bear. And before the
minister had ceased it seemed as if that other One came to his side and
took up the petition, for Scotty felt his worldly desires slip from him
like a garment. The struggle was over. Henceforth there could be no
indecision, for he was not his own, but had been bought with a price.

When they arose from their knees the darkness had suddenly become
transparent. A mysterious rustle and whisper of awakening life was on
all sides, the dawn was on the point of breaking. Scotty's fire, like
his worldly hopes, had died down to pale ashes, but far out on the
faintly grey bosom of Lake Simcoe, and away beyond its dark
forest-ring, soon to put all lesser lights to shame in their triumphant
blaze, were kindling the fires of Heaven.

XIV

THE VOYAGEURS

Oh, the East is but the West, with the sun a little hotter;
And the pine becomes a palm by the dark Egyptian water;
And the Nile's like many a stream we know that fills its brimming cup;
We'll think it is the Ottawa as we track the batteaux up!
Pull, pull, pull! as we track the batteaux up!
It's easy shooting homeward when we're at the top.
--WILLIAM WYE SMITH.

The Imperial transport, _Ocean King_, had loosed from her moorings at
Montreal and was swinging down with the tide of the mighty St.
Lawrence, and on her deck, many leaning eagerly over the railing to get
a last glimpse of home, stood some four hundred stalwart sons of the
Maple Land. Great, strong fellows they were, all with the iron muscles
and steady, clear eyes of the expert riverman. For these were the
famous voyageurs, trained from childhood on the rapids and cataracts of
Canadian streams and summoned now to the help of the mother country on
the ancient river of Egypt.

When Lord Wolseley found himself face to face with the tremendous task
of reaching Gordon far up the hostile Nile, he remembered the
assistance he had received in an earlier expedition in a western land
from the daring, untiring, cool-headed, warm-hearted Canadian boatmen.
And he asked that once more they might give him aid. And here they
were, the best the country could produce, a rollicking, light-hearted
crew, ready for anything--adventure, hard work, danger, death.

Among those who stood longest gazing at the receding land were two who
had begun their years of apprenticeship for this great day on the
little, noisy, foaming stream that scolded its way into the Oro river.
And one of t