rd and a
small part of our twenty-five pounds of bacon remained. "We must hustle
for grub, boys," Hubbard frequently remarked. Our diet, excepting on
particular occasions, was bread and tea, fish when we could get them,
and sometimes a little pea soup. The pea meal, plain and flavoured,
was originally intended as a sort of emergency ration, but we had drawn
on our stock of it alarmingly. Our flour, too, was going rapidly, and
the time was drawing near when we felt that the ration of bread must be
cut down.

The only thing, perhaps, that we really craved was fresh meat. For
several days after leaving the post we had experienced a decided
craving for acids, but that craving had been partially satisfied when,
on the barren hills that border the Valley of the Susan, we found a few
cranberries that had survived the winter. Every day while we were on
Goose Creek we caught a few small trout. When we halted for any
purpose, Hubbard always whipped the stream. He was a tireless as well
as an expert fisherman. He would fish long after I had become
discouraged, and catch them in pools where they positively refused to
rise for me. The trout thus obtained were relished, but a fish diet is
not strengthening, neither is it satisfying, and as we had had no fresh
meat since the day we landed at Indian Harbour a month before, our
longing for it had become importunate.

Imagine our joy, then, when on August 3d, the day we discovered the
petering out of Goose Creek, some fresh meat came our way. Most
unexpectedly was the day turned into one of feasting and thanksgiving.
As we were preparing, soon after passing the beaver house, to pack at
the foot of a rapid just below a little pond expansion, Hubbard saw
four geese swimming slowly down the stream. He and George had just
lifted their packs from the canoe, while I, some little distance off,
had mine on my back. Hubbard had his rifle in his hands. George, who
caught sight of the geese almost as soon as Hubbard, grabbed my rifle
from the canoe. "Drop!" cried Hubbard, and down we all fell behind the
little bank over which the birds had been sighted. There was fresh
meat swimming towards us, and while we lay waiting for it to come in
sight around the little head of land the excitement was intense.

Soon the leader appeared, and Hubbard and George fired almost
simultaneously. If ever there was a goose that had his goose cooked,
it was that poor, unfortunate leader. One of the bu