ca Landing, and
we wait at the hotel till the last minute, hoping the storm may abate
in order that we may reach our steamer without losing too much starch.
But the horn is making the asthmatic lamentations, meaning thereby that
everybody should be aboard, so we say good-bye to all at the hotel;
promise to be good; to take care of ourselves; and to come back soon.
I say "we" because it is journalistic etiquette to be impersonal, but
actually there is only myself, the other passengers having gone down to
the river over an hour ago.

It is a troublous jaunt which I make, for a streak of wind turns my
umbrella into a cornucopia; the fat drops of rain splash into my eyes;
I take the wrong turn, get mired and lose my rubber shoes. When the
river is reached, I find the descent to the steamer is buttered with
mud and so steep that sliding is the only method of locomotion possible.

A vastly tall man stands on the gangway at the foot of the hill; holds
out a pair of arms that must measure ten feet from tip to tip and says,
"Come on, lady." The lady comes, but with such impact that we nearly
go through to the opposite side of the steamer. Our final resting
place is on a banana crate, which, in all conscience, is yielding
enough, the fruit proving to be over-ripe. The passengers are
distinctly amused, but the freight master is in no gallant temper over
it and disapproves of the whole affair. I could tell you what he said
to the vastly tall man, but you would have to come very close to hear
me.

After supper, which consists of beef with stuffing, macaroni with
cheese, pork with beans, white fish, stewed tomatoes, escalloped corn,
boiled potatoes, walnut pickles, catsup, soda biscuits, pumpkin-pie,
apple-pie, currant buns, cocoanut cake, cheese, coffee, stewed figs,
tooth-picks and other things which I cannot remember, I crawl to the
deck to find out where Grouard is, and how we are to get there.

Although thither bound, my knowledge of its location is shamefully
vague. Here is what I learn. We sail north and west on the Athabasca
River till we come to Mirror Landing, at the confluence of the
Athabasca and Lesser Slave River, at which point we leave the steamer
and make a portage of fourteen miles to Soto Landing. This portage is
to avoid the government dams which have been built to make the Lesser
Slave River navigable. At Soto Landing we embark on the _Midnight
Sun_, another steamer of the Northern Navigation Company