My readers should see a table laid out in a wealthy Canadian
farmer's house before they can have any idea of the profusion
displayed in the entertainment of two visitors and their young
children.
Besides venison, pork, chickens, ducks, and fish of several kinds,
cooked in a variety of ways, there was a number of pumpkin,
raspberry, cherry, and currant pies, with fresh butter and green
cheese (as the new cream-cheese is called), molasses, preserves, and
pickled cucumbers, besides tea and coffee - the latter, be it known,
I had watched the American woman boiling in the frying-pan. It was a
black-looking compound, and I did not attempt to discuss its merits.
The vessel in which it had been prepared had prejudiced me, and
rendered me very sceptical on that score.
We were all very hungry, having tasted nothing since five o'clock in
the morning, and contrived, out of the variety of good things before
us, to make an excellent dinner.
I was glad, however, when we rose to prosecute our intended trip up
the lake. The old man, whose heart was now thoroughly warmed with
whiskey, declared that he meant to make one of the party, and Betty,
too, was to accompany us; her sister Norah kindly staying behind to
take care of the children.
We followed a path along the top of the high ridge of limestone
rock, until we had passed the falls and the rapids above, when we
found Pat and Mat Y - - waiting for us on the shore below, in two
beautiful new birch-bark canoes, which they had purchased the day
before from the Indians.
