It was night-time and there was not a man in the house, the father himself being sick and his boys quite young.

And so at the last it was I that went.

On the way back we had to cross the river; the ice had just gone out--it was in the spring--and as yet not a boat had been put into the water.

We found a great heavy tub that had been lying in the sand all winter, and when we tried to run her down to the water she was buried so deep in the sand and was so heavy that the four of us could not so much as make her budge.

Simon Martel was there, big Lalancette of St.Methode, a third I cannot call to mind, and myself; and we four, hauling and shoving to break our hearts as we thought of this poor fellow on the other side of the river who was in the way of dying like a heathen, could not stir that boat a single inch.