orne, told me rather an amusing story
of a Yankee, who was fishing through the ice with the usual bait, a
piece of pork. He had been very unsuccessful, and tired of the sport,
he walked over to where my friend was throwing out the trout as fast as
possible, when the following colloquy took place:

"Wal, how, under Heaven, did you get all them 'ere fish?"

"Caught them."

"Wal, I s'pose you did; but what kinder bait do you use?"

"Worms."

"Varms! Why, under Heaven, where do you get varms at this time of the
year?"

"I got these out of my cellar."

"Get out! how you do talk!"

"You may believe me or not, as you like; but I can assure you I did."

"Wal, do tell. I guess I never thought of diggin' in the cellar; I will
go to hum and try."

My friend met him a few days afterwards, when the Yankee said--"I
calculate, Mister, you told me a tarnation lie, the other day, about
them 'ere varms. I went and dug up every bit of my cellar, and, I do
declare, I never got a single varm."

My friend laughed very heartily at this "Yankee diggin," but at the
same time kindly informed his neighbour of the method he pursued, to
provide worms for winter-fishing.

Before the winter fairly sets in, we generally have ten days or a
fortnight of the Indian summer; indeed, it is the sure harbinger of
winter. The air is mild and temperate; a haze, resembling smoke,
pervades the atmosphere, that at times obscures the sun, which, when
visible, is of a blood-red colour. Various causes have been assigned
for this appearance, but none very satisfactory.

Towards the end of November this year, the ice was strong enough to
bear the weight of a man, and the ground was soon whitened with snow,
but not in sufficient depth to make good sleighing. Just a week before
Christmas, we had a fall of eight or ten inches, which made pretty good
going: the sleighs were, of course, in immediate requisition.

A family sleigh is made to carry from six to ten persons; the more
stylish ones from four to six; a cutter, or single sleigh, two. These
are all for pleasure, but every farmer is obliged to have a lumber-
sleigh for general use. A much larger load can be drawn on runners in
winter than on wheels in summer. Sleighing is, without doubt, the most
delightful mode of travelling you can possibly conceive, but it takes
several falls of snow to make the sleighing good. All the inequalities
must be filled up and levelled, but the snow soon packs solid by t