with such alternations of tall and short, dark and fair, that,
individually, I should have much ado to know them. Mr. Pupkin is
found whenever a Canadian bank opens a branch in a county town and
needs a teller. As for Mr. Smith, with his two hundred and eighty
pounds, his hoarse voice, his loud check suit, his diamonds, the
roughness of his address and the goodness of his heart,--all of this
is known by everybody to be a necessary and universal adjunct of the
hotel business.

The inspiration of the book,--a land of hope and sunshine where
little towns spread their square streets and their trim maple trees
beside placid lakes almost within echo of the primeval forest,--is
large enough. If it fails in its portrayal of the scenes and the
country that it depicts the fault lies rather with an art that is
deficient than in an affection that is wanting.

Stephen Leacock. McGill University, June, 1912.



ONE

The Hostelry of Mr. Smith

I don't know whether you know Mariposa. If not, it is of no
consequence, for if you know Canada at all, you are probably well
acquainted with a dozen towns just like it.

There it lies in the sunlight, sloping up from the little lake that
spreads out at the foot of the hillside on which the town is built.