Horse-leap," which I used in my prosperous
days to "go at" in a slashing canter, amid a shower of encomiums, I was
now obliged to stagger slowly up, with four-and-twenty small farmers,
and maybe a priest, in full cry at my sulkiness, laziness, incivility,
and other good gifts; and all this, ay, and more, for lack of a bit of
whipcord.

I have been told that very great people will stoop to low alliances
when hard pressed; even cabinet ministers, I believe, have now and
then acknowledged very dubious allies. Let not Con Cregan, then, be
reproached if he called in the help of a little bare-footed boy who
used to beg on the hill of Horse-leap, and who, at the sound of the
approaching caravan, sallied forth with a long branch of an ash-tree,
and belabored the team into some faint resemblance to a canter. Through
this auxiliary I recovered in part my long-lost popularity, and was
likely to be again reinstated in public favor, when my assistant caught
the measles, and I was once more reduced to my own efforts.

In this emergency I had nothing for it but a stratagem; and so, as the
conveyance arrived at the foot of the hill, and the horses, dropping
their heads, were gradually subsiding into the little shuffling amble
that precedes a slow walk, I used to scream out at the top of my
voice all my accustomed exhortations to the boy. "Ah, hit him again,
Tommy,--into him, boy,--under the traces, my lad!--give him enough
of it!--welt him well. Ha! there!" exclamations that, from old
associations, always stimulated the wretched beasts into a canter; and
under the impression of this salutary terror, we used to reach the top
almost as speedily as in the old days of the penal code.

The same device now aided me against the rats of Anti-costi; and if
any one will say to what end this narrative of an encounter so
insignificant, my answer is, that whether in the St. Lawrence or in
St. Stephen's, rats are far more formidable than their size or
strength would seem to imply; and whether they nibble your rags or your
reputation, their success is invariably the same.

Four days had now elapsed, and I concluded that the yacht must ere this
have been miles on her voyage up the river. The next morning, then, I
should venture to hoist the signal, and thus apprise the passing ships
that one deserted and forlorn creature, at least, still lingered on the
miserable island.

I sat at my fire till a late hour. I was lower in spirits than usual. I
ha