me go out with you.'

'You would have to make up your mind to work harder than you do here,'
Hugh told him, for he had noticed that his cousin was inclined to be
lazy.

'Oh, I like that! Why, you were telling me how little there was to do in
the winter, with everything frozen up! I thought that when you were not
having a ripping time with sleighing parties and tobogganing, you just
sat by the fire and read.'

'Compared with the summer, of course, the winter work is nothing. We
just have to feed the calves every day, and ride round the field where
our stock are wintering, to look up the cattle. But even that is more
than you seem to get through, Will.'

'Not more than just ride round a field!' cried Willie. 'I should be glad
if that ended my day's work.'

'Perhaps you do not quite realise the size of what we call a field,'
Hugh said quietly.

'How many acres?' asked his cousin.

'Oh, a matter of two thousand acres or so,' was the answer, and then
Willie began to think that if all the little jobs of work were on the
same scale, perhaps only the energetic folk were the sort to go to
Canada, and those who loved their ease had better stay at home.

M. H.

A STROLL AMONGST FERNS.

We cannot show in Britain such tall and beautiful natives of the fern
tribe as may be found growing freely in tropical countries, but still we
have some fine ferns belonging to our islands. These are much commoner
in some parts than in others, and probably, many years ago, when a great
part of the country was covered with damp forests or woods, there was a
greater abundance of ferns generally than there is now. Indeed, even in
the last few years, some ferns that used to be abundant have become
quite scarce, often owing to the fact that unwise people dig them up, to
carry the plants away from their haunts, and put them in gardens.

There are, fortunately, some ferns which such thefts do not harm,
because they are plentiful. The well-known bracken, for instance, though
quantities of it may be cut for wrapping or decoration, is not thereby
thinned much, and it covers acres and acres of ground in some woodlands,
especially about the western counties. The West of England is the home
of ferns, big and small; but some southern counties, such as Sussex and
Hampshire, have a good display. In Scotland, again, glens or copses,
often the haunts of wild deer, are green with a thick growth of bracken.

A well-known writer, who lives where f