"Someone replied out of the boat that it was impossible,' as they were going on a pleasure sail and could not be troubled with him.
"'Hoot, mon!' continued the persevering Scotchman, 'it will tak ye nought out o' yer wye to throw a puir body oot on the pint as ye gae by.'
"'Confound you,' replied the Colonel as they pushed in the boat, 'if you are not a Scotchman in truth I am in ignorance.'
"How joyfully did he take his seat among the officers and ladies, smiling to himself with all the humor of Dunscore depicted in his countenance. I looked and laughed after my worthy countryman, and have not been so fortunate as to have seen him since."
"Tell us how you celebrated your first Christmas in Canada," said Mr. MacKay.
"I well remember how I forgot to celebrate my first Christmas in this country," replied Mac. "We were taking a flying level* between Rafting Bay and the Rideau—a distance of about four miles. Taking a level of this extent at home would not have occupied more than a day, but in a dark, dense wood the subject was quite altered, and the surveyor has to change his home system altogether; for instance, if we get upon a hill in Britain we may see the natural lead of the land, but here in the wilderness you have to grope for this like a blind man.
* A rough guess to a foot of the rise or fall of the country above any fixed spot.
"We cut holes through the thickets of these dismal swamps, and sent a man half a mile before us to blow a horn, keeping to one place until those in the rear come up, so that by the compass and the sound, there being no sun, we were able to grope out our course.
"The weather was extremely cold, and the screws of the theodolite would scarcely move. When night came on we sent two of the axemen to rig a shanty by the side of a swamp. We generally camped near a swamp, for water could be had to drink and to cook with, and the hemlock boughs grew more bushy in such places, and were easily obtained to cover the shanty; and, besides, we generally found dry cedar there, which makes excellent firewood. When we arrived at the camp we found a very comfortable house set up by our friends, with a blazing fire in front of it. We lay down on the bushy hemlock, holding pork before the fire on wooden prongs, each man roasting for himself, while plenty of tea was thrown into a kettle of boiling water. The tin mug, our only tea cup, went round till all had drunk, then it was filled again, and so on, while each with his bush knife cut toasted pork on slices of bread.
"Then we went to sleep, and, after having lain an hour or so on one side, someone would cry—'Spoon!' the order to turn to the other, which was often a disagreeable one if a spike of tree root or such substance stuck up beneath ribs. Reclining thus like a parcel of spoons, our feet to the fire, we have found the hair of our heads often frozen to the place where we lay. For several days together did we lie in these wild places. In Dow's great swamp, one of the most dismal places in the wilderness, did five Irishmen, two Englishmen, two Americans, one Frenchman, and one Scotchman, hold their merry Christmas in 1826, or rather forgot to hold it at all."