will show. A letter for me, mailed in a county town in England, in
September, and merely addressed to Winnipeg, Manitoba, omitting Canada,
travelled to France, where it received sundry postmarks, and such
sensible hints by the post-office officials as, "Try Calcutta." At last,
some one better acquainted with the geography of this side of the globe
added, "Nouvelle Amerique," and my letter reached me, _via_ New
York, in Christmas week, richly ornamented with postmarks, and protests
from officials that it "came to them in that condition," tied together
with two varieties of string, and frankly exhibiting its contents--a pair
of lace sleeves, which, but for the honesty of the mail service, might
easily have been abstracted.




CHAPTER VI.

Winter Amusements--A Winnipeg Ball--Forty Degrees below Zero--New Year's
Day--Saskatchewan Taylor--Indian Compliments--A Dog train--Lost in the
Snow--Amateur Theatricals--Sir Walter Raleigh's Hat--A Race with the
Freshets--The Ice moves--The First Steamer of the Season--Good-bye to
Winnipeg.


Snow lay several inches thick on the ground at Christmas, and we had
sleigh drives over the smooth white prairie, one great advantage of
Manitoban winters being that when once the ground is covered with snow,
if only to the depth of five or six inches, it remains, and there is good
sleighing until the frost breaks up in March or April. Sleighing parties
are varied by skating at the rink and assemblies in the town-hall, where