Fort Desolation | Page 7

in a cloth after they're roasted. The crumbs is a'most as good as the pais, an' quicker made whin yer in a hurry."
Jack's first impulse was to countermand the crumbs and order tea, but he refrained, and went out to survey the back regions of his new home.
He found that the point selected for the establishment of the fort was a plain of sand, on which little herbage of any kind grew. In rear of the house there was a belt of stunted bushes, which, as he went onward into the interior, became a wood of stunted firs. This seemed to grow a little more dense farther inland, and finally terminated at the base of the distant and rugged mountains of the interior. In fact, he found that he was established on a sandbank which had either been thrown up by the sea, or at no very remote period had formed part of its bed. Returning home so as to enter by the front door, he observed an enclosed space a few hundred yards distant from the fort. Curious to know what it was, he walked up to it, and, looking over the stockade, beheld numerous little mounds of sand with wooden crosses at the head of them. It was the burial-ground of the establishment. Trade had been carried on here by a few adventurous white men before the fort was built. Some of their number having died, a space had been enclosed as a burying-ground. The Roman Catholic Indians afterwards used it, and it was eventually consecrated with much ceremony by a priest.
With a face from which every vestige of intelligence was removed, Jack Robinson returned to the fort and sat down in solitary state in the hall. In the act of sitting down he discovered that the only arm-chair in the room was unsteady on its legs, these being of unequal length. There were two other chairs without arms, and equally unsteady on their legs. These, as well as everything in the room, were made of fir-wood-- as yet unpainted. In the empty fire-place Jack observed a piece of charcoal, which he took up and began, in an absent way, to sketch on the white wall. He portrayed a raving maniac as large as life, and then, sitting down, began insensibly to hum--
"I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls."
In the midst of which he was interrupted by the entrance of his lieutenant with a tray of viands.
"Ah, yer a purty creatur," exclaimed Teddy, pausing with a look of admiration before the maniac.
"Come, Teddy, sit down and let's have the news. What have we here?" said Jack, looking at three covered plates which were placed before him.
"Salt pork fried," said Teddy removing the cover.
"And here?"
"Salt pork biled," said the man, removing the second cover; "an' salt pork cold," he added, removing the third. "You see, sur, I wasn't sure which way ye'd like it, an' ye was out whin I come to ax; so I just did it up in three fashions. Here's loaf bread, an' it's not bad, though I say it that made it."
As Jack cut down into the loaf, he naturally remembered those lines of a well-known writer:
"Who has not tasted home-made bread, A heavy compound of putty and lead!"
"Are these cakes?" he said, as Teddy presented another plate with something hot in it.
"Ay, pancakes they is, made of flour an' wather fried in grease, an' the best of aitin', as ye'll find;--but, musha! they've all stuck together from some raison I han't yet diskivered: but they'll be none the worse for that, and there's plenty of good thick molasses to wash 'em down wid."
"And this," said Jack, pointing to a battered tin kettle, "is the-- the--"
"That's the coffee, sur."
"Ah! well, sit down, Teddy, I have seen worse fare than this. Let's be thankful for it. Now, then, let me hear about the fishery."
Nothing pleased Teddy O'Donel so much as being allowed to talk. He sat down accordingly and entertained his master for the next hour with a full, true, and particular account of every thing connected with Fort Desolation. We will not, however, inflict this on the reader. Reduced to its narrowest limits, his information was to the following effect:--
That the Indians, generally, were well disposed towards the traders, though difficult to please. That a good many furs had been already obtained, and there was a report of more coming in. That the salmon fishery was situated on a river twenty miles below the fort, and was progressing favourably; but that the five men engaged there were a quarrelsome set and difficult to keep in order. Teddy thought, however, that it was all owing to one of the men, named Ladoc, a bully, who kept the other four in bad humour.
But the point on