ldest and most out-of-the-way regions of our
wonderful world.

Surely, then, it is not presumptuous in me to suppose--at least to
hope--that a rambling account of some of the curious incidents which
have occurred, now and then, in connection with my book making, will
interest the young people of the present day. Indeed I entertain a hope
that some even of the old boys and girls who condescended to follow me
in the days gone by may perchance derive some amusement, if not profit,
from a perusal of these reminiscences.

The shadows of life are lengthening, and, for me, that night, "in which
no man can work," may not be far off. Before it is too late, and while
yet the flame of the lamp burns with sufficient clearness, I would fain
have a personal chat with those for whom, by God's blessing, I have been
permitted to cater so long.

But fear not, dear reader, that I shall inflict on you a complete
autobiography. It is only the great ones of the earth who are entitled
to claim attention to the record of birth and parentage and school-days,
etcetera. To trace my ancestry back through "the Conquerors" to Adam,
would be presumptuous as well as impossible. Nevertheless, for the sake
of aspirants to literary fame, it may be worth while to tell here how
one of the rank and file of the moderately successful Brotherhood was
led to Authorship as a profession and how he followed it out.

I say "led" advisedly, because I made no effort whatever to adopt this
line of life, and never even dreamed of it as a possibility until I was
over twenty-eight years of age.

Let me commence, then, by at once taking a header into the middle of
that period when God--all unknown to, and unrecognised by, myself--was
furnishing me with some of the material and weapons for the future
battle of life.

One day my dear father was reading in the newspapers some account of the
discoveries of Dease and Simpson in the neighbourhood of the famous
North-west Passage. Looking at me over his spectacles with the
perplexed air of a man who has an idle son of sixteen to start in the
race of life, he said--

"How would you like to go into the service of the Hudson's Bay Company
and discover the North-west Passage?"--or words to that effect.

"All right, father," said I--or something of that sort.

I was at that age, and in that frame of mind, which regards difficulties
with consummate presumption and profound inexperience. If the discovery
of the North-