lves' meat, without hesitation; but Buck set off with
the speed of a race-horse, as if fully aware of his young rider's
peril. Nor was his companion less tardy. Fast, however, as the trio
fled, still faster came upon them the yelling pack behind; and James
could ever hear--

"Their long hard gallop which could tire
The hound's deep hate and hunter's fire."

Fortunately for him, old Buck heard it too, and galloped on and on; but
still the wolves came neater and nearer. James shouted to keep them
off; the oxen almost flying; their chains rattling as they went. This
clanking sound, to which the hateful pack were unaccustomed, made them
pause whenever they came close upon the oxen, whilst the latter
redoubled their speed, till at length these gallant racers left the
wolves behind, and finding themselves within a short distance of home,
never stopped till they brought the brave little fellow safely to his
own door.

He had felt afraid but once; and that was when those dismal yells first
broke upon his ear--and _never_ lost his presence of mind. He trusted
in God, and used the means within his reach for his preservation, and
arrived safe at last.

Few boys would have displayed so much sense and spirit--but the boy is
almost always the father of the man; and what James was then, he is
now.

CHAPTER XV.

FORMATION OF THE CANADA COMPANY. -- INTERVIEW WITH MR. GALT. -- HIS
PERSONAL DESCRIPTION AND CHARACTER. -- GUELPH. -- DR. DUNLOP. -- MY
MEDICAL SERVICES AT GUELPH. -- DR. DUNLOP AND THE "PAISLEY BODIES." --
AN ECCENTRIC CHARACTER. -- AN UNFORTUNATE WIFE.

I REMEMBER on my first visit to the mouth of the river Maitland, now
the site of Goodrich, a bridle-path for seventy miles through the
trackless forest was the only available communication between the
settlements and Lake Huron. This was only twenty-four years ago. This
vast and fertile tract of more than one million acres, at that time did
not contain a population of three hundred souls; no teeming fields of
golden grain, no manufactories, no mills, no roads; the rivers were
unbridged, and one vast solitude reigned around, unbroken, save by the
whoop of the red-man, or the distant shot of the trapper.

Reverse the picture, and behold what the energies and good management
of the Canada Company have effected. Stage-coaches travel with safety
and dispatch along the same tract where formerly I had the utmost
difficulty to make my way on horseback without the c