gone, a little ready money would have been more useful than any time before or since.

'A few months before the great temptation came in my way-I am now speaking of five-and-thirty years ago a gentleman drove into the village one day. He had a young girl with him. I did not see him when he drove into the village; but I saw him and her often afterwards. He took the best room in the Beagle for her, and, having given great instructions to the landlady, old Mrs. Timmons, dead and gone long ago, he drove away again; and we did not see him any more for a few days.

'As I said before, I have often seen both him and her since. I've been in London in my time, and seen as handsome faces as any man alive, I'll bet my life; but never did I see anywhere such a lovely creature as that young girl the gentleman left here at the Beagle five-and-thirty years ago. He was a fine tall man, with an open free manner as you'd please to meet. Soon we got word there was going to be a marriage, and that there was some secret at the bottom of all this. What that secret was we never found out from that day to this.

Mrs. Timmons noticed that the young girl often wept and cried. when he was away; but when he came back she seemed ready to die of joy. I've never seen a prettier picture in all my life than when he took her on his arm and walked down the village with her. The people all came out of doors to see her and him; for he was a fine man too, well made and shapely.

Well, after a little while, we heard that the wedding was to be soon, and that it wasn't to be by banns, but by license, and that it was to be very soon. In time it

came.

There was no bridesmaid or best man. They walked down to the church together, went in, were married. I gave away the bride and signed the register.

'The two left the church and got in a chaise standing by, and drove away towards Moorfield.

'Although I did not forget the marriage, I had other things to think of, and I gave no thought to it. I had been married a couple of years myself, and, between my trade and my duties at the church, and shifting in my new house and the birth of a daughter, I had my hands and my head full of my own affairs.

'About six months after the marriage, who must ride up to the door of this very same Beagle but the gentleman who had married the lovely young girl in the church down there. They took his horse round. Those that saw him when he came said he looked excited and wild-like. He ordered them to keep a room for him, and to get him some supper, no matter what; and then he came straight

on to me.

"Goolby," says he, as free as if he had known me all my life, "I want to have a few words with you in private.'

'It was to the old house he came, and we were just leaving it for good, my wife and myself, taking a last look round to see we had forgotten nothing. I beckoned to my wife to go on, and, shutting the door, I asked him to step back into one of the empty rooms.

"Goolby," says he, "I see you are house-shifting. Five hundred pounds would be very useful to you now."

"It would be a small fortune to me at any time, sir," says I.

"Goolby," says he, putting one hand on my shoulder and putting the other into my pocket, "I've put five one-hundred-pound Bank

THE four stages of life being as yet uncovered by an American patent, there exist at present Canadian babies. Very pretty little creatures are some of them, and endowed with intelligence enough to appreciate fine dresses and cleanliness. How far these high æsthetic and moral qualities may be peculiar to Canadian infants is uncertain; but in that essentially Transatlantic institution, the baby show, the little denizens of her Majesty's great northern Dominion appear to good advantage.

Here, in friendly rivalry, Canadian matrons bring their darlings to compete for public favour, which, apart from the incidental rewards of gratified pride, offers the more substantial premium of a ten-dollar bill. The best of good-humour is the rule, each seeming aware of its being placed upon its mettle.

Infancy is, however, of short duration in Canada; the glories of the baby show pale before the dawning of a practical utilitarian life, to which the child is consistently trained. No sooner does a girl dandle a doll than she plies the needle; her brother, of sterner mould, pushes before him a miniature plough or drives his team of wooden horses, upon the strictest principles of agrarian science. Winter sees him proud in the possession of jack-boots and handsleigh, sliding down frost-bound declivities, at some risk of life and limb. So expert is he, however, in the management of his little sleigh that accidents seldom occur. School-days begin early, both for

him and his sister; but whilst he, during play-hours, indulges his perilous sport, she busies herself with domestic work, in which Canadian girls are very accomplished.

In summer-time the boy follows his father to field or workshop, desirous ever to emulate grown men and to make money. There is a certain precocity in Canadian children perhaps, yet not a precocity such as need shock Europeans. They are brought up amidst changes of all sorts and very unromantic surroundings, so that the ambition to succeed in life is developed at a very early age. There is not much slang used in Canada, nor do many boys smoke or chew, as has been wrongly represented. Those who have the advantages of a good home example are much like English children. Yet whilst all Canadian children understand the management of a money-box, few comprehend the investment of its contents without an equivalent; nor are the moral virtues of self-denial and magnanimity so thoroughly cultivated by Canadian parents in their offspring as is the case in England. Resultant from this neglect is a certain hardness of character, together with an obtuseness to a sense of sympathetic obligation; flaws that are more or less apparent in the adult populations of Canada.

Since every thing has its disadvantages, one may plead as a setoff the excellent business training received by children of all classes;

still, existing as national characteristics, they must be noted.

The Canadian school system is good, the public schools being open, free to all resident children between the ages of five and twenty-one, and patronised by all classes. Being, moreover, strictly non-sectarian, the children of all denominations are admitted, although, wherever numbers warrant the measure, Catholics have their separate schools.

No sooner is a new township surveyed than certain lands are placed apart for school purposes, from the proceeds of the sale of which reserves all over the province a fund is established, which, taking the form of a Government grant, is divided amongst the schools, according to population, being restricted to the paying of teachers' salaries. Each city, town, or county is besides compelled to raise, by assessment, an amount equal to this grant.

The Clergy Reserve Fund contributes its quota, and, should there be a deficiency, in spite of these provisions, it is met by the Trustees'

School Assessment. These trustees being elected from amongst the ratepayers of the district, and forming a monthly board whose meetings are for the express purpose of discussing the school question and redressing grievances, there can scarcely be any point of importance that fails to challenge public attention in print.

Whilst the public schools only aim at the imparting of a sound commercial education, there exist all over the country grammarschools, where classics are taught and pupils trained for the professions. Above these, again, are colleges, which, armed with university powers and endowed with scholarships, are of high standing.

There are schools of medicine in

the leading cities; whilst various religious denominations have special foundations designed to prepare for the ministry. Young ladies are not forgotten; their educational facilities, indeed, run parallel with those of their brothers. In early youth both sexes are often educated together, yet in towns there are generally separate schools for girls. Whatever may be the case with regard to juniors, a senior girls' school exists in the towns; whilst young ladies desiring superior training enter the grammar-schools, suffering little, it appears, from every-day companionship with young men.

Both public and grammar schools are under supervision of inspectors appointed by Government, and teachers undergo a special training at the 'normal' schools of Toronto and Montreal, maintained at public expense. The subject of a nation's education is so important that it deserves to be treated at greater length, but the limits of this paper forbid.

Canada is not so young but that it has its social grievances, and one of these is the affectation that leads the sons of substantial farmers to throng into the cities, seeking entrance into the professions or an easy life behind the counter in bank or store. Far nobler would be the farmer's lot of independence in a country which, like Canada, depends so vitally upon its soil; but young men are apt to be dandies all over the world. Notwithstanding this defect, there are numbers of Canadian youths who have chosen farming as a calling; these vary their hard summer's toil with winter attendance at the school. An agricultural college has been established by Government within the past few years for the express purpose of supplying a higher technical education. It is situated at Guelph,

the centre of the finest farm and stock-raising land in Ontario.

The seasons come on so abruptly in Canada, and the summers are so short, that every nerve is strained to get in the harvest-no easy matter at times, on account of scarcity of labour.

With the advent of winter comes the farmer's holiday, during which season, except feeding the cattle, hauling wood, and making fences, the farmer in the settled districts has little to occupy his time; so that he drives his family into town to attend lectures, concerts, and social gatherings.

The easy travelling by sleigh over the glistening white roads renders long journeys possible; roads that during summer-time are nearly impassable become superb carriage-ways in winter.

At this season, too, pine-timber is cut and hauled by oxen to the 'slides' upon the banks of the navigable rivers, to await the coming spring thaw. An open winter is disastrous to lumbermen, and, indeed, to the country at large, the main industry of the new districts being paralysed.

Neither in summer nor in winter is pedestrianship much in favour; for everybody keeps his horse and 'buggy,' together with the all-necessary 'cutter,' for winter use. The pedestrian feats of Englishmen elicit the astonishment of the natives.

Nor, indeed, are there great attractions to be found in mere walking, the roads being during summer very dusty, and in winter often rendered impassable by the snow. To one, however, not easily impressed by light impediments, scenic beauties will be forthcoming; but he must leave the beaten road, and make his way through some large patch of forest-land to the margin of a river.

Canadian streams are often very

beautiful. Some of the writer's pleasantest hours have been spent in rowing his solitary boat along the winding avenues of a certain stream abounding in fish and wildduck, whilst the clear waters raised no barrier of mist between his eye and the verdant inlets extending landwards upon either side. Strange fur-bearing animals came down to the water's edge to peep at him; lovely flowers enticed him if mosquitoes attacked him, some such trial may well have been needed to remind him that he was not in paradise.

;

There are seasons, too, when mosquitoes are not aggressive— during autumn and the second half of the summer. Spring-time is their festive season, when they rise before the advancing foot in such swarms that one cannot see through them, nor open the mouth without swallowing a number. The traveller then arms himself with two branches of cedar-brush, and literally fights his way through these malignant hordes.

Mosquito-curtains are necessary at night-time, or, sleeping in the open air, large fires of green wood, whose copious volumes of smoke may annoy the sleeper nearly as much as the mosquitoes.

In the towns and suburban districts these precautions are not needed, and, with the opening up of the country, the fly nuisance is always abated.

No sooner has the ice passed down the rivers in spring than the shrill voices of the infant bull-frog are heard from marsh and pool. In midsummer their notes are no longer musical, but of a harsh guttural nature. There is also a performing toad, whose vocal essays are often mistaken for the whistling of a railway-train.

Together with the absence of song-birds, there is a dearth of wild sweet-smelling flowers, yet