C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

16706 At Fort Yukon------------------------------~------------------~D u ri ng the next s eve n day s our life took on a completely different aspect.We lived in a social whirl, but mercifully free from the finery, feathers andconventions of society, for our clothes were not looking their best after being ina wet suitcase for many days.However, we were happily encamped in a lonely spot beyond the settlementand its empty tins and we celebrated our first morning by lying in bed late andbreakfasting on our usual fare at 10. The number of "Breakfasted on pork andtea and biscuits" entries in my diary is remarkable, we must have had the digestionof ostriches. It was blowing a hot gale, but we found the water very cold whenwe bathed in the river, each with a cake of soap in hand. Mter we had sorted ourclothes, cleaned our pots and pans and eaten lunch we paddled the canoe alongto Harry Anthony and left the Rampart House sail in his care. In due course wesold the canoe for $20, having bought it for $97.The heat was terrific and we spent a cool and blissful afternoon at the mission,having tea with the Burkes and various neighbours; in that hospitable homepeople were always dropping in for a meal, or to borrow something, or to ask forhelp. As soon as Mrs Burke offered to lend us books, I left Gwen who was at workon the wild flowers and began browsing on the books and papers that were scatteredgenerously about the room.Never, in along, book-loving life, have I experienced such delight in theprinted word as I experienced at Fort Yukon. We had cut down personal baggageto the minimum and travelled with a single volume of Shakespeare's tragedies.Gwen had soon wearied of Macbeth and the others, nor had I found them suitable