e Churchmen, "Yet are my years but labour and
sorrow." The little chaps who have their birthday parties among
sub-Arctic reeds are surrounded with enemies from the first day they
crack their baby shells. Lynx and raccoon prey upon them by land, eagles
and owls swoop upon them as they swim; and as with one eye they scan the
sky above them, a greedy pike is apt to snap their web-feet from under
them and draw them to a watery grave.

The cadets of the Hudson's Bay Company exchange courtesies with the
Mounted Police, each considering himself a distinct cut above the other.
One Mounted Policeman, whose duty it had been to escort the crazed
Russian Doukhobortsi on one of their "altogether" pilgrimages, is hailed
across the circle, "Here, lend us your knife, you nursemaid to the
Douks." "Who spoke?" yawned the Policeman. "Was it that fur-pup of the
Hudson's Bay?" "Yes," retorted the first, "and I'm glad I'm it; you
couldn't pay me to wear a red coat and say 'Sir' to a damned little
Frenchman, even if you are going to blaze a trail to Hudson Bay."

Some one asks Sergeant Joyce to tell his Bible story. He says, "Oh,
about Coal-Oil Johnnie! It was the cub's first year in the service, and
he got off with some civilians and was drunk for a week. When he was in
the Guard Room awaiting court-martial he had lots of time 'to sit in
clink, admirin' 'ow the world was made.' Likewise he was very dry. There
was nothing for him to amuse himself with but a paper of pins. He took
the pillow of his cot and used the whole bunch of pins in working on it
the one word 'Hagar,' in letters six inches high. The inspecting officer
came in and the pin sign caught his eye. He spelled it out letter by
letter, 'H-a-g-a-r,--what was the matter with him?' Johnnie retorted,
'The him was a her, and she died of thirst in the wilderness.' The
inspecting officer says to Johnnie, 'Well, that would never happen to
you.'"

A peculiar drumming wafts from the shore-line. "Pa-pas-ku," says one of
the Cree lads, pulling his pipe from his mouth and listening. Young
Hudson's Bay to my enquiring look returns, "The Canadian ruffed grouse,"
which Sussex elucidated, "_Bonasa umbellus logata_," at which we all
feel very much relieved.

The Kid was pressing specimens, and, holding up a branch, the Mounted
Policeman next her said, "Young jackpine, I think." "It belongs to the
Conifer family," corrects the Doctor. "Oh!" says the Mounted Policeman,
with a sniff, "then we'll g