And
Excellent Land It Is; And A Better Farmer, While He Stuck To His
Business, Never Went Into The Bush,
For it was all bush here then.
He was a dashing, handsome fellow, too, and did not hoard the money,
Either; he loved his pipe and his pot too well; and at last he left
off farming, and gave himself to them altogether. Many a jolly booze
he and I have had, I can tell you. Brian was an awful passionate
man, and, when the liquor was in, and the wit was out, as savage and
as quarrelsome as a bear. At such times there was no one but Ned
Layton dared go near him. We once had a pitched battle, in which I
was conqueror; and ever arter he yielded a sort of sulky obedience
to all I said to him. Arter being on the spree for a week or two, he
would take fits of remorse, and return home to his wife; would fall
down at her knees, and ask her forgiveness, and cry like a child. At
other times he would hide himself up in the woods, and steal home at
night, and get what he wanted out of the pantry, without speaking a
word to any one. He went on with these pranks for some years, till
he took a fit of the blue devils.
"'Come away, Ned, to the - - lake, with me,' said he; 'I am weary of
my life, and I want a change.'
"'Shall we take the fishing-tackle?' says I. 'The black bass are in
prime season, and F - - will lend us the old canoe.
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