In This There Were
Congregated Some Six Or Seven Men, Seated In Arm-Chairs Round A
Stove, And Among These I Placed Myself.
No one spoke a word either
to me or to any one else.
No one smoked, and no one read, nor did
they even whittle sticks. I asked a question, first of one and
then of another, and was answered with monosyllables. So I gave up
any hope in that direction, and sat staring at the big stove in the
middle of the room, as the others did. Presently another stranger
entered, having arrived in a wagon, as I had done. He entered the
room and sat down, addressing no one, and addressed by no one.
After awhile, however, he spoke. "Will there be any chance of
dinner here?" he said. "I guess there'll be dinner by-and-by,"
answered the landlord, and then there was silence for another ten
minutes, during which the stranger stared at the stove. "Is that
dinner any way ready?" he asked again. "I guess it is," said the
landlord. And then the stranger went out to see after his dinner
himself. When we started, at the end of an hour, nobody said
anything to us. The driver "hitched" on the horses, as they call
it, and we started on our way, having been charged nothing for our
accommodation. That some profit arose from the horse provender is
to be hoped.
On the following day we reached Montreal, which, as I have said
before, is the commercial capital of the two Provinces.
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