"'Bless me!' said Birrboy, with open mouth, 'and yon's the Laird?'
"'It's all that's for him,' I continued, 'and yonder's the gardener coming after him.' This was another Indian with a branch of a tree on his shoulder for the fire.
"'Bless me! He's a queer Laird that, and is that ane of his seats?'
"I explained that it was, and that he had many such like up and down the 'lang planting.'
"'What wad the bodies about Minnyvive think if they saw sic lairds and gairdeners coming up the fair as thae, mon?' he exclaimed. 'I'll be hanged gin they wadna creep in aneath the beds wi' fear, like Nell Coskerie in a thunner-storm.'
"Landing on the shore at a place called Chute of 'Blendo,' we came upon pieces of junk pine split up in thin pieces.
"'An' what ca' ye thae now?' inquired the Scotchman.
"'Shingles,' I replied. 'The people of this country cover their houses with them.'
"'Hech, mon, and are thae the Canada sclate?' he returned. 'Ye hae queer names for things here. There's a shoe like a swine trough ye ca' the saboo, then there's a shoe ye ca' the morgason, a kin o' thing like a big splenchan the bodies row their feet in. Deil hang me, if ever I heard o' sic names. I'll never bring my mooth into the wye o' pronooncing them.'
"Proceeding up the river we came near to the public works.