r clanking
train with supreme indifference, must doubt the evil influence of
railways on game. Meanwhile, the sportsmen of Brandon Settlement pursue
the buffalo and stalk the deer, and hunt the brown and the grizzly bear,
and ply rod, net, gun, and rifle, to their hearts' content.

There is even a bank in this thriving settlement--a branch, if we
mistake not, of the flourishing Bank of Montreal--of which a certain Mr
Welland is manager, and a certain Thomas Balls is hall-porter, as well
as general superintendent, when not asleep in the hall-chair. Mrs
Welland, known familiarly as Di, is regarded as the mother of the
settlement--or, more correctly, the guardian angel--for she is not yet
much past the prime of life. She is looked upon as a sort of goddess by
many people; indeed she resembles one in mind, face, figure, and
capacity. We use the last word advisedly, for she knows and sympathises
with every one, and does so much for the good of the community, that the
bare record of her deeds would fill a large volume. Amongst other
things she trains, in the way that they should go, a family of ten
children, whose adoration of her is said to be perilously near to
idolatry. She also finds time to visit an immense circle of friends.
There are no poor in Brandon Settlement yet, though there are a few sick
and a good many aged, to whom she ministers. She also attends on Sir
Richard, who is part of the Bank family, as well as a director.

The good knight wears well. His time is divided between the children of
Di, the affairs of the settlement, and a neighbouring stream in which
the trout are large and pleasantly active. Mrs Screwbury, who spent
her mature years in nursing little Di, is renewing her youth by nursing
little Di's little ones, among whom there is, of course, another little
Di whom her father styles Di-licious. Jessie Summers assists in the
nursery, and the old cook reigns in the Canadian kitchen with as much
grace as she formerly reigned in the kitchen at the "West-End."

Quite close to the Bank buildings there is a charming villa, with a view
of a lake in front and a peep through the woods at the mountains behind,
in which dwells the cashier of the Bank with his wife and family. His
name is Robert Frog, Esquire. His wife's name is Martha. His eldest
son, Bobby--a boy of about nine or ten--is said to be the most larky boy
in the settlement. We know not as to that, but any one with half an eye
can see t