Difficulties had the effect of
stirring him up to more resolute exertions. Opposition had the effect
of drawing him on, instead of keeping him back. "Cold water" warmed
him. "Wet blankets," when thrown on him, were dried and made hot! His
energy was untiring, his zeal red hot, and when one effort failed, he
began another with as much fervour as if it were the first he had ever
made.

Yet Jack Robinson did not succeed in life. It would be difficult to say
why. Perhaps his zeal and energy were frittered away on too many
objects. Perhaps, if he had confined himself to one purpose and object
in life, he would have been a great man. Yet no one could say that he
was given to change, until change was forced upon him. Perchance want
of judgment was the cause of all his misfortunes; yet he was a clever
fellow: cleverer than the average of men. It may be that Jack's
self-reliance had something to do with it, and that he was too apt to
trust to his own strength and wisdom, forgetting that there is One,
without whose blessing man's powers can accomplish no good whatever. We
know not. We do not charge Jack with this, yet this is by no means an
uncommon sin, if we are to believe the confessions of multitudes of good
men.

Be this as it may, Jack arrived at Fort Kamenistaquoia in due course,
and kindly, but firmly, refused to take part with his sanguine friend, J
Murray, who proposed--to use his own language--"the getting-up of a
great joint-stock company, to buy up all the sawmills on the Ottawa!"

Thereafter, Jack went to Quebec, where he was joined by Teddy O'Donel,
with whom he found his way to the outskirt settlements of the far west.
There, having purchased two horses and two rifles, he mounted his steed,
and, followed by his man, galloped away into the prairie to seek his
fortune.

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fort Desolation, by R.M. Ballantyne

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