north-west. Like my own life, his was uneventful. Outside the circle
of his friends--and that circle was large--he was unknown to the
public. Nor was he one of those who ever sought notoriety. His
disposition was the very opposite of a boastful one.

Often I heard tell of the north-west. But I never took any particular
interest in the country previous to his appointment and departure for
his new sphere. I knew by the map, that such a region existed--just as
I knew that there was a Brazil in South America, or a vast desert in
the centre of Africa. Our statesmen were then forming plans to build
the great Pacific Road, that band of iron which was soon destined to
unite ocean to ocean. However, I never dreamed that I would one day
visit those vast regions, the former home of the buffalo, the haunt of
the prairie-chicken and the prairie-wolf. It never dawned upon me,
that as I watched the puffing of the engine that rushed along the
opposite side of the Ottawa from my home, that, one day, I would go
from end to end of that line,--pass over those vast plains and behold
the sun set, amidst the low poplars of the rolling prairies,--listen
to the snort of the same engine as it died away, in echo, amongst the
gorges of the Rockies. My husband had been three years, previous to
our marriage, in the north west. His first winter was spent at "Onion
Lake," there being no buildings at "Frog Lake." In fact, when he
arrived there, "Frog Lake" district was a wilderness. During those
three years I began to take some interest in that "land of the setting
sun,"--but, as yet, I scarcely imagined that I would ever see the
places he described. In 1882, my husband returned to Ottawa and his
principal object in coming, was to take me, as his wife, away with him
to his new home.

We were married in Aylmer on the 27th July, 1882. Our intention was to