"Roughing it," I
certainly have been, inasmuch as I have been living on rough fare,
associating with rough men, and sleeping on rough beds under the
starry sky; but I assure you that all this is not half so rough upon
the constitution as what they call leading an _easy life_, which is
simply a life that makes a poor fellow stagnate, body and spirit,
till the one comes to be unable to digest its food, and the other
incompetent to jump at so much as half an idea. Anything but an easy
life, to my mind. Ah! there's nothing like roughing it, Harry, my
boy. Why, I am thriving on it--growing like a young walrus, eating
like a Canadian voyageur, and sleeping like a top! This is a splendid
country for sport, and as our _bourgeois_ [Footnote: The gentleman in
charge of an establishment is always designated the bourgeois.] has
taken it into his head that I am a good hand at making friends with
the Indians, he has sent me out on several expeditions, and afforded
me some famous opportunities of seeing life among the red-skins.
There is a talk just now of establishing a new outpost in this
district, so if I succeed in persuading the governor to let me
accompany the party, I shall have something interesting to write
about in my next letter. By the way, I wrote to you a month ago, by
two Indians who said they were going to the missionary station at
Norway House. Did you ever get it? There is a hunter here just now
who goes by the name of Jacques Caradoc.
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