the diocese for Monseigneur the Bishop,
and, as a token of the same, presents to him a plate heaped high with
coins of gold.

And from this hill it is that we ride through the newly cut road, a
thousand men and women of us in stately procession, but withal gaily
caparisoned. Observe, if you will, our ribbons and fringes of gold;
the little flags in our bridles; our lynx-skin saddle clothes, and the
wreaths of purple vetch that hang from the pommels. Look well at our
black soutanes, scarlet coats, grey homespuns, and yellow moose hides,
for we are proud this day and wear our finest feathers. It is not well
to be disturbed by the untamable naughtiness of our horses, for the
northern trailer, you must have heard, has no stomach for glitter of
trappings, neither does he like the feel of neighbours. As we ramble
down a white aisle of birch and poplar, the feet of our horses tread
out for us the odour of leaf mould, which odour is the panacea of the
world.

We do not ride with any preconceived plans, or because of any
propaganda. Neither are we knights who sally forth to right wrongs,
albeit we have the truest knights of all with us--he who has snow on
his head but fire in his heart; he who has taught these tribes by
doing.....

This day we ride without review or forecast. We ride because we are
glad. All we ask of life is room to rove adown this long white pathway
in this young world. It is the best that life can give--room to ride.

CHAPTER XVI

NORTHERN VISTAS

My name is Ojib-Charlie,
I like to sing and dance.--CY WARMAN.

The reader will excuse my chronicling the Jubilee before telling about
Grouard. I have no excuse other than caprice, nor any precedent other
than the fact that Chinese authors write their stories backward. To
resume then:

You will remember the medical doctor on the boat was telling me how,
one day, Grouard would be a large city. I wish to go further and
declare it one now in spite of its small population, that is if you
will accept with me the definition laid down by an ancient Jewish
writer who defined a large city as a place in which "there are ten
leisure men; if less than so, lo! it is a village."

No one seems to be working unless it be the Indians who are training
their horses for the sports that are to take place the day after
to-morrow, which sports will last for a week. This might be the
leisurely land of the hyperboreans where there is everlasting spring