ee feet, where the blue
was unceremoniously stopped short by a stripe of bright red, above which
the somewhat fanciful decorator had laid on a coat of pale yellow; and
the ceiling, by way of variety, was of a deep ochre. As the occupants
of Red River office were, however, addicted to the use of tobacco and
tallow candies, the original colour of the ceiling had vanished
entirely, and that of the walls had considerably changed.

There were three doors in the room (besides the door of entrance), each
opening into another apartment, where the three clerks were wont to
court the favour of Morpheus after the labours of the day. No carpets
graced the floors of any of these rooms, and with the exception of the
paint aforementioned, no ornament whatever broke the pleasing uniformity
of the scene. This was compensated, however, to some extent by several
scarlet sashes, bright-coloured shot-belts, and gay portions of winter
costume, peculiar to the country, which depended from sundry nails in
the bedroom walls; and as the three doors always stood open, these
objects, together with one or two fowling-pieces and canoe-paddles,
formed quite a brilliant and highly suggestive background to the
otherwise sombre picture. A large open fireplace stood in one corner of
the room, devoid of a grate, and so constructed that large logs of wood
might be piled up on end to any extent. And really the fires made in
this manner, and in this individual fireplace, were exquisite beyond
description. A wood-fire is a particularly cheerful thing. Those who
have never seen one can form but a faint idea of its splendour;
especially on a sharp winter night in the arctic regions, where the
thermometer falls to forty degrees below zero, without inducing the
inhabitants to suppose that the world has reached its conclusion. The
billets are usually piled up on end, so that the flames rise and twine
round them with a fierce intensity that causes them to crack and sputter
cheerfully, sending innumerable sparks of fire into the room, and
throwing out a rich glow of brilliant light that warms a man even to
look at it, and renders candles quite unnecessary.

The clerks who inhabited this counting-room were, like itself, peculiar.
There were three--corresponding to the bedrooms. The senior was a
tall, broad-shouldered, muscular man--a Scotchman--very good-humoured,
yet a man whose under-lip met the upper with that peculiar degree of
precision that indicated