Essex. I was imbued with the idea of doing something in the colonies
long after I was comfortably settled in an English living myself,
but I had always fancied it would be Africa. However, just at the
time of our marriage I was offered this bishopric in Canada, and my
wife was so anxious to go that I easily fell in with the plan."
"Anxious to go out there?" I said in much surprise.
"Ah! You don't know what a missionary in herself my wife is! Then,
of course, young people never think of the coming events--children
and all that you know. We found ourselves one morning at three
o'clock, having gone as far as there was any train to take us,
waiting in a barn that served as a station for the buckboard to take
us on further to our destination. Have you been in Canada yourself?
No? Then you have not seen a buckboard. It consists of two planks
laid side by side, lengthwise, over four antiquated wheels--usually
the remains of a once useful wagon. Upon this you sit as well as you
can, and get driven and jolted and bumped about to the appointed goal.
I remember that morning so well," continued the Bishop. "It was very
cold, being late in November, and at that hour one feels it so much
more--3 a.m., you know. There was one man in charge of the barn; we
called him the station-master, though the title sat awkwardly enough
upon him. He was a surly fellow. I never met such another. Usually
the people out there are agreeable, if slow and stupid."
"Slow, are they?" said I in surprise.
"Oh, frightfully slow. A Canadian laborer is the slowest person in
existence, I really believe. However, this man would not give us any
information, except to barely tell us that this buckboard was coming
for us shortly. It was pitch dark of course and the barn was lighted
by one oil lamp and warmed by a coal stove. The lamp would not burn
well, so my wife unstrapped her travelling bag and with a pair of
tiny curved nail scissors did her best, with the wick, the man
remaining perfectly unmoveable and taciturn all the while. At four
o'clock our conveyance arrived, and would you believe it--both the
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