And glory in the days of old;
While some are dreamers, harping still
Upon an unknown age of gold.

"O foolish ones, put by your care!
Where wants are many, joys are few;
And at the wilding springs of peace,
God keeps an open house for you.

"But there be others, happier few,
The vagabondish sons of God,
Who know the by-ways and the flowers,
And care not how the world may plod."

Isn't it Riley who says, "Ef you want something, an' jest dead set
a-longin' fer it with both eyes wet, and tears won't bring it, why, you
try sweat"? Well, we had tried sweat and longing for two years, with
planning and hoping and the saving of nickels, and now we are off!

Shakespeare makes his man say, "I will run as far as God has any
ground," and that is our ambition. We are to travel north and keep on
going till we strike the Arctic,--straight up through Canada. Most
writers who traverse The Dominion enter it at the Eastern portal and
travel west by the C.P.R., following the line of least resistance till
they reach the Pacific. Then they go back to dear old England and tell
the world all about Canada, their idea of the half-continent being
Euclid's conception of a straight line, "length without breadth."

[Illustration: Sir Wilfred Laurier]