excitement, and I collected all my adventures together, and related them in pure simplicity, without very particularly informing the reader over what space of time or place my narrative extended, or telling him that I could easily have kept out of harm’s way had I felt so inclined.  All these arguments, however, had little influence on my good wife, for I could not deny that I had seen such animals in abundance in South Africa; and she thought she should never be safe among such neighbours.  At last, between my wife’s fear of the wild animals of Africa, and a certain love of novelty, which formed a part of my own character, I made up my mind, as they write on stray letters in the post-office, to “try Canada.”  So here we are, just arrived in the village of C—–­, situated on the northern shore of Lake Ontario.

Mrs. Moodie has already stated that we procured lodgings at a certain hotel in the village of C—–­ kept by S—–­, a truly excellent and obliging American.  The British traveller is not a little struck, and in many instances disgusted, with a certain air of indifference in the manners of such persons in Canada, which is accompanied with a tone of equality and familiarity exceedingly unlike the limber and oily obsequiousness of tavern-keepers in England.  I confess I felt at the time not a little annoyed with Mr. S—–­’s free-and-easy manner, and apparent coolness and indifference when he told us he had no spare room in his house to accommodate our party.  We endeavoured to procure lodgings at another tavern, on the opposite side of the street; but soon learned that, in consequence of the arrival of an unusual number of immigrants, all the taverns in the village were already filled to overflowing.  We returned to Mr. S—–­, and after some further conversation, he seemed to have taken a kind of liking to us, and became more complaisant in his manner, until our arrangement with Tom Wilson, as already related, relieved us from further difficulty.

I now perfectly understand the cause of this apparent indifference on the part of our host.  Of all people, Englishmen, when abroad, are the most addicted to the practice of giving themselves arrogant airs towards those persons whom they look upon in the light of dependents on their bounty; and they forget that an American tavern-keeper holds a very different position in society from one of the same calling in England.  The manners and circumstances of new countries are utterly opposed to anything like pretension in any class of society; and our worthy host, and his excellent wife—­who had both held a respectable position in the society of the United States—­had often been deeply wounded in their feelings by the disgusting and vulgar arrogance of English gentleman and ladies, as they are called.  Knowing from experience the truth of the saying that “what cannot be cured must be endured,” we were particularly civil to Mr. S—–­; and it was astonishing how quickly his manners thawed.  We had not been long in the