That friend was a fellow-townsman of the "Quaker Poet." The story was told to Whittier and inspired the lines of The Red River Voyageur.
CHAPTER II
WINNIPEG TO ATHABASCA LANDING
"To the far-flung fenceless prairie
Where the quick cloud-shadows trail,
To our neighbor's barn in the offing
And the line of the new-cut rail;
To the plough in her league-long furrow."