illiterate peasant a dignified courtier in the days 
 gone by. 
 
 When Peter's toast had been done rapturous justice to, 
 the widov;, knowing that Moiisiei r Badeeshow would be 
 sure to bo on the qui vive to make a speech, with ihoX^finesse 
 which so distinguished her, whispered a request to him that 
 he would kindly reply in her behalf. 
 
 This was the obese and loquacious councilor's oppor- 
 tunity, and slowly rising to his feet he began by peremp- 
 torily commanding order and then delivering an address in 
 English with unctuous and studied deliberation. He said: 
 "Genseemans an also de laday what wus on dees keetchan ; 
 Madame Martin hav ax me to mac rayply to de tose what 
 Monsieur Pierro Bertrand wus propose on faveur of he's 
 belt And so fur sac of mac compleemaw to dose gensee- 
 mans from de ceetay what coon't unstan hour lawngage 
 varrah well. Ah have mac it mah mine hup Ah wus goan 
 haddress you on Angleesh [hearl hear! and demonstrative 
 raps upon the table ] , acose bote lawngage wus de sam fur 
 me. [Owi, Oui, ce hien vrais."] On de conesye, where Ah 
 wus have de honneur fur be maumbaire fur more as sick 
 ear now, sometam we wus have two Frenchmans out of de 
 fahve of us maumbaire which was compose dat conesye, 
 [ Ho done Badeeshon ! Envoy fort ! ] an de ress of eet wus 
 Angleesh. [ Ce vrais I Ce la verity ! ] Bot sumtam she 
 wus de udder way. Sumtam we wus two Angleesh an tree 
 Frenchmans, an dat wus de way she wus now. [ Iloorah 
 pour le coyiseil ! Iloorah/] So you see, genseemans an de 
 layday what wus on dees keetchan, dat eet wus mah dootay 
 as wan ov dti maumbaire ov de conesye ov dees tonesheep 
 
 ■U 
 
 :i 
 
 \ '! 
 
 
252 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 fur spoke it bote lawngage ; an Ah wus preffeclay certali 
 so long's Ah wus goan be maumbaire ov de conesye ov 
 dees mune e cee-pale-tay, Ah wus goan do mah dootay!" 
 [ Haorah ■pour Badeeshon, Envoy f(yrt bonhomie. ] 
 A general thumping upon the table followed this sally. 
 
 Pending these noisy demonstrations which were so far 
 unnecessarily prolonged as to take on a complexion of irony, 
 the councilor sipped from his glass of wine and dried his 
 exuding brow with a capacious bluoand white cotton hand- 
 kerchief. Continuing, he said: " What Monsieur Pierro 
 Bertrand have say bout Madame Martin wus preffeclay 
 correc, an lac Ah wus say beefour she have ax me fur tank 
 you an mac speech on heur faveur, an dat, genseemans an 
 de layday what wus on dees keetchen, wus what Ah wus 
 have grande playzeer fur do now. [Ecoutezf Ecoiitezf] 
 Fur mah part, Ah tink eef all de mans on Canayday have 
 de sam poosh an anteurprees bout it dat Madame Martin 
 have, de conetray wus goan got long fasser an have mo of 
 de prospareetay bout eet dat was baylong on de conetray 
 of Monsieur Eatbone an de udder genseeemans what wus 
 on dees house whose leef on de under side of de lac an de 
 riviere. [ Ecoutez I Ecoutez ! Bon pour vous Badeeshon ! ] 
 Genseemans an de layday what Ah have de honneur fur 
 haddress, Ah tank you agin fur de tose which Monsieur 
 Pierro Bertrand have propose on faveur of Madame, de 
 Widday Martin, an Ah hope we wus goan meet here on dees 
 hospeetabble keetchan sum udder tarn an anjye ourseff 
 jews de sam lac we have do dees evenin." [ Ecoutez 1 Ecoutez ! 
 and wrapping upon the table. ] 
 
 "Bot, genseemans an de layday what Ah wus have de 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 253 
 
 grande playzeer fur haddress on dees occasion, on de meentam 
 she wus got pootay late now, an so, wit dees few raymark, 
 Ah weel say aurevotr an took mah seet." 
 
 And when tlie Falstaffiian councilor did resume his seat 
 the applause was so long and demonstrative that upon the 
 principle that extremes meet it became derisive. 
 
 Certain of the more hilarious younger men present were 
 especially uproarious, which, doubtless, was in a large 
 measure due to Mons. Badeeshow's well known propensity 
 for speechifying on the slightest provocation at all times 
 and places coupled with the fact that a prophet is rarely a 
 prophet in his " ain countree." 
 
 While this good-natured turmoil was at its height Peter 
 Bertrand left his seat at the head of the table and seeking 
 out his daughter Blanche, whom he found amidst a bevy of 
 mischievous girls about her own age standing near the door- 
 way leading to the dancing dining room, he enjoined her in 
 a kindly way to at once prepare for departure homewards. 
 
 This was the signal for a general stampede of the girls 
 upstairs to the widow's bedroom, where their wraps had been 
 left — while Peter returned to his place at the table as the 
 cries, ^^ Envoy done encore Badeeshon ! Envoy done! Yous 
 navez pas parlez assez / Encore / Encore /" were gradually 
 subsiding. 
 
 At all events, Peter once in his seat again, in view of its 
 being long past midniglit, found little difficulty in obtaining 
 the attention of the company to a few pertinent and well 
 chosen remarks on the propriety of bringing t' o evening's 
 fun to a close by thanking the widow and her daughter for 
 
 :i 
 
 llit,!. 
 
254 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 their bountiful hospitality and quietly dispersing for their 
 homes as rapidly as possible. 
 
 This suggestion very generally seemed to strike the elder 
 men present as a very proper one, and of course the younger 
 cavaliers were on the qui vive to escort their belles to their 
 respective habitations. 
 
 So, that within another half hour, after many hon soirs. 
 aurevoirs^ adieus, and much harmless badinage a> 
 each took their respective departure the goodly compatiy 
 had dispersed, leaving the widow, aided by her daughter 
 and the assistance of two female domestics, to gather up the 
 debris of the supper, wash the dishes, and generally put tlie 
 house in order. 
 
 The two fakers and the redoubtable proprietor of the Dew 
 Drop Inn sought accommodation for the remainder of the 
 night, or rather morning, at the near-by hostelry of Monsieur 
 Goathere, where, on their arrival before the race, they had 
 put up their respective horses and sleighs. 
 
 Jack Rathbone, Charley Ford, and the now thoroughly 
 gorged band were thus left the sole inmates of the household 
 apart from the busy members of the family, Mr. Budd 
 Doble, Junior, and the servants. 
 
 While the two young friends from the city sleepily waited 
 in the sitting room to be shown to their joint tall posted 
 feather bed in the room specially set aside for the accom- 
 modation of favored boarders and distinguished itinerant 
 guests, they endeavored to amuse and keep themselves 
 awake the while with Mons. Duplessis, who sat with legs 
 outstretched in a limp and lazy, owl-like way gazing upon 
 the slowly dying fire. 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 255 
 
 He was for the nonce manifestly surfeited with the good 
 things of this life, gastronomically speaking, and irresistably 
 inclined to take refuge in sleep. 
 
 He listlessly held between his teeth an ebony hued clay 
 pipe, dependent from the bowl of which was a diminutive 
 steel chain holding a tin cover for the same. 
 
 It was only now that the boys became fully alive to the 
 eccentricity of the professor's make-up. 
 
 He was habited in a smock or blouse of grey home-spun 
 with a belt of the same material about his rotund waist, 
 while his trousers, which were stuffed inside his cloth- 
 topped shoepacs fastened with " babeech " strings, were a 
 light shade of blue also of home manufactured material. 
 
 His neck was encircled with a conspicuous scarlet ker- 
 chief tied in a crude knot, which habitually appeared imme- 
 diately forward of his right ear, through which was pierced, 
 in common with its fellow-ear on the other side of his head, 
 a small gold ring. 
 
 "I tell you!" exclaimed Jack, "you were mighty mad 
 with the widow tonight, weren't you, professor ? " 
 
 "Well, yas. Ah wus pootay mad at de fust of eet," he 
 replied with sleepily drooping eyelids, as he took the pipe 
 out of his mouth and stuck it in his belt like a dagger, "bot 
 Ah have forgeeve heur acose she have beat Pierro Bertrand 
 een dat reel. When Ah have see heur do dat, bah gosh ! 
 Ah wus sateesfy, an Ah've forgeeve heur." 
 
 "That's right, professor," chaffingly exclaimed Charley 
 Ford in approval, "to forgive is divine, you know." 
 
 "To forgeeve ees davvanne, ay? Aw, well, Ah suepose 
 so," slowly responded Mons. Duplessis, with drooping head 
 
 i 
 
 4 
 
256 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 and a shrug of his shoulders. " Mais Ah'll toll you, mon- 
 sieur, whenevaire Ah was feel up on mah eenside je,w8 lac 
 Ah wus now, Ah nevaire care nutting 'bout what's go on 
 on de houtside ov me/' and he raised his head for an 
 instant and smiled a ghastly, maudlin smile, as if in duty 
 bound, at the joke. 
 
 " What are you chiefly filled up with now, professor? " 
 asked Jack with an assumption of deference. 
 
 "Well, you see,'' he replied, with another sleepy shrug of 
 his round shoulders, " Ali've dreenk good deel ov hoisson 
 durin de day, mais Ah wus mossly feel up wit couchon de 
 lait jews at de presen lam." 
 
 "That's roast pig, isn't it?" enquired Charley. 
 
 " Ouij monsieur, Ah bleeve dat's de nam what he's have 
 on Angleesh," he observed, with a sleepy nod of approval. 
 
 "So you like roast pig, do you, professor? " asked Jack, 
 winking at Charley. 
 
 " Roas peeg I " exclaimed Monsieur Duplessis, with an 
 inane smile of enthusiasm, rousing himself up for the 
 moment, "you could bet yo laf Ah do, monsieur I Dare 
 wus nutting on de worl so good fur eat lac couchon de hit — 
 what's you calls roas peeg 1 Ah've eat so moch of dat at sup- 
 peur dat, bah gosh ! at de presen tam Ah wus feel jews lac 
 Ah wus peeg cleen trough bote heenside an houtside ov 
 meseff," and again the ghastly, sleepy, maudlin smile flitted 
 o'er the obese rubicund countenance. 
 
 " Well," exclaimed David, the driver, as he appeared at 
 the door with a lighted tallow dip in his hand at that 
 instant. "Dat's a fac ; you looks lac a peeg on de houtside 
 ov you fur sure, fur sure ! " 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 257 
 
 "Oil, go way, Dawveeil! (loan bockleur mcl" and Mon- 
 sieur Duplessis' chin fell upon his broad chest, apparently 
 as evidence of the first throes of a resounding slumber. 
 
 "Monsieur llatbone," said Dave, addressing Jack defer- 
 entially, "de misses an Rosalie wus beesay on de keetcluui, 
 an dcy toll me Ah wus to ci)me an show bote ov you to yo 
 bed, wheech wus now rcdday." 
 
 " All right Dave, we're ready too," and the two truants 
 arose and followed David upstairs to bed. 
 
 It was well on towards daylight when Madame Martin, 
 Rosalie and the others of the household retired, but when 
 they did do so the hospitable hosteliy had resumed its pris- 
 tine appearance of order and the famous widow's ball had 
 become a not unimportant or unsatisfactory item in the 
 somewhat eventful history thereof, ■' , 
 
 ,1 i' 
 
'xi 
 
 i^<3 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Reactionary Reflections. 
 
 npHE DRIVE back to the city along the hordage of the 
 -^ frozen lake and river the following bright Sabbath 
 morning might have been a pleasantly exhilarating one to 
 the boyp, but for the inward ruminations of Ccvh of them, 
 albeit each of them were not in the same degree of mental 
 perturbation. 
 
 Charley Ford, whose widowed mother regarded him as 
 the summum bonum of filial perfection when she was pleased 
 with him, had unconsciously allowed her love to assume 
 the Platonic form of an exacting woman of her own son's 
 age, with, of course on occasion, all the sublime self-sacrific- 
 ing characteristics of a devoted mother's love. Ilence it 
 was that so long as there was no suspicion of another 
 •woman in the case, young or old, the loving intimacy 'twixt 
 mother and son was one of those divine manifestations of 
 our kind's better qualities, which goes far towards compen- 
 sating for our wretched normally inherent carnalism and its 
 subsequent disenchanting growth to selfish worldliness. 
 
 Yet, let there be another woman wnth a modicum of tan- 
 gibility appear upon the ^cene, and in nine cases out of ten 
 the divinity of such maternal love takes flight and leaves in 
 its stead the unnatural and unreasoning passion of a jealous 
 woman. 
 
 While this eccentric sort of motherly affection may be of 
 rare occurence in well regulated society, howbeit it is not 
 
 (259) 
 

 >J>1 
 
 . fti 
 
 ^|J 
 
 260 
 
 BOKDEli CANUCKS. 
 
 .•^ 
 
 without constantly existing exemplifica^n ; and where it 
 does exhibit itself it seldom fails of being a detriment rather 
 than a moral and material advantage to its filial object. 
 
 The tendency to harbor such a love for their sons on the 
 part of occasional mothers is no doubt largely the reason 
 why the average mother-in-law is proverbially held in such 
 real or Pickwiclvian disrepute. 
 
 Mrs. Ford, especially as to Charley, the eldest of her two 
 sons, was the kind of mother in question, and in her exact- 
 ing demands for explanations of what he had been doing 
 during his sometimes surreptitious absences from home ( as 
 on the present occasion ) had gotten to make liim frequently 
 feel a repugnance to going back to be subjected to the cate- 
 chism of questions he was sure to be. 
 
 How manj' an unfortunate has desperately plunged 
 deeper into the mire of misbehavior and s;u by prolonging 
 a spree or other truant delinquency, simply because of this 
 fear or repugnance to going home *' to face the music ! " 
 
 It would seem quite within the range of reason to assume 
 that if the prodigal son of old had not been reduced to corn 
 husks and pig swill as articles of daily diet, he'd never have 
 returned home at all to confront an outraged parent with 
 peccavi upon his lips, and thus have robbed succeeding gen- 
 erations of a didactic and exemplary story. 
 
 While, from a human philosophical point of view, it may 
 be a humiliating fact to contemplate, yet it none the less is 
 the fact that the vulgar and irrepressible stomach of man- 
 kind hasr greater stimulating influence for good or evil over 
 its actions than has the allegorical heart, about which poets 
 have continued to sing from time immemorial. 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 261 
 
 May it not be that your true poet when the divine 
 afflatus moves him is too much of a gentleman to call vulgar 
 things by their right names, and while he calls it beart 
 means stomach all the time ? 
 
 It was not however the condition of either Charley Ford's 
 heart or his stomach which disturbed his mental serenity as 
 the speedy little pony Bijou scurried him and his now silent 
 Jidus achates over the glib ice along the snow clad shore on 
 down towards the city. 
 
 As intimated before, it was the proppcetive maternal 
 catechism of explanations — the outcome of a jealous 
 solicitude -and the probable prevarication he thought he 
 should have to resort to to smooth things over when he 
 reached home that made him feel ill at ease. 
 
 Lie, however, felt that these objectionable qualms once 
 being swallowed, he had it within th(3 repertory of his 
 romantic resources to soothe the exacting and suspicious 
 maternal breast on his arrival at the Ford domicile. 
 
 But with Jack Rathbone it was different. 
 
 With that conscious stricken presentiment of the evil-doer 
 under given circumstances, in view of his father's latter-day 
 jealous and rigid treatment of him, he felt that he was 
 going back to a disturbed and unhappy household with his 
 poor, fondly devoted, little mother as the patient scape-goat 
 of his own inconsiderate, disobedient conduct. 
 
 Hence it was that as they swiftly approached the *erry 
 crossing to Detroit in moody silence the solitary male scion 
 of the house of Rathbone, in respect of his mental rumina- 
 tions, might have been likened unto a guilty culprit being 
 carried unresisting back to retributive justice. 
 
 
262 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 The steamer Victoria having Gracie and Emily on board 
 was just in the act of forcing her way through an accumu- 
 lated jam of thick ice to he: moorings as the pony slackened 
 speed at the eastern corner of the short decline leading to 
 the dock at Windsor. And it was rather a relief to Master 
 Jack's saturnine condition of mind to espy his pretty little 
 sister and his favorite girl friend, the daughter of iiis 
 father's junior business partner, leaning upon the railing at 
 the forward par., of the vessel, as with difficulty she crushed 
 her way to the landing. 
 
 Never a word had passed between the girls as they were 
 borne across the ice-clad river. 
 
 Miss Ritter silently munched away at her gum and gazed 
 absorbedly over the railing at the receding ice, over which 
 at times the steamer seemed to fly and then again at times 
 was forced to partially stop and do battle with — while 
 Gracie Rathboue, minus the gum-chewing— (an industry 
 she had learned to confine to home uses ) stood alongside 
 her and also contemplatively gazed down upon the receding 
 ice in a nervous and dissatisfied frame of mind. 
 
 She was annoyed with Emily — yes very much annoyed 
 indeed — because of the heartless manner in which she had 
 insinuated to that brusque, old captain that she, Gracie 
 Rathbone, was in love with Charley Ford. 
 
 She was quite certain she was not in love with Charley 
 Ford, nor had she ever thought of loving him. 
 
 Of course she liked Charley Ford as a friend ! Of course 
 she did, and she had always worn the plain little frosted old 
 gold ring he had given her as a philopena present now near 
 two years ago. 
 
t marmmi m mimi'mm amm^n 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 263 
 
 She did not see how any one could well help liking 
 Charley Ford as a friend — he was so nice and such a 
 cherished friend of dear old Jack's ! 
 
 And then too what that rough old Captain had said was 
 quite true ! He was by far the handsomest young man in 
 Detroit ! In fact, Charley Ford was the best looking young 
 fellow she'd ever set eyes on in all her live-long life 1 And 
 how mean it was of Emily to dislike him as she made out 
 she did — call him a dude and say such wicked, sarcastic 
 things of him. 
 
 She was quite certain that if Emily ever repeated that 
 sort of thing in her presence she never'd have anything to 
 do with her again. 
 
 No, never, never! She was quite certain of that I 
 
 Why, the best assurance any one could have that Charley 
 Ford was just all right and a noble fellow was that he'd 
 always been so fast a friend and favorite of dear old Jack's. 
 
 Oh, my! what was going to become of Jack after this? 
 
 "Would her mamma be able to pave him from being 
 banished from home? She hoped and prayed she :Dight! 
 
 Oh, goodness ! how could she ever live without the com- 
 panionship of poor, dear, old Jack ? She was quite certain 
 that her papa would never allow Charley F )rd to come to 
 the house to see any of the rest of the family if Jack were 
 sent away. 
 
 And her heart bounded within her, and a great, gulping 
 sob came to her throat, as with tears glistening in her 
 pretty eyes she exclaimed, as the steamer neared the wharf, 
 "Oh, Emily, there they a;e coming down the hill now! 
 How fortunate we are, aren't we? " 
 
 '1 i 
 
 HI i 
 
■^Ci . 
 
 264 
 
 BOKDEK CANUCKS. 
 
 
 UC, 
 
 
 E^H? 
 
 it' 
 
 "Yes, very fortunate,'' chewed out Miss Ritter, indif- 
 erentlj. 
 
 "Look, how the steam rises from poor little Bijou,'' 
 remarked Graeie, tremulously. "They must have driven 
 very fast." 
 
 " Yes, I see. Don't you think that if they had used the 
 same quantity of sieam they might have gotten home last 
 night and saved us tlie trouble of this charming exjxdition 
 to warn Jack that he's going to receive his quietus when he 
 gets home?" 
 
 "I never said he was going to receive anything of the 
 sort, Emily. I said that I knew that Papa was so annoyed 
 with him that I was afraid something dreadful wuld occur 
 when he gets home." 
 
 " Do you mean that he's going to be murdered ? " quer- 
 ried Miss Hitter, with provoking sangfroid^ as the steamer 
 gradually approached her landing place. 
 
 "No, Emily," she replied, with another great gulp of 
 nervous wretchedness, "I didn't tell you that Jack was 
 going to be murdered or anything of that sort — you know 
 I didn't! I told you that I was afraid that papa would 
 carry out his threat of sending him away from the hous^ — 
 banish him away from us, you know, at least for a time." 
 
 Poor little scheming sylphide ! It was only by a heroic 
 effort of self-control that she avoided completely breaking 
 down ; but the time for that was not yet. 
 
 " And I told you," replied the imperturbable Miss Ritter, 
 demonstratively munching away at her gum, " that I didn't 
 think being sent away to some other part of the world for a 
 time would at all hurt Jack." And then she added, after a 
 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 265 
 
 short pause, as if it were the outcome of an after-thought, 
 "But I really don't see how Charley Ford would ever get 
 on without Jack to tote him about the country." 
 
 "You're in eve of your hateful humors this morning, 
 Emily, and you're trying to make yourself as disagreeable 
 as you can." 
 
 After delivering this remonstrance in a trembling voice 
 she'rushed off the now landed boat and, child-like, gaining 
 the sleigh just as Jack had pulled up to await the debarka- 
 tion of another vehicle, she stepped upon the right-hand 
 side bar of the cutter, threw her arms around her brother's 
 neck and burst into a passion of tears. 
 
 " Why, Gracie dear," 'Exclaimed Jack as he dropped the 
 reins on the dashboard and encircling her fragile waist with 
 his right arm, kissed her burning cheek. "Wiiy, what can 
 the matter be, little one? 
 
 ^ " Oh, Jack, I'm so glad you've come back ! We've all 
 been in such a way about you 1" sobbed the poor sylph 
 with her face partially hidden upon her brother's broad 
 chest ' 
 
 " Why you didn't suppose I was never coming home 
 little sister, did you ?" 
 
 " No, no. Jack," with a shudder, "but I'm so afraid." 
 
 "What are you afraid of dear?" he asked with an in- 
 creasing premonition of probable breakers ahead. 
 
 To this question no answer came saving the outflow of 
 long pent up sobs. 
 
 Meanwhile her ungloved left hand with the frosted gold 
 band, on the third finger thereof lay prone upon Jack's left 
 shoulder. 
 
 H 
 
 I ! 
 
266 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 This thin, long-fingered, well-shaped little palm Charley 
 Ford took in both of his, and first kissing it, fondled it with 
 demonstrative sympathy, " Don't cry dear little Gracie," he 
 said soothingly ; " we've got back all right, you see. It 
 was very cruel of Jack to frighten you by remaining aw:iy 
 all night." 
 
 " No it wasn't," remonstratively shuddered the unfortunate 
 little schemer, as she withdrew her hand from her demon- 
 strative sympathizer, "Jack never could be cruel ! " 
 
 "There, dear, now," interposed her brother, "straighten 
 yourself up and don't cry any more; there's a good girl. 
 Everyone on the wharf is looking at us now, and they'll 
 think we're all daft if you go on in this way. There, dear, 
 there's a good girl ; straighten yourself up and dry your 
 eyes like a good little thing. You can sit in this seat along- 
 side of Charley while I get out and put the blanket over 
 Bijou. I'm afraid she'll catch cold if I don't cover her up." 
 
 And she did make a remarkably successful effort to com- 
 pose herself and pull herself together. For, Oh, what a 
 thrill of intense ecstacy had coursed through her veins 
 when Charley Ford had kissed her hand and called her 
 dear little Gracie I 
 
 How nice and kind it was of him to sympathize with her 
 in that way. And yet, her papa had compared him to 
 Jesse James I 
 
 For the moment she felt that she almost hated both her 
 papa and that enviously wicked Emily, who continued to 
 gaze at them with sardonic smile as she leaned over the rail- 
 ing of the steamer. 
 
PORDKlt CANUCKS. 
 
 267 
 
 " There now, Gracie," said Jack soothingly, as he got out 
 of the sleigh and handed her into his seat, " don't cry any 
 more ; there's a good child. 
 
 " No, I sha'n't cry any more, Jack," she said tremblingly, 
 holding her handkerchief over her mouth, with swollen 
 eyes and a blanched face. 
 
 Jack had called her child. She was no longer a child 
 now. 
 
 She had suddenly become a woman, albeit a §omewhat 
 diminutive one of close upon fifteen summers. 
 
 :!! !?■ 
 
ii»: 
 
 m 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 An International Love Scene. 
 
 \ FEW MOMENTS after, the pony and sleigh with its 
 -'^-^*- contents and Jack Rathbone were embarked aboard 
 the ferry steamer, she left her moorings and proceeded to 
 battle her way through the thick ice back to the American 
 side, while Miss Ritter continued to occupy her same place 
 at the railing. 
 
 " "Well, Emily, good morning," said Jack, approaching 
 her with extended hand, " I'm agreeably surprised to see 
 you here this morning." 
 
 "Are you?" retorted the junior partner's daughter, "I 
 must say that I'm rather confounded at finding myself here 
 here this morning." 
 
 " Why confounded, pray ?" 
 
 " Because, I feel for the moment as if I'd been on a wild 
 goose chase all morning and had just caught the goose." 
 
 ** There you go with that irrepressible sarcasm of yours I" 
 said Jack laughing. *' That's a very effective way of 
 telling a fellow he's a goose, isn't it?" 
 
 "Well, don't you think 'a fellow' ought to feel like a 
 goose, with a big G?" 
 
 "Why, particularly for please?" 
 
 "For going to that French race and staying away all 
 night." 
 
 (269) . 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
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 «* my \i2A 
 
 '.1 112 
 
 m 
 
 12.2 
 
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270 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 "But we couldn't have driven down on the ice after 
 dark." 
 
 " But you could have driven down before dark, couldn't 
 you?" 
 
 " Not very well and seen the last of the race." 
 
 " I suppose there's some kind of a thoroughfare on the 
 land along the shore and you could have driven down on 
 that after dark, couldn't you ?" 
 
 "Yes, but the sleighing was not good. Still I'm free to 
 confess," he continued, "tliat if we'd wanted to very 
 badly, we might have come home last night." 
 
 " I thought so I Well, as I understand it from Grace your 
 expedition, taken as a whole, has completely knocked out 
 the senior partner." 
 
 Miss Eitter often referred to Mr. Rathboneas "the senior 
 partner," or "the head of the firm." 
 
 " And now, I suppose, grimly suggested Jack, " it will be 
 my turn to be knocked out when I get home." 
 
 " Well, I fail to see anything very especially criminal in 
 going to a French horse race," slowly and deliberately 
 replied Miss Bitter, "and if the head of the firm should 
 make it too unpleasant for you when you get back home 
 you just march down to our place and mother and I will 
 look after you until the storm is over." 
 
 "I'm very much obliged to you I'm sure, Emily," replied 
 the truant, smiling sadly, "but I sometimes despair of the 
 storm's ever being over with me in so far as the governor is 
 concerned. He seems to have taken an absolute aversion to 
 me of late." 
 
 "Well, you must only patiently grin and bear it, I 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 271 
 
 suppose. The old-fashioned church I belong to teaches that 
 one must bow to the will of one's parents, however exact- 
 ing they may be." 
 
 " Yes, that's all very fine, but when that will arises from 
 manifestly unnatural motives and is harsh and intolerant, 
 what is one to do ?" 
 
 " Still patiently grin and bear it," asserted Miss Bitter 
 with a confirmatory nod of her head, while she demonstra- 
 tively threshed away at her gum. 
 
 " I can only tell you that if I had had my own way about 
 it," continued Jack earnestly, "I should have left my 
 father's roof more than a year ago — in fact, I have often felt 
 a contempt for myself for stopping on as I have when I'm 
 quite able to earn my own livmg, at all events with my 
 hands, if not with my head." 
 
 " And what had you proposed doing? " asked the matter- 
 of-fact one. 
 
 " Emigrating to Montana, Oregon, New Mexico or some 
 other outlying territory and growing up with the country." 
 
 " And becoming a professional cowboy or something of 
 that sort, I suppose," she added. 
 
 "Perhaps so." 
 
 " A lofty, praiseworthy ambition I must say," sneered 
 Miss Ritter, "and what do you think would become of 
 your mother if you carried out that programme?" 
 
 " Well, poor little mother and I must part some day or 
 other, you know, Emily," and having thought himself into 
 the nervous condition of mind he had during the drive 
 down, there was a perceptible tremor in his voice, " but I 
 don't mind confessing to you — because I don't seem to mind 
 
 
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272 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 telling you any sort of stupid thing about my excessively 
 egotistical self — that I shall feel very much like a ship 
 without a rudder when I cease to have my mother to go 
 back to each day. This may make me appear very 
 ridiculous and calfish in your eyes, Emily, but I hope you'll 
 not laugh at me for feeling as I do." 
 
 "Laugh at you Jack!" shedeprecatingly exclaimed, while 
 she ceased her gum-chewing, and her usually expressionless 
 pale blue eyes took an ineffably tender look as she gazed 
 into those of the truant youth, " I'm not in the habit of 
 laughing at the good I accidentally stumble upon in this 
 vale of tears," and she again resumed hei- }n-evious occu- 
 pation of leaning over the steamer's railing and gazing 
 intently upon the rapidly crumbling ice below, 
 
 "You must remember that I have scarcely shed my 
 swaddling coat yet, Emily," he observecl apologetically, as 
 he too leaned over the railing and lapsed into silence. 
 
 "Then my advice to you is,'' she remarked without look- 
 ing up, " that you'd better hang on to that coat as long as 
 you conveniently can, because the probabilities are that 
 you will never wear so becoming a garment again in after 
 life," and the gum-chewing industry was again resumed 
 with renewed vigor. 
 
 Meanwhile the sympathetic friendliness 'twixt the dainty 
 little sylphide and Charley Ford, seated in the sleigh, grew 
 on apace. 
 
 " You know, Gracie," said Charley, after Jack had gone 
 away to speak with Emily, " I have always been one of 
 your brother's nearest friends and greatest admirers, but I 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 273 
 
 don't think that I ever positively envied him before until 
 this n^orning." 
 
 "I can't see hov7 he is particularly to be envied this 
 morning of all others," she replied in a tremblings voice, 
 looking straight before her between the pony Bijou's ears. 
 
 " I suppose you have reference to the rumpus your father 
 has been probably making because of our going upon this 
 lamentable expedition ? " 
 
 "Yes, he's very much annoyed, indeed, and I'm so ter- 
 ribly afraid that something dreadful is going to happen — 
 something that will send Jack away from us for a long 
 time," and the tear-stamed little child-woman with difficulty 
 gulped down an involuntary sob. 
 
 "Oh, no, Gracie, I don't think you need feel like that," 
 remonstrated Charley sympathetically, as he again took her 
 ungloved left hand in both of his and fondled it, "the 
 storm will soon blow over, you may depend upon it. Jack's 
 been guilty of nothing so very dreadful.'* 
 
 "I know that," asscated the little one with a shuddering 
 sigh, "but papa is so very exacting with Jack, and so very 
 determined, too." 
 
 "Ah, yes, I haVe reason to believe that he is all that ; it 
 certainly was not for any such reason that I said I especially 
 envied your brother this morning ; " and lowering his voice 
 to a confidential, lover-like whisper he continued: "I 
 envy Jack because he has such a dear, precious, little 
 woman as you are to sympathize with and love him ! " 
 
 "Well, I don't see how 1 could very well help Ic 'ng 
 such a brother as dear, old Jack is,'* inanely suggested the 
 sylph with a shiver, growing paler. 
 
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274 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 "Yes, I'm very well aware that you couldn't help loving 
 Jack, because he is the dearest fellow in the woi Id, but I 
 must contradict myself by saying that while I envy your 
 brother in one way, I don't regret that I am not in his place 
 as your brother." 
 
 "Oh, I see, you wouldn't care to have a i^ister." she 
 replied, still looking straight before her — in turn growing 
 red. • 
 
 " No, you don't understand me. I should much prefer 
 to have a nice girl for a sister. 'Twoukl have been better 
 for we two boys, and mother's too often lonely life would 
 have been relieved of its loneliness by a daughter's compan- 
 ionship. The truth is, that I believe there*? always some- 
 thing wanting in a household without a daughter, and I'm 
 quite sure there's always something lacking in the life of a 
 growing boy or young man who is without the benign 
 influence of a pure minded, sensible sister. But what I 
 referred to was that I'd prefer not to have you for a sister." 
 
 "Thank you very much for the compliment, Mr. Ford," 
 replied the trembling sylph, growing white. 
 
 " No, dear little one," he said in passionate lover's tones, 
 lowering his voice, " I shall henceforth pray that you shall 
 be something nearer to me than a sister; in other words, 
 that we may go into partnership in loving Jack — you as a 
 sister and I as a brother." 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Ford! " she exclaimed in a trembling under- 
 tone, with eyes cast down, " you should not say what you 
 don't a bit mean I " 
 
 "But I do mean it more than I ever meant anything 
 before in all my life I And, remember, Gracie dear, if 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 275 
 
 you'll charitably let me, I'm always to be your nearest 
 friend, Ciiarley, hereafter!" and the instinctive sense of 
 proprietary of this gushing little woman's heart, which had 
 for the first time vividly come to him within the last few 
 moments, gave him the only tingling throe of unadulterated 
 love he had ever thus far felt in all his li"fe. 
 
 Perhaps it would not be out of place here to observe of 
 him among our fellows upon whose soul has never flashed 
 this first uncontaminated ray of love's bright, young dream, 
 that he is much to be commiserated with, in that from 
 such an one has been withheld the most ecstatic thrill of 
 Platonic adoration possible to our combinedly ethereal and 
 fleshly natures. 
 
 Howbeit, since the cloven feet of vanity and vexation of 
 spirit are ever pattering along at least abreast of us, the 
 capacity to feel these ecstatic thrills is but too often diverted 
 into the earth earthiness of a common, every-day, vulgar, 
 materialistic passion, but too often, alas I bringing sorrow, 
 humiliation and all uncharitpbleness in its immediate train. 
 
 Let this be as it may, Charley Ford was for the nonce 
 made better for the sudden realization of his sometime 
 unconsciously growing love for the little girl beside him 
 and her reciprocal fondness for him. 
 
 He would now give his mother a truthful account of his 
 ■whereabouts for the last twenty-four hours, notwithstanding 
 that oil the drive down he had sketched out within his own 
 mind a plausibly romantic tale of explanation to pour into 
 the maternal ear on his arrival home. 
 
 Yes, he would tell her the truth about his truant expedi- 
 
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276 
 
 BORDER CANUCE& 
 
 tion and promise her with a kiss that such a thing would 
 never occur again. 
 
 This, in his present couleur de rose frame of mind, he felt 
 would pacify and reassure her; and the probabilities are 
 that he was not far out in his reckoning when the time 
 came, an hour or so afterwards, to put his good resolution 
 into effect on the return from church of his devout mater 
 and younger brother to their comfortable home, to find him 
 already arrived there. 
 
 As the steamer neared the Detroit side Jack and Emily 
 left their places at the railing on the starboard side and 
 approached the sleigh. 
 
 "Why, what's the matter little puss?" asked Jack, 
 " you look as if you had heard something that very much 
 pleased you ! Has Charley been telling you of some of our 
 funny experiences at the widow's ball last night?" 
 
 " No, were you at a ball last night ?" she asked with 
 changing expression. 
 
 " Yes, of course we were — weren't we Charley ?" 
 
 "Good morning, Miss Emily," said Charley, cutting in 
 and smiling his most propitiatory and fascinating smile on 
 the junior partner's hopeful daughter. 
 
 " Good morning Chawley," responded Miss Ritter with 
 vibratory jaws. " I'll bet you had a good time dancing and 
 flirting with those pretty French girls last night, didn't you 
 Chawley?" • ^ 
 
 Cruel, cruel Emily ! You surely never felt the first throes 
 of an ecstatic love! 
 
 " I suppose you address me as Chawley out of considera- 
 tion of the cud you're by nature compelled to be busy with," 
 
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 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 277 
 
 rudely and bitterly suggested Mr. Ford, while at the same 
 time he gave Grade's hand a reassuring squeeze beneath the 
 wolf skin lap robe which caused that young person to laugh 
 outright at his bovine retort upon Emily's impertinence. 
 
 " Now, here, you two stop that," authoritatively interposed 
 Jack, *' you seem never to be able to meet without quarrel- 
 ing. I suppose it would be impossible for you both to 
 drive uptown in this sleigh at the same time?" 
 
 "Quite impossible," interpolated Miss Eitter. 
 
 "Or," continued Jack, "we might aZ? drive up together — 
 though it would perhaps be asking too much of poor Bijou 
 after her long drive this morning." 
 
 "Of course it would, poor little thing," exclaimed 
 Charley, as with a final squeeze of Gracie's hand beneath 
 the robe he got out of the sleigh, " I'd prefer to walk," and 
 the steamer having reached her dock, with an orthodox 
 lifting of his cap, and an obeisance specially directed 
 towards the glowing, albeit trembling little object of his first 
 genuine love, he proceeded to take his departure. 
 
 " I may have to come around and see you some time dur- 
 ing the day if I can get away, Charley," said Jack. 
 
 " All right old chap. You'll find me at home all the 
 afternoon," was the reply as he walked ashore with the 
 other foot passengers and thence up the street. 
 
 Thus it was that Jack and Gracie first drove Miss Ritter 
 home and then themselves proceeded homewards to the 
 Hathbone mansion. 
 
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CHAPTER XVL 
 
 A Son of Erin. 
 
 \ ND SO IT came to pass, as hereinbefore related, that 
 ■^■^- Mr. Robert Ratbbone, after a night and morning of 
 marital bull^ying and paternal fuming, betook himself to 
 church on this particular Sabbath morning, after an absence 
 therefrom extending over several moons. 
 
 If Jack, instead of being away upon the reprehensible 
 expedition he had stolen off upon, had been at home really 
 ill and unable to attend divine service, Mr. Rathbone's 
 comatose sense of duty to God and society would, in all 
 probability, have remained in its dormant condition, and 
 the luxuriously upholstered Rathbone pew at St. Pancras' 
 would siill have continued to know him not. 
 
 But the bete noir of his domestic contentment — not to say 
 happiness — having in this, his latest overt act of disobe- 
 dience, given him a propitious excuse for ridding the house- 
 hold of his objectionable presence, he, Mr. Rathbone, would 
 mark the event by demonstrating to his neighbors that he was 
 still with them as a church-going member of society, and to 
 the aforesaid hete noiVthat he, the latter, possessed a Christian 
 man for an outraged father. 
 
 When Jack, after dropping his excited little sister at the 
 front entrance of the mansion, drove Bijou around to the 
 stable he there found Micluiel, the groom-coachman at his 
 post of duty. 
 
 (279) 
 
 
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280 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 "Well, Mnstlier Jack, Oi'm right playsed to say yo back 
 agin all safe an' sound, sor," exclaimed Micliael. "01 was 
 beginnin' to fare that somethiu'moighthave gan wrang wid 
 ye an' the pony, sor." 
 
 "Oh, no, Mike, we are all right. I was only persuaded 
 to stay over at Belle River last night much against my own 
 inclination." 
 
 " And how did the race come aff, sor." 
 
 •'Oh, the widow's old horse Crapaud was beaten all 
 
 hollow r 
 
 "D'ye tell me so, sor? Well, thin, ye surprise me whin ye 
 tell me that, sor, beca.se Oi taught thir was nary u thing . 
 over there beyant that could bate th' widday's Crapod on 
 the ice." 
 
 " Yes, and so did almost everybody else at the race yes- 
 terday before the horses started, but Peter Bertrand's little 
 chestnut is too much for him any day." 
 
 " Faith, thin, he must beagood wan, must that same little 
 chisnut, sor." 
 
 "Yes, you can depend upon it, he's a good one," assented 
 the truant, forgetting for the moment what was in all prob- 
 ability in store for him when he entered the house. 
 
 " And Mr. Bertrand, his owner, has named him after me," 
 he added with a thrill of absurd pride. 
 
 " Afther yerself is it, sor?" 
 
 "Yes, he'll be known as 'Jack Rathbone' after this, 
 Mike." 
 
 " Well, thin, all Oi have to say t' that, sor, is that that 
 same chisnut pony could'n't have a betther or more gintle- 
 manly name, sor," observed this redoubtable votary of the 
 
•^ 1 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 281 
 
 blarney stone as he led the little mare out of the shafts of 
 tlie sleigli. "For that ray.-on," ho contiiiuod, "Oi'in right 
 well jdased tokiiaw that tlic laco cam' ail as it did, sor — but 
 sure Oi'iii tliinkin' the musther was in great ado about yer 
 stayiii' al' iiiglit away." 
 
 "IIcJV do you know he was, Mike?" 
 
 *' Why, didn't he cam* in here to the stable this mornin*, 
 an' fwhin he found the pony gan lie axed me fwidder Oi 
 knovved fwhere ye had >. int to, Masther John? " 
 
 "And did you tell hiM A'heie I'd gone?" 
 
 " Sorra bit o'me wonla do that, so*-, unless Oi was moighty 
 hard peched, sorl >.»o, no, sor^ iwhin the master axed me 
 fwhere ye'd gone away to. Oi towld him Oi'd not ba loikcly 
 to know fwhere ye had gan away to unless ye'd towld me 
 fwhere ye was goin' afore yc wint away." 
 
 "But I did tell you where I waa goir^ to before I went 
 away, Mike," remonstrated Jack. 
 
 " Av coorse Oi know ye did, sor; but, sure, the masther 
 wint away aff back into the house agin widout thinkiu' to 
 ax me fwidder ye had or no, sor." 
 
 "Well, well, Mike," exclaimed the truant, laughing, 
 "you're not an Irishman for nothing! That's worth a 
 dollar, and here it is for you, old chap." 
 
 "Thank ye, thank ye, yer honor," responded the recipient 
 of the large silver coin, "ye always do be givin' me some- 
 thing or another." 
 
 "Oh, Jack!" exclaimed Gracie, as she breathlessly 
 rubhed into the stable, "what do you think? Papa has 
 gone to church I " 
 
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282 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 "Gone to church, has he? Then I hope it'll do him 
 good," he said bitterly. "And where is mother?" 
 
 " In the library," and, lowering her voice to f» whisper, 
 *' I don't think she's nearly as miserable as I expected to 
 find her." 
 
 " Well, I must go and try to make my peace with her 
 before the governor returns. Mike, take good care of 
 Bijou, because she's had a long and fast drive this 
 morning." 
 
 "Faith, an' ye can depind upon it, Oi'll do that same, 
 sor," called out Michael from the po- y's stall, as Jack and 
 bis dainty little sister left the stable on their way to the 
 house. 
 
BB 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A Devoted Mother and a Penitent Son. 
 
 ; t 
 
 rrillERE ARE mothers and there are mothers in this 
 -^ fleeting vale of tears. 
 
 There are good mothers, indifferent mothers, and abso- 
 lutely bad, unnatural mothers; and the Topsj theory to the 
 contrary notwithstanding, it is an uncontrovertible fact that, 
 in view of the existing method of propagation of our 
 species, every man Jack and likewise Jill of us, must have 
 had a mother of some sort 
 
 It is also the.duty of every man Jack, and likewise Jill,- 
 of us to gratefully love our mothers. First, because they 
 underwent the pangs of bearing us, and secondly, because 
 an ordinarily well regulated mother is more prone to be 
 inspired by one of human nature's divinest laws to more 
 unselfishly love and cherish her offspring than that off- 
 spring in ever likely to receive at the hands of any other 
 woman in all his or her life long. 
 
 Yet there are society mothers who seemingly sacrifice the 
 natural promptings of this "divinest human law " at the 
 shrine of tluir real or fancied social obligations and treat 
 their children as disagreeable incumbrances, rather than as 
 blessings to be watched over and tenderly cared for. 
 
 Then there is the other extreme of mother — the middle 
 class drudge mother — who is never altogether happy unless 
 
 (283) 
 
 
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284 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 she be sacrificing herself at the shrine of her children, and 
 who seldom ever thinks or 'alks upon any other subject 
 
 This last need not necesi^^rily be the personification of 
 amiability. She may be the veriest shrew, the veriest Joe 
 Gargery's wife in "Great Expectation " ( who, by the way, if 
 this deponent remenibers rightly, didn't have any children 
 at all saving the adopted Pip ) , yet she may be none the 
 less the typical drudge mother. 
 
 She may rule her offspring, figuratively speaking, with 
 a rod of iron, and literally with much of that purifying and 
 withal torturous commodity known to certain domestic fire- 
 sides and homes as birch ; howbeit there may be no end to 
 her devotion and Spartan like disposition to sacrifice her 
 health, strength and peace of mind for the good of her 
 children. 
 
 When, however, such a mother possesses an average 
 degree of every day patience and amiability in addition to 
 the other qualities mentioned, then may it be safe to assume 
 that such an one shall ultimately be of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven. 
 
 It is this maternal ideality who alone lends a complexion 
 of justification to the too frequently ill-timed and stupidly 
 maudlin sentimentality one is often made to listen to about 
 *' me mawthaw " in amateur circles, professional concerts, 
 and kindred entertainments. 
 
 However that may be, to get back to the thread of this 
 rhapsodical narrative, it is safe to say that little Mrs. Robert 
 Rathbone with her cultivated amiability and her patient 
 disposition to suffer all things for her children, and 
 
BORPEB CANUCKa 
 
 285 
 
 M 
 
 especially her only son, was a near approach to an ideal 
 mother. 
 
 When she heard Jack's footsteps approaching the little 
 library-sitting room in which she was, she arose to meet him 
 at the door. She tried to look sternly serious upon him for 
 an instant as he entered and took her in his arms and kissed 
 her again and again. 
 
 " Oh, mother dear," said the truant in a penitent voice as 
 he put his arm around her neck and gazed into her eyes. 
 "I'm so sorry that I should have caused you so much 
 uneasiness, and judging from how pale you look, unhap- 
 piness too. I suppose as usual father has been visiting his 
 wrath upon you because of my having gone away as I 
 did?" 
 
 All traces of stern seriousness had now fled from the 
 little mother's countenance and the one thing uppermost in 
 her mind for the moment was that this was in all probability 
 the last time in all their lives he would ever have a chance 
 of offending as he had. The death knell of his home boy- 
 hood had sounded and he was about to go forth among 
 strangers to be cared for by them until be became a man 
 with other ties than those of hers. 
 
 Their lives were about to be separated perhaps for good 
 and aye 1 Oh, that this time should have ever come ! Why 
 could he not have always remained her chubby faced, curly 
 headed, bright-eyed little boy darling ? I 
 
 A very foolish and unreasoning little woman was this 
 mother of Master Jack Rathbone. 
 
 " And where have you been ? " she asked with overflow- 
 ing eyes. 
 
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286 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 "I was up at Belle River, mother." 
 
 " At a horse race, I suppose ? '* 
 
 " Yes, at a horse race." 
 
 " Well, now, Jack, you knew very well that your father 
 had forbidden your going to those sort of races without his 
 express permission." 
 
 "Yes, mother, I know that, and I alto know that he'd 
 forbid my doing anything he thought would give me 
 pleasure." 
 
 "No, no, he wouldn't, my son ! You wrong your father 
 when you say so ! " 
 
 *' Nq.1 don't, mother ; I know that he's taken the greatest 
 aversion to me, and that the sooner I get out of tliis house 
 for good, the better for all concerned. You know very 
 well that if it hadn't been for your urging me not to, I 
 should have gone away long ago." 
 
 "No, Jack," she said, resuming her seat before the fire- 
 place, " your father hasn't taken an aversion to you, at all ; 
 he simply thinks that you have been wasting valuable time 
 here at home, and lie wants you to go to some boarding 
 school or college for a year or so to finish your education 
 before you start out for yourself in the world." She was 
 very nearly breaking down here. 
 
 " When does he want me to go, mother ? " 
 
 " At once — before the end of this week." 
 
 Poor, fondly foolish, little mother ! The inflection of her 
 voice betrayed how near she was to bursting into tears. 
 
 "And which college does he want me to go to, mother 
 dear? " he asked, as he kuelt beside the little wom^in and 
 
•'■-'i I 
 
 BORDER CANU 
 
 cks. 
 
 287 
 
 took one of her hands lovingly in both of his, while he 
 gazed into her overflowing eyes. 
 
 " He leaves that entirely to you to choose, my son," she 
 replied, as she stroked his head caressingly. 
 
 "That's remarkably generous of him." 
 
 "Oh, yes, dear, your father has always been very gen- 
 erous in respect of your education, and I only fear that 
 you've not taken sufficient advantage of it," she said, as two 
 large tears tole down her drawn cheeks. 
 
 "Perhaps I haven't, mother; but I promise you here 
 upon my knees that I shall take proper advantage of this 
 opportunity to make np for lost time. What school or 
 college would you prefer that I should go to, mother dear? " 
 
 " I shouldn't like to offer any suggestion under the cir- 
 cumstances. I don't think I have any right to. Your 
 father expressly said that you were to be allowed to choose 
 for yourself." . 
 
 At this instant Gracie, bereft of her cap and wraps, came 
 bounding into the room. 
 
 " What is he to choose for himself, mamma? ** she asked. 
 
 "" A college, dear." 
 
 " Is he to go away to college ? " demanded the sylphide 
 with a grimace. 
 
 "Yes, dear, for a year or so. It is your father's very 
 sensible wish that he should before he starts out in life for 
 himself." 
 
 " Well then. Jack, I'll tell you what college I know that 
 Tnamma would prefer that you should go to." 
 
 "No, you mustn't do so, Gracie," mildly objected Mrs. 
 
 
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288 
 
 BOlStDER CANUCKS. 
 
 Eathbone. "Let Jack choose for himself; it is your father's 
 Wish that he should." 
 
 But the sylphide, going to her brother, still in his kneel- 
 ing posture, and encircling his neck with her arms, 
 whispered in his ear. 
 
 "Well, then, that's the college I shall go to!" he said, 
 as after kissing his sister he arose to his feet and embraced 
 the little mater. "I can't be far wrong in choosing the 
 college the dearest mother in the world would prefer that I 
 should go to." 
 
 "That's the college Father Van was educated at, you 
 know, Jack," exclaimed Grace excitedly, " and, oh, he says 
 it's such a beautiful place with such lovely grounds about it, 
 and the teachers are so kind tc the scholars I I'm sure it 
 must be a very good school to have educated Father Van 1" 
 
 " I've no doubt it is," replied her brother, " and if you'll 
 go with me this afternoon, little one, we'll go and call upon 
 Father Van and have a talk with him about it" 
 
 "Of course I'll go with you. Jack," replied Oracle 
 excitedly, "you'll let me, won't you mama?" 
 
 " Yes, dear, I don't see any objection to your going," said 
 the little woman with a thrill of consolation growing out of 
 that Masonic-like esprit de corps peculiar to devout members 
 of. her ancient denomination. 
 
 Since she had to be separated from her idolized boy she 
 was convinced that he'd be carefully looked after at the 
 institution he had chosen because she knew a good deal 
 about its methods for the reason that two of her brothers 
 had been educated there in the days gone by. 
 
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 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 289 
 
 
 Thus it was that that afternoon Jack and Gracie called 
 upon Father Van and received from him a glowing account 
 of the beauties of the situation jast outside New York City 
 and the advantages of the curriculum of his Alma Mater. 
 
 iwifj 
 
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 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 7%e Promised Valedictory Vtait. 
 
 XT WILL, therefore, now be understood, after this long 
 -*■ drawn-out interpolation, how it was that Jack Rath- 
 bone came to refer to his going to New York before the 
 close of the current week in conversation with Jacques 
 Laforge at the threshold of Rathboiie & Ritter's establish- 
 ment on the storm-threatened morning which marks the 
 outset of these desultory pages. 
 
 The storm had spent much of its force in wind, which 
 had veered around to the southeast, accompanied by a rise 
 in the temperature and a sort of rainy snow, which clung to 
 each object it fell upon, encrusting each tree and exposed 
 shrub for miles around with an alabaster-like coat of 
 ephemeral beauty. 
 
 So that when the sun shone forth on the following morn- 
 ing in all his refulgent midwinter glory the country-side 
 along the frozen river as far as the eye could reach pre- 
 sented an idealistic scene of hyperborean loveliness. Even 
 the dead and burnished rushes of the vast marsh, which 
 constituted the background to *'Mushrat" farm looking 
 westward, became white, coral-like sprays of beauty for the 
 time being, while under the influence of old Sol's dazzling 
 rays the leafless trees and shrubbery immediately surround- 
 ing the quaint, old dormer-windowed house glittered and 
 glistened in short-lived, brilliant splendor. 
 
 (291) 
 
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292 
 
 BORDER OANUOES. 
 
 If the outside of the Laforge habitation was thus radiant 
 of exceptional winter glory, the inside thereof was pervaded 
 by a mild undercurrent of excitement because of the 
 anticipated valedictory visit of "Monsieur Jack," which 
 Mons. Laforge had reported on his arrival home from the 
 city in the midst of the storm on the previous evening. 
 
 The large frame kitchen-living room was redolent of an 
 atmosphere of cheery warmth and savory odors. 
 
 One half of this apartment — that nearest the prim little 
 parlor, off which is a small bedroom designated by the 
 inmates of the household as " la chambre de Monsieur Jack " — 
 was covered with strips of homemade carpet, while the rear 
 portion occupied, by the large top-oven stovt, kitchen table, 
 and tall, red dresser with a liberal display of blue and white 
 delf dishes arranged in upright show thereon, was bare floor 
 of immaculate cleanliness. 
 
 Between the two windows looking to the eastward 
 stood a tall, old fashioned, lazily ticking, eight day clock, 
 hung up on one side of which was a florid print of our 
 Savior and on the other an equally crude picture of the 
 blessed Virgm with holy infant in arms. 
 
 Facing these on the opposite wall, over the old fashioned 
 flap-leaved dining table, was a large map-like illustration of 
 Goorge Washington encircled in chronological order by 
 vignettes of his successors down to General Grant ; and over 
 this, next the raftered ceiling, was a conspicuous black 
 wooden cross and white crucifix. At the window nearest 
 the southwest corner of the room stood an old-fashioned 
 hand-loom and alongside of this was a large sized spinning- 
 wheel, busy at which was Archange, the second daughter of 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 £93 
 
 n 
 
 the family — a lithe figured, straight featured, grey eyed, 
 brown haired, half grown girl. 
 
 Near to the window opposite, upon a high backed, rush 
 bottomed chair sat Marie, who though the elder of the two 
 was much the smaller. She had the old look common to 
 victims of spinal disorders, and an angelic expression, the 
 outcome of patient suffering and cheerful resignation about 
 her charming Madonna-like face, while her diminutive hands 
 and fingers moved with swift mechanical precision in the 
 braiding of straw. 
 
 Madame Laforge, a stout, good-natured looking, dark 
 complexioncd, middle aged woman was busy stuffing a 
 turkey at the kitchen table, while her two youngest born 
 were occupied in assaying to play jack-stones with sheep 
 knuckles on the carpeted portion of the floor in imitation of 
 their older brothers and sisters now gone to the French log 
 school house a mile and more away. 
 
 Jacques himself, assisted by Francois, his bright-eyed, 
 intelligent, eldest twelve year old son was busy fanning out 
 oats in the log barn across the yard. 
 
 "Mother, do you think that Monsieur Jack will come 
 this morning or will he wait till this afternoon?" asked 
 Marie, of course in French. 
 
 " I'm sure I don't know, my child. He may not come at 
 all to-day. Your father said that he might not be here until 
 to-morrow. 
 
 "Oh, I think he'll be here to-day," replied the little 
 invalid, intent upon her work. " Surely he'll take advantage 
 of this lovely day to come if he comes at all," and then 
 looking out of the window she exclaimed, " My, how lovely 
 
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294 
 
 BOUDEIl CANUCKS. 
 
 it is I It looks like a great white shining fairy hmJ out.side 
 this morning!" 
 
 "I feel it in my bones that MonHJour Jack will come 
 to-day," cried Arcliange as she gracefully moved back and 
 forth at the spinning wheel. 
 
 " Don't you feci it at your heart too, sistor dear," quizzic- 
 ally queried Marie, with a mischievous smile, turning to 
 glance at her sister. 
 
 " Well, I could'nt say for that," good-naturedly replied 
 Archange with a shrug of her pretty shoulders, "but I've 
 made a fire in the front room so as to give him a warm 
 reception in case he should, come." 
 
 "But you know, my dear," observed Madame Laforge 
 as she placed the now stuffed turkey in a dripping pan, 
 " Monsieur Jack never cares to sit in the front room. He 
 always prefers being out here in the kitchen because he says 
 it's so much more comfortable." 
 
 "And so I'm sure it must be," assented Marie, "but then 
 you know, mother dear, seeing that he's Archange's beau, 
 she may very naturally want to have some little private talk 
 of her own with him in the front room before he says good- 
 bye to the rest of us out here. I'm sure I should if he were 
 my beau." 
 
 " And I'm sure he's as much your bean as he is mine," 
 cried the girl at tliespijining wheel. "In f;ict, lie always talks 
 to you more and pays you more attention than liedoes me." 
 
 "Well, it's very nice of you to say that he's as much my 
 beau as he is yours, sister mine — very nice and very gen- 
 erous of you, dear," she said with confirmatory nods of her 
 head, the while playfully smiling down upon her rapidly 
 
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 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 295 
 
 lengmening hraul ; "liut I don't think I slioukl.cnrc to go 
 into partnership with you in tlio possession of Monsieur 
 Jack as a beau. I shouUl be too jealous of v<i'i about my 
 half of liim. No, I'll only have to wait until my own 
 beautiful prince comes from behind the silver clouds in a 
 golden chariot drawn by snow white horses to euro my 
 back and dress me up in the purple and fine linen the cure 
 talks about. And hoMl make, Oh, such a beautiful lady of 
 mo that he won't be able to help asking me to marry him ! 
 and he'll be such a beautiful prince that I won't be able to say 
 no! And then we'll be married by tlie bishop or, perhaps, 
 the pope himself in the presence of ever so many other 
 beautiful princes and princesses, and I'll be the envy of all 
 the girls for miles around! '' and the frail little figure shook 
 with a merry chuckle over her own pleasantry. 
 
 ""Won't you have any one but princes and princesses at 
 your weddmg?" asked Archange, as she moved back and 
 forth. 
 
 "Oh, no!" she replied, shaking her head without looking 
 up, " that would never do, jou know ! " 
 
 "I suppose your beautiful prince won't let you invite 
 any of us to come, will he? " asked Archange seriously. 
 
 "Oh, yes, he will ! You see I'll first get him to make 
 father a king, and then, of course, you know, you children 
 will all be princes and princesses, because you'll all be the 
 sons and daughters of a king, you know. And mother will 
 be a queen with a lovely crown of gold and diamonds on 
 her head, and her dress will be all beautiful purple and fine 
 linen, and — " 
 
 "And what will be your dress? " interrupted her sister. 
 
 Hi 
 
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296 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 " Purple and fine linen too, of course," with a confirma- 
 tory nod of the head. 
 
 " I should think you'd rather wear white satin at your 
 own wedding." 
 
 "Oh, no, I couldn't think of it ! " she said with affected 
 solemnity, gazing down upon her work ; " only common, 
 every-day brides wear white satin. Princesses are always 
 married in purple and fine linen, you know." 
 
 " I do believe that's Monsieur Jack's grey pony coming 
 down the road now 1 " exclaimed Madame Laforge, looking 
 out of the window. 
 
 " Let me see I " cried Archange, stopping her wheel and 
 rushing to the window. " Yes, that's he," she said con- 
 fidently. 
 
 *' Are you sure ? " asked the mother. 
 
 "Yes, I'm sure." 
 
 " Then I'm glad I've got the turkey ready to put in the 
 oven," and this the good woman proceeded to do without 
 further parley. 
 
 "Yes, and he's got a lady with him," continued 
 Archange, " I wonder who it can be ?" 
 
 "Why, who could it be but Madamoiselle Grace?" 
 demanded Madame Laforge, fussily putting more wood in 
 the stove. 
 
 " I hope it is 1" cried Marie, with difficulty getting out of 
 her tall backed chair and shambling over nearer to the 
 window to gaze out in' the direction of the approaching 
 visitors, " I'll be so glad to see her bright pretty face again I 
 It's more than three months since she was here last." 
 
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 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 297 
 
 Gracie Rathbone bad often accompanied Jack when the 
 weather was fine in the summer and autumn months down 
 to "Mushrat Farm " during the last two or three years. 
 
 In this way slie had gotten to know the family well and 
 to like talking to the crippled eldest daughter, and to romp 
 with the other Laforge children while Jack enjoyed a few 
 hours' shooting over the marshes. 
 
 Archange had become quite proficient in English and 
 spoke it very well, although, of course, with a very marked 
 but withal pretty accent, while Marie, owing to her constant 
 confinement to il^e house, heard it spoken but com- 
 paratively se.'dom and was therefore shy about attempting 
 to speak it. 
 
 Gracie Rathbone, on the other hand, was equally loath lo 
 talk French, notwithstanding that she understood it 
 tolerably well when she heard it spoken. 
 
 Thus it was that the dainty sylphide and her little crippled 
 admirer carried on their sometimes lengthened conversations 
 — the one speaking English and the other French. 
 • Mrs. Laforge herself always talked in her own native 
 patois to both Jack and Gracie, while her husband employed 
 his quaint English dialect as a means of communication 
 with any and every one on the slightest provocation. He 
 was rather proud of his linguistic accompl^hment in this 
 regard. 
 
 Ilence it was, that when the two distinguished and wel- 
 come guests had duly arrived and all were assembled in the 
 comfortable kitchen, the concord of sounds and intonations 
 of voices seemed for the nonce to satisfactorily dispose of 
 the Canadian dual language question. 
 
 IM. 
 
 i'l 5 
 
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298 
 
 BORDEK CANUCKS. 
 
 "I'm SO glad to see you again, Madamoiselle," said Marie 
 simply in French, after the sylphide had kissed her demon- 
 stratively, as she sat in her high-backed chair; "it seems 
 such a long tiine since you were here last." 
 
 " Let me see — I was here in September last, was I not, 
 Marie?" 
 
 " Yes, you were here on the 21st of September." 
 
 " More than four months ago, isn't it? Why, goodness ! 
 I didn't think it was as long ago as that I Time flies, 
 doesn't it? You're looking very well, Marie, but your 
 father told Jack yesterday that you v -e threatened with a 
 very serious illness not long ago." 
 
 *' Oh, no, I was not so bad as poor father fancied I was. 
 You see, he frets so about me when I've the slightest thing 
 the matter with me, that I'm always made out worse than I 
 really am," and the Madonna-like face assumed a playfully 
 cheerful smile as she bended over for a fresh supply of 
 straw, a bright, clean bundle of which lay upon the floor 
 beside her chair. "We had just been talking about 
 princesses," she continued, " when we first saw you coming 
 in the distance, and I'm sure neither Archange nor I ever 
 fancied we should see one so soon, because, you know," she 
 said confidentialy, as she straightened herself up after having 
 secured the straw, "' in that beautiful fur jacket and cap and 
 that pretty dark-green dress, you are jnst what I think 
 princesses must look like." 
 
 "Now, now, Marie," replied Grace, playfully shaking a 
 a finger at her, "you know I don't like to be flattered or 
 made fun of, either." 
 
 "Oh, no I I never flatter or make fun of my dear 
 
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 BORDEH CANUCKS. 
 
 299 
 
 princesses," remonstrated the little invalid, with serio-comic 
 countenance", "although I sometimes feel it my duty to 
 tell them how beautiful they are." 
 
 At this juncture Jack, accompanied by Mons. Laforge 
 and his son and heir, Francois, came in from the stable, 
 whither they had been to put Bijou up for the two or three 
 hours the visitors were to remain, 
 
 Jacques was dressed in a homemade, blue-grey flannel 
 blouse and a light brownish pair of trousers, the boUonis of 
 which blended into cloth-topped shoepacs, tied around wiih 
 babeech strings. 
 
 "Aw, Mademoiselle!" he exclaimed, taking off the red 
 tuque he habitually wore at home as he went to shake 
 Gracie by the hand for the second time since her cotnirig, 
 ' Ah'U toll you, we wus glad for see you on dees house 
 agin!" 
 
 " Not more so than I am to see you all again, I'm sure, 
 Mr. Laforge," replied the little city lady earnestly. 
 
 "Dat wus long tam you wus not here before," he said 
 politely. "Marie wus say de udder day dat she's fraid she's 
 not goan see you no more." 
 
 "Oh, there is no fear of that; I'll always come and see 
 Marie whenever I can. But now that Jack's going away," 
 she added sadly, " I'm afraid I'll not have as many chances 
 to come as I had last summer." 
 
 "Bot yo bruddeur was goan come back agin sumtam or 
 uddeur, Ah suepose. Mademoiselle," remonstrated Jacques. 
 " Ah guess he's not goan lac dat collage so mouch he's 
 nevaire goan cum back home no more." 
 
 " Oh, no," she said laughing, " I don't suppose he'll like 
 
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 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 it SO much as all that. He'll be back some time in July for 
 his holidays, I suppose — about five months from now." 
 
 " Aw, well, dat wus goan soon sleep roun, and you wus 
 goan come an see us den. Mais, Mademoiselle, you wus 
 goan stop an have sum deeneur wit us. You muss took off 
 yo cap an yo houtside coat. " 
 
 " Aw^ oui^pour le sure! " chorused Marie and her mother. 
 
 *' Archange, ma chere I " cried Jacques, addressing his sec- 
 ond-born, who stood watching and talking to Jack as he 
 stood at the table on the other side of the room emptying a 
 traveling bag of its contents. 
 
 ^^ Comment, mon peref' she asked, facing around, her 
 bright grey eyes dancing with excitement. 
 
 " Took Mademoiselle on de udder room so's she's goan 
 took hoff hees cap an hovairecoat." 
 
 " Certainement, mon pere,'^ replied Archange with alaCrity, 
 going to Grace." Come wit me, mamselle Grace," she 
 said, taking the sylphide by the hand. 
 
 ** Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle Ratbone ! " exclaimed Jacques, 
 as a connoisseur of peltries, no longer able to suppress his 
 admiration of the beautiful seal fur, "dat was beutafful 
 skeen you wus got on yo back ! Dare wus no mushratbout 
 dat, fur sure ! " 
 
 "No, Mr. Laforge, it's sealskin," explained the sylph. 
 " Papa's present to me at Christmas," she added as she went 
 off with Archans^e to the front room. 
 
 Meanwhile Jack brought delight to the brown eyed little 
 five year old girl, who stood upon a chair beside him, by 
 giving her a flaxen-haired doll with expressive blue eyes, 
 which opened and shut on occasion, and who possessed the 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 301 
 
 further unusual feminine accomplishment of squeaking 
 when she was squeezed. 
 
 The youngest of the family, whom Jack had previously 
 christened "Buster," a brawny gentleman of four summers 
 with bucolic predilictions, being seated on the table along- 
 side the Sunta Claus grip sack, was made to understand 
 that he had suddenly become a large landed proprietor with 
 vast herds of kine, the mere creatures of his will, by the 
 presentation of a toy barnyard. 
 
 "Monsieur Jack, you wus goan spile dem chile," sug- 
 gested Jacques, as he and his wife and Marie gazed upon 
 the delighted children. 
 
 "Oh, no, Santa Claus never spoils his children," was the 
 reply, as he handed a pair of skates to Francois, the eldest 
 boy, "You know Santa Claus sent you these skates, 
 Frank," continued Jack, " and he told me to tell you he's 
 sorry he was so late in getting around this year. He'll try 
 to be on time next Christmas." 
 
 To which Master Francois, looking up from his treasures 
 with radiantly incredulous countenance, replied: "Aw, 
 yas. Monsieur Jack, Ah knows who's dat Santa Claw wus ! 
 Dat wus you, dat's who's he wus, an Ah tank you verrah 
 much. Monsieur. Dey wus jews de ting what Ah wus 
 want," and he went over to the far window to more closely 
 inspect his prize. 
 
 The Santa Claus grip-sack proved to contain something 
 appropriate for every one, and every one was made happy 
 and hilarious; and when, in due course, the table was laid 
 and the turkey, done to a proper brown, placed at the head 
 of the table for Jacques to stand up and carve, never did a 
 
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302 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 jollier party partake of a tardy New Year's dinner in all the 
 country 'round. 
 
 Buster'seemed the only one present for the time being 
 at all concerned about the future and its prospective cares 
 and responsibilities. He felt it his duty several times to 
 get down off his high chair and go over to where he had 
 left his cattle grazing upon the carpet. First he was afraid 
 they might get out of their pasture and wander off and be 
 lost in the marshes ; and then it struck him that rag carpet 
 might perhaps be a poor substitute for grass, and he 
 demanded to know, in lisping patois, whether cows ever eat 
 turkey. " If so, he'd save some of his for his pretty cows. 
 
 Marie suggested that, although they were not partial to 
 turkey, she knew they were very fond of straw, and that he 
 might have some of hers to feed them with. 
 
 Happy thought I Straightway each animal had a clean, 
 bright straw laid before him for his dinner, and Buster's 
 mind was made sufficiently easy to enable him to return to 
 his chair at the table along-side his mother and renew his 
 attack upon the turkey. 
 
 Jack Rathbone looked forward to his going to college for 
 a couple of years with pleasurable satisfaction, and Grace's 
 regret that he v)as to go, found solace in the fact that it had 
 been arranged that she and her mother were to accompany 
 him to New York, and thence to the college to see that he 
 was made properly comfortable. 
 
 The sylphide did not altogether despair of seeing Charley 
 Ford occasionally during Jack's absence. 
 
 She was never held a prisoner at home, and although it 
 was not at all likely that Charley would be permitted to 
 
^aem 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 303 
 
 lad 
 
 my 
 
 he 
 
 |ley 
 
 it 
 to 
 
 come to the house to see her, she had to go back and forth 
 to the convent each day, and she didn't see why he couldn't 
 happen to meet her on the street sometimes. If she could 
 only get Marie alone for a little while she thought she'd 
 like to tell her that she was as good as engaged to Charley 
 Ford, because she knew that Marie would sympathize with 
 her and keep her secret. She certainly would tell her all 
 about it when she came down to the farm with Jack during 
 his next summer vacation. 
 
 And now the dinner being over. Jack had some talk with 
 Monsieur Laforge about his duck skiff and decoys which 
 were stored away in the Mushrat farm barn. 
 
 "At first I thought I'd get you to sell them for me, 
 Jock," he said, "but I've changed my mind. I don't sup- 
 pose they'd bring much, and I may find use for them when 
 I come back." 
 
 " Aw, yas, ov coorse. As Ah wus toll you yesteurday, 
 dey could stop where's dey wus on de barn teel you wants 
 dem. Suepose you does go on collage for two tree year, Ah 
 guess you wus goan come back sumtam, ay ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I'll be home for two months during the 
 summer." 
 
 " An Ah hopes," continued Jacques, " dat you wus not 
 goan got yo head feel hup with sich beeg larnin dat you 
 wus goan geeve up to shoot sumtam when we's got plantay 
 dock on de mash." 
 
 "Oh, no, I don't think there's much danger of that," 
 said young Kathbone, laughing. 
 
 "Sumtam, you know," continued Jacques oracularly, 
 "too mouch larnin spiles fokes so dey wus do nutting cep 
 
 *r' 
 
304 
 
 BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 go 'round an tink how much dey knows more dan udder 
 fokes. Look mah ole fren Antoine BoisversI He have 
 peench heemsef fur geeve hees son good eddication. He 
 have sent heem to fuss class collage down on Kebec, an 
 now what wus de raysulte of dat ? "What he's do wit all 
 dat larnin ? Ah'U goan toll yo what he's do wit dat ! He's 
 feel hees head hup wit so mouch eddication dat he have no 
 more room on do top ov eet fur respec for hees faddeur an 
 hees muddeur, an he wus shame ov eet ! " 
 *' Ashamed of his own father and mother? " 
 " Yas, sair, he wus, sure's mah nam wus Jock Laforge I ** 
 "Well, that's too bad I It's a case of « little learning 
 being a dangerous thing, isn't it ? '' 
 
 " Aw, yas, fur sure, eet ees dangeureuse ting fur know too 
 moucht" assented the owner of "Mushrat farm." "Ah 
 hope. Monsieur Jack, you nevaire wus goan larn so mouch 
 where's you wus go on dat collage dat you wus goan forgot 
 us po fokes on de Riviere Canard mash." 
 
 " Forget you, Jock, or any of the family ! " exclaimed 
 the youth impulsively, getting up and going over to shake 
 his habitant hunter friend by the hand. " Why, my dear 
 sir, some of the happiest hours of my life have been passed 
 with you and your family right here in this house ; and so 
 long as I live I shall never forget any of you or ever 
 cease to thank you for all the kindness you have shown 
 
 me 
 
 >» 
 
 "Oh, go long wit you. Monsieur Jack! Eet wus you 
 dat have be kine to us ! " 
 
 " Not to the extent you have been to me, old friend," 
 replied Jack ; " but now we must be off, or it'll be dark 
 
BORDER CANUCKS. 
 
 305 
 
 before we get back to the city, and mother will be worrying 
 about us. Gracie, get your things on, and Mr. Laforge and 
 I will go out and put the pony in the sleigh." 
 
 " No, no, Ah could do dat meseE You stay where's 
 you wus, Monsieur Jack." 
 
 But this Jack wouldn't hear of, and both went out to the 
 stable together 
 
 Thus, without further ado, amidst the tender adieus 
 which followed Bijou and the sleigh being brought to the 
 door for the start homewards, will this humble scribe, with 
 a profoundly respectful obeisance, set aside his stubby pencil 
 and lower the curtain on " Border Canucks : Our friendly 
 relations." 
 
 •| 
 
 THE EXD. 
 
A FAULTLESS FIT GUARANTEED 
 
 BY OUR NEW YORK CITY CUTTER, 
 
 MR y. G. CAMPBELL, 
 
 5flJ. H. Plummep fit Go. 
 
 IMPORTERS OF 
 
 ENGLISH AND SCOTCH DRY GOODS, 
 
 8AULT 8TE. MARIE, ONTARIO. 
 
 BARTLETT & MA6D0NALD, 
 
 DIRECT IMPORTERS OF ALL KINDS OP 
 
 FANCY AND STAPLE DRESS FABRICS 
 
 Sandwich Street, WINDSOR, ONTARIO 
 
 (opposite DETROIT.) 
 
 Vh^ 3^ruTibell l]|oii6c. 
 
 E. RUNDELL, MANAQER. 
 SAULX SXE. MARIE, 
 
 MICHIQAN. ^ 
 
 A delightful hotel, lighted by eleotrioity, and having 
 all other modern improvements. 
 
 Overlooking the Rapids, Government Park and Ship Canal. 
 
 $2.00 PER DAY. 
 
 ELLIOTT, GARLAND & CO. 
 
 8AULT 8TE. MARIE, ONT. 
 
 MERCHANT TAILORS, 
 
 DEALERS IN 
 
 SUPERIOR KINDS OF GENTS' FURNISHINGS, &c. 
 
 Gtnts' all wool garment* made to order ao per cent. 
 
 cheaper than on the American elde. .-^ 
 
H 
 
 O 
 PR 
 
 J. O. PKCK, 
 
 ICE Ready Made Clothier. 
 
 Gent'^ First-Class Furnishings. 
 
 Hats, Gaps, Etc. 
 
 The most complete establishment of the kind 
 in Western Ontario. 
 
 SANDWICH STREET, WINDSOR, (Opposite Detroit City.) 
 
 xliehigan Exchange 
 
 Sault Ste. Mariet Mich. 
 
 A First-class Hotel, charmingly situated within 
 
 stone's throw of the rapids and the 
 
 great ship canal. 
 
 RATES, $2.00 AND $3.00 PER DAY. 
 
 ^"RANK ATWOOE), Manager. 
 

 V*J