ings to take on shore. To my surprise, she
burst into tears when I gave her the information; and this very nearly
made me abandon my project. When, however, I told her of my promise to
return, she was comforted; and I added, that I would bring her back
plenty of skins to make her tippets and muffs for the winter, to last
her for years.

Three days after his arrival at Quebec, Flint was ready to set out. I
had preserved intact the money my kind father had given me, and with it
I purchased, at Flint's suggestion, a rifle, and powder, and a
shot-belt, a tinder-box, a pipe, some tobacco, a tin cup, and a few
other small articles. "Now you've laid in your stock in trade, my lad,"
he observed, as he announced my outfit to be complete. "With a quick
eye and a steady hand you've the means, by my help, of making your
fortune; so the sooner we camp out and begin the better."

I told him I was ready, and asked him where we were to go.

"Oh, never you mind that, lad," he replied. "It's a long way from here;
but a man, with his eyes open, can always find his way there and back.
All you've to do is to follow the setting sun going, and to look out for
him rising when coming back."

"Then I suppose you mean to go to the westward?" I observed.

"Ay, lad, to the far west," he answered; but I confess that at the time
I had no idea how far off that "far west" was.

We set off the next morning by a steamer to Montreal, and on from
thence, past Kingston, to Toronto on Lake Ontario, in Upper Canada.
Flint lent me money to pay my way. He said that I should soon be able
to reimburse him. I need not say how delighted I was with the fine
scenery and the superb inland seas on which I floated. I could scarcely
persuade myself that I was not on the ocean, till I tasted the water
alongside. Flint told me with a chuckle, that once upon a time the
English Government sent some ships of war in frame out to the lakes, and
also a supply of water-tanks, forgetting that they would have a very
ample one outside. A little forethought would have saved the ridicule
they gained for this mistake, and the expense to which they put the
country. As my intention is to describe my adventures afloat rather
than those on shore, I shall be very brief with my account of the life
we led in the backwoods.

From Toronto we crossed the country to Goodrich, a town on the shores of
Lake Huron. Here we took a passage in a sailing vessel, trading to the
facto