gs, with such charm of manner,
was quick to feel the attractions of the bright eyes of the pretty Nova
Scotian girls. Many a wife would have taken deep offence at her
husband's numerous but superficial flirtations, but Mrs Howe knew better;
and when in 1840 he was called out to fight a duel, he could say with
truth, in a letter which he wrote to her, and which he entrusted to a
friend to be delivered in case he should not return: 'I cannot trust
myself to write what I feel. You had my boyish heart, and have shared my
love and entire confidence up to this hour.'

Thus in January 1828 Howe found himself {24} with a wife to support and a
newspaper to establish. He had to fight with his own hand, and to fight
single-handed. When he commenced, he had not 'a single individual, with
one exception, capable of writing a paragraph, upon whom he could fall
back.' He had to do all himself: to report the debates in the House of
Assembly and important trials in the courts, to write the local items as
well as the editorials, to prepare digests of British, foreign, and
colonial news; in a word, to 'run the whole machine.' He wrote
voluminous descriptions of every part of the province that he visited,
under the title of 'Eastern and Western Ramblings.' Those rambles laid
the foundation of much of his future political power and popularity. He
became familiar not only with the province and the character and extent
of its resources, but also with every nook and corner of the popular
heart. He graduated with honours at the only college he ever
attended--what he called 'the best of colleges--a farmer's fireside.' He
was admirably qualified physically and socially for this kind of life.
He didn't know that he had a digestion, and was ready to eat anything and
to sleep anywhere. These were strong points in his favour; for in the
{25} hospitable countryside of Nova Scotia, if a visitor does not eat a
Benjamin's portion, the good woman of the house suspects that he does not
like the food, and that he is pining for the dainties of the city. He
would talk farm, fish, or horse with the people as readily as politics or
religion. He made himself, or rather he really felt, equally at home in
the fisherman's cabin or the log-house of the new settler as with the
substantial farmer or well-to-do merchant; he would kiss the women,
remember all about the last sickness of the baby, share the jokes of the
men and the horse-play of the lads, and