the agent. He had
been in Nova Scotia; he had never been in Cape Breton; but he presumed
we would find no difficulty in reaching Baddeck by so and so, and so and
so. We consumed valuable time in convincing Brown that his directions
to us were impracticable and valueless, and then he referred us to Mr.
Cope. An interview with Mr. Cope discouraged us; we found that we
were imparting everywhere more geographical information than we were
receiving, and as our own stock was small, we concluded that we should
be unable to enlighten all the inhabitants of St. John upon the subject
of Baddeck before we ran out. Returning to the hotel, and taking our
destiny into our own hands, we resolved upon a bold stroke.

But to return for a moment to Brown. I feel that Brown has been let off
too easily in the above paragraph. His conduct, to say the truth, was
not such as we expected of a man in whom we had put our entire faith for
half a day,--a long while to trust anybody in these times,--a man whom
we had exalted as an encyclopedia of information, and idealized in
every way. A man of wealth and liberal views and courtly manners we had
decided Brown would be. Perhaps he had a suburban villa on the heights
over-looking Kennebeckasis Bay, and, recognizing us as brothers in a
common interest in Baddeck, not-withstanding our different nationality,
would insist upon taking us to his house, to sip provincial tea with
Mrs. Brown and Victoria Louise, his daughter. When, therefore, Mr. Brown
whisked into his dingy office, and, but for our importunity, would
have paid no more attention to us than to up-country customers without
credit, and when he proved to be willingly, it seemed to us, ignorant
of Baddeck, our feelings received a great shock. It is incomprehensible
that a man in the position of Brown with so many boxes of soap and
candles to dispose of--should be so ignorant of a neighboring province.
We had heard of the cordial unity of the Provinces in the New Dominion.
Heaven help it, if it depends upon such fellows as Brown! Of course,
his directing us to Cope was a mere fetch. For as we have intimated, it
would have taken us longer to have given Cope an idea of Baddeck, than
it did to enlighten Brown. But we had no bitter feelings about Cope, for
we never had reposed confidence in him.

Our plan of campaign was briefly this: To take the steamboat at eight
o'clock, Thursday morning, for Digby Gut and Annapolis; thence to go by
rail through