The Golden Grindstone [antikvár]

THE GENERAL IDEA THE first of the Canadian Mitchells landed in the country on tiptoe and in the dark, with his claymore and the unexpired portion of the day's ration. Having come through the Battle of the Plains with honour, he found Quebec good-or at least better than Scotland-in spite of bombardment and famine, and so he established himself there, took up lands, and founded a dynasty. Mr. George M. Mitchell, whose adventures are recorded below, is his greatgrandson. Everyone in Quebec knows Mr. Mitchell, but a few lines are needed to teli outsiders what manner of man he is. You may think of him as he appears in St. Peter Street, the hatefully squalid ri.verside alley in which Quebec's " big business " is conducted, a short, thickset, broad-shouldered figure, suggesting prodigies of strength, but trim and sedate in a dark-blue doublebreasted suit and speckless bowler hat that rebukes the old grey félts of his less careful colleagues-he stands looking up at the weather, the head of his cane held wide from his body in an attitűdé that recalls a portrait of Charles the Second, and estimates the chances for a big flight of snipe on the marshes at the week-end. Or you may think of him on a summer afternoon at the Garrison Club, sitting with a guest at the small iron table under the old black walnut; they have tea and toast, and Mr. Mitchell is lecturing the stranger 7