g through the woods, singing the low, soft tune that she was so
fond of singing, because it was his own favourite air. But soon the air
ceased; the fire faded away; so did the trees, and the sleeping
voyageurs; Kate last of all dissolved, and Charley sank into a deep,
untroubled slumber.

CHAPTER TEN.

VARIETIES, VEXATIONS, AND VICISSITUDES.

Life is checkered--there is no doubt about that; whatever doubts a man
may entertain upon other subjects, he can have none upon this, we feel
quite certain. In fact, so true is it that we would not for a moment
have drawn the reader's attention to it here, were it not that our
experience of life in the backwoods corroborates the truth; and truth,
however well corroborated, is none the worse of getting a little
additional testimony now and then in this sceptical generation.

Life is checkered, then, undoubtedly. And life in the backwoods
strengthens the proverb, for it is a peculiarly striking and remarkable
specimen of life's variegated character.

There is a difference between sailing smoothly along the shores of Lake
Winnipeg with favouring breezes, and being tossed on its surging billows
by the howling of a nor'-west wind, that threatens destruction to the
boat, or forces it to seek shelter on the shore. This difference is one
of the checkered scenes of which we write, and one that was experienced
by the brigade more than once during its passage across the lake.

Since we are dealing in truisms, it may not, perhaps, be out of place
here to say that going to bed at night is not by any means getting up in
the morning; at least so several of our friends found to be the case
when the deep, sonorous voice of Louis Peltier sounded through the camp
on the following morning, just as a very faint, scarcely perceptible,
light tinged the eastern sky.

"Leve, leve, leve!" he cried, "leve, leve, mes enfants!"

Some of Louis's _infants_ replied to the summons in a way that would
have done credit to a harlequin. One or two active little Canadians, on
hearing the cry of the awful word _leve_, rose to their feet with a
quick bound, as if they had been keeping up an appearance of sleep as a
sort of practical joke all night, on purpose to be ready to leap as the
first sound fell from the guide's lips. Others lay still, in the same
attitude in which they had fallen asleep, having made up their minds,
apparently, to lie there in spite of all the guides in the world. Not a
few got