The ferryman and his shaggy comrade get ready at last, and we step into the clumsy yawl, and the slowly moving oars begin to pull us upstream.  The strait is here less than a mile wide; the tide is running strongly, and the water is full of swirls,—­the little whirlpools of the rip-tide.  The morning-star is now high in the sky; the moon, declining in the west, is more than ever like a silver shield; along the east is a faint flush of pink.  In the increasing light we can see the bold shores of the strait, and the square projection of Cape Porcupine below.

On the rocks above the town of Plaster Cove, where there is a black and white sign,—­Telegraph Cable,—­we set ashore our companions of the night, and see them climb up to their station for retailing the necessary means of intoxication in their district, with the mournful thought that we may never behold them again.

As we drop down along the shore, there is a white sea-gull asleep on the rock, rolled up in a ball, with his head under his wing.  The rock is dripping with dew, and the bird is as wet as his hard bed.  We pass within an oar’s length of him, but he does not heed us, and we do not disturb his morning slumbers.  For there is no such cruelty as the waking of anybody out of a morning nap.

When we land, and take up our bags to ascend the hill to the white tavern of Port Hastings (as Plaster Cove now likes to be called), the sun lifts himself slowly over the treetops, and the magic of the night vanishes.

And this is Cape Breton, reached after almost a week of travel.  Here is the Gut of Canso, but where is Baddeck?  It is Saturday morning; if we cannot make Baddeck by night, we might as well have remained in Boston.  And who knows what we shall find if we get there?  A forlorn fishing-station, a dreary hotel?  Suppose we cannot get on, and are forced to stay here?  Asking ourselves these questions, we enter the Plaster Cove tavern.  No one is stirring, but the house is open, and we take possession of the dirty public room, and almost immediately drop to sleep in the fluffy rocking-chairs; but even sleep is not strong enough to conquer our desire to push on, and we soon rouse up and go in pursuit of information.

No landlord is to be found, but there is an unkempt servant in the kitchen, who probably does not see any use in making her toilet more than once a week.  To this fearful creature is intrusted the dainty duty of preparing breakfast.  Her indifference is equal to her lack of information, and her ability to convey information is fettered by her use of Gaelic as her native speech.  But she directs us to the stable.  There we find a driver hitching his horses to a two-horse stage-wagon.

“Is this stage for Baddeck?”

“Not much.”

“Is there any stage for Baddeck?”

“Not to-day.”

“Where does this go, and when?”

“St. Peter’s.  Starts in fifteen minutes.”