g, smart, have good boats,
and, what is more, know well how to use them; and if I were less clumsy
and old, I would no more fear any danger here than I would at home.
Don't frighten the young lads with your nonsense, but let us get home to
supper, and, as it is our last night together, have a cosy evening in
the kitchen, and a good story from Ben and Charley here."

The proposition was acceded to, and after supper, Ben, with little
urging, commenced a legend of the North Shore, even now related by the
farmers around the winter's hearth with full faith in its veracity. He
termed it by its local name

"JIM MOUNTAIN'S FIGHT WITH THE DEVIL."

"Fifty years ago Jim Mountain, of Goose Creek, was as stout and jovial a
young farmer of twenty-five, as there was in his section. No ship-launch
frame-raising, logging-bee, or dance, was considered complete without
him, and while his strength was almost equal to that of any two of his
companions, his merry laugh was so infectious that even envy couldn't
resist joining in, when public opinion pronounced him 'the best man in
the county.'

"He soon married the daughter of a well-to-do farmer, and then, for the
first time, it appeared that his love of 'divershin' and whiskey, had
grown by what it fed on, and poor Mary dreaded the approach of
market-day, as he seldom returned from the shire town altogether sober,
and often not until late into the next day.

"It was in vain that his blooming Mary entreated, coaxed, cried, and
threatened; he never lost his temper; often, indeed, promised amendment,
but did in the end about the same as usual. At last the merchant with
whom he traded, a man of some little medical knowledge, finished their
business interview with the following bit of advice:--

"'Jim, it's none of my business, but you are ruining your health and
breaking your wife's heart. You are not one of the kind that show how
much they do drink; but no man in your district can match you, and when
you do get sick, I shan't expect to see you alive.'

"'An' do ye think so, then, Mr. B.?'

"'I am almost sure of it, for Long Tom Cunningham, the big ship
carpenter that you've heard your father tell of, was just such a man,
and the first touch of "the horrors" carried him off.'

"'Well, sir, I'm much obliged for your good will, any how, and after my
cousin Johnny McGrath has his bit of a spree, I'll try and leave it off
for a while, any way.'

"Johnny McGrath's 'spree,' a fulling-fr