l in a pine-tree, but she
did not answer to our "Oo-hoo!" neither did she so much as open an eye.
She looks rich unto millions, and thoroughly proof against all appeals.
She is what Cowper called the University of Oxford, "a rich old vixen."
I intend affecting this pose myself when I find the gold at the foot of
the rainbow, in order that I may be extremely insolent to the bankers
and to other offensive collectors.

Prosper says he often shoots owls who lodge in the fir-trees, and that
he gets two dollars bounty from the government from each one. He does
not know it is accounted a sin to him who kills a bird that has
sheltered in a fir-tree, or an animal that has crouched thereunder, for
this is the tree of the Christ-Child, and a House of Refuge in the
forest to the denizens thereof. To those men or women who love the
fir, its bitter taste on their tongues may be more holy than bread or
wine, and may convey to them an inly grace.

Also it is wrong to cast away the Christmas-tree, or the ropes of
greenery which have been used for the celebration of Christmastide.
These should be burned upon the hearth as a sweet savour, and the
fire-master should say, "Peace be to this household and to all the
household of Canada."

The resin of conifers is a more agreeable and a more seemly offering to
Our Lady of the Snow than aloes, or myrrh or spices, so that it behoves
us, her children, to look anew to our censing pots.

Since leaving Athabasca Landing, we have passed through enough
uncultivated land to solve all the problems of Great Britain which
arise out of unemployed workmen, and out of slum conditions with their
attendant evils.

As its stupendous acreage, enormous fertility, and its lifeless voids
are daily thrust upon me, I am filled with amazement. Surely no land
was ever so little appreciated by its owners. If there were an ocean
between it and our more populous provinces to the south, one might the
better understand the reasons. This waste heritage can only be
accounted for on the grounds of a lack of interest, and because people
are indolent and like to live softly. Only two members of the Alberta
legislature have ever visited this country, and these two belong here.
It does not need a new Moses to stand and say, "This is a goodly land";
it needs a new and more drastic Joshua, to take them by the ear and
lead them in. The time is coming when the crops from this land will,
each year, outstrip in value all th