lossom. It is creative. Well and truly has a builder said that
the land without population is a wilderness, and the population without
land is a mob. Yes! it is a steel idol we worship in this country and
not one of gold, and we do refuse to grind it to powder and drink
thereof, no matter what any Moses or Aaron may say.

This last hour I have been in mind-to-mind talk with a young Englishman
who does not think much of Canada. He speaks of our dismal
respectability, our tombstone virtues, and our provincial
small-mindedness. We call our gardens yards, and have no manners to
speak of. Indeed, nothing but a major operation could remedy our
boorishness.

Now, all he says is quite true _but I don't believe it_; besides, his
English-sure way of summing us up is irritating to my sense of
patriotism.

In some places up here he has had to sleep in puppy's parlours, which
means with his clothes on. This must have been uncomfortable in that
he still wears leather puttees which are the true hall-mark of men from
the British Isles. He talked about our cold winters and how unbearable
they were, just as if the cold were not the sepia the North shoots
forth to protect herself from joyous loafers. I did not say this, for
one cannot be polite and patriotic at the same time, and it is well to
be polite ... only I remarked that one of these cold days we will shut
off the Gulf Stream instead of sending it out to heat up England.

I have no doubt he has private means, for he has travelled widely and
is a well-educated man. He came here to have a go at homesteading.
"Have you succeeded?" I ask. He does not reply except to ejaculate,
"Farming--my hat!" whereupon we both laugh, he at the Canadians and I
at the English.

The average youth from England finds it trying to be stripped of
precedent, and there is nothing approximating Canadian homestead life
in London. We too often forget this and so fail to make allowances for
his prejudices and lack of adaptability. Our government mounts him and
puts his foot in the saddle, but he must set the pace himself. One can
hardly expect the government to do more, but yet, it seems a pity so
much excellent material is annually lost to the Dominion because we
have not the time or means to work it up. It will take some years to
manipulate the crude European immigrants into the mental and physical
trim of this Britisher and to inculcate them with equally high
political standards. We do n