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diff --git a/old/12675-8.txt b/old/12675-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82540d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12675-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4127 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches And Tales Illustrative Of Life In +The Backwoods Of New Brunswick, by Mrs. F. Beavan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sketches And Tales Illustrative Of Life In The Backwoods Of New Brunswick + Gleaned From Actual Observation And Experience During A Residence + Of Seven Years In That Interesting Colony + + +Author: Mrs. F. Beavan + +Release Date: June 22, 2004 [EBook #12675] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BACKWOODS OF NEW BRUNSWICK *** + + + + +Produced by Dave Morgan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team, +with thanks to www.canadiana.org, + + + + + +SKETCHES AND TALES ILLUSTRATIVE OF LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS +OF NEW BRUNSWICK, NORTH AMERICA, + + +Gleaned From Actual Observation And Experience During A +Residence Of Seven Years In That Interesting Colony. + + +BY MRS. F. BEAVAN. + + "Son of the Isles! talk not to me, + Of the old world's pride and luxury! + Tho' gilded bower and fancy cot, + Grace not each wild concession lot; + Tho' rude our hut, and coarse our cheer, + The wealth the world can give is here." + + +1845. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + Introductory Remarks + New Brunswick--by whom settled + Remarks on State of Morals and Religion + American Physiognomy + The Spring Freshets + Cranberries + Stream Driving + Moving a House + Frolics + Sugar Making + Breaking up of the Ice + First appearances of Spring + Burning a Fallow + A Walk through a Settlement + Log Huts + Description of a Native New Brunswicker's House + Blowing the Horn + A Deserted Lot + The Bushwacker + The Postman + American Newspapers + Musquitoes + An Emigrant's House + Unsuccessful Lumberer + The Law of Kindness exemplified in the Case of a Criminal + Schools + The School Mistress + The Woods + Baptists' Association + A Visit to the House of a Refugee + The Indian Bride, a Refugee's Story + Mr. Hanselpecker + Burning of Miramichi + The Lost One--a tale of the Early Settlers + The Mignionette + Song of the Irish Mourner + A Winter's Evening Sketch + The School-mistress's Dream + Library in the Backwoods + The Indian Summer + The Lost Children--a Poem + Sleigh Riding + Aurora Borealis + Getting into the Ice + Conclusion + + + + +These sketches of the Backwoods of New Brunswick are intended to +illustrate the individual and national characteristics of the settlers, +as displayed in the living pictures and legendary tales of the country. +They have been written during the short intervals allowed from domestic +toils, and may, perhaps, have little claim to the attention of the +public, save that of throwing a faint light upon the manners and customs +of that little-known, though interesting, appendage of the British +empire. A long residence in that colony having given me ample means of +knowing and of studying them in all their varying hues of light and +shade. There, in the free wide solitude of that fair land whose youthful +face "seems wearing still the first fresh fragrance of the world," the +fadeless traces of character, peculiar to the dwellers of the olden +climes, are brought into close contrast with the more original feelings +of the "sons of the soil," both white and red, and are there more fully +displayed than in the mass of larger communities. Of political, or depth +of topographical information, the writer claims no share, and much of +deep interest, or moving incident, cannot now be expected in the life of +a settler in the woods. The days when the war-whoop of the Indian was +yelled above the burning ruins of the white man's dwelling are +gone--their memory exists but in the legend of the winter's eve, and +the struggle is now with the elements which form the climate; the +impulse of "going a-head" giving impetus to people's "getting +along"--forcing the woods to bow beneath their sturdy stroke, and fields +to shine with ripened grain, where erst the forest shadows fell; or +floating down the broad and noble streams the tall and stately pine, +taken from the ancient bearded wilderness to bear the might of England's +fame to earth and sea's remotest bounds. + +New Brunswick is partly settled by French Acadians from the adjoining +province of Nova Scotia, but these, generally speaking, form a race by +themselves, and mingle little with the others, still retaining the +peculiarities of their nation, although long separated from it--they +like gaiety and amusement more than work, and consequently are rather +poorer than the other inhabitants; but, of course, there are exceptions. +In the winter I have often seen them on their way to market, with loads +of frozen oysters, packed in barrels, and moss cranberries (rather a +chance crop); but they looked happy and comfortable, and went singing +merrily to the ringing of their horse bells. The French were the +pioneers of the province, and often had to do battle with the Indians, +the ancient possessors of the soil: of these last there now remains but +a fast-fading remnant--objects more of pity or laughter than of dread. +Of the other original settlers, or, as they are particularly termed, +"blue noses," they are composed of the refugees and their descendants, +being those persons who, at the separation of England from America, +prefering the British government, sought her protection and came, +another band of pilgrims, and swore fealty to that land from whence +their fathers had so indignantly fled--they are certainly a most +indescribable genus those blue noses--the traces of descent from the +Dutch and French blood of the United States, being mingled with the +independent spirit of the American and the staunch firmness of the +"Britisher," as they delight to call themselves, showing their claim to +it by the most determined hatred of the Yankees, whose language and +features they yet retain: yet these differing qualities blend to form a +shrewd, intelligent, active, and handsome people--intelligence and +strong sense, to a far greater amount than could be found in persons of +the same class in England. A trace, albeit a faint one of the Saxon +serf, still lingers with the English peasant; but the free breeze of +America soon sweeps the shadows from his brow, and his sons all, proudly +take their place as men, knowing that by their own conduct and talents +they may work their way to fortune, or, at least, "rough hew" it, +without dread that the might of custom's icy breath can blight their +fate for lack of birth or fortune. This gives a noble feeling to the +heart and a higher tone to the character, although a sense of the +ridiculous is often attached to this by a native of the old countries, +when it is shown forth by the "squire" yoking his oxen, a major selling +turkies, and the member for the county cradling buckwheat. Yet all this +is productive of good, and opens a path for intellect and genius, and +when a colonel and member of the Legislative Council eats _pancakes and +molasses_ in a friendly way with his poorer neighbours, is it not likely +(as the Persian fable tells us of the pebble lying near the rose, and +thereby imbibing some of its fragrance) that some of the graces and +politeness of the higher circles, to which these gentlemen belong both +by fortune and education, should be imparted, in some degree, to those +with whom they converse. So it undoubtedly does, and the air of +refinement, native to the New Brunswicker, is never so strongly visible +as when contrasted with the new-caught emigrant. Rudeness and vulgarity +in glaring forms one never meets from them; odd and inquisitive ways may +be thought impertinent, and require both time and patience to be rightly +understood. + +The state of morals and religion is fast progressing; these, of course, +have all their mainspring from education, for an uneducated people can +never be, rightly speaking, either moral or religious. So New Brunswick +may have the apology for whispered tales that float about, of corn being +reaped and wood being felled on the Sabbath-day, and of sacred rites +being dispensed with. She is yet in her infancy, and when one thinks +that 'tis but sixty years since they first set foot on the shore, where +stood one lonely hut, on the site of the now flourishing city of St. +John, we must know that their physical wants were then so many that but +little attention could be given to the wants of the mind. But now, +thanks to the parental care of Britain, schools and churches are rising +fast throughout the country, and learning is received with an avidity +that marks the active intellect it has to work upon; besides, all these +old stories of failings occurred long before the tide of emigration +caused them to be enlightened by the visitation of the inhabitants of +the gifted climes of the olden world. Well would it be if all those +showed as much desire to avail themselves of their means of +improvement, as a New Brunswicker does of those enjoyed by him. Their +personal appearance differs much from the English. Cooper says, "the +American physiognomy has already its own peculiar cast"--so it has, and +can easily be distinguished--in general they are handsomer than the +emigrants--darker in complexion, but finer in feature and more graceful +in form--not so strong, and fading sooner. Many of the children are +perfectly beautiful, but the cherub beauty changes soon, and the women +particularly look old and withered while yet young in years. Infantine +beauty seems peculiar to the country, for even the children of emigrants +born there are much handsomer than those born at home. Such are some of +the traits of the natives--then comes the wide circle of emigrants, each +(at least the older ones) retaining the peculiarities of their different +countries. Many of them, although better off than they could possibly +expect to be at home, yet keep railing at the country, and thirsting +after the "flesh-pots of Egypt." The Yorkshireman talks of nothing but +the "white cakes and bag puddings" of old England, regardless of the +"pumpkin pies and buckwheat pancakes" of New Brunswick; and one old lady +from Cornwall (where they say the Devil would not go for fear of being +transformed into a pasty) revenges herself on the country by making pies +of everything, from apples and mutton down to parsley, and all for the +memory of England; while, perhaps, were she there, she might be without +a pie. The honest Scotchman is silent upon the subject of "vivers," and +wisely talks not of either "crowdy" or barley meal, but tells of the +time when he was a sitter in the kirk of the Rev. Peter Poundtext, +showing his Christian charity by the most profound contempt as well for +the ordinances of the Church of England as for the "dippings" of the +Baptists. He attends none of them, for he says "he canna thole it," but +when by chance a minister of the kirk comes his way, then you may see +him, with well-saved Sabbath suit, pressing anxiously forward to catch +the droppings of the sanctuary: snows or streams offering no obstacle to +his zeal. The Irishman, too, is there seen all in his glory--one with a +medal on his breast, flinging his shillalagh over his head and shouting +for O'Connell, while another is quaffing to the "pious, glorious, and +immortal memory of King William," inviting those around him to join +together in an Orange Lodge, of which community he certainly shows no +favourable specimen; but by degrees these national feelings and +asperities become more softened, and the second generation know little +of them. The settlement from whence these sketches are drawn, was formed +of a motley mixture of all the different nations--Blue Nose, English, +Scotch, Irish, Welch, and Dutch. + +We had been living for some time at a place called _Long Creek_, on the +margin of a broad and rapid stream, which might well have borne the more +dignified appellation of river--the land on its borders was the flat, +rich "_intervale_," so highly prized, formed by alluvial deposits. There +are, I believe, two descriptions of this _intervale_,--one covered with +low small bushes, and, therefore, more easily cleared--the other with a +gigantic growth of the butternut, the oak, and the elm. This where we +lived was of the latter description. A few of the stately monarchs of +the forest yet stood upon the emerald plains, spreading their +magnificent branches to the sunlight, and telling of the kindly soil +that nourished them. Along the fences wild hops festooned themselves in +graceful wreaths of wild luxuriance. A few clumps of cranberry bushes +had also been permitted to remain, notwithstanding the American's +antipathy to trees or bushes is such, that his axe, which he hardly ever +stirs without, is continually flying about him; but this berry, one +amongst the many indigenous to the country, is a useful addition to the +winter store--they grow abundantly, and, after the first frost which +ripens them they have a brilliant appearance, hanging like clustering +rubies, reminding one of the gem-clad boughs of Aladdin. When gathered, +they are hung up in bunches, when they become frozen, keeping good till +the spring. They are used for tarts and jellies, the frost neither +altering their colour nor flavour. Those places are overflown in the +spring; the "freshets" caused by the melting of the snow raising the +waters above their ordinary level. I have often sailed over them, and +'twas strange to see each familiar footpath and strawberry bank far down +beneath the shining waves. As the creek goes onward to the river the +_intervale_ disappears, and the banks become grey and steep, crowned +with the tall and slender stems of the spruce and cedar. New Brunswick +is rich in minerals, and veins of coal and iron abound at this place; +but many years must elapse ere mines are worked to any extent. A few are +in operation at present; but while the pine waves the wealth of her +green plumage to the lumber-man, or the new-cleared ground will yield +its virgin crop to the farmer, the earth must keep her deeper treasures. +In the spring, this creek presents a busy picture. The rivers of New +Brunswick are to her what the railroads are now to other countries: and +richly is she blessed with sparkling waters from the diamond flashings +of the mountain rill to the still calm beauty of the sheltered lake, the +silvery streams, the sweeping river, and the unfrozen width of the +winter harbour of her noble bay. True, much can be done on the icy ways +of winter, but then the home work must be minded, and market attended. +Fire-wood for the year must be _hauled_; the increasing _clearings_ call +for extended fences, and these also must be drawn from the woods on the +snow, so that when the spring opens, the roots and other spare produce +are quickly shipped off (boated would be a better expression) into large +open boats, called market-boats. Another description, called wood-boats, +are used for carrying deals and cord-wood, so called from the stick +forming the measure of a cord, which is the mode of selling it in the +city for fuel. The deals are floated from the saw mills over the +shallows, and piled into the boats. One could sometimes walk across the +river on the quantities of wood floating about. The larger pieces of +wood or timber are floated singly down the stream nearest to the place +whence they are cut. This operation is called stream-driving, and +commences as soon as the rapid melting of the snow and ice has so +swollen the small streams as to give them power to force and carry the +huge pieces of timber, until, at the confluence of the streams, the +water becomes wide enough to enable them to form it into rafts, on which +raft a hut is built and furnished with the necessaries for subsistence. +The gang who have been employed in bringing it so far lay themselves +upon it, and allow it to float down the stream, until the breeze wafts +them to their destination. These are the scenes of the spring, when all +life seems awakening. The tree-buds are bursting their cerements--the +waters are dancing in light and song--and the woods, before all still, +now echo a few wild notes of melody. The blue wing of the halycon goes +dazzlingly past, and tells us his own bright days are come; and the +"_whip-poor-will_" brings his lay so close, that the ear is startled +with the human sound on the soft damp air. The scene is changed when +Sirius is triumphant, telling us of the tropics, and that we live in +rather an inexplicable climate. Beneath his burning influence I have +glided down this creek when no sound was heard on earth or air save the +ripples of the paddle as it rose or fell at the will of the child-like +form which guided the fragile bark. The dwellers on the margin of these +fair waters are as much at home upon them as on land, and the children +in particular are as amphibious as the musk rats which people its banks, +and which scent the air somewhat heavily with what, in a fainter degree, +would be thought perfume. One can hardly recall these dog-star days at +that later season when the pearly moon and brilliant stars shine down +from the deep blue sky on the crusted snows; when fairy crystals are +reflecting their cold bright beams on the glistening ice, while the +sleigh flies merrily along, "with bell and bridle ringing," on the same +path we held in summer with the light canoe; when the breath congeals in +a sheet of ice around the face, and the clearness of the atmosphere +makes respiration difficult. To tell us that we are in the same latitude +with the sunny clime of Boulogne, in France, shows us that America +cannot be measured by the European standard. A quarter of the globe lies +between us; they go to bed four hours before we do, and are fast asleep +while we are wide awake. No one attempts to live in the country +districts without a farm. As the place where we lived had but a house +and one acre of land, none being vacant in that immediate neighbourhood, +and finding firing and pasturage expensive, and furthermore wishing to +raise our own potatoes, and, if we liked, live in _peas_, a lot of two +hundred acres was purchased in the settlement, styled, "_par +excellence_," "the English," (from the first settlers being of that +illustrious nation,) a distance of two miles from where we then lived. +Our house was a good one. We did not like to leave it. Selling was out +of the question: so we e'en resolved to take it with us, wishing, as the +Highland robber did of the haystack, that it had legs to walk. A +substitute for this was found in the universal resource of New +Brunswickers for all their wants, from the cradle to the coffin, "the +tree, the bonny greenwood tree," that gives the young life-blood of its +sweet sap for sugar--and even when consumed by fire its white ashes +yield them soap. I have even seen wooden fire-irons, although they do +not go quite so far as their Yankee neighbours, who, letting alone +wooden clocks, deal besides in _wooden hams_, nutmegs, and cucumber +seeds. Two stout trees were then felled (the meanest would have graced a +lordly park), and hewed with the axe into a pair of gigantic sled +runners. The house was raised from its foundation and placed on these. +Many hands make light work; but, had those hands been all hired +labourers, the expense would have been more than the value of the house, +but 'twas done by what is called a "frolic." When people have a +particular kind of work requiring to be done quickly, and strength to +accomplish it, they invite their neighbours to come, and, if necessary, +bring with them their horses or oxen. Frolics are used for building log +huts, chopping, piling, ploughing, planting, and hoeing. The ladies also +have their particular frolics, such as wool-picking, or cutting out and +making the home-spun woollen clothes for winter. The entertainment given +on such occasions is such as the house people can afford; for the men, +roast mutton, pot pie, pumpkin pie, and rum dough nuts; for the ladies, +tea, some scandal, and plenty of "_sweet cake_," with stewed apple and +custards. There are, at certain seasons, a great many of these frolics, +and the people never grow tired of attending them, knowing that the logs +on their own fallows will disappear all the quicker for it. The house +being now on the runners, thirty yoke of oxen, four abreast, were +fastened to an enormous tongue, or pole, made of an entire tree of ash. +No one can form any idea, until they have heard it, of the noise made in +driving oxen; and, in such an instance as this, of the skill and tact +required in starting them, so that they are all made to pull at once. I +have often seen the drivers, who are constantly shouting, completely +hoarse; and after a day's work so exhausted that they have been unable +to raise the voice. Although the cattle are very docile, and understand +well what is said to them, yet from the number of turnings and twistings +they require to be continually reminded of their duty. Amid, then, all +the noise and bustle made by intimating to such a number whether they +were to "haw" or "gee," the shoutings of the younger parties assembled, +the straining of chains and the creaking of boards, the ponderous pile +was set in motion along the smooth white and marble-like snow road, +whose breadth it entirely filled up. It was a sight one cannot well +forget--to see it move slowly up the hill, as if unwilling to leave the +spot it had been raised on, notwithstanding the merry shouts around, and +the flag they had decked it with streaming so gaily through the green +trees as they bent over it till it reached the site destined for it, +where it looked as much at home as if it were too grave and steady a +thing to take the step it had done. This was in March--we had been +waiting some time for snow, as to move without it would have been a +difficult task; for, plentifully as New Brunswick is supplied with that +commodity, at some seasons much delay and loss is experienced for want +of it--the sleighing cannot be done, and wheel carriages cannot run, the +roads are so rough and broken with the frost--the cold is then more +intense, and the cellars, (the sole store-houses and receptacles of the +chief comforts) without their deep covering of snow, become penetrated +by the frost, and their contents much injured, if not totally +destroyed--this is a calamity that to be known must be experienced--the +potatoes stored here are the chief produce of the farm, at least the +part that is most available for selling, for hay should never go off the +land, and grain is as yet so little raised that 'tis but the old farmers +can do what is called "_bread themselves:_" thus the innovation of the +cellars by the _frost fiend_ is a sad and serious occurrence--of course +a deep bank of earth is thrown up round the house, beneath which, and +generally its whole length and breadth, is the cellar; but the snow over +this is an additional and even necessary defence, and its want is much +felt in many other ways--in quantity, however, it generally makes up for +its temporary absence by being five and six feet deep in April. About +this season the warm sun begins to beam out, and causes the sap to flow +in the slumbering trees--this is the season for sugar-making, which, +although an excellent thing if it can be managed, is not much attended +to, especially in new settlements, and those are generally the best off +for a "_sugar-bush_;" but it occurs at that season when the last of the +winter work must be done--the snow begins to melt on the roads, and the +"saw whet," a small bird of the owl species, makes its appearance, and +tells us, as the natives say, that "_the heart of the winter is +broken_." All that can be done now must be done to lessen the toils of +that season now approaching, from which the settler must not shrink if +he hope to prosper. Sugar-making, then, unless the farmer is strong +handed, is not profitable. A visit to a sugar-camp is an interesting +sight to a stranger--it may, perhaps, be two or three miles through the +woods to where a sufficient number of maple trees may be found close +enough together to render it eligible for sugar-making. All the +different kinds of maple yield a sweet sap, but the "rock maple" is the +species particularly used for sugar, and perhaps a thousand of these +trees near together constitute what is called a _sugar-bush_. Here, +then, a rude hut, but withal picturesque in its appearance, is +erected--it is formed of logs, and covered with broad sheets of birch +bark. For the universal use of this bark I think the Indians must have +given the example. Many beautiful articles are made by them of it, and +to the back settlers it is invaluable. As an inside roofing, it +effectually resists the rain--baskets for gathering the innumerable +tribe of summer berries, and boxes for packing butter are made of +it--calabashes for drinking are formed of it in an instant by the bright +forest stream. Many a New Brunswick belle has worn it for a head-dress +as the dames of more polished lands do frames of French willow; and it +is said the title deeds of many a broad acre in America have been +written on no other parchment than its smooth and vellum-like folds. The +sugar-maker's bark-covered hut contains his bedding and provisions, +consisting of little save the huge round loaf of bread, known as the +"shanty loaf"--his beverage, or substitute for tea, is made of the +leaves of the winter green, or the hemlock boughs which grow beside him, +and his sweetening being handy bye, he wants nothing more. A notch is +cut in the tree, from which the sap flows, and beneath it a piece of +shingle is inserted for a spout to conduct it into troughs, or bark +dishes, placed at the foot of the tree. The cold frosty nights, followed +by warm sunny days, making it run freely, clear as water, and slightly +sweet--from these troughs, or bark dishes, it is collected in pails, by +walking upon the now soft snow, by the aid of snow shoes, and poured +into barrels which stand near the boilers, ready to supply them as the +syrup boils down. When it reaches the consistence required for sugar, it +is poured into moulds of different forms. Visits to these sugar camps +are a great amusement of the young people of the neighbourhood in which +they are, who make parties for that purpose--the great treat is the +candy, made by dashing the boiling syrup on the snow, where it instantly +congeals, transparent and crisp, into sheets. At first the blazing fire +and boiling cauldron look strange, amid the solemn loneliness of the +forest, along whose stately aisles of cathedral-like grandeur the eye +may gaze for days, and see no living thing--the ear hear no sound, save +it may be the tapping of the woodpecker, or the whispering of the wind +as it sighs through the boughs, seeming to mourn with them for the time +when the white man knew them not. But these thoughts pass away when the +proprietor, with his pale intelligent face, shaded by a flapping sun hat +from the glaring snow, presses us hospitably to "take along a junk of +candy, a lump of sugar," or a cup of the syrup. He sees nothing +picturesque or romantic in the whole affair, and only calculates if it +will pay for the time it occupies; at the same time, with the produce of +his labours he is extremely "_clever_," this being the term for generous +or hospitable, and one is sometimes startled at its application, +especially to women; the persons in England, to whom it is applied, are +so unlike the clever women of New Brunswick, those dear old creatures, +who know not the difference between Milton and Dilworth, and whose very +woollen gowns are redolent of all-spice and apples. + +Towards the latter part of March and April the breaking up of the ice +goes on gradually--some seasons, however, a sudden storm causes the ice +and snow to disappear rapidly, but generally a succession of soft warm +winds, and days partly sunshine and rain, does it more effectually, and +prevents the heavy freshets in the rivers, which are often destructive, +overflowing the low banks and carrying away with resistless force +whatever buildings may be on them. After the disappearance of the snow, +some time must elapse ere the land be in a fit state for sowing, +consequently fencing, and such like, is now the farmer's employment, +either around the new clearings, or in repairing those which have fallen +or been removed during the winter. This, with attending to the stock, +which at this season require particular care, gives them sufficient +occupation--the sheep, which have long since been wearied of the +"durance vile" which bound them to the hay-rick, may now be seen in +groups on the little isles of emerald green which appear in the white +fields; and the cattle, that for six long weary months have been +ruminating in their stalls, or "chewing the cud of sweet and bitter +fancy" in the barn yards, now begin to extend their perigrinations +towards the woods, browsing with delight on the sweet young buds of the +birch tree. At this season it is, for obvious reasons, desirable that +the "milky mothers" should not stray far from home--many "a staid brow'd +matron" has disappeared in the spring, and, after her summer rambles in +the woods, returned in the "fall" with her full-grown calf by her side, +but many a good cow has gone and been seen no more, but as a white +skeleton gleaming among the green leaves. To prevent these mischances, a +bell is fastened on the leader of the herd, the intention of which is to +guide where they may be found. This bell is worn all summer, as their +pasture is the rich herbage of the forest. It is taken off during the +winter, and its first sounds now tell us, although the days are cold, +and the snow not yet gone, that brighter times are coming. The clear +concerts of the frogs ring loudly out from marsh and lake, and at this +season alone is heard the lay of the wood-robin, and the blackbird. The +green glossy leaves of the winter green, whose bright scarlet berries +look like clusters of coral on the snow, now seem even brighter than +they were--the blue violet rises among the sheltered moss by the old +tree roots, and the broad-leaved adder tongue gives out its orange and +purple blossoms to gladden the brown earth, while the trees are yet all +black and barren, save the various species of pine and spruce, which now +wear a fringe of softer green. The May flowers of New Brunswick seldom +blossom till June, which is rather an Irish thing of them to do, and +although the weather has been fine, and recalls to the memory the balmy +breath of May, yet I have often seen a pearly wreath of new fallen snow, +deck the threshhold on that 'merrie morn'. After the evaporation of the +steaming vapour of spring has gone forward, and the farmer has operated +in the way of ploughing and sowing, on whatever ready-prepared land he +may have for the purpose, the first dry "_spell_" is looked forward to +most anxiously to burn off the land which has been chopped during the +winter--it is bad policy, however, to depend for the whole crop on this +"_spring burn_," as a long continuance of wet weather may prevent it. +The new settler, on his first season, has nothing else to depend upon; +but the older ones chop the land at intervals during the summer, and +clear it off in the autumn, and thus have it ready for the ensuing +spring. Burning a chopping, or _fallow_, as it is called, of twelve or +fourteen acres in extent, is a grand and even awful sight: rushing in +torrents of flame, it rolls with the wind, crackling and roaring through +the brushwood, and often extending beyond the limits assigned it, +catching the dry stems of ancient trees, the growth of the earlier ages +of this continent, which lie in gigantic ruins, half buried in the +rising soil, and which will be themes of speculation to the geologists +of other days--it rushes madly among the standing trees of the woods, +wreathing them to their summits in its wild embrace--they stand at night +like lofty torches, or a park decked out with festal lamps for some +grand gala. After this first burn, a _fallow_ presents a blackened scene +of desolation and confusion, and requires, indeed, a strong arm and a +stout heart to undertake its clearance; the small branches and +brush-wood alone have been burnt, but the large logs or trunks lie all +blackened but unconsumed. These must all be placed in regular piles or +heaps, which are again fired, and burn steadily for a few hours, after +which all traces of the noble forest are gone, save the blackened stumps +and a few white ashes; it is then ready for planting or sowing, with the +assistance of the hoe or harrow. + +And now, kind reader, if you have accompanied me thus far, will you have +the kindness to suppose us fixed at last in our habitation--whitewashing, +painting, and scrubbing done, and all the fuss of moving over--our +fallow fenced and filled--the dark green stems of the wheat and oats +standing thick and tall--the buck-wheat spreading its broad leaves, and +the vines of the pumpkins and cucumbers running along the rich soil, +where grows in luxuriance the potatoe, that root, valuable to New +Brunswick + + "As the bread-fruit tree + To the sunny isles of Owhyhee." + +Suppose it, then, a bright and balmy day in the sunny ides of June--the +earth is now in all the luxuriant pride of her summer beauty; for +although the summer is long coming, yet, when it does begin, vegetation +is so rapid that a few short days call it forth in all its loveliness; +nay, the transition is so quick, that I have observed its workings in an +hour's space. In the red sunlight of the morn I have seen the trees with +their wintry sprays and brown leaf-buds all closed--when there fell a +soft and refreshing shower--again the sunbeams lit the sky, and oh! the +glorious change--the maple laughed out with her crimson blossoms and +fair green leaves--the beech-tree unfolded her emerald plumes--the fairy +stems of the aspen and birch were dancing in light, and the stately ash +was enwreathed with her garland of verdant green--the spirit of spring +seemed to have waved o'er them the wand of enchantment. On this bright +day, of which I now speak, all this mighty change had been accomplished, +and earth and air seemed all so delightful, one could hardly imagine +that it could be improved by aught added to or taken from it. + +I am now just going to walk along the settlement to visit a friend, and +if you will accompany me, I shall most willingly be your Asmodeus. A +straight and well-worked road runs through the settlement, which is +about nine miles in length. This part of the country is particularly +hilly, and from where we now stand we have a view of its whole extent. +Twenty years ago a blazed track was the only path through the dense +forest to where, at its furthest extremity, one adventurous settler had +dared to raise his _log hut_. The older inhabitants, who lived only on +the margin of the rivers, laughed at the idea of clearing those high +"_back lands_" where there was neither intervale or rivers, but he +heeded them not, and his lonely hut became the nucleus of one of the +most flourishing settlements in New Brunswick. The woods have now +retreated far back from the road, and at this season the grass and grain +are so high that the stumps are all concealed. The scene is very +different to the country landscapes of England. There there are square +smooth fields enclosed with stone walls, neat white palings, or the +hawthorn hedge, scenting the breezes with its balmy "honeysuckle," or +sweet wild rose--song-birds filling the air with melody, and stately +castles, towering o'er the peasant's lowly home, while far as the eye +can reach 'twill rest but on some fair village dome or farm. Here the +worm or zigzag fence runs round the irregularly-shaped clearings, in the +same rustic garb it wore when a denizen of the forest. The wild flowers +here have no perfume, but the raspberries, which grow luxuriantly in the +spaces made by the turnings of the fences, have a sweet smell, and there +is a breath which tells of the rich strawberry far down among the +shadowy grass. The birds during the hot months of summer have no song, +but there are numbers of them, and of the brightest plumage. The fairy +humming-bird, often in size no larger than a bee, gleams through the air +like a flower with wings, and the bald eagle sits majestically on the +old grey pines, which stand like lone monuments of the past, the storms +and the lightnings having ages ago wreaked their worst upon them, and +bereft them of life and limb, yet still they stand, all lofty and +unscathed by the axe or the fire which has laid the younger forest low. +The dwellings, either the primitive log-hut, the first home of the +settler, or the more stately frame-buildings, stand each near the road, +on the verge of its own clearing, which reaches back to where the dark +woods form a back-ground to the scene. These stretch far and wide over +the land, save where appears, amid their density, some lonely settlement +or improvement of adventurous emigrant. Those little spots, of how much +importance to their owners, yet seem as nothing amid the vast forest. +Each dwelling in this country is in itself a theme for study and +interest. Here, on one side, is the home of an English settler--amid all +the bustle and chopping and burning of a new farm, he has found time to +plant a few fruit trees, and has now a flourishing young orchard, and a +garden wherein are herbs of "fragrant smell and spicy taste," to give a +warm relish to the night's repast. For the cultivation of a garden the +natives, unless the more opulent of them, seem to care little; and +outside the dwelling of a blue nose there is little to be seen, unless +it be a cucumber bed among the chips, or a patch of Indian corn. Again, +the Scotch settlers may be known by the taste shown in selecting a +garden spot--a gentle declivity, sloping to a silvery stream, by which +stand a few household trees that he has permitted to remain--beneath +them a seat is placed, and in some cherished spot, watched over with the +tenderest care, is an exotic sprig of heath or broom. About the +Hibernian's dwelling may be a mixture of all these differing tastes, +while perhaps a little of the national ingenuity may be displayed in a +broken window, repaired with an old hat, or an approximation towards +friendliness between the domestic animals and the inmates. With the +interior of these dwellings one is agreeably surprised, they (that is, +generally speaking), appear so clean and comfortable. Outside the logs +are merely hewed flat, and the interstices filled up with moss and clay, +the roof and ends being patched up with boards and bark, or anything to +keep out the cold. They certainly look rough enough, but within they are +ceiled above and around with smooth shining boards; there are no walls +daubed with white-wash, nor floors strewn with vile gritty sand, which +last certainly requires all the sanctity of custom to render it +endurable, but the walls and floors are as bright and clean as the +scrubbing-brush and plenty of soap can make them. This great accessary +to cleanliness, _soap_, is made at home in large quantities, the ashes +of the wood burnt in the fire-place making the "ley," to which is added +the coarser fat and grease of the animals used for home consumption. It +costs nothing but the trouble of making, and the art is little. As +regards cleanliness, the natives have something almost Jewish in their +personal observances of it as well as of their food. The blood of no +animal is ever used, but flows to the earth from whence it sprung, and +the poorest of them perform their ablutions before eating with oriental +exactness; these habits are soon imparted to the emigrants, many of +whom, when they first come out, all softly be it said, are by no means +so nice. + +The large bright fires of the log house prevent all possible ideas of +damp; they certainly are most delightful--those magnificent winter fires +of New Brunswick--so brilliant, so cheerful, and so warm--the charred +coals, like a mass of burning rubies, giving out their heat beneath, +while between the huge "_back-log_" and "_fore-stick,_" the bright +flames dance merrily up the wide chimney. I have often heard people +fancy a wood fire as always snapping and sparkling in your face, or +green and smoky, chilling you with its very appearance, but those would +soon change their opinion if they saw a pile of yellow birch and rock +maple laid right "fore and aft" across the bright fire-dogs, the hearth +swept up, and the chips beneath fanned with the broom, they would then +see the union of light and heat in perfection. In one way it is +preferable to coals, that is, while making on the fire you might if you +chose wear white kid gloves without danger of soiling them. Another +comfort to the settler in the back woods is, that every stick you burn +makes one less on the land. Stoves, both for cooking and warming the +houses, have long been used in the United States, and are gradually +coming into common use in New Brunswick. In the cities they are +generally used, where fuel is expensive, as they require less fuel, and +give more heat than open "fire-places;" but the older inhabitants can +hardly be reconciled to them; they prefer the rude old hearth stone, +with its bright light, to the dark stove. I remember once spending the +evening at a house where the younger part of the family, to be +fashionable, had got a new stove placed in the fire-place of "_'tother +room_," which means, what in Scotland is termed "_ben_" the house, and +in England "the _parlour_." This was the first evening of its being put +in operation. I observed the old gentleman (a first-rate specimen of a +blue nose) looked very uncomfortable and fidgetty. For a time he sat +twirling his thumbs in silence, when suddenly a thought seemed to strike +him: he left the room, and shortly after the draught-hole of the stove +grew dark, and a cloud of smoke burst forth from it. The old gentleman +came in, declaring he was almost suffocated, and that it was "all owing +to _that nasty ugly Yankee critter_," the stove. He instantly had it +taken down, and was soon gazing most comfortably on a glorious pile of +burning wood, laid on by himself, with the most scientific regard to the +laws of _levity, concavity_, and _contiguity_ requisite in fire-making; +and by the twinkle of his eye I knew that he was enjoying the ruse he +had employed to get rid of the stove, for he had quietly stopped the +flue. For the mere convenience of the thing, I think a stove is +decidedly preferable. In this country, where people are generally their +own cooks as well as everything else, they learn to know how the most +and the best work can be done with the least time and trouble. With the +stove there is not that roasting of the face and hands, nor confused +jumble of pots and pans, inseparable from a kitchen fire; but upon the +neat little polished thing, upon which there is nothing to be seen but a +few bright covers, you can have the constituents of a New Brunswick +breakfast, "_cod-fish and taters_," for twice laid, fried ham, hot +rolls, and pancakes, all prepared while the tea kettle is boiling, and +experience whilst arranging them no more heat than on a winter morning, +is quite agreeable. In the furniture of these back-wood dwellings there +is nothing rich or costly, yet there is such an air of neatness diffused +over it, and effect brought out, that they always recalled to me the +painted cottage scenes of a theatre. But here is a house at which I have +a call to make, and which will illustrate the "_mènage_" of a New +Brunswicker. Remember, this is not one of the old settlers, who have +overcome all the toil and inconvenience of clearing and building, and +are now enjoying the comforts they have earned, but it is the log-house +of a new farm, around which the stumps yet stand thick and strong, and +where the ringing of the axe is yet heard incessantly. In this working +country people are, in general, like the famous Mrs. Gilpin, who, though +on pleasure bent, had yet a frugal mind, and contrive to make business +and amusement go together; and although I had left home with the +intention of paying a visit, a little business induces me to pause here, +ere I proceed to where I intended; and even here, while arranging this, +I shall enjoy myself as much as though I were sackless of thought or +interest in anything save amusement. The manufacture of the wool raised +on the farm is the most important part of the women's work, and in this +the natives particularly excel. As yet I knew not the mysteries of +colouring brown with butternut bark, nor the proper proportion of _sweet +fern_ and indigo to produce green, so that our wool, on its return from +the carding mill, had been left with this person--lady, "par +courtesie,"--who was a perfect adept in the art, to be spun and wove: +and the business on which I now call is to arrange with her as to its +different proportions and purposes. What for blankets, for clothing, or +for socks and mittens, which all require a different style of +manufacture, and are all items of such importance during the winter +snows. Melancthon Grey, whose most Christian and protestant appellation +was abbreviated into "Lank," was a true-blooded blue nose. His father +had a noble farm of rich intervale on the banks of the river Saint John, +and was well to do in the world. Lank was his eldest son, yet no +heritage was his, save his axe and the arm which swung it. The law of +primogeniture exists not in this country, and the youngest son is +frequently heir to that land on which the older ones have borne the +"heat and burthen of the day," and rendered valuable by their toil, +until each chooses his own portion in the world, by taking unto himself +a wife and a lot of forest land, and thus another hard-won _homestead_ +is raised, and sons enough to choose among for heirs. Melancthon Grey +had wedded his cousin, a custom common among the "blue noses," and which +most likely had its origin in the patriarchal days of the earlier +settlers, when the inhabitants were few. Sybèl was a sweet pretty girl, +deficient, as the Americans all are, in those high-toned feelings which +characterise the depth of woman's love in the countries of Europe, yet +made, as they generally do, an affectionate wife, and a fond and doating +mother. Those two names, Sybèl and Melancthon, had a strange sound in +the same household, awaking, as they always did in my dreamy fancy, a +train of such differing memories. Sybèl recalling the days of early +Rome, the haughty Tarquin and his mysterious prophetess, while +Melancthon brought back the "Reformation," and the best and most pious +of its fathers. In the particular of names, the Americans have a decided +"penchant" for those of euphonious and peculiar sound--they are selected +from sacred and profane history, ancient and modern. To them, however, +there is little of meaning attached by those who give them save the +sound. I have known one family reckon among its members a Solon and +Solomon, a Hector and Wellington, a Bathsheba and Lucretia; and the two +famous Johns, Bunyan and Wesley, have many a name-sake. These, in their +full length, are generally saved for holiday terms, and abbreviations +are made for every-day use. In these they are ingenious in finding the +shortest, and _Theodore_, that sweetest of all names, I have heard +curtailed to "_Od_," which seems certainly an odd enough cognomen. +Sybèl's bridal portion consisted of a cow and some sheep--her father's +waggon which brought her home contained some household articles her +mother's care had afforded--Melancthon had provided a barrel of pork and +one of flour, some tea and molasses, that staple commodity in +transatlantic housekeeping. Amongst Sybèl's chattels were a bake-pan and +tea-kettle, and thus they commenced the world. Melancthon has not yet +had time to make a gate at his dwelling, and our only mode of entrance +must be either by climbing the "fence" or unshipping the "_bars_," which +form one pannel, and which are placed so as to be readily removed for +the passage of a carriage, but from us this will require both time and +strength, so at the risk of tearing our dress we will e'en take the +fence. This is a feat which a novice does most clumsily, but which those +who are accustomed to it do most gracefully. + +As we approach the dwelling, the housewife's handy-work is displayed in +a pole hung with many a skein of snow white yarn, glistening in the +sunlight. Four years have passed since Sybèl was a bride---her cheek has +lost the bloom of girlhood, and has already assumed the hollow form of +New Brunswick matrons; her dress is home-spun, of her own manufacture, +carded and spun by her own hands, coloured with dye stuffs gathered in +the woods, woven in a pretty plaid, and neatly made by herself. This is +also the clothing of her husband and children; a bright gingham +handkerchief is folded inside her dress, and her rich dark hair is +smoothly braided. In this particular the natives display a good +taste--young women do not enshroud themselves in a cap the day after +their marriage, as if glad to be done with the trouble of dressing their +hair; and unless from sickness a cap is never worn by any one the least +youthful. The custom commences with the children, for infants never have +their heads covered during the day. At first the little bald heads seem +unsightly to a stranger, but when the eye gets accustomed, they look +much better in their own natural beauty then when decked out in lace and +muslin. The plan of keeping the head cool seems to answer well, for New +Brunswick may rival any country in the world for a display of lovely +infants. Sybèl has the delicacy of appearance which the constant in-door +occupation of the women gives them, differing much from the coarse, but +healthier look of those countries where the females assist in field +labours. The "blue nose" considers it "_agin all nature_" for women to +work out, and none are ever seen so employed, unless it be the families +of emigrants before they are naturalised. A flush of delight crimsons +Sybèl's pale face as she welcomes me in, for simple and retired as her +life is, she yet cherishes in her heart all the fondness for company and +visiting inherent to her sex, and loves to enjoy them whenever +opportunity permits. No excuse would be listened to,--I must stay +dinner--my bonnet is untied, and placed upon the bed--Sybèl has churned +in the early cool of the morning, and she has now been working over the +golden produce of her labours with a wooden ladle in a tray. With this +ladle the butter is taken from the churn; the milk beaten out, and +formed by it into rolls--nothing else is employed, for moulds or prints +are not used as in England. She has just finished, and placed it in her +dairy, a little bark-lined recess adjoining the house--and now, on +hospitable thoughts intent, she has caught up her pail and is gone for +water--in this we are most luxurious in New Brunswick, never keeping any +quantity in the house, but using it bright and sparkling as it gushes +from the spring. While she is gone, we will take a pencilling of her +dwelling. A beautiful specimen of still-life, in the shape of a baby six +months old, reposes in its cradle--its eye-lids' long and silky fringes +are lightly folded in sleep on its smooth round cheek. Another older one +is swinging in the rocking chair, playing with some chips and bark, the +only toys of the log house--this single apartment serves the family for +parlour, for kitchen, and hall--the chamber above being merely used as a +store room, or receptacle for lumber--'tis the state bed-room as well, +and on the large airy-looking couch is displayed a splendid coverlet of +home-spun wool, manufactured in a peculiar style, the possessing of +which is the first ambition of a back-wood matron, and for which she +will manoeuvre as much as a city lady would for some _bijou of a +chiffionier_, or centre table--Sybèl has gained her's by saving each +year a portion of the wool, until she had enough to accomplish this sure +mark of industry, and of _getting along in the world_; for if they are +not getting along or improving in circumstances their farms will not +raise sheep enough to yield the wool, and if they are not industrious +the yarn will not be spun for this much-prized coverlet, which, despite +the local importance attached to it, is a useful, handsome and valuable +article in itself. On a large chest beside the bed are laid piles of +snow white blankets, and around the walls are hung the various woollen +garments which form the wardrobe of the family. Bright-hued Indian +baskets stand on top of each other--a pair of beaded moccasins and a +reticule of porcupine quills are hung up for ornament. The pine table +and willow-seated chairs are all made in the "bush," and even into this +far back settlement has penetrated the prowess of the renowned "Sam +Slick, of Slickville." One of his wooden-made yankee clocks is here--its +case displaying "a most elegant picture" of Cupid, in frilled trowsers +and morocco boots, the American prototype of the little god not being +allowed to appear so scantily clad as he is generally represented. A +long rifle is hung over the mantle-piece, and from the beams are +suspended heads of Indian corn for seed; by them, tied in bunches, or in +paper bags, is a complete "hortus siccus" of herbs and roots for +medicinal as well as culinary purposes. Bone set and lobelia, sage and +savory, sarsaparilla, and that mysterous bark which the natives say acts +with a different effect, according as it is peeled up or down the +tree--cat-nip and calamus root for the baby, with dried marigold leaves, +balm of gilead buds, and a hundred others, for compounding the various +receipts they possess, as remedies for every complaint in the world. +Many of these they have learnt from the Indians, whose "ancient medicine +men" are well versed in the healing powers with which the herbs of the +forest and the field are gifted. On a small shelf is laid the library, +which consists but of the bible, a new almanac, and Humbert's Union +Harmony, the province manual of sacred music, of which they are most +particularly fond; but the air of the country is not favourable to song, +and their melody always seemed to me "harmony not understood," +Meanwhile, for the last half-hour, Sybèl has been busily engaged in +cooking, at which the natives are most expeditious and expert. I know +not how they would be in other countries, but I know that at home they +are first-rate--no other can come up to them in using the materials and +implements they are possessed of. By the accustomed sun-mark on the +floor, which Sybèl prefers to the clock, she sees 'tis now the hungry +hour of noon, and blows the horn for Lank to come to dinner. This horn +is a conk shell, bored at one end, and its sound is heard at a great +distance. At the hours of meal-time it may be heard from house to house, +and, ringing through the echoing woods from distant settlements, telling +us, amid their loneliness, of happy meetings at the household board; but +it comes, too, at times, when its sounds are heralds of trouble and +dismay. I have heard it burst upon the ear at the silent hour of +midnight, and, starting from sleep, seen the sky all crimsoned with the +flames of some far off dwelling, whose inmates thus called for +assistance; but long ere that assistance could be given, the fire would +have done its worst of destruction, perhaps of death. I have also heard +it, when twilight gathered darkly o'er the earth, floating sad and +mournfully since sun-set, from some dwelling in the forest's depths, +whose locality, but for the sounds, would not be known. Some member of +the family has been lost in the woods, and the horn is blown to guide +him homewards through the trackless wilderness. How sweet must those +sounds be to the benighted wanderer, bearing, as they do, the voice of +the heart, and telling of love and affectionate solicitude! But +Melancthon has driven his ox-team to the barn, and now, with the baby on +his lap, which, like all the blue-noses, he loves to nurse, sits down to +table, where we join him. The dinner, as is often the case in the +backwoods in summer, is "a regular pick-up one," that is, composed of +any thing and every thing. People care little for meat in the hot +weather; and, in fact, a new settler generally uses his allowance of +beef and pork during the long winter, so that the provision for summer +depends principally on fish, with which the country is amply supplied, +and the produce of the dairy. The present meal consists of fine trout +from the adjoining stream, potatoes white as snow-balls, and, +pulverising on the dish, some fried ham, and young French beans, which +grow there in the greatest luxuriance, climbing to the top of their +lofty poles till they can grow no higher. I have often thought them +scions of that illustrious bean-stalk owned by Jack in the fairy tale. +We have also a bowl of salad, and home-made vinegar prepared from maple +sap, a large hot cake, made with Indian meal, and milk and dried +blue-berries, an excellent substitute for currants. Buscuits, of snow +white Tenessee flour, raised with cream and sal-a-ratus. This last +article, which is used in place of yeast, or eggs, in compounding light +cakes, can also be made at home from ley of the wood ashes, but it is +mostly bought in town. The quantity of this used is surprising, country +"store-keepers" purchasing barrels to supply their customers. A +raspberry pie, and a splendid dish of strawberries and cream, with tea +(the inseparable beverage of every meal in New Brunswick), forms our +repast; and such would it be in ninety-nine houses out of a hundred of +the class I am describing. Many of the luxuries, and all the necessaries +of life, can be raised at home, by those who are industrious and +spirited enough to take advantage of their resources. Melancthon this +year expects to _bread himself_, as well as grow enough of hay to winter +his stock. Since he commenced farming he purchased what was not raised +on the land by the sale of what was cut off it--that is, by selling ash +timber and cord-wood he procured what he required. This, however, can +only be done where there is water conveyance to market. The +indefatigable Melancthon had four miles to "haul" his marketable wood; +but, when the roads were bad, he was chopping and clearing at the same +time, and when the snow was well beaten down, with his little French +horse and light sled he soon drew it to the place from whence the boats +are loaded in the spring. Dinner being now finished, and after some +conversation, which must of course be of a very local description, +although it is brightened with many a quiet touch of wit, of which the +natives possess a great original fund, and Melancthon, having finished +in the forenoon harrowing in his buck-wheat, has now gone with his axe +to hew at a house-frame which he has in preparation, and Sybèl and I +having settled our affair of warp and woof, it is now time for me to +proceed. She with her large Swiss-looking sun-hat, placed lightly on +her brow, accompanies me to the "bars," and there, having parted with +her, we will now resume our walk. The next lot presents one of those +scenes of desolation and decay which will sometimes appear even in this +land of improvement. What had once been a large clearing is now grown +wild with bushes, the stumps have all sprouted afresh, and the fences +fallen to the ground. The house presents that least-respectable of all +ruins, a deserted _log-building._ There is no solidity of material nor +remains of architectural beauty to make us respect its fate. 'Tis decay +in its plainest and most uninteresting aspect. A few flowers have been +planted near the house, and even now, where the weeds grow dark and +rank, a fair young rose is waving her lovely head. The person who had +gone thus far on in the toils of settling was from England, but the love +of his native land burned all too bright within his heart. In vain he +toiled on those rude fields, and though his own, they seemed not his +home. The spirit voices of the land of his childhood called him back--he +obeyed their spell, and just at the time his labours would have been +repaid, he left, and, with all the money he could procure, paid his +passage to England, where he soon after died in the workhouse of his +parish. Yet even there the thought, perhaps, might soothe him, that +though he filled a pauper's grave, it was in the soil where his fathers +slept. The forsaken lot is still unclaimed, for people prefer the +woodlands to those neglected clearings, from which to procure a crop +infinitely more trouble and expense would be required than in taking it +at once from the forest. Our way is not now so lonely as it was in the +morning. Parties of the male population are frequently passing. One of +the settlers has to-day a "barn-raising frolic," and thither they are +bound. They present a fair specimen of their class in the forest +settlements. The bushwhacker has nothing of the "bog-trotter" in his +appearance, and his step is firm and free, as though he trod on marble +floor. The attire of the younger parties which, although coarse, is +perfectly clean and whole, has nothing rustic in its arrangement. His +kersey trowsers are tightly strapped, and the little low-crowned hat, +with a streaming ribbon, is placed most jauntily on his head. His axe is +carried over one shoulder and his jacket over the other, which in summer +is the common mode of carrying this part of the apparel. Those who have +been _lumbering_ may easily be known among the others, by sporting a +flashy stock or waistcoat, and by being arrayed in "_boughten_" clothes, +procured in town at a most expensive rate in lieu of their _lumber_. +Little respect is, however, paid here to the cloth, (that is, +broadcloth), for it is a sure sign of bad management, and most likely of +debt, for the back settlers to be arrayed in any thing but their own +home-made clothing. The grave and serious demeanour of these people is +as different from the savage scowl of the discontented peasant, +murmuring beneath the burthen of taxation and ill-remunerated toil, as +from the free, light-hearted, and careless laughter, both of which +characterise the rural groups in the fertile fields of England. New +Brunswick is the land of strangers; even the first settlers, the "sons +of the soil," as they claim to be, have hardly yet forgot their exile, +a trace of which character, be he prosperous as he may, still hovers +over the emigrant. Their early home, with its thousand ties of love, +cannot be all forgotten. This feeling descends to their children, losing +its tone of sadness, but throwing a serious shade over the national +character, which, otherwise has nothing gloomy or melancholy in its +composition. There is also a kind of "_looking a-head_" expression of +countenance natural to the country, which is observed even in the +children, who are not the careless frolicsome beings they are in other +countries, but are here more truly miniature men and women, looking, as +the Yankees express it, as if they had all cut their "_eye-teeth_." + +But here we are, for the present, arrived at the bourne of our journey. +High on a lofty hill before us stands a large frame building, the place +of worship as well as the principal school-house of the settlement. This +double purpose it is not, however, destined long to be devoted to, for +the building of a church is already in contemplation, and will, no +doubt, soon be proceeded with. The beaming sun is shining with dazzling +radiance on its white walls, telling, in fervent whispers, that a +shelter from the heat will be desirable; so here we will enter, where +the shadowy trees, and bright stream glancing through the garden +flowers, speak of inhabitants from the olden world. A frame building has +been joined to the original log-house, and the dwelling thus made large +enough to accommodate the household. Mrs. Gordon, the lady of the +mansion, and the friend I have come thus far to see, is one of those +persons the brilliance of whose gem-like character has been increased +by the hard rubs of the world. She has experienced much of Time's +chance and change--experiences and trials which deserve relating at +large, and which I shall hereafter give, as they were told me by +herself. Traces of the beauty she once possessed are yet pourtrayed on +her faded but placid brow, and appear in brighter lines on the fair +faces of her daughters. Her husband is from home, and the boys are gone +to the frolic, so we will have a quiet evening to ourselves. The +arrangement of this dwelling, although similar in feature to Sybèl +Gray's, is yet, as it were, different in expression; for instance, there +is not such a display made of the home-manufactured garments, which it +is the pride of her heart to look upon. These, of course, are here in +existence, but are placed in another receptacle; and the place they hold +along the walls of Sybèl's dwelling is here occupied by a book-case, in +which rests a store of treasured volumes; our conversation, too, is of a +different cast from the original, yet often commonplace, remarks of +Melancthon. 'Tis most likely a discussion of the speculative fancies +contained in those sweet brighteners of our solitude, the books; or in +tracing the same lights and shadows of character described in them, as +were occurring in the passages of life around us; or, perhaps, something +leads us to talk of him whose portrait hangs on the wall, the peasant +bard of Scotland, whose heart-strung harp awakens an answering chord in +every breast. The girls--who although born in this country and now +busied in its occupations, one in guiding the revolving wheel, and the +other in braiding a hat of poplar splints--join us in a manner which +tells how well they have been nurtured in the lore of the "mountain +heathery land," the birth-place of their parents; and the younger sister +Helen's silvery voice breathes a soft strain of Scottish melody. + +Meanwhile a pleasant interruption occurs in the post-horn winding loud +and clear along the settlement. This is an event of rare occurrence in +the back woods, where the want of a regular post communication is much +felt, not so much in matters of worldly importance in business--these +being generally transacted without the medium of letters--as by those +who have loved ones in other lands. Alas! how often has the heart pined +with the sickness of hope deferred, in waiting in vain for those +long-expected lines, from the distant and the dear, which had been duly +sent in all the spirit of affection, but which had been mislaid in their +wanderings by land or sea; or the post-masters not being particularly +anxious to know where the land of Goshen, the Pembroke, or the Canaan +settlements were situated, had returned them to the dead letter office, +and thus they never reached the persons for whom they were intended, and +who lived on upbraiding those who, believing them to be no longer +dwellers of the earth, cherished their memory with fondest love. Taking +all these things into consideration, a meeting had been called in our +settlement to ascertain if by subscription a sufficient sum could be +raised to pay a weekly courier to assert our rights at the nearest +post-office. This was entered into with spirit, all feeling sensible of +the benefits which it would bring; they who could afford it giving +freely of their abundance, and those who could not pay their +subscription all in money, giving half a dollar cash, and a bushel or +half a bushel of buck wheat or potatoes to the cause; and thus the sum +necessary was soon raised--the courier himself subscribing a dollar +towards his own salary. The thing had gone on very well--communication +with the world seemed to have commenced all at once. Nearly every family +took a different newspaper, and these being exchanged with each other, +afforded plenty of food for the mind, and prevented it brooding too +deeply over the realities of life. + +The newspapers in this country, especially those of the United States, +are not merely dull records of parliamentary doings, of bill and debate, +the rising of corn or falling of wheat, but contain besides reviews and +whole copies of the newest and best works of the day, both in science +and lighter literature. We dwellers of the forest had no guineas to give +for new books, and if we had, unless we freighted ships home on purpose, +we could not have procured them. But this was not felt, while for our +few yearly dollars the Albion's pearly paper and clear black type +brought for society around our hearths the laughter-loving "Lorrequer," +the pathos of the portrait painter, or the soul-winning Christopher +North, whose every word seems written in letters of gold, incrusted with +precious jewels. In the "New World" Froissart gave his chronicles of the +olden time, and the mammoth sheets of "Era" and "The Notion" brought us +the peerless pages of "Zanoni," or led us away with "Dickens" and +"Little Nell," by the green glades and ancient churches of England. +Little did we think while we read with delight of this author's +princely welcome to the American continent, what would be the result of +his visit, he came and passed like the wild Simoom. Soon after his +return to England an edict came, forbidding in the British provinces of +America publications containing reprints of English works. Of the deeper +matters connected with the copyright question I know not, but this I do +know, that our long winter nights seemed doubly long and drear, with +nothing to read but dark details of horrid murder, or deadly doings of +Rebeccaite and Chartist. As yet, however, this time was not come, and +each passing week saw us now enlightened with the rays of some new +bright gem of genius. + +The postman blew his horn as he passed each dwelling for whose inmates +he had letters or papers; and for those whose address lay beyond his +route, places of depository were appointed in the settlement. Mrs. +Gordon's was one of these, from whence they were duly despatched by the +first chance to their destinations on the Nashwaak, Waterloo, or Windsor +clearings. Although our Mercury would duly have signalised his approach +as he passed our own dwelling, I possessed myself of my treasure +here--my share of the priceless wealth of that undying intellect which +is allowed to pour its brilliant flood, freely and untramelled, to the +lowliest homes of the American world. Having glanced along the lines and +seen that our first favourites had visited us this week, our tea seemed +to bear with it an added fragrance; and this, although the walls around +us were of logs, we had in fairy cups of ancient porcelain from the +distant land of Scotland. And now the sun's broad disc having vanished +behind the lofty pines, and the young moon rising in the blue heavens, +tell us our short twilight will soon be gone, and that if we would reach +home before the stars look out upon our path, 'tis time we were on our +way. + +The cow bells are ringing loud and clear as the herd winds slowly +homeward, looking most luxuriantly comfortable, and bearing with them +the spicy scent of the cedar-woods in which they have been wandering, +and which they seem to leave so unwillingly. Philoprogenitiveness, or a +deep feeling of motherly affection, being the only thing that does +voluntarily induce them to come home. To encourage this desirable +feeling the leader of the herd, the lady of the bell, is allowed to +suckle her calf every evening. For this happy task she leaves all the +delights of her pasture, plodding regularly homeward at the hour of +sunset, the rest all meekly following in her train. + +The evening is dry and clear, with no trace of rain in the atmosphere, +or we would be surrounded with clouds of those _awful critturs_, the +musquitoes, which the cattle bring home. These are often a dreadful +annoyance, nothing but a thick cloud of smoke dispelling them, and that +only for a time. At night they are particularly a nuisance, buzzing and +stinging unceasingly through the silent hours, forbidding all thought of +sleep till the dawn shows them clinging to the walls and windows, +wearied and bloated with their night's amusement. Those who are +sufficiently acclimated suffer comparatively little--'tis the rich blood +of the stranger that the musquito loves, and emigrants, on the first +season, especially in low marshy situations, suffer extremely from their +attacks. + +Mary Gordon having now gone with her pails to meet her milky charge, +while her mother arranges the dairy within, Helen comes to set me on my +way. Again we meet the frolickers returning rather earlier than is usual +on such occasions; but there was sickness at the dwelling where they had +been, which caused them to disperse soon after they had accomplished the +"raising." Kindly greetings passed between us; for here, in this little +world of ours, we have hardly room for the petty distinctions and +pettier strifes of larger communities. We are all well acquainted with +each other, and know each other's business and concerns as well as our +own. There is no concealment of affairs. This, however, saves a vast +deal of trouble--people are much easier where there is no false +appearance to be kept up; and in New Brunswick there is less of "behind +the scenes" than in most places. Many a bright eye glances under Helen's +shadowy hat: and, see, one gallant axe-man lingers behind the others--he +pauses now by the old birch tree--I know he is her lover, and in charity +to their young hearts I must allow her to turn, while we proceed onward. + +The fire-flies now gleam through the air like living diamonds, and the +evening star has opened her golden eye in the rich deep azure of the +sky. Our home stands before us, with its white walls thrown in strong +relief by the dark woods behind it: and here, on this adjoining lot, +lives our neighbour who is ill--he who to-day has had the "barn +raising." It would be but friendly to call and enquire for him. The +house is one of the best description of log buildings. The ground floor +contains two large apartments and a spacious porch, which extends along +the front, has the dairy in one end and a workshop in the other, that +most useful adjunct to a New Brunswick dwelling, where the settlers are +often their own blacksmiths and carpenters, as well as splint pounders +and shingle weavers. The walls are raised high enough to make the +chamber sufficiently lofty, and the roof is neatly shingled. As we +enter, an air of that undefinable English ideality--comfort--seems +diffused, as it were, in the atmosphere of the place. There is a look of +retirement about the beds, which stand in dim recesses of the inner +apartment, with their old but well-cared-for chintz hangings, differing +from the free uncurtained openness of the blue nose settler's couch; a +publicity of sleeping arrangements being common all over America, and +much disliked by persons from the old countries, a bed being a prominent +piece of furniture in the sitting and keeping rooms of even those +aristocratic personages, the first settlers. The large solid-looking +dresser, which extends nearly along one side of the house, differs too +from the light shelf of the blue nose, which rests no more crockery than +is absolutely necessary. Here there is a wide array of dishes, large and +small--old China tea-cups, wisely kept for show,--little funny mugs, +curious pitchers, mysterious covered dishes, unearthly salad bowls, and +a host of superannuated tea-pots. Above them is ranged a bright copper +kettle, a large silvery pewter basin, and glittering brazen +candlesticks, all brought from their English home, and borne through +toil and danger, like sacred relics, from the shrine of the household +gods. The light of the fire is reflected on the polished surface of a +venerable oaken bureau, whose unwieldy form has also come o'er the deep +sea, being borne along the creeks and rivers of New Brunswick, and +dragged through forest paths to its present resting place. In the course +of its wanderings by earth and ocean it has become minus a foot, the +loss of which is supplied by an unsmoothed block of pine, the two +forming not an inapt illustration of their different countries. The +polished oaken symbol of England receiving assistance in its hour of +need from the rude but hardy pine emblem of New Brunswick. The room is +cool and quiet; the young people being outside with a few who have +lingered after the frolic. By the open window, around which a hop vine +is enwreathed, in memory of the rose-bound casements of England, and +through which comes a faint perfume from the balm of gilead trees, sits +the invalid, seemingly refreshed with the pleasant things around him. He +has been suffering from rheumatic fever caught in the changeful days of +the early spring, when the moist air penetrates through nerve and bone, +and when persons having the least tendency to rheumatism, or pulmonary +complaints, cannot use too much caution. At no other season is New +Brunswick unhealthy; for the winter, although cold, is dry and bracing. +The hot months are not so much so as to be injurious, and the bland +breezes of the fall and Indian summer are the most delightful that can +be imagined. + +Stephen Morris had come from England, like the generality of New +Brunswick settlers, but lightly burthened with worldly gear--but gifted +with the unpurchasable treasures of a strong arm and willing spirit, +that is, a spirit resolved to do its best, and not be overcome with the +difficulties to be encountered in the struggle of subduing the mighty +wilderness. While he felled the forest, his wife, accustomed in her own +country to assist in all field labours, toiled with him in piling and +fencing as well as in planting and reaping. Even their young children +learned to know that every twig they lifted off the ground left space +for a blade of grass or grain; beginning with this, their assistance +soon became valuable, and the labour of their hands in the field soon +lightened the burthen of feeding their lips. Slowly and surely had +Stephen gone onward, keeping to his farm and minding nothing else, +unlike many of the emigrants, who, while professing to be farmers, yet +engage in other pursuits, particularly lumbering, which, although the +mainspring of the province and source of splendid wealth to many of the +inhabitants, has yet been the bane of others. Allured by the visions of +speedy riches it promises, they have neglected their farms, and engaged +in its glittering speculations with the most ardent hopes, which have +far oftener been blighted than realised. A sudden change in trade, or an +unexpected storm in the spring, having bereft them of all, and left them +overwhelmed in debt, with neglected and ruined lands, with broken +constitutions, (for the lumberer's life is most trying to the health,) +and often too with broken hearts, and minds all unfitted for the task of +renovating their fortune. Their life afterwards is a bitter struggle to +get above water; that tyrant monster, their heavy debt, still chaining +them downwards, devouring with insatiate greed their whole means, for +interest or bond, until it be discharged; a hard matter for them to +accomplish--so hard that few do it, and the ruined lumberer sinks, to the +grave with its burthen yet upon him. Stephen had kept aloof from this, +and now surveyed, + + "----With pride beyond a monarch's spoil, + His honest arm's own subjugated toil." + +A neighbour of his had come out from England at the same time he had +done and commenced farming an adjoining lot, but he soon wearied of the +slow returns of his land and commenced lumbering. For a time he went on +dashingly, the merchants in town supplying him freely with provisions +and everything necessary to carry on his timber-making--whilst Stephen +worked hard and lived poor, he enjoyed long intervals of ease and fared +luxuriantly. But a change came: one spring the water was too low to get +his timber down, the next the freshet burst at once and swept away the +labour of two seasons, and ere he got another raft to market, the price +had fallen so low that it was nearly valueless. He returned dispirited +to his home and tried to conceal himself from his creditors, the +merchants whom the sale of his timber was to have repaid for the +supplies they had advanced; but his neglected fields showed now but a +crop of bushes and wild laurel, or an ill-piled clearing, with a scanty +crop of buck-wheat; while Stephen Morris looked from his window on fair +broad fields from whence the stumps had all disappeared, where the long +grass waved rich with clover-flowers between, and many a tract that +promised to shine with autumn wreaths of golden grain; leaflets and +buds were close and thick on the orchard he had planted, and where erst +the wild-bush stood now bloomed the lovely rose. On a green hill before +him stood the lofty frame of the building this evening raised, with all +its white tracery of beam and rafter, a new but welcome feature in the +landscape. A frame barn is the first ambition of the settler's heart; +without one much loss and inconvenience is felt. Hay and grain are not +stacked out as in other countries, but are all placed within the shelter +of the barn; these containing, as they often do, the whole hay crop, +besides the grain and accommodation for the cattle, must, of course, be +of large dimensions, and are consequently expensive. With this Stephen +had proceeded surely and cautiously as was his wont. In the winter he +had hauled logs off his own land to the saw-mill to be made into boards. +He cut down with much trouble some of the ancient pines which long stood +in the centre of his best field, and from their giant trunks cut +well-seasoned blocks, with which he made shingles in the stormy days of +winter. Thus by degrees he provided all the materials for enclosing and +roofing, and was not obliged, as many are, to let the frame, (which is +the easiest part provided, and which they often raise without seeming +even to think how they are to be enclosed,) stand for years, like a huge +grey skeleton, with timbers all warped and blackened by the weather. +Steadily as Stephen had gone on, yet as the completion of his object +became nearer he grew impatient of its accomplishment, and determined to +have his barn ready for the reception of his hay harvest; and for this +purpose he worked on, hewing at the frame in the spring, reckless of the +penetrating rain, the chill wind, or the damp earth beneath, and thus, +by neglect of the natural laws, he was thrown upon the couch of +sickness, where he lay long. This evening, however, he was better, and +sat gazing with pleased aspect on the scene, and then I saw his eyes +turn from the fair green hill and its new erection to where, in the +hollow of a low and marshy spot of land, stood the moss-grown logs and +sunken walls of the first shelter he had raised for his cattle--his old +log barn, which stood on the worst land of the farm, but when it was +raised the woods around were dark and drear, and he knew not the good +soil from the bad; yet now he thought how, in this unseemly place, he +had stored his crop and toiled for years with unfailing health, where +his arm retained its nerve, unstrung neither by summer's heat nor +winter's cold, when the voice of his son, a tall stripling, who had +managed affairs during his illness, recalled him to the present, which +certainly to him I thought might wear no unfavourable aspect. He had +literally caused the wilderness to blossom as the rose, and saw rising +around him not a degenerate but an improving race, gifted far beyond +himself with bright mental endowments, the spontaneous growth of the +land they lived in, and which never flourish more fairly than when +engrafted on the old English stem; that is, the children of emigrants, +or the Anglo-bluenoses, have the chance of uniting the high-aspiring +impulses of young America to the more solid principles of the olden +world, thus forming a decided improvement in the native race of both +countries. But Stephen has too much of human nature in him not to +prefer the past, and I saw that the sunbeams of memory rested brightly +on the old log barn, obscuring the privations and years of bitter toil +and anxiety connected with it, and dimming his eyes to ought else, +however better; so that I left him to his meditations, and after a step +of sixty rods, the breadth of the lot, I am once more at home, where, as +it is now dark, we will close the door and shut out the world, to this +old country prejudice has made us attach a small wooden button inside, +the only fastening, except the latch, I believe, in the settlement. +Bolts and bars being all unused, the business of locksmith is quite at a +discount in the back woods, where all idea of a midnight robbery is +unknown; and yet, if rumour was true, there were persons not far from us +to whom the trade of stealing would not be new. One there was of whom it +was said, that for this reason alone was New Brunswick graced with his +presence. He had in his own country been taken in a daring act of +robbery, and conveyed in the dark of night to be lodged in gaol. The +officers were kind-hearted, and, having secured his hands, allowed his +wife to accompany him, themselves walking a short distance apart. At +first the lady kept up a most animated conversation, apparently +upbraiding the culprit for his conduct. He answered her, but by degrees +he seemed so overcome by her remarks that he spoke no more, and she had +all the discourse to herself. Having arrived at their destination, the +officers approached their prisoner, but he was gone, the wife alone +remained. The darkness of the night bad favoured his escape while she +feigned to be addressing him, and, having thus defeated the law, joined +her spouse, and made the best of their way to America, where the +workings of the law of kindness were exemplified in his case. His +character being there generally unknown, he was treated and trusted as +an honest man, and he broke not his faith. The better feelings were +called into action; conscientiousness, though long subdued, arose and +breathed through his spirit the golden rule of right. + +The days in America are never so short in winter as they are in Europe, +nor are they so long in summer, and there is always an hour or two of +the cool night to be enjoyed ere the hour of rest comes. Our evening +lamp is already lighted, and our circle increased by the presence of the +school-mistress. + +Although in this country the local government has done much towards the +advancement of schools, yet much improvement requires to be made--not in +their simple internal arrangements, for which there is no regular +system, but in the more important article of remuneration. The +government allows twenty pounds a year to each school; the proprietors, +or those persons who send their children to the school, agreeing to pay +the teacher a like sum at least (though in some of the older settled +parts of the country from forty to fifty pounds is paid by them); as +part payment of this sum providing him with board, &c., &c., and this +alone is the evil part of the scheme; this boarding in turn with the +proprietors, who keep him a week or a month in proportion to the number +of the pupils they send, and to make up their share of the year, for +which term he is hired, as his engagement is termed--an expression how +derogatory to the dignity of many a learned dominie? From this cause the +teacher has no home, no depository for his books, which are lost in +wandering from place to place; and if he had them, no chance for study: +for the log-house filled with children and wheels is no fit abode for a +student. This boarding system operates badly in many ways. The nature of +the blue nose is still leavened with that dislike of coercive measures +inherited from their former countrymen, the Yankees. It extends to their +children, and each little black-eyed urchin, on his wooden bench and +dog-eared dilworth in hand, must be treated by his teacher as a free +enlightened citizen. But even without this, where is there in any +country a schoolmaster daring enough to use a ratan, or birch rod, to +that unruly darling from whose mother he knows his evening reception +will be sour looks, and tea tinged with sky-blue, but would not rather +let the boy make fox-and-geese instead of, ciphering, say his lesson +when he pleased, and have cream and short-cake for his portion. Another +disagreeable thing is, that fond and anxious as they are for +"_larning_," they have not yet enough of it to appreciate the value of +education. The schoolmaster is not yet regarded as the mightiest moral +agent of the earth; the true vicegerent of the spirit from above, by +which alone the soul is truly taught to plume her wings and shape her +course for Heaven. And in this country, where operative power is certain +wealth, he who can neither wield axe or scythe may be looked on with a +slight shade of contempt: but this only arises from constant +association with the people; for were the schoolmaster more his own +master, and less under their surveillance by having a dwelling of his +own, his situation otherwise would be comfortable and lucrative. + +The state of school affairs begins to attract much notice from the +legislature, and no doubt the present system of school government will +soon be improved. A board of education is appointed in each county, +whose office it is to examine candidates for the office of parish school +teacher, and report to the local governor as to their competency, +previous to his conferring the required license. Trustees are also +appointed in the several parishes, who manage the other business +connected with them, such as regulating their number, placing masters +where they are most wanted, and receiving and apportioning the sum +appropriated to their support, or encouragement, by the government. Mr. +B. held this situation, and frequent were the visits of the lords of the +birch to our domicile, either asking redress for fancied wrongs, or to +discuss disputed points of school discipline. + +The female teachers are situated much the same, save that many of them, +preferring a quiet home to gain, pay for their board out of their cash +salary, and give up that which they could otherwise claim from the +people. This, however, is by no means general, and the present mistress +has come to stay her term with us, although having no occasion for the +school, yet wishing to hasten the march of intellect through the back +woods, we paid towards it, and boarded the teacher, as if we had. Grace +Marley, who held this situation now, was a sweet wild-flower from the +Emerald Isle, with spirits bright and changeful as the dewy skies of +her own loved Erin. Her graceful but fully rounded figure shows none of +those anatomical corners described by Captain Hamilton in the appearance +of the native American ladies. Her dark eye speaks with wondrous truth +the promptings of her heart, and her brown hair lies like folds of satin +on her cheek, from which the air of America has not yet drank all the +rose light. From her fairy ear of waxen white hangs a golden pendant, +the treasured gift of one far distant. Before her, on the table, lies +_Chambers' Journal_, which always found its way a welcome visitant to +our settlement, soon after the spring fleet had borne it over the +Atlantic. She has been reading one of Mrs. Hall's stories, which, good +as they are, are yet little admired by the Irish in America. The darker +hues which she pourtrays in the picture of their native land have become +to them all softened in the distance; and by them is their country +cherished there, as being indeed that beautiful ideal "first flower of +the earth, and first gem of the sea." A slight indignant flush, raised +by what she had been reading, was on her brow as I entered; but this +gave place to the heart-crushing look of disappointment I had often seen +her wear, as I replied in the negative to her question, if there was a +letter for her. From where, or whom she expected this letter I knew not, +yet as still week after week passed away and brought her none, the same +shade had passed over her face. + +And now, reader, as the night wanes apace, and you no doubt are wearied +with this day's journey through our settlement, I shall wish to you + + "A fair good night, with easy dreams and slumbers light," + +while I, who like most authors am not at all inclined to sleep over my +own writing, will sketch what I know of the history of Grace Marley, +whose memory forms a sweet episode in my transatlantic experiences. + +Grace had been left an orphan and unprovided for in her own country, +when a relation, who had been prosperous here, wrote for her to come +out. She did come, and at first seemed happy, but 'twas soon evident her +heart was not here, and she sighed to return to her native land, where +the streams were brighter, and the grass grew greener than elsewhere. +Her friends, vexed at her obstinacy in determining so firmly to return, +would give her no assistance for this purpose, fancying that she felt +but that nostalgic sickness felt by all on their first arrival in +America, and that like others she would become reconciled in time. But +she was firm in her resolve, and to procure funds wherewithal to return +she commenced teaching a school, for which her education had well +qualified her. It was not likely that such a girl as Grace would, in +this land of marrying and giving in marriage, be without fonder +solicitations to induce her to remain, and a tall blue nose, rejoicing +in the appellation of Leonidas van Wort, and lord of six hundred noble +acres, was heard to declare one fall, that she, for an Irish girl, was +"raal downright good-looking," and guessed he knew which way "his tracks +would lay when snow came." Snow did come, and Leonidas, arrayed in his +best "go-to-meeting style," geared up his sleigh, and what with bear +skins and bells, fancying himself and appurtenances enough to charm the +heart of any maid or matron in the back woods, set off to spark Grace +Marley. "Sparking," the term used in New Brunswick for courtship, now +that the old fashion of "bundling" is gone out, occupies much of the +attention (as, indeed, where does it not?) of young folks. They, for +this purpose, take Moore's plan of lengthening their days, by "stealing +a few hours from the night," and generally breathe out their tender +vows, not beneath the "milk-white thorn," but by the soft dim light of +the birch-wood fire; the older members of the family retiring and +leaving the lovers to their own sweet society. + +Although it has been sometimes observed that mothers who, in their own +young days, have been versed in this custom, insist most pertinaciously +in sitting out the wooer, in spite of insinuations as to the pleasure +their absence would occasion, still keep their easy chair, with +unwearied eyes and fingers busied in their everlasting knitting. Grace's +beau was most hospitably received by her aunt and uncle, who considering +him quite an "eligible," wished to further him all in their power, soon +left the pair to themselves, telling Grace that it would be the height +of rudeness not to follow the custom of the country. She politely waited +for Leonidas to commence the conversation, but he, unused to her +proceeding, could say nothing, not even ask her if she liked maple +sugar; and so, being unused to deep study, while thinking how to begin, +fell asleep, a consummation Grace was most delighted to witness. By the +fire stood the small American churn, which, as is often the case in cold +weather, had been placed there to be in readiness for the morrow; this +Grace, with something of the quiet humour which made Jeanie Deans treat +Dumbie-dykes to fried peats in place of collops, she lifted and placed +it by the sleeper's side, throwing over it a white cloth, which fell +like folds of drapery, and softly retired to rest herself. Her uncle, on +coming into the room at the dawn of morning, beheld the great Leonidas +still sleeping, and his arm most lovingly encircling the churn dash, +which no doubt in his dreams he mistook for the taper waist of Grace, +when the loud laugh of the old man and his "helps," who had now risen, +roused him. He got up and looked round him, but, with the Spartan +firmness of his name-sake, said nothing, but went right off and married +his cousin Prudence Prague, who could do all the sparking talk herself. + +Many another lover since then had Grace--many a mathematical +schoolmaster, to whom Euclid was no longer a mystery, became, for her +sake, puzzled in the problem of love, and earnestly besought her to +solve the question he gave, with the simple statement of yes. But still +her heart was adamant, and still she was unwon, and sighed more deeply +for her island home. She disliked the country, and its customs more. Her +religion was Roman catholic, and she cherished all the tenets of her +faith with the deepest devotion. I remember calling on her one Sunday +morning and finding her alone in her solitary dwelling; her relations, +themselves catholics, having gone, and half the settlement with them, to +meeting, but she preferred her solitude rather than join in their +unconsecrated worship. This want of their own peculiar means of grace is +much felt by religiously inclined persons in the forest settlements, and +this made her wish more earnestly for the closing of the year to come, +when, with the produce of her school labours, she would be enabled to +leave. + +Such was, up to this period, what I knew of Grace's character and +history. I was extremely fond of her society and conversation, as she, +coming from that land of which 'tis said, her every word, her wildest +thought, is poetry, had, in her imaginings, a twilight tinge of blue, +which made her remarks truly delightful. She had become a little more +softened in her prejudice, especially as she expected soon to leave the +country, so that one day during her stay with us, in this same bright +summer weather, I induced her to accompany me to a great baptist +meeting, to be held in a river settlement some four or five miles off. +On reaching the creek, the rest of our party, who had acquired the true +American antipathy to pedestrianism, proceeded in canoes and punts to +the place, but we preferred a walk to the dazzling glare of the sunshine +on the water, so took not the highway, but a path through the forest, +called the blazed track, from a chip or slice being made on the trees to +indicate its line, and which you must keep sight of, or else go astray +in the leafy labyrinth. + +When I first trod the woods of New Brunswick, I fancied wild animals +would meet me at each step--every black log was transformed into some +shaggy monster--visions of bears and lucifee's were ever before me--but +these are now but rarely seen near the settlements, although bruin will +sometimes make a descent on the sheepfolds; yet they have generally +retreated before the axe, along with the more valuable moose deer and +caraboo, with which the country used to abound. The ugliest animal I +ever saw was a huge porcupine, which came close to the door and carried +off, one by one, a whole flock of young turkies; and the boldest, the +beautiful foxes, which are also extremely destructive to the poultry; so +that in walking the woods one need not be afraid, even if a bear's +foot-print be indented in the soil, as perhaps he is then far enough +off, and besides 'tis only in the hungry spring, after his winter's +sleep, he is carniverous, preferring in summer the roots, nuts, and +berries with which the forest supplies him. The living things one sees +are quite harmless--the bright eyed racoon looking down upon us through +the branches, or the squirrels hopping from spray to spray, a mink or an +otter splashing through the pond of a deserted beaver dam, from which +the ancient possessors have also retired, and a hare or sable gliding in +the distance, are all the animals one usually sees, with flocks of +partridges, so tame that they stir not from you, and there being no game +laws, these free denizens of the wild are the property of all who choose +to claim them. + +The forests, especially in the hard wood districts, are beautiful in +their fresh unbroken solitude--not the solitude of desolation, but the +young wild loveliness of the untamed earth. The trees stand close and +thick, with straight pillar-like stems, unbroken by leaf or bough, which +all expand to the summit, as if for breathing space. There is little +brush wood, but myriads of plants and creepers, springing with the +summer's breath. The beautiful dog-wood's sweeping sprays and broad +leaves, the maiden-hairs glossy wreathes and pearly buds, and the soft +emerald moss, clothing the old fallen trees with its velvet tapestry, +and hiding their decay with its cool rich beauty, while the sun light +falls in golden tracery down the birch trees silver trunk, and the +sparkling water flashes in the rays, or sings on its sweet melody unseen +amid the luxuriant vegetation that conceals it. + +Through this sweet path we held on our way, talking of every bard who +has said or sung the green wood's glories, whose fancied beauties were +here all realized. As we neared the clearings, we met frequent groups of +blue nose children gathering, with botanical skill, herbs for dyeing, or +carrying sheets of birch bark, which, to be fit for its many uses, must +be peeled from the trees in the full moon of June. On these children, +beautiful as young Greeks, with lustrous eyes and faultless features, +Grace said she could hardly yet look without an instinctive feeling of +awe and pity, cherishing as she did the partiality of her creed and +nation for infant baptism. To her there was something awful, in sight of +those unhallowed creatures, whose brows bore not the first symbol of +christianity. We having passed through the woods, were soon in a large +assemblage of native and adopted colonists. + +The greater number of the native population, I think, are baptists, and +their ministers are either raised among themselves, or come from the +United States; or Nova Scotia. Once in every year a general association +is convened of the members of the society throughout the province, the +attendance on which gives ample proof of the greatness of their numbers, +as well as their fervency of feeling. This association is held in a +different part of the province each season--and generally lasts a week. +Reports are here made of the progress of their religion, the state of +funds, and of all other matters connected with the society. There is, +generally, at these conventions a revival of religious feeling, and +during the last days numerous converts are made and received by baptism +into the church. This meeting is looked forward too by the colonists +with many mingled feelings. By the grave and good it is hailed as an +event of sacred importance, and by the gay and thoughtless as a season +of sight-seeing and dress-displaying. Those in whose neighbourhood it +was last year are glad it is not be so this time; and those near the +place it is to be held, are calculating the sheep and poultry, the +molasses and flour it will take to supply the numerous guests they +expect on the occasion--open tables being kept at taverns, and private +houses are so no longer, but hospitably receive all who come. No harvest +is reaped by exorbitant charges for lodging, and all that is expected in +return, is the same clever treatment when their turn comes. This +convocation, occurring in the leisure spell between the end of planting +and the commencement of haying, is consequently no hindrance to the +agricultural part of the community; and old and young "off they come" +from Miramichi, from Acadia, and the Oromocto, in shay and waggon, +steam-boat and catamaran, on horseback or on foot, as best they can. +This day, one towards the conclusion, the large frame building was +crowded to excess, and outside were gathered groups, as may be seen in +some countries around the catholic chapels. Within, the long tiers of +benches display as fair an array of fashion and flowers as would be +seen in any similar congregation in any country. The days of going to +meeting in home-spun and raw hide moccasins are vanishing fast all +through the province. These are the solid constituents of every-day +apparel, but for holidays, even the bush maiden from the far-off +settlements of the gulph shore has a lace veil and silken shawl, and +these she arranges with infinitely more taste and grace than many a +damsel whose eye has never lost sight of the clearings. By far the +greater portion of the assembly have the dark eyes and intellectual +expression of face which declares them of American origin; and, +sprinkled among them, are the features which tell of England's born. The +son of Scotland, too, is here, although unwont to grace such gatherings +with his presence; yet this is an event of rare importance, and from its +occurrence in his immediate neighbourhood, he has come, we dare not say +to scoff, and yet about his expressive mouth their lingers a slight curl +of something like it. And here, too, the Hibernian forgets his +prejudices in the delight of being in a crowd. I do not class my friend +Grace along with this common herd, but even she became as deeply +interested as others in the discussion which was now going forward--this +was the time of transacting business, and the present subject one which +had occupied much attention. It was the appropriation of certain +funds--whether they should be applied towards increasing their seminary, +so as to fit it for the proper education of ministers for their church, +or whether they should not be applied to some other purpose, and their +priesthood be still allowed to spring uncultured from the mass. The +different opinions expressed regarding this, finely developed the +progress of mind throughout the land. Some white-headed fathers of the +sect, old refugees, who had left the bounds of civilization before they +had received any education, yet who had been gifted in the primitive +days of the colony to lead souls from sin, sternly declaimed against the +education system, declaring that grace, and grace alone, was what formed +the teacher. All else was of the earth earthy, and had nought to do with +heavenly things. One said that when he commenced preaching he could not +read the bible--he could do little more now, and yet throughout the +country many a soul owned its sickness to have been healed through him. +Another then rose and answered him--a native of the province, and of his +own persuasion, but who had drank from the springing fountains of +science and of holiness--the bright gushing of whose clear streams +sparkled through his discourse. I have since forgotten his language, but +I know that at the time nothing I had ever heard or read entranced me as +did it, glowing as it was with the new world's fervency of thought, and +the old world's wealth of learning. He pleaded, as such should, for +extended education, and his mighty words had power, and won the day. The +old men, stern in their prejudices as their zeal, were conquered, and +the baptists have now well conducted establishments of learning +throughout the province. + +This discussion occupied the morning, and, at noon, we were invited home +to dinner by a person who sat next us at the meeting, but whom we had +never before seen. Some twelve or fourteen others formed our party, +rather a small one considering, but we were the second relay, another +party having already dined and proceeded to the meeting house, where +religious worship had commenced as soon as we left. Our meal was not so +varied in its details of cookery as the wealthier blue noses love to +treat their guests with. The number to be supplied, and the quantity of +provisions required, prevented this. It consisted of large joints of +veal and mutton, baked and boiled, with a stately pot-pie, on its +ponderous platter,--the standing dish in all these parts. Soon after +dinner we were given to understand the dipping was about to commence; +and walked along the shore to the place appointed for the purpose, in +the bright blue waters of the bay, which is here formed by an inlet of +the chief river of the province, the silver-rolling St. John. The scene +around us was wondrously rich and lovely--the bright green intervale +meadows with their lofty trees, the cloudless sky, the flashing waters, +and the balmy breeze, which bore the breath of the far-off spruce and +cedars. From the assembled throng, who had now left the meeting-house, +arose the hymns which form the principal part of their worship. + +I have said the New Brunswickers are not, as yet, greatly favoured with +the gift of music; this may, in a great measure, arise from deficient +cultivation of the science, but at this time there was something strange +and pleasant in the quick chaunting strain they raised, so different +from the solemn sounds of sacred melody usual in other countries; and +even Grace, accustomed to the organ's pealing grandeur and lofty +anthems of her own church, was pleased with it. Still singing the +minister entered the water, the converts one by one joining him, and +singly became encircled in the shining waves: many of them were aged and +bowed with time, and now took up the cross in their declining days; and +others of the young and fair, who sought their creator in youth. It was +wondrous now to think of this once lonely stream of the western world, +the Indian's own Ounagandy. A few years since no voice had broke on its +solitude save the red man's war-whoop, or his shrieking death song--no +form been shadowed on its depths but the wild bird's wing, or the savage +speeding on the blood chase. Now its living pictures told the holy +records of the blessed east, and its waters typed the healing stream of +Jordan. After some more singing and prayers offered for the +newly-baptized, the ceremony was finished. 'Tis strange that on these +dipping occasions no cold is caught by the converts. I suppose the +excitement of the mind sustains the body; but persons are often baptised +in winter, in an opening made through the ice for the purpose, and walk +with their garments frozen around them without inconvenience, seeming to +prove the efficacy of hydropathy, by declaring how happy and comfortable +they feel. We, at the conclusion of the prayers, left the place, and +proceeded homewards in a canoe; this is a mode of locomotion much liked +by the river settlers, but to a stranger anything but agreeable. They +glide along the waters swift and smooth, but a slight cause upsets them, +and as perhaps you are not exactly certain about being born to be +hanged, you must sit perfectly still--you are warned to do this, but if +you are the least nervous, you will hardly dare to breathe, much less +move, and this, in a journey of any length, is not so pleasant. This +feeling, however, custom soon dispels; and when one sees little fairy +girls paddling themselves and a cargo of brothers and sisters to school, +or women with babies taking their wool to the carding mill, they feel +ashamed, and learn to keep the true balance. + +Our light skiff, or bark rather, as it might be truely styled, being a +veritable Indian canoe, made of birch bark most cunningly put together, +these being so light as to float in shallow water, and to be easily +removed, are for this reason preferred by the Indians to more solid +materials, who carry them on their backs from stream to stream during +their peregrinations through the country, soon bore us over the diamond +water, whose mirrored surface we scarcely stirred, to the landing place, +whose marshy precincts were now all gemmed with the golden and purple +flowers of the sweet flag or calamus; and as the sun was yet high in the +glorious blue, we resolved to spend the remainder of the day with a +family living near; feeling, in this land of New Brunswick, no qualms +about a sudden visitation, knowing that a people so proverbial for being +"wide awake" can never be taken unawares. Their dwelling, a large frame +building painted most gaily in the bright warm hues the old Dutch +fancies of the states love to cherish, stands in the centre of rich +parks of intervale. The porch is here, as well as at the more humble +log-house, answering as it does in summer for a cool verandah, and in +winter as a shelter from the snows. This, the taste of the country +artist has erected on pillars, not recognisable as belonging to any +known order of architecture, yet here esteemed as tasty and beautiful, +and, as is his custom in the afternoon, is seated the owner of the +dwelling, Silas Mavin, one of that fast declining remnant--the refugees. +He had come from the United States at the revolution, and possessed +himself of this fair heritage in the days when squatting was in vogue; +those palmy days which the older inhabitants love to recall, when +government had not to be petitioned, as it has now, for leave to +purchase land, and when, in place of the now many-worded grant, with its +broad seals and official signatures, people made out their own right of +possession by raising their log-house, and placing the sign manual of +their axe in whatever trees they chose; when moose and caraboo were +plentiful as sheep and oxen are now; when salmon filled each stream, and +the wood-sheltered clearings ripened the Indian corn without failing. + +In this land, young as it is, there are those who mourn for the times +gone by, and consider the increasing settlement of the country as their +worst evil; wilfully closing their eyes against improvement, they see +not the wide fields, waving fair with grass and wheat, but think it was +better when the dense forest shut out the breeze and reflected the +sunbeams down with greater strength on the corn, so dearly loved by the +American. They hear not the sound of the busy mill when they mourn for +the fish-deserted brooks, and forget that when moose meat was more +plentiful than now bread stuffs were ground in the wearying hand-mill. +One of this respectable class of grumblers was our present +acquaintance, and here he sat in his porch, with aspect grave as the +stoics--his tall form, although in ruins now, was stately in decay as +the old forest's pines. His head was such as a phrenologist would have +loved to look upon; the true platonic breadth of brow, and lofty +elevation of the scalp silvered over, told of a mind fitting in its +magnitude to spring from that gigantic continent whose streams are +mighty rivers and whose lakes are seas; but, valueless as these, when +embosomed in their native woods, were the treasures of the old man's +mind, unawakened as they were by education, and unpolished even by +contact with the open world, yet still, amid the crust contracted in the +life he had led, rays of the inward diamond glittered forth. The +wilderness had always been his dwelling--in the land he had left, his +early days had been passed in hunting the red deer or the red man on the +Prairie fields--there, with the true spirit of the old American, he had +learned to treat the Indian as "varment," although a kindlier feeling +was awakened towards them in this country, where white as well as red +were recipients of England's bounty, and many a tale of wild pathos or +dark horror has he told of the experience of his youth with the people +of the wild. In New Brunswick his days had passed more peacefully. He +sat this evening with his chair poised in that aerial position on one +leg which none but an American can attain. Ambitious emigrants, wishing +to be thought cute, attempt this delicate point of Yankee character, but +their awkwardness falling short of the easy swing necessary for the +purpose, often brings them to the ground. A beautiful English cherry +tree, with its snowy wreathes in full blow, stood before him; he had +raised it from the seed, and loved to look upon it. It had evidently +been the object of his meditations, and served him now as a type +wherewith to illustrate his remarks respecting the meeting we had +attended--like those professors of religion we to-day heard, he said, +was his beautiful cherry tree. It gave forth fair green leaves of +promise and bright truth-seeming blossoms, but in summer, when he sought +for fruit there was none; and false as it, were they of words so fair +and deeds so dark, and he'd "double sooner trust one who laughed more +and prayed less, than those same whining preachers." This was the old +man's opinion, not only respecting the baptists, but all other sects as +well. What his own ideas of religion were I never could make out. +Universalism I fancied it was, but differing much from the theories of +those evanescent preachers who sometimes flashed like meteors through +the land, leaving doubt and recklessness in their path. The first truths +of Christianity had been imparted to him, and these, mingling with his +own innate ideas of veneration, formed his faith; as original, though +more lofty in its aspirations, than the wild Indian's who tells of the +flowery land of souls where the good spirit dwells, and where buffalo +and deer forsake not the hunting grounds of the blessed. He held no +outward form or right of sanctity. The ceremony which bound him to his +wife was simply legal, having been read over by the nearest magistrate. +His children were unbaptised, and the green graves of his household were +in his own field, although a public burying-ground was by the +meeting-house of the settlement. + +Meanwhile the old lady, who had hailed our advent with the hospitality +of her country, set about preparing our entertainment. Tradition says of +the puritans, the pilgrims of New England, that when they first stood on +Plymouth Rock, on their first arrival from Europe, they bore the bible +under one arm and a cookery book under the other. Now, as to their +descendants, the refugees, I am not exactly sure if, when they +pilgrimised to New Brunswick, they were so careful of the bible, but I +am certain they retain the precepts of the cookery book, and love to +embody them when they may. Soon as a guest comes within ken of a blue +nose, the delightful operations commence. The poorer class shifting with +Johnny-cake and pumpkin, while, with the better off, the airy phantoms +of custard and curls, which flit through their brains, are called into +tangible existence. The air is impregnated with allspice and +nutmeg--apple "sarce" and cranberry "persarves" become visible, while +sal-a-ratus and molasses are evidently in the ascendant. + +And now, while our hostess of this evening busied herself in compounding +these sweet mysteries, the old man related to us the following love +passage of his earlier days, which I shall give in my own language, +although his original expressions rendered it infinitely more +interesting. + + + + +THE INDIAN BRIDE, + +A REFUGEE'S STORY. + + +On the margin of a bright blue western stream stood a small fort, +surrounding the dwellings of some hunters who had penetrated thus far +into the vast wilderness to pursue their calling. The huts they raised +were rude and lowly, and yet the walls surrounding them were high and +lofty. Piles of arms filled their block house, and a constant guard was +kept. These precautions were taken to protect them from the Indians, +whose ancient hunting grounds they had intruded on, and whose camp was +not far distant. Deadly dealings had passed between them, but the +whites, strong in number and in arms, heeded little the settled malice +of their foes, and after taking the usual precautions of defence, +carried on their hunting, shooting an Indian, or ought else that came +across them, while the others, savage and unrelenting, kept on their +trail in hope of vengeance. + +Strange was it, that in an atmosphere dark as this, the light of love +should beam. Leemah, a beautiful Indian girl, met in the forest a young +white hunter. She loved, and was beloved in return. The roses of the few +summers she had lived glowed warm upon her cheek, and truth flashed in +the guileless light of her deep dark eyes--but Leemah was already a +bride, betrothed in childhood to a chieftain of her tribe; he had now +summoned her to his dwelling, and her business in the forest was +collecting materials for her bridal store of box and basket. Her +sylph-like form of arrowy grace was arrayed in his wedding gifts of +costly furs, and glittering bright with bead and shell. But few were the +stores that Leemah gathered for her Indian chief. The burning noon was +passed with her white love in the leafy shade--there she brought for him +summer berries, and gathered for him the water cup flower, with its +cooling draught of fragrant dew. Her time of marriage came, and at +midnight it was to be celebrated with torch light and dance. The other +hunters knew the love of Silas for the gem of the wilderness, and +readily offered their assistance in his project of gaining her. To them, +carrying off an Indian girl was an affair of light moment, and at dark +of night, with their boat and loaded rifles, they proceeded up the +stream towards the Indian village. As they drew near, the wild chaunt of +the bridal song was heard, and as all silently they approached the +shore, the red torch light gleamed out upon the scene of mystic +splendour. The chieftains of the tribe in stately silence stood around. +The crimson beams lit up the plumes upon their brow, and showed in more +awful hues the fearful lines of their painted faces, terrible at the +festival as on the field of battle. The squaws, in their gayest garb, +with mirrors flashing on their breasts, and beads all shining as they +moved, danced round the betrothed; and there she stood, the love-lorn +Leemah, her black hair all unbraided, and her dark eyes piercing the far +depths of night, as if looking for her lover. Nor looked she long in +vain, for suddenly and fearlessly Silas sprung upon the shore, dashed +through the circle, and bore off the Indian bride to his bark. Then rose +the war-shout of her people, while pealed among them the rifles of the +hunters. Again came the war-whoop, mingled with the death shriek of the +wounded. A hunter stood up and echoed them in mockery, but an arrow +quivered through his brain and he was silent, while the stream grew +covered with shadowy canoes, filled with dark forms shouting for +revenge. On came they with lightning's speed, and on sped the hunters +knowing now that their only safety was in flight. On dashed they through +the waters which now began to bear them forward with wondrous haste. A +thought of horror struck them: they were in the rapids, while before +them the white foam of the falls flashed through the darkness. The tide +had ebbed in their absence, and the river, smooth and level when full, +showed all across it, at the flood, a dark abyss of fearful rocks and +boiling surf. This they knew, but it was now too late to recede; the +dark stream bore them onward, and now even the Indians dare not follow, +but landed and ran along the shore shouting with delight at their +inevitable destruction. It was a moment of dread, unutterable horror to +Silas and his comrades. Their bark whirled round in the giddy +waves--then was there a wild plunge--a fearful shock--a shriek of death, +and the flashing foam gathered over them, while loudly rang the voices +from the shore. But suddenly, by some mighty effort, the boat was flung +clear of the rocks and uninjured into the smooth current of the lower +stream. A few strokes of the oar brought them to the fort, which they +entered; and heard the Indians howling behind them like wolves baffled +of their prey. But they and the dangers they had so lately passed were +alike forgotten in the night's carousal; and, when the season was ended, +they returned to their homes in the settlements, enriched with the +spoils they had gained in hunting, and Silas with his treasured pearl of +the prairie. + +But here, some months after they returned, and while, his heart was yet +brightened with her smiles, a dark shade passed over her sunny brow, and +she vanished from his home. An Indian of her tribe was said to have been +lingering near the village, and she no doubt had joined him and returned +to her kindred. Other tidings of her fate Silas heard not. Alas! she +knew the undying vengeance of her people, and by giving herself up to +them thought to shield him from their hatred. + +Again the time of hunting came, and the same party occupied the fort in +the wilderness. As yet they had been unmolested by the Indians: they +even knew not of their being in the neighbourhood, yet still a form of +guarding was kept up, and Silas and a comrade held the night-watch in +the block house. The others had fallen asleep, and Silas, as he sat with +half-closed eyes, fancied he saw before him his lost love, Leemah; he +started as he thought from a dream, but 'twas real, and 'twas her own +cool fingers pressed his brow--by the clear fire light he saw her cheek +was deadly pale, but her eyes were flashing like sepulchral lamps, and a +white-browed babe slept upon her bosom. In a deep thrilling whisper she +bade him rise and follow her. Wondering how she had found entrance, he +obeyed, and she led him outside the walls of the fort; a murmuring +sound as of leaves stirred by the wind was heard. + +'Tis the coming of the Red Eagle, said Leemah, his beak is whetted for +the blood draughts; here enter, and if your own life or Leemah's be +dear, keep still;--as she spoke she parted aside the young shoots which +had sprung tip from the root of a tree, and twined like an arbour about +it. Her deep earnestness left no time for speculation; he entered the +recess, and hardly had the flexile boughs sprung back to their places, +when the fleet footsteps of the Indians came nearer, and the fort was +surrounded by them; the building was fired, and then their deadly yell +burst forth, while the unfortunate inmates started from sleep at the +sound of horror. Mercy for them there was none; the relentless savage +knew it not; but the shout of delight rose louder as they saw the flames +dance higher o'er their victims; and Silas looked on all--but Leemah's +eye was on his--he knew his slightest movement was death to her as well +as to himself. Like a demon through the flame leaped the ghastly form of +the Red Eagle, (he to whom Leemah had been espoused) and with searching +glance glared on his victims, but saw not there the one he sought with +deeper vengeance than the others--'twas Silas he looked for; and, with +the speed of a winged fiend, he bounded to where Leemah stood, and +accused her of having aided in his escape. She acknowledged she had, and +pointed to the far-off forest as his hiding place. In an instant his +glittering tomahawk cleft the hand she raised off at the wrist. Silas +knew no more. Leemah's hot blood fell upon his brow, and he fainted +through excess of agony, but like Mazeppa, he lived to repay the Red +Eagle in after-years for that night of horror--when his eyes had been +blasted with the burning fort, his ears stunned with the shrieks of his +murdered friends, and his brain scorched through with Leemah's life +blood. + +Long years after, when he had forsaken the hunter's path, and fought as +a loyalist in the British ranks, among their Indian allies who smoked +with them the pipe of peace and called them brothers, was one, in whose +wild and withered features he recalled the stern Red Eagle; blood called +for blood; he beguiled the Indian now with copious draughts of the white +man's fire-water, and he and another (brother of one of the murdered +hunters) killed him, and placing him in his own canoe with the paddle in +his hand, sent the fearful corpse down the rapid stream, bearing him +unto his home. The wild dog and wolf howled on the banks as it floated +past, and the raven and eagle hovered over it claiming it as their prey. +The tribe, at the death of their Sagamore, withdrew from their allies, +and, following the track of the setting sun, waged war indiscriminately +with all. + +And long after, though more than half a century had elapsed since the +death of the Red Eagle, and when the snows of eighty winters had +whitened the dark tresses of the young hunter, and bowed the tall form +of the loyalist soldier; when he who had trod the flowery paths of the +prairie, and slept in the orchard bowers by the blue stream of the +Hudson, had, for love of England's laws, become a refugee from his +native land; and when here, in New Brunswick, he beheld raised around +him a happy and comfortable home--his house, which had always been +freely opened to religious worship, and in which had been held the +prayer-meetings of the baptists and love-feasts of the methodists, +became one day transformed into a catholic chapel. + +A bishop of the Romish church was passing through the province, and his +presence in this sequestered spot was an event of unwonted interest; +many who had forgotten the creed of their fathers returned to the faith +of their earlier days, and among the most fervent of those assembled, +there was a small group of Milicete Indians from the woods hard by. With +the idolatrous devotion of their half savage nature they fell prostrate +before the priest. Among them was an ancient woman, but not of their +tribe, who, while raising her head in prayer, or in crossing herself, +Silas observed she used but one hand--the other was gone. This +circumstance recalled to light the faded love-dream of his youth. He +questioned her and found her to be Leemah, his once beautiful Indian +bride, who had wandered here to escape the dark tyranny of her savage +kindred. She died soon after, and "she sleeps there," said the old man, +pointing to where a white cross marked a low grassy mound before us, and +time had not so dried up his heart springs but I saw a tear drop to her +memory. + + * * * * * + +I turned my eyes from Leemah's grave to see what effect the tale had +made on the old lady, but she was so engaged in contemplating the golden +curls of her doughnuts, and feathery lightness of her pound cake, she +had heard it not; and even if she had, it had all happened such a long +time ago, that her impressions respecting it must all have worn out by +now. After having partaken of the luxurious feast she set before us, and +hearing some more of the old man's legends, we proceeded forward. + +The evening, with one of those sudden changes of New Brunswick, had +become cold and chilly. The sun looked red and lurid through the heavy +masses of fog clouds drifting through the sky; this fog, which comes all +the way from the Banks of Newfoundland, and which is particularly +disagreeable sometimes along the Bay shore and in St. John, in +opposition to the general clearness of the American atmosphere is but +little known in the interior of the country. Numerous summer fallows are +burning around, and the breeze flings over us showers of blackened +leaves and blossoms. As we approached home, we were accosted by one Mr. +Isaac Hanselpecker, a neighbour of ours; he was leaning over the bars, +apparently wanting a lounge excessively. He had just finished milking, +and had handed the pails to Miss Hanselpecker, as he called his wife. If +there be a trait of American character peculiar to itself, displayed +more fully than another by contrast with Europeans, it is in the +treatment of the gentler sex, differing as it does materially from the +picture of the Englishman, standing with his back to the fire, while the +ladies freeze around him; or the glittering politeness of the Frenchman, +hovering like a butterfly by the music stand; it has in it more of +intellect and real tenderness than either, although tending as it does +to the advancement of national character, some of their own talented +ones begin to complain that in the refined circles of the States they +are becoming almost too civilised in this respect: the ladies requiring +rather more than is due to them. Yet among the working classes it has a +sweet and wholesome influence, softening as it does the asperities of +labour, and lightening the burthen to each. Here woman's empire is +within, and here she shines the household star of the poor man's hearth; +not in idleness, for in America, of all countries in the world, +prosperity depends on female industry. Here "she looketh well to the +ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness," and for +this reason, perhaps, it is, that their husbands arise and call them +blessed. Now Mr. Hanselpecker had all the respect for his lady natural +to his country, and assisted her domestic toils by milking the cows, +making fires, and fetching wood and water. Yet there was one material +point in which he failed: she was often "scant of bread," he being one +who, even in this land of toil, got along, somehow or other, with +wondrous little bodily labour; professing to be a farmer, he held one of +the finest pieces of land in the settlement, but his agricultural +operations, for the most part, consisted in hoeing a few sickly stems of +corn, while others were reaping buckwheat, or sowing a patch of flax, +"'cause the old woman wanted loom gears;" shooting cranes, spearing +salmon, or trapping musquash on the lake, he prefers to raising fowl or +sheep, as cranes find their own provisions, and fish require no fences +to keep them from the fields. His wife's skill, however, in managing the +dairy department, is, when butter rates well in the market, their chief +dependence; and he, when he chooses to work, which he would much rather +do for another than himself, can earn enough in one day, if he take +truck, to keep him three, and but that he prefers fixing cucumbers to +thrashing, and making moccasins to clearing land, he might do well +enough. Though poor, he is none the least inclined to grovel, but, with +the spirit of his land, feels quite at ease in company with any judge or +general in the country. + +Having declined his invitation to enter the log erection,--which in +another country would hardly be styled a house, he having still delayed +to enclose the gigantic frame, whose skeleton form was reared hard +by--he gave his opinion of the weather at present, with some shrewd +guesses as to what it would be in future; regarding the smoke wreaths +from the fires around (there were none on his land however), he said, it +reminded him of the fire in Miramichi. "How long is it, old woman," said +he, turning to his wife, who had now joined us, "since that ere +burning?" "Well," said she, "I aint exactly availed to tell you right +off how many years it is since, but I guess our Jake was a week old when +it happened." + +Now, as the burning of Miramichi was one of the most interesting +historical events in the province records, we gave him the date, which +was some twenty years since; this also gave us the sum of Jacob's +lustres--rather few considering he had planted a tater patch on shares, +and laid out to marry in the fall. + +"Well," said he, "You may depend that was a fire--my hair curls yet when +I think of it--it was the same summer we got married, and Washington +Welford having been out a timber-hunting with me the fall afore, we +discovered a most elegant growth of pine--I never see'd before nor since +the equal on it--regular sixty footers, every log on 'em--the trees +stood on the banks of the river, as if growing there on purpose to be +handy for rafting, and we having got a first-rate supply from our +merchants in town, toted our things with some of the old woman's house +trumpery to the spot--we soon had up a shanty, and went to work in right +airnest. There was no mistake in Wash; he was as clever a fellow as ever +I knowed, and as handsome a one--seven feet without his shoes--eyes like +diamonds, and hair slick as silk; when he swung his axe among the +timber, you may depend he looked as if he had a mind to do it--our +felling and hewing went on great, and with the old woman for cook we +made out grand--she, however, being rather delicate, we hired a help, a +daughter of a neighbour about thirty miles off. Ellen Ross was as smart +a gal as ever was raised in these clearings--her parents were old +country folks, and she had most grand larning, and was out and out a +regular first-rater. Washington and her didn't feel at all small +together--they took a liking to each other right away, and a prettier +span was never geared. Well, our Jake was born, and the old woman got +smart, and about house again. Wash took one of our team horses, and he +and Ellen went off to the squire's to get yoked. It was a most beautiful +morning when they started, but the weather soon began to change--there +had been a most uncommon dry spell--not a drop of rain for many weeks, +nor hardly a breath of air in the woods, but now there came a most +fearful wind and storm, and awful black clouds gathering through the +sky--the sun grew blood red, and looked most terrible through the smoke. +I had heard of such things as 'clipses, but neither the almanac, nor the +old woman's universal, said a word about it. Altho' there was such a +wind, there was the most burning heat--one could hardly breathe, and the +baby lay pale and gasping--we thought it was a dying. The cattle grew +oneasy, and all at once a herd of moose bounded into our chopping, and a +lot of bears after them, all running as if for dear life. I got down the +rifle, and was just a going to let fly at them, when a scream from the +old woman made me look about. The woods were on fire all round us, and +the smoke parting before us, showed the flames crackling and roaring +like mad, 'till the very sky seemed on fire over our heads. I did'nt +know what to do, and, in fact, there was no time to calculate about it. +The blaze glared hotly on our faces, and all the wild critturs of the +woods began to carry on most ridiculous, and shout and holler like all +nature I caught up my axe, and the old woman the baby, and took the only +open space left for us, where the stream was running, and the fire +couldn't catch. Just as we were going, a horse came galloping most awful +fast right through the fire--it was poor Washington; his clothes all +burnt, and his black hair turned white as snow, and oh! the fearful +burden he carried in his arms. Ellen Ross, the beautiful bright-eyed +girl, who had left us so smilingly in the morning, lay now before us a +scorched and blackened corpse--the scared horse fell dead on the ground. +I hollered to Washington to follow us to the water, but he heard me +not; and the flames closed fast o'er him and his dead bride--poor +fellow, that was the last on him--and creation might be biled down, ere +you could ditto him any how. By chance our timber was lying near in the +stream, and I got the old woman and the baby on a log, and stood beside +them up to the neck in water, which now grew hot, and actilly began to +hiss around me. The trees on the other side of the river had caught, and +there was an arch of flame right above us. My stars! what a time we had +of it! Lucifees and minks, carraboo and all came close about us, and an +Indian devil got upon the log beside my wife; poor critturs, they were +all as tame as possible, and half frightened to death. I thought the end +of the world was come for sartain. I tried to pray, but I was got so +awful hungry, that grace before meat was all I could think off. How long +we had been there I couldn't tell, but it seemed tome a 'tarnity--fire, +howsomever, cannot burn always--that's a fact; so at the end of what we +afterwards found to be the third day, we saw the sun shine down on the +still smoking woods. The old woman was weak, I tell you; and for me, I +felt considerably used up--howsomever I got to the shore, and hewed out +a canoe from one of our own timber sticks--there was no need of lucifers +to strike a light--lots of brands were burning about. I laid some on to +it and burnt it out, and soon had a capital craft, and away we went down +the stream. Dead bodies of animals were floating about, and there were +some living ones, looking as if they had got out of their latitude, and +didn't think they would find it. I reckon we weren't the only sufferers +by that ere conflagration. As we came down to the settlements folks took +us for ghosts, we looked so miserable like--howsomever, with good +tendin, we soon came round again; but, to tell you the truth, it makes +me feel kind a narvous, when I see a fallow burning ever since. Tho' +folks could'nt tell how that ere fire happened, and say it was a +judgment on lumber men and sich like, I think it came from some +settlers' improvements, who, wishing to raise lots of taters, destroyed +the finest block of timber land in the province, besides the ships in +Miramichi harbour, folks' buildings, and many a clever feller, whose +latter end was never known." + +"And so I suppose Mr. H.," said his wife, "that is the reason you make +such slim clearings." "I estimate your right," said he; and we, not +expecting the spice of sentiment which flavored Mr. H.'s story, left +him, and reached home, where we closed the evening by putting into the +following shape one of Silas Marvin's legends, not written with a +perryian pen and azure fluid, but with a quill from the wing of a wild +goose, shot by our friend Hanselpecker, (who by the way was fond of such +game,) as last fall it took its flight from our cold land to the sunny +south, and with home-made ink prepared from a decoction of white maple +bark. + + + + +THE LOST ONE, + +A TALE OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. + + +Beyond the utmost verge of the limits which the white settlers had yet +dared to encroach on the red owners of the soil, stood the humble +dwelling of Kenneth Gordon, a Scotch emigrant, whom necessity had driven +from the blue hills and fertile vallies of his native land, to seek a +shelter in the tangled mazes of the forests of the new world. Few would +have had the courage to venture thus into the very power of the +savage--but Kenneth Gordon possessed a strong arm and a hopeful heart, +to give the lips he loved unborrowed bread; this nerved him against +danger, and, 'spite of the warning of friends, Kenneth pitched his tent +twelve miles from the nearest settlement. Two years passed over the +family in their lonely home, and nothing had occurred to disturb their +peace, when business required Kenneth's presence up the river. One calm +and dewy morning he prepared for his journey; Marion Gordon followed her +husband to the wicket, and a tear, which she vainly strove to hide with +a smile, trembled in her large blue eye. She wedded Kenneth when she +might well have won a richer bridegroom: she chose him for his worth; +their lot had been a hard one--but in all the changing scenes of life +their love remained unchanged; and Kenneth Gordon, although thirteen +years a husband, was still a lover. Marion strove to rally her spirits, +as her husband gaily cheered her with an assurance of his return before +night. "Why so fearful, Marion? See here is our ain bonny Charlie for a +guard, and what better could an auld Jacobite wish for?" said Kenneth, +looking fondly on his wife; while their son marched past them in his +Highland dress and wooden claymore by his side. Marion smiled as her +husband playfully alluded to the difference in their religion; for +Kenneth was a staunch presbyterian, and his wife a Roman catholic; yet +that difference--for which so much blood has been shed in the +world--never for an instant dimmed the lustre of their peace; and Marion +told her glittering beads on the same spot where her husband breathed +his simple prayer. Kenneth, taking advantage of the smile he had roused, +waved his hand to the little group, and was soon out of sight. + +The hot and sultry day was passed by Marion in a state of restless +anxiety, but it was for Kenneth alone she feared, and the hours sped +heavily till she might expect his return. Slowly the burning sun +declined in the heavens, and poured a flood of golden radiance on the +leafy trees and the bright waves of the majestic river, which rolled its +graceful waters past the settlers dwelling. Marion left her infant +asleep in a small shed at the back of the log-house, with Mary, her +eldest daughter, to watch by it, and taking Charlie by the hand went out +to the gate to look for her husband's return. Kenneth's father, an old +and almost superannuated man, sat in the door-way, with twin girls of +Kenneth's sitting on his knees, singing their evening hymn, while he +bent fondly over them. + +Scarcely had Marion reached the wicket, when a loud yell--the wild +war-whoop of the savage--rang on her startled ear. A thousand dark +figures seemed to start from the water's edge--the house was surrounded, +and she beheld the grey hairs of the old man twined round in the hand of +one, and the bright curls of her daughters gleamed in that of another; +while the glittering tomahawk glared like lightning in her eyes. Madly +she rushed forward to shield her children; the vengeance of the Indian +was glutted, and the life-blood of their victims crimsoned the hearth +stone! The house was soon in flames--the war dance was finished--and +their canoes bounded lightly on the waters, bearing them far from the +scene of their havoc. + +As the sun set a heavy shower of rain fell and refreshed the parched +earth--the flowers sent up a grateful fragrance on the evening air--the +few singing birds of the woods poured forth their notes of melody--the +blue jay screamed among the crimson buds of the maple, and the humming +bird gleamed through the emerald sprays of the beech tree. + +The pearly moon was slowly rising in the blue aether, when Kenneth +Gordon approached his home. He was weary with his journey, but the +pictured visions of his happy home, his smiling wife, and the caresses +of his sunny haired children, cheered the father's heart, though his +step was languid, and his brow feverish. But oh! what a sight of horror +for a fond and loving heart met his eyes, as he came in sight of the +spot that contained his earthly treasures--the foreboding silence had +surprised him--he heard not the gleeful voices of his children, as they +were wont to bound forth to meet him, he saw not Marion stand at the +gate to greet his return--but a thick black smoke rose heavily to the +summits of the trees, and the smouldering logs of the building fell with +a sullen noise to the ground. The rain had quenched the fire, and the +house was not all consumed. Wild with terror, Kenneth rushed forward; +his feet slipped on the bloody threshhold, and he fell on the mangled +bodies of his father and his children. The demoniac laceration of the +stiffening victims told too plainly who had been their murderers. How +that night of horror passed Kenneth knew not. The morning sun was +shining bright--when the bereaved and broken-hearted man was roused from +the stupor of despair by the sound of the word "father" in his ears; he +raised his eyes, and beheld Mary, his eldest daughter, on her knees +beside him. For a moment Kenneth fancied he had had a dreadful dream, +but the awful reality was before him. He pressed Mary wildly to his +bosom, and a passionate flood of tears relieved his burning brain. Mary +had heard the yells of the savages, and the shrieks of her mother +convinced her that the dreaded Indians had arrived. She threw open the +window, and snatching the infant from its bed, flew like a wounded deer +to the woods behind the house. The frightened girl heard all, remained +quiet, and knowing her father would soon return, left the little Alice +asleep on some dried leaves, and ventured from her hiding place. + +No trace of Marion or of Charles could be found--they had been reserved +for a worse fate; and for months a vigilant search was kept up--parties +of the settlers, led on by Kenneth, scoured the woods night and day. +Many miles off a bloody battle had been fought between two hostile +tribes, where a part of Marion's dress and of her son's was found, but +here all trace of the Indians ended, and Kenneth returned to his +desolated home. No persuasion could induce him to leave the place where +the joys of his heart had been buried: true, his remaining children yet +linked him to life, but his love for them only increased his sorrow for +the dead and the lost. Kenneth became a prematurely old man--his dark +hair faded white as the mountain snow--his brow was wrinkled, and his +tall figure bent downwards to the earth. + +Seventeen years had rolled on their returnless flight since that night +of withering sorrow. Kenneth Gordon still lived, a sad and +broken-spirited man; but time, that great tamer of the human heart, +which dulls the arrows of affliction, and softens the bright tints of +joy down to a sober hue, had shed its healing influence even over his +wounded heart. Mary Gordon had been some years a wife, and her children +played around Kenneth's footsteps. A little Marion recalled the wife of +his youth; and another, Charlie, the image of his lost son, slept in his +bosom. There was yet another person who was as a sunbeam in the sight of +Kenneth; her light laugh sounded as music in his ears, and the joy-beams +of her eyes fell gladly on his soul. This gladdener of sorrow was his +daughter Alice, now a young and lovely woman; bright and beautiful was +she, lovely as a rose-bud, with a living soul-- + + "No fountain from its native cave, + E'er tripped with foot so free; + She was as happy as a wave + That dances o'er the sea." + +Alice was but five months old when her mother was taken from her, but +Mary, who watched over her helpless infancy with a care far beyond her +years, and with love equal to a mother's, was repaid by Alice with most +unbounded affection; for to the love of a sister was added the +veneration of a parent. + +One bright and balmy Sabbath morning Kenneth Gordon and his family left +their home for the house of prayer. Mary and her husband walked +together, and their children gambolled on the grassy path before them. +Kenneth leaned on the arm of his daughter Alice; another person walked +by her side, whose eye, when it met her's, deepened the tint on her fair +cheek. It was William Douglas--the chosen lover of her heart, and well +worthy was he to love the gentle Alice. Together they proceeded to the +holy altar, and the next Sabbath was to be their bridal day. + +A change had taken place since Kenneth Gordon first settled on the banks +of the lonely river. The white walls and graceful spire of a church now +rose where the blue smoke of the solitary log-house once curled through +the forest trees; and the ashes of Kenneth's children and his father +reposed within its sacred precincts. A large and populous village stood +where the red deer roved on his trackless path. The white sails of the +laden barque gleamed on the water, where erst floated the stealthy canoe +of the savage; and a pious throng offered their aspirations where the +war-whoop had rung on the air. + +Alice was to spend the remaining days of her maiden life with a young +friend, a few miles from her father's, and they were to return together +on her bridal eve. William Douglas accompanied Alice on her walk to the +house of her friend. They parted within a few steps of the house. +William returned home, and Alice, gay and gladsome as a bird, entered a +piece of wood, which led directly to the house. Scarcely had she entered +it when she was seized by a strong arm; her mouth was gagged, and +something thrown over her head; she was then borne rapidly down the bank +of the river, and laid in a canoe. She heard no voices, and the swift +motion of the canoe rendered her unconscious. How long the journey +lasted she knew not. At length she found herself, on recovering from +partial insensibility, in a rude hut, with a frightful-looking Indian +squaw bathing her hands, while another held a blazing torch of pine +above her head. Their hideous faces, frightful as the imagery of a +dream, scared Alice, and she fainted again. + +The injuries which Kenneth Gordon had suffered from the savages made him +shudder at the name of Indian--and neither he nor his family ever held +converse with those who traded in the village. Metea, a chief of the +Menomene Indians, in his frequent trading expeditions to the village, +had often seen Alice, and became enamoured of the village beauty. He had +long watched an opportunity of stealing her, and bearing her away to his +tribe, where he made no doubt of winning her love. When Alice recovered +the squaws left her, and Metea entered the hut; he commenced by telling +her of the great honour in being allowed to share the hut of Metea, a +"brave" whose bow was always strung, whose tomahawk never missed its +blow, and whose scalps were as numerous as the stars in the path-way of +ghosts; and he pointed to the grisly trophies hung in the smoke of the +cabin. He concluded by giving her furs and strings of beads, with which +the squaws decorated her, and the next morning the trembling girl was +led from the hut, and lifted into a circle formed of the warriors of the +tribe. Here Metea stood forth and declared his deeds of bravery, and +asked their consent for "the flower of the white nation" to be his +bride. When he had finished, a young warrior, whose light and graceful +limbs might well have been a sculptor's model, stood forward to speak. +He was dressed in the richest Indian costume, and his scalping knife and +beaded moccasins glittered in the sunshine. His features bore an +expression very different from the others. Neither malice nor cunning +lurked in his full dark eye, but a calm and majestic melancholy reposed +on his high and smooth brow, and was diffused over his whole mein; and, +in the clear tones of his voice, "Brothers," said he to the warriors, +"we have buried the hatchet with the white nation--it is very deep +beneath the earth--shall we dig it because Metea scorns the women of his +tribe, because he has stolen 'the flower of the white nation?' Let her +be restored to her people, lest her chiefs come to claim her, and Metea +lives to disgrace the brave warriors of the woods?" He sat down, and the +circle rising, said, "Our brother speaks well, but Metea is very +_brave_." It was decided that Alice should remain. + +Towards evening Metea entered the hut, and approaching Alice, caught +hold of her hand,--the wildest passion gleamed in his glittering eyes, +and Alice, shrieking, ran towards the door. Metea caught her in his arms +and pressed her to his bosom. Again she shrieked, and a descending blow +cleft Metea's skull in sunder, and his blood fell on her neck. It was +the young Indian who advised her liberation in the morning who dealt +Metea's death-blow. Taking Alice in his arms, he stepped lightly from +the hut. It was a still and starless night, and the sleeping Indians saw +them not. Unloosing a canoe, he placed Alice in it, and pushed softly +from the shore. + +Before the next sunset Alice was in sight of her home. Her father and +friends knew nothing of what had transpired. They fancied her at her +friend's house, and terror at her peril and joy at her return followed +in the same breath. Mary threw a timid, yet kind glance on the Indian +warrior who had saved her darling Alice, and Kenneth pressed the hand of +him who restored his child. In a few minutes William Douglas joined the +happy group, and she repeated her escape on his bosom. That night +Kenneth Gordon's prayer was longer and more fervent than usual. The +father's thanks arose to the throne of grace for the safety of his +child; he prayed for her deliverer, and for pardon for the hatred he had +nurtured against the murderers of his children. During the prayer the +Indian stood apart, his arms were folded, and deep thought was marked on +his brow. When it was finished, Mary's children knelt and received +Kenneth's blessing, ere they retired to rest. The Indian rushed forward, +and, bursting into tears, threw himself at the old man's feet--he bent +his feathered head to the earth. The stern warrior wept like a child. +Oh! who can trace the deep workings of the human heart? Who can tell in +what hidden fount the feelings have their spring? The forest chase--the +bloody field--the war dance--all the pomp of savage life passed like a +dream from the Indian's soul; a cloud seemed to roll its shadows from +his memory. That evening's prayer, and a father's blessing, recalled a +time faded from his recollection, yet living in the dreams of his soul. +He thought of the period when he, a happy child like those before him, +had knelt and heard the same sweet words breathed o'er his bending head: +he remembered having received a father's kiss, and a mother's smile +gleamed like a star in his memory; but the fleeting visions of childhood +were fading again into darkness, when Kenneth arose, and, clasping the +Indian wildly to his breast, exclaimed, "My son, my son! my long lost +Charles!" The springs of the father's love gushed forth to meet his son, +and the unseen sympathy of nature guided him to "The Lost One." 'Twas +indeed Charles Gordon, whom his father held to his breast, but not as he +lived in his father's fancy. He beheld him a painted savage, whose hand +was yet stained with blood; but Kenneth's fondest prayer was granted, +and he pressed him again to his bosom, exclaiming again, "He is my son." +A small gold cross hung suspended from the collar of Charles. Kenneth +knew it well; it had belonged to Marion, who hung it round her son's +neck e'er her eyes were closed. She had sickened early of her captivity, +and died while her son was yet a child: but the relics she had left +were prized by him as something holy. From his wampum belt he took a +roll of the bark of the birch tree, on which something had been written +with a pencil. The writing was nearly effaced, and the signature of +Marion Gordon was alone distinguishable. Kenneth pressed the writing to +his lips, and again his bruised spirit mourned for his sainted Marion. +Mary and Alice greeted their restored brother with warm affection. +Kenneth lived but in the sight of his son. Charles rejoiced in their +endearments, and all the joys of kindred were to him + + "New as if brought from other spheres, + Yet welcome as if known for years." + +But soon a change came o'er the young warrior; his eye grew dim, his +step was heavy, and his brow was sad: he sought for solitude, and he +seemed like a bird pining for freedom. They thought he sighed for the +liberty of his savage life, but, alas! it was another cause. The better +feelings of the human heart all lie dormant in the Indian character, and +are but seldom called into action. Charles had been the "stern stoic of +the woods" till he saw Alice. Then the first warm rush of young +affections bounded like a torrent through his veins, and he loved his +sister with a passion so strong, so overwhelming, that it sapped the +current of his life. The marriage of Alice had been delayed on his +return--it would again have been delayed on his account, but he himself +urged it forward. Kenneth entered the church with Charles leaning on his +arm. During the ceremony he stood apart from the others. When it was +finished, Alice went up to him and took his hand; it was cold as +marble--he was dead; his spirit fled with the bridal benediction. +Kenneth's heart bled afresh for his son, and as he laid his head in the +earth he felt that it would not be long till he followed him. Nor was he +mistaken; for a few mornings after he was found dead on the grave of +"_The Lost One_." + + * * * * * + +And now the bright summer of New Brunswick drew onward to its close. The +hay, which in this country is cut in a much greener state than is usual +elsewhere, and which, from this cause, retains its fragrance till the +spring, was safely lodged in the capacious barns. The buck wheat had +changed its delicate white flower for the brown clusters of its grain, +and the reaper and the thrasher were both busied with it, for so loosely +does this grain hang on its stem that it is generally thrashed out of +doors as soon as ripe, as much would be lost in the conveyance to the +barn. + +Grace Marley's time of departure now drew near; her government stipend +had arrived. The proprietors, who paid in trade, had deposited the +butter and oats equivalent to her hire in the market boat, in which she +intended to proceed to town. And as this is decidedly the pleasantest +method of travelling, I laid out to accompany her by the same +conveyance, and we were spending the last evening with Mrs. Gordon, who +also was to be our companion to St. John; we walked with Helen through +her flower-garden, who showed us some flowers, the seeds of which she +had received from the old country. I saw a bright hue pass o'er the brow +of Grace as we walked among them, and tears gushed forth from her warm +and feeling heart. Next day she explained what occasioned her emotion, a +feeling which all must have felt, awakened by as slight a cause, when +wandering far from their native land. Thus she pourtrayed what she then +felt-- + + + THE MIGNIONETTE. + + 'Twas when the summer's golden eve + Fell dim o'er flower and fruit, + A mystic spell was o'er me thrown, + As I'd drank of some charmed root. + It came o'er my soul as the breeze swept by, + Like the breath of some blessed thing; + Again it came, and my spirit rose + As if borne on an angel's wing. + It bore me away to my native land, + Away o'er the deep sea foam; + And I stood, once more a happy child, + By the hearth of my early home. + And well-loved forms were by me there, + That long in the grave had lain; + And I heard the voices I heard of old, + And they smiled on me again. + And I knew once more the dazzling light, + Of the spirit's gladsome youth; + And lived again in the sunny light + Of the heart's unbroken truth. + Yet felt I then, as we always feel, + The sweet grief o'er me cast, + When a chord is waked of the spirit's harp, + Which telleth of the past. + And what could it be, that blissful trance? + What caused the soul to glide? + Forgetting alike both time and change, + So far o'er memory's tide. + Oh! could that deep mysterious power + Be but the breath of an earthly flower? + 'Twas not the rose with her leaves so bright, + That flung o'er my soul such dazzling light, + Nor the tiger lily's gorgeous dies, + That changed the hue of my spirit's eyes. + 'Twas not from the pale, but gifted leaf, + That bringeth to mortal pain relief. + Not where the blue wreaths of the star-flower shine, + Nor lingered it in the airy bells + Of the graceful columbine. + But again it cometh, I breathe it yet, + 'Tis the sigh of the lowly mignionette. + And there, 'mid the garden's leafy gems, + Blossomed a group of its fairy stems; + Few would have thought of its faint perfume, + While they gazed on the rosebud's crimson bloom. + But to me it was laden with sighs and tears, + And the faded hopes of by-gone years. + Many a vision, long buried deep, + Was waked again from its dreamless sleep. + Thoughts whose light was dim before, + Lived in their pristine truth once more. + Well might its form with my fancies weave, + For in youth it seemed with me to joy, + And in woe with me to grieve. + Oft have I knelt in the cool moonlight, + Where it wreathed the lattice pane, + 'Till I felt that He who formed the flower + Would hear my prayer again. + Then, welcome sweet thing, in this stranger land, + May it smile upon thy birth, + Light fall the rain on thy lovely head, + And genial be the earth; + And blest be the power that gave to thee, + All lowly as thou art, + The gift unknown to prouder things, + To soothe and teach the heart. + + +Next day we proceeded on our journey, and, preferring the coolness of +the deck to the heated atmosphere of the cabin, seated ourselves there +to enjoy the quiet beauty of the night. The full glory of a September's +moon was beaming bright in the clear rich blue of heaven; the stars were +glittering in the water's depths, and ever and anon the fire flies +flashed like diamonds through the dark foliage on the shore--the light +fair breeze scarce stirred the ripples on the stream--when, from one of +the white dwellings on the beach in whose casement a light was yet +burning, came a low, sad strain of sorrow. I had heard that sound once +before, and knew now it was the wail of Irish grief. Strange that +mournful dirge of Erin sounded in that distant land. Grace knew the +language of her country, and ere the "keen" had died upon the breeze, +she translated thus + + + THE SONG OF THE IRISH MOURNER. + + Light of the widow's heart! art thou then dead? + And is then thy spirit from earth ever fled? + And shall we, then, see thee and hear thee no more, + All radiant in beauty and life as before? + + My own blue-eyed darling, Oh, why didst thou die, + Ere the tear-drop of sorrow had dimmed thy bright eye, + Ere thy cheek's blooming hue felt one touch of decay, + Or thy long golden ringlets were mingled with grey? + + Why, star of our path-way, why didst thou depart? + Why leave us to weep for the pulse of the heart? + Oh, darkened for ever is life's sunny hour, + When robbed of its brightest and loveliest flower! + + Around thy low bier sacred incense is flinging, + And soft on the air are the silver bells ringing; + For the peace of thy soul is the holy mass said, + And on thy fair forehead the blessed cross laid. + + Soft, soft be thy slumbers, our lady receive thee, + And shining in glory for ever thy soul be; + To the climes of the blessed, my own grama-chree, + May blessings attend thee, sweet cushla ma-chree. + +As we passed the jemseg, we spoke of the time when Madame la Tour so +bravely defended the fort in the absence of her husband--this occurred +in the early times of the province, and strange stories are told of +spirit forms which glide along the beach, beneath whose sands the white +bones of the French and Indians, who fell in the deadly fight, lie +buried. Talking of these things, induced Mrs. Gordon to tell us the +following tale, which she had heard, and which I have entitled + + + + +A WINTER'S EVENING SKETCH, + +WRITTEN IN NEW BRUNSWICK. + + "Oh! there's a dream of early youth, + And it never comes again; + 'Tis a vision of joy, and light, and truth, + That flits across the brain; + And love is the theme of that early dream, + So wild, so warm, so new. + And oft I ween, in our after-years, + That early dream we rue."---Mrs. HEMANS. + + +The winter's eve had gathered o'er New Brunswick, and the snow was +falling, as in that clime it only knows how to fall. The atmosphere was +like the face of Sterne's monk, "calm, cold, and penetrating," and the +faint tinkling of the sleigh bells came mournfully on the ear as a knell +of sadness--so utterly cheerless was the scene. Another hour passed, and +our journey was ended. The open door of the hospitable dwelling was +ready to receive us, and in the light and heat of a happy home, toil and +trouble were alike forgotten. + +There is always something picturesque in the interior of a New Brunswick +farm house, and this evening everything assumed an aspect of interest +and beauty. It might have been the comfortable contrast to the scene +without that threw its mellow tints around. Even the homely loom and +spinning-wheel lost their uncouthness, and recalled to the mind's +imagery the classic dreams of old romance--Hercules in the chambers of +Omphale the story of Arachne and Penelope, the faithful wife of brave +Ulysses; but there was other food for the spirit which required not the +aid of fancy to render palatable. On the large centre table, round which +were grouped the household band, with smiling brows and happy hearts, +lay the magazines and papers of the day, with their sweet tales and +poetic gems. The "Amulet" and "Keepsake" glittering in silk and gold, +and "Chambers," with plain, unwinning exterior, the ungarnished casket +of a mine of treasure, gave forth, like whisperings from a better land, +their gentle influence to soothe and cheer the heart, and teach the +spirit higher aspirations, while breathing the magic spells raised by +their fairy power--those sweet creators of a world unswayed by earth, +where hope and beauty live undimmed by time or tears--givers to all who +own their power, a solace 'mid the pining cares of life. Thus, with the +aid of these, and the joys of converse, sped the night; and as the wind +which had now arisen blew heavy gusts of frozen rain against the +windows, we rejoiced in our situation all the more, and looked +complacently on the great mainspring of our comfort, the glowing stove, +which imparted its grateful caloric through the apartment, and bore on +its polished surface shining evidence of the housewife's care. 'Twas +apparently already a favourite, and the storm without had enhanced its +value. Without dissent, all agreed in its perfection and superiority +over ordinary fire-places. + +Twas a theme which called forth conversation, and when all had given +their opinion, uncle Ethel was asked for his. + +The person so addressed was an aged man, who reclined in an arm chair +apart from the others, sharing not in words with their discourse or +mirth, but smiling like a benignant spirit on them. More than eighty +years of shade and sunshine had passed o'er him. The few snowy locks +which lingered yet around his brow were soft and silky as a +child's--time and sorrow had traced him but a gentle path, 'twould seem +by the light which yet beamed in his calm blue eye and placid smile, the +expression was far different from mirthful happiness, but breathed of +holy peace and spirit pure, tempered with love and kindness for +all--living in the past dreams of youth, he loved the present, when it +recalled their sweet memories in brighter beauty from the tomb of faded +years, and then it seemed as if a secret woe arose and dimmed the vision +when it glowed brightest. A deeper sorrow than for departed youth +flashed o'er his brow, brief but fearful, as though he once, and but +once only, had felt a pang of agony which had deadened all other lighter +woes, and, overcome by resignation, left the spirit calmer as its strong +feeling passed away. Such was what we knew of uncle Ethel, but ere the +night had worn we knew him better. Joining us in our conversation +regarding the stove, he smiled, and said he agreed not with us--our +favourite was more sightly, and more useful, but it bore not the +friendly face of the old hearthstone--one of memory's most treasured +spots was gone--the _fireside_ of our home--the thought of whose +hallowed precincts cheers the wanderer's heart, and has won many from +the path of error, to seek again its sinless welcome. + +'Tis while sitting by the fireside at eve, said he, that the vanished +forms of other days gather round me--there where our happiest meetings +were in the holy sanctity of our _home_. Where peace and love hovered +o'er us, I see again kind faces lit by the ruddy gleam, and hear again +the evening hymn, as of old it used to rise from the loving band +assembled there. Alas! long years have passed since I missed them from +the earth, but there they meet me still--in the glowing fire's bright +light I trace their sweet names, and the vague fancies of childhood are +waked again from their dim repose to live in light and truth once more, +amid the fantastic visions and shadowy forms, flitting through the red +world of embers, on which I loved to gaze when thought and hope were +young. I love it even now--the sorrow that is written there makes it +more holy to my mind, telling me, as it does, of a clime where grief +comes not, and where the blighted hope and broken heart will be at rest. + +But why, said the old man, do I talk so long--I weary you, my children, +for the fancies of age are not those of youth--hope's fairy flowers are +bright for you--the faded things of memory are mine alone--with them I +live, but rejoice ye in your happiness, and gather now, in the spring +time of your days, treasures to cheer you in the fall of life. As to +your favourite, the stove, although I love it not so well as the old +familiar fire-place, I can admire and value it as part of the spirit of +improvement which is spreading o'er our land--her early troubles are +passing away, and she is rising fast to take her place among the nations +of the earth--bitter has been her struggle for existence, but the clouds +are fading in the brightness of her coming years, and her past woes +will be forgotten. + +He ceased, but we all loved to hear him talk, he was so kind and good, +and he was earnestly requested for one of those tales of the early times +of our own land, which had often thrilled us with their simple, yet +often woeful interest. + +I am become an egotist to-night, for self is the only theme of which I +can discourse. My spirit, too, is like the minstrel harp of which you +have to-night been reading, 'twill "echo nought but sadness;" but if it +please you, you shall have uncle Ethel's love story--well may we say +alas! for time, + + "For he taketh away the heart of youth, + And its gladness which hath been + Like the summer's sunshine on our path, + Making the desert green." + +More than sixty years have elapsed since the time of which I now shall +speak. We lived then, a large and happy family, in the dwelling where +our fathers' sires had died--sons and daughters had married, but still +remained beneath the shadow of the parent roof tree, which seemed to +extend its wings like a guardian spirit, as they increased in number. +'Twas near the city of New York, and stood in the centre of sunny +fields, which had been won from the forest shade. Our parents were +natives of the soil, but theirs had come from the far land of Germany, +and the memories of that land were still fondly cherished by their +descendants. The low-roofed cottage, with its many-pointed gables and +narrow casement, was gay with the bright flowers of that home of their +hearts--cherished and guarded there with the tenderest care--all hues +of earth seemed blended in the bright parterre of tulips, over which the +magnificent dahlia towered, tall and stately as a queen--the rich scent +of the wallflower breathed around, and the jessamine went climbing +freely o'er the trellissed porch and arching eaves--each flower around +my home bore to me the face of a friend--they bore to me the poetry of +the earth, as the stars tell the sweet harmonies of heaven--but there is +a vision of fairer beauty than either star or flower comes with the +thought of these bye-gone days--the face of my orphan cousin Ella Werner +arises in the brightness of its young beauty, as it used to beam upon me +from the latticed window of my home: for her's, indeed, + + "Was a form of life and light, + That seen became a part of sight, + And comes where'er I turn mine eye, + The morning star of memory." + +Ella's mother was sister to my father: she lived but long enough to look +upon her child, and her husband died of a broken heart soon after her. +Thus the very existence of the fair girl was fatal to those who best +loved her--not best, for all living loved her. In after-years it seemed +as though it was her beauty, that fatal gift, which ne'er for good was +given to many, caused her woe. Ella's spirit was pure and bright as the +eyes through which it beamed--the gladness of her young heart's +happiness rung in the silvery music of her voice, and in the fairy magic +of her smile she looked as if sorrow could never dim the golden lustre +of her curls, or trace a cloud on her snowy brow--gentle and lovely she +was, and that was all. There was no depth of thought, no strength of +mind, to form the character of one so gifted. Her faculties for +reasoning were the impulses of her own heart: these were generally good, +and constituted her principle of action--but changeful as the summer sky +are the feelings of the human heart, unswayed by the deeper power of the +head. Such were Ella's, and their power destroyed her. Alas! how calmly +can I talk now of her faults; but who could think of them when they +looked upon her, and loved her as I did--'tis only since she is gone I +discover them. + +Of the other members of the family I need not speak, as you already know +of them; but there is one whose name you have never heard, for crime and +sorrow rest with it, and oblivion shrouds his memory. Conrad Ernstein +was also my cousin, and an orphan--he was an inmate of our dwelling, and +my mother was to him as a parent. He was some years older, but his +delicate constitution and studious mind withdrew him from the others, +and made him the companion of Ella and myself. I have said that Ella's +mind was too volatile, so in like degree was Conrad's, in its deep +unchanging firmness and immutability of purpose. Nothing deterred him +from the pursuit of any object he engaged in--obstacles but increased +his energy to overcome and call forth stronger powers of mind--this was +observable in his learning. Science the most abstruse and difficult was +his favourite study, and in these he attained an excellence rarely +arrived at by one so situated. + +Wondered at and admired by all, his pride which was great was amply +gratified, and what was evil in his nature was not yet called into +being--his disposition was melancholy, and showed none of the joyousness +of youth--yet that very sadness seemed to make us love him all the +more--his air of suffering asked for pity--'twas strange to see the +glad-hearted Ella leave my mother's side, while she sang to us the songs +of the blue Rhine, and bend her sunny brow with him over the ancient +page of some clasped volume, containing the terrific legends of the +"black forest," till the tales of the wild huntsmen filled her with +dread--then again would she spring to my mother, and burying her head in +her bosom, ask her once more to sing the songs of her native land, for +so we still called Germany; and, as you see, the romances and legends of +that country formed our childhood's lore, my early love for Ella grew +and increased with my years, and I fancied that she loved me. + +On the first of May, or, as it was by us styled, "Walburga's eve," the +young German maidens have a custom of seeking a lonely stream, and +flinging on its waters a wreath of early flowers, as an offering to a +spirit which then has power. When, as the legend tells, the face of +their lover will glide along the water, and the name be borne on the +breeze, if the gift be pleasing to the spirit. Ella, I knew, had for +some time been preparing to keep this ancient relic of the pagan +rites--she had a treasured rose tree which bloomed, unexpectedly, early +in the season--these delicate things she fancied would be a fitting +offering to the spirit. She paused not to think of what she was about to +do--the thing itself was but a harmless folly--from aught of ill her +nature would have drawn instinctively; but evil there might have +been--she stayed not to weigh the result--at the last hour of sunset she +wreathed her roses, and set out. In the lightness of my heart I followed +in the same path, intending to surprize her. I heard her clear voice +floating on the air, as she sung the invocation to the spirit--the words +were these:-- + + Blue-eyed spirit of balmy spring, + Bright young flowers to thee I bring, + Wreaths all tinged with hues divine, + Meet to rest on thy fairy shrine. + With these I invoke thy gentle care, + Queen of the earth and ambient air, + Come with the light of thy radiant skies, + Trace on the stream my true love's eyes, + Show me the face in the silvery deep, + Whose image for aye my heart may keep; + Bid the waters echoing shell, + Whisper the name thy breezes tell. + And still on the feast of Walburga's eve, + Bright young flowers to thee I'll give; + Beautiful spirit I've spoken the spell, + And offered the gift thou lovest well." + +The last notes died suddenly away, and Ella, greatly agitated, threw +herself into my arms. I enquired the cause of her terror, and forgetting +her secrecy, she said a face had appeared to her on the stream. Just +then we saw Conrad, who had followed on the same purpose I had, but had +fallen and hurt his ancle, and was unable to proceed. He joined not with +me when I laughed at Ella's fright, but a deeper paleness overspread his +countenance. Raising his eyes to the heavens, they rested on a star +beaming brightly in the blue--its mild radiance seemed to soothe him. +See ye yonder, said he, how clear and unclouded the lustre of that +shining orb--these words seemed irrelevant, but I knew their meaning. +His knowledge of German literature had led him into the mazes of its +mingled philosophy and wild romance. Astronomy and astrology were to him +the same; the star to which he pointed was what he called the planet of +his fate, and its brightness or obscurity were shadowed in his mind--its +aspect caused him either joy or woe. The incident of Ella's fright +agitated him much, for the occurrences of this real world were to him +all tinged with the supernatural; but he looked again at the heavens, +and the mild lustre of the star was reflected in his eyes; he leaned +upon my arm, and we passed onward. I knew not then that his dark spirit +felt the sunbeams which illumined mine own. + +That same balmy evening I stood with Ella by the silver stream which +traced its shining path around our home, watching the clear moonbeams as +they flashed in the fairy foambells sparkling at our feet. There I first +told my love--her hand was clasped in mine--she heard me, and raising +her dewy eyes, said, "Dearest Ethel, I love you well; but not as she who +weds must love you--be still to me my own dear friend and brother, and +Ella will love you as she ever has. Ask not for more." She left me, and +I saw a tear-drop gem the silken braid on her cheek, and thus my dream +of beauty burst. My spirit's light grew dark as the treasured spell +which bound me broke. Some hours passed in agony, such as none could +feel but those who loved as I did--so deep, so fondly. + +As I approached my home the warm evening light was streaming from the +windows, and I heard her rich voice thrilling its wild melody. Every +brow smiled upon her: even Conrad's was unbent. I looked upon her, and +prayed she might never know a grief like mine. The ringing music of her +laugh greeted my entrance, and ere the night had passed she charmed away +my woe. + +While these things occurred with us, the aspect of the times without had +changed. America made war with England. What were her injuries we asked +not, but 'twas not likely that we, come of a race who loved so well +their "fatherland and king," would join with those who had risen against +theirs. As yet the crisis was not come, and in New York British power +was still triumphant. + +Among the many festivities given by the officers, naval and military, +then in the country, was a splendid ball on board a British frigate then +in the harbour. To this scene of magic beauty and delight I accompanied +Ella--'twas but a few days after that unhappy first of May; but the +buoyant spirits of youth are soon rekindled, and Ella yet, I thought, +might love me. The scene was so new, and withal so splendid in its +details, that it comes before me now fresh and undimmed. The night was +one of summer's softest, earliest beauty: the moonlight slept upon the +still waters, and the tall masts, with all their graceful tracery of +spar and line, were bathed with rich radiance, mingled with the hundred +lights of coloured lamps, suspended from festoons of flowers; low +couches stood along the bulwarks of the noble ship, and the meteor flag +of England, which waved so oft amid the battle and the breeze, now +wafted its ruby cross o'er fair forms gliding through the dance, to the +rich strains of merry music--'twas an hour that sent glad feeling to the +heart. The gay dresses and noble bearing of the military officers, all +glistening in scarlet and gold, contrasted well with the white robes and +delicate beauty of the fair girls by their sides. But they had their +rivals in the gallant givers of the fete. Many a lady's heart was lost +that night. "What is it always makes a sailor so dangerous a rival?" +Ella used to say, when rallied on her partiality for a "bluejacket," +that she loved it because it was the colour of so many things dear to +her: the sky was blue, the waves of the deep mysterious sea were blue, +and the wreaths of that fairy flower, which bears the magic name +forget-me-not, were of the same charmed hue. Some such reason, I +suppose, it is that makes every maiden love a sailor. + +While we stood gazing on the scene, enchanted and delighted, one came +near and joined our group. Nobility of mind and birth was written on his +brow in beauty's brightest traits. He seemed hardly nineteen, but, young +as he was, many a wild breeze had parted the wavy ringlets of his hair, +and the salt spray of the ocean raised a deeper hue on his cheek. His +light and graceful figure was clad in the becoming costume of his rank, +and on his richly braided bosom rested three half blown roses. Ella's +eyes for an instant met his, they fell upon the flowers, and she dropped +fainting from my arm. The mystery was soon explained. De Clairville, +such was the stranger's name, had been walking on the cliffs when Ella +sought the stream--he heard her voice and approached to see from whence +it came--his was the face she had seen upon the waters; he heard her +scream, and descended to apologise, but she was gone, and he had found +and worn her rose buds-- + + "Oh! there are looks and tones that dart + An instant sunshine through the heart, + As if the soul that instant caught + Some treasure it through life had sought; + As if the very lips and eyes, + Predestined to have all our sighs, + And never be forgot again, + Sparkled and spoke before us then." + +So sings the poet, and so seemed it with Ella and De Clairville; and +when the rosy morn, tinging the eastern sky, announced to the revellers +the hour of parting, that night of happiness was deemed too short. + +To hasten on my story, I must merely say that they became fondly +attached, and when De Clairville departed for another station, he left +Ella as his betrothed bride. On love such as theirs 'twould seem to all +that heaven smiled; but inscrutable to human eyes are the ways of +Providence, for deadly was the blight thrown o'er them. + +Meanwhile the events in which the country was engaged drew to a close. +England acknowledged the independence of America, and withdrew her +forces; but while she did so, offered a home and protection to those who +yet wished to claim it. We were among the first to embrace the proposal: +and though with sadness we left our sunny home with all its fond +remembrances, yet integrity of mind was dearer still. We might not stay +in the land with whose institutions we concurred not. Conrad, with his +learning and talents, 'twas thought, might remain to seek the path of +fame already opening to him; but what to him were the dreams of +ambition, compared to the all-engrossing thought which now bound each +faculty of his mind beneath its power. Ella, my mother also wished to +stay, nor attempt with us the perils of our new life; for here her +betrothed, when he returned, expected to meet her; but she flung her +arms around my mother, saying in the language of Ruth, "thy home, +dearest, shall be mine," and there shall De Clairville join us. Suffice +it, then, to say, that after bidding farewell to scenes we loved, our +wearisome voyage was ended, and we landed on these sterile and dreary +shores. We dared not venture from the coast, and our abode was chosen in +what appeared to us the best of this bleak and barren soil. 'Twas a sad +change, but those were the days of strong hearts and trusting hopes. + +Our settlement was formed of six or eight different households, all +connected, and all from the neighbourhood of the beautiful Bowery. Each +knew what the other had left, and tried to cheer each other with +brighter hopes than they hardly dared to feel; but sympathy and kindness +were among us. + +Why need I tell you of our blighted crops and scanty harvests, and all +the toil and trouble which we then endured. I must go on with what I +commenced--the story of my own love. Shall I say that when Ella +accompanied us I hoped De Clairville might never join us. 'Tis true, but +what were my feelings to discover the love of Conrad for the gem of my +heart, and that he cherished it with all the deep strength of his +nature. I saw Ella's manner was not such as became a betrothed maiden, +but she feared Conrad, and trembled beneath the dark glance of his eye. +A feeling more of fear and pity than of love was her's; but I was +fearful for the result, for I knew he was one not to be trifled with. + +The last dreary days of the autumn were gathered round us--the earth +was already bound in her frozen sleep, and all nature stilled in her +silent trance--all, save the restless waves, dashing on the rocky shore; +or the wind, which first curled their crests, and then went sweeping +through the wiry foliage of the pines--when, at the close of the short +twilight, we were all gathered on the highest point which overlooked the +sea, earnestly gazing o'er the dim horizon, where night was coming fast. +Ere the sun had set a barque had been seen, and her appearance caused +unwonted excitement in our solitudes. Ships in those days were strange +but welcome visitants. Not merely the necessaries of life, but kind +letters and tidings from distant friends were borne by them. As the +darkness increased, signal fires were raised along the beach, and ere +long a gun came booming o'er the waters; soon after came the noble ship +herself; her white sails gleaming through the night, and the glittering +spray flashing in diamond sparkles from her prow. She came to, some +distance from the shore, and, as if by magic, every sail was furled. A +boat came glancing from her side; a few minutes sent it to the beach, +and a gallant form sprung out upon the strand. It was De Clairville come +to claim his affianced bride; and with a blushing cheek and tearful eye +Ella was once more folded to his faithful heart. + +A pang of jealous feeling for an instant darted through me, but Conrad's +face met mine, and its dark expression drove the demon power from me. I +saw the withering scowl of hate he cast upon De Clairville, and I +inwardly determined to shield the noble youth from the malice of that +dark one; for, bright as was to me the hope of Ella's love, I loved her +too well to be ought but rejoiced in her happiness. Although it brought +sorrow to myself, yet she was blessed. Mirth and joy, now for a while +cheered our lonely homes; we knew we were to lose our flower; but love +like theirs is a gladsome thing to look at. Many were the gifts De +Clairville brought his bride from the rich shore of England. Bracelets, +radiant as her own bright eyes, and pearls as pure as the neck they +twined. Among other things was a fairy case of gold, in the form of a +locket, which he himself wore. Ella wished to see what it contained, and +laughingly he unclosed it before us: 'twas the faded rose leaves of her +offerings to the love spirit on Walburga's eve. They had rested on his +heart, he said, in the hours of absence; and there, in death, should +they be still. Ella blushed and hid her face upon his bosom. I sighed at +the memory of that day, but Conrad's gloomy frown recalled me to the +present--this was their bridal eve. Our pastor was with us, and the +lowly building where we worshipped was decorated with simple state for +the occasion. + +It stood on an eminence some distance from the other houses. That night +I was awakened from sleep by a sudden light shining through the room--a +wild dream' was yet before me, and a death snriek seemed ringing in my +ears. I looked from the window; our little church was all in flames; +'twas built of rough logs, and was of little value, save that it was +hallowed by its use. A fire had-probably been left on to prepare it for +the morrow, and from this the mischief had arisen. I thought little +about it, and none knew of its destruction till the morn. + +The sun rose round and red, and sparkled o'er the glittering sheen of +the frost king's gems, flung in wild symmetry o'er the earth, till all +that before looked dark and drear was wreathed with a veil of dazzling +beauty; even the blackened logs where the fire had been had their +delicate tracery of pearly fringe. The guests assembled in our dwelling, +and the pastor stood before the humble altar, raised for the occasion. +The walls were rude, but the bride in her young beauty might have graced +a palace. She leaned on Conrad's arm, according to our custom, as her +oldest unmarried relative. The tables were spread with the bridal cheer, +and the blazing fire crackled merrily on the wide hearth-stone. The +bridegroom's presence alone was waited for. Gaily hung with flags was +the ship, and cheers rung loudly from her crew as a boat left her side. +It came, but bore but the officers invited to the wedding. Where was De +Clairville? None knew! We had expected he passed the night on board; but +there he had not been. 'Twas most strange! The day passed away, and +others like it, and still he came not. He was gone for ever. Had he +proved false and forsaken his love? Such was the imputation thrown on +his absence by Conrad. + +The sailors joined us; a band of Indian hunters led the way, and for +miles around the woods were searched, but trace of human footsteps, save +our own, we saw not. Long did the vessel's crew linger by the shore, +hoping each day for tidings of their loved commander's fate, but of him +they heard no more, and it was deemed he had met his death by drowning. + +Conrad, whose morose manner suddenly disappeared for a bold and forward +tone, so utterly at variance from his usual that all were surprized, +still persisted in asserting that he had but proceeded along the coast, +and would join his vessel as she passed onward. One of the sailors, an +old and grey-haired man, who loved De Clairville as a son, indignantly +denied the charge. He was incapable of such an action. "God grant," said +he, "he may have been fairly dealt with." "You would not say he had been +murdered," said Conrad. "No," said the old man, "I thought not of that: +if he were, not a leaflet in your woods but would bear witness to the +crime." + +We were standing then by the ruined church--a slender beech tree grew +beside it--one faded leaf yet hovered on its stem--for an instant it +trembled in the blast, then fell at Conrad's feet, brushing his cheek as +it passed. If the blow of a giant had struck him he could not have +fallen more heavily to the ground. An inward loathing, such as may +mortal man never feel to his fellow, forbade me to assist him. He had +fainted; but the cold air soon revived him, and he arose, complaining of +sudden illness. The sailors left us, and the ship sailed slowly from our +waters, with her colours floating sadly half-mast high. + +Ella thus suddenly bereaved, mourned in wild and bitter grief, but +woman's pride, at times her guardian angel, at others her destroyer, +took up its stronghold in her heart. The tempter Conrad awoke its +tones--with specious wile he recalled De Clairville's lofty ideas of +name and birth--how proudly he spoke of his lady mother and the castled +state of his father's hall. Was it not likely that, at the last, this +pride had rallied its strength around him, and bade him seek a nobler +bride than the lowly maiden of the "Refugees?" Too readily she heard +him, for love the fondest is nearest allied to hate the deepest, and De +Clairville's name became a thing for scorn and hate. 'Twas vain for me +to speak--what could I say? A species of fascination seemed to be +obtained by Conrad o'er her--a witching spell was in his words--'twas +but the power, swayed by his strong and ill-formed mind, over her weak +but gentle one--which, if rightly guided, would have echoed such sweet +music--and, ere the summer passed, she had forgotten her lost lover, and +was to wed him. + +To others there was nothing strange in this, but to me it brought a wild +and dreary feeling; not that my early dreams were unchanged, for I had +learned to think a love like her's, so lightly lost and won, was not the +thing to be prized. Alas! I knew not the blackness of the spirit that +beguiled her, and wrought such woe. Still she had done wrong--the +affections of man's heart may not be idly dealt with--the woman who +feigns what she feels not, has her hand on the lion's mane. Ella at one +time had done this, and she reaped a dark guerdon for her falsehood. Yet +in her it might have been excused, for the very weakness of her nature +led her to it. Let those who are more strongly gifted beware of her +fate. + +The earth was in the richest flush of her green beauty. On the morn, +Ella was again to be a bride--the golden light streamed through the glad +blue sky, and all looked bright and fair--the remains of the church, +which had long looked black and dreary, were gay with the richness of +vegetation--the bracken waved its green plumes, and the tall mullen +plant, with its broad white leaves, raised its pale crest above the +charred walls. While the dew was shining bright I had gone +forth--surprise and consternation greeted my solitary approach when I +returned. Again the holy book had been opened--the priest stood ready +with the bride, and tarried for the lover--they thought he was with me, +but I had not seen him--daylight passed away, night came, but brought +him not--the moon arose, and her shadowy light gave to familiar things +of day the spectral forms of mystery. + +While we sat in silence, thinking of Conrad's absence, a dog's mournful +whine sounded near--it grew louder, and attracted our attention. We +followed the sound--it came from the ruins of the church, and there, +among the weeds and flowers lay Conrad stiff and cold--he was dead, and, +oh the horrible expression of that face, the demoniac look of despair +was never written in such fearful lines on human face before. All felt +relief when 'twas covered from the sight. One hand had 'twined in the +death grasp round the reed-like stem of the mullen plant--we unclosed +it, and it sprung back, tall and straight as before; something glittered +in the other--'twas the half of De Clairville's golden locket--how it +came to be in his possession was strange, but we thought not of it then. + +Events like these have a saddening influence on the mind, and the gloom +for Conrad's sudden death hung heavy o'er us--Ella's mourning was long +and deep. I was not grieved to see it, for sorrow makes the spirit +wiser. + +Three years passed away--little change had been among us, save that some +of our aged were gone, and the young had risen around us. Once more it +was the first of May--the night was dark and still, but the silvery +sounds of the waging earth came like balm o'er the soul--there was a +murmur in the forest, as though one heard the song of the young leaves +bursting into life, and the glad gushing of the springing streams rose +with them. The memory of other days was floating o'er my mind, when a +soft voice broke on my reverie. Her thoughts had been with +mine--"Ethel," said she, "remember you, how on such a night as this, you +once sought my love. Alas! how little knew I then of my own +heart--your's it should then have been--you know the shades that have +passed over it. Is Ella's love a worthless gift, or will you accept it +now as freely as 'tis offered. How long and sternly must we be trained +e'er love's young dream can be forgotten." The events that intervened +all passed away, and Ella was again the same maiden that stood with me +so long ago by the streamlet's side on Walburga's eve. My heart's long +silenced music once more rung forth its melody at her sweet words, and +life again was bright with the gems of hope and fond affection. + +In places so lone as that in which we lived, the fancies of superstition +have ample scope to range. It had long been whispered through the +settlement that the spirit of Conrad appeared on the spot where he had +died at certain times. When the moon beamed, a shadowy form was seen to +wave its pale arms among the ruins of the church, which yet remained +unchanged. So strongly was the story believed, that after night-fall +none dared to pass the spot alone. Ella, too, had heard it, and trembled +whilst she disbelieved its truth. Our marriage morning came, and Ella +was for the third time arrayed in her bridal dress. A wreath of pearl +gleamed through her hair, and lace and satin robed her peerless +form--the tinge upon her cheek might not have been so bright as once it +was, but to me she was lovely--more of mind was blended with the +feelings of the heart, and gave a higher tone to her beauty. The holy +words were said, and my fondest hopes made truth. Is it, that because in +our most blissful hours the spirits are most ready fall, or was it the +sense of coming ill that threw its dreary shade of sadness o'er me all +that day? The glorious sun sunk brightly to his rest, but the rose cloud +round his path seemed deepened to the hue of blood. A wailing sound came +o'er the waters, and a whispering, as of woe, sighed through the leafy +trees. This feeling of despondency I tried in vain to banish; as the +evening came, it grew deeper, but Ella was more joyous than ever, for a +long time, she had been. All the fairy wiles of her winning youth seemed +bright as of old--glad faces were around us, and she was the gayest of +them all; when, suddenly, something from the open door met her eyes--one +loud shriek broke from her, and she rushed wildly from among us. I saw +her speed madly up the hill, where stood the church. I was hastening +after, when strong arms held me back, and fingers, trembling with awe +and dread, pointed to the object of their terror--there among the ruins +stood a tall and ghost-like form, whose spectral head seemed to move +with a threatening motion--for an instant I was paralysed, but Ella's +white robes flashed before me, and I broke from their grasp. Again I +heard her shriek--she vanished from me, but the phantom form still +stood. I reached it, and that thing of fear was but a gigantic weed--a +tall mullen that had outgrown the others on the very spot where we had +found the body of Conrad; the waving of its flexile head and long pale +leaves, shining with moonlight, were the motions we had seen--but where +was Ella? The decaying logs gave way beneath her, and she had fallen +into a vault or cellar beneath the building. Meanwhile those at the +house recovered their courage, and came towards us, bearing lights. We +entered the vault, and, on her knees before a figure, was Ella--the form +and dress were De Clairville's, such as we had seen him in last, but the +face, oh! heaven, the face showed but the white bones of a skeleton. The +rich brown curls still clung to the fleshless skull, and on the finger +glittered the ring with which Ella was to have been wed. The half of the +golden locket was clasped to his breast--the ribbon by which it hung +seemed to have been torn rudely from its place, but the hand had kept +its hold till the motion caused by our descent--it fell at Ella's feet, +a sad memento of other days, and recalled her to sensation. Horror paled +the brows of all, but to me was given a deeper woe, to think and know +what Ella must have felt. + +Every feeling was deepened to intensity of agony in the passing of that +night--that dreary closing of my bridal day. How came the morning's +light I know not, but when it did, the fresh breeze blew on my brow, and +I saw the remains of De Clairville lying on the grass before me--they +had borne him from below, and it showed more plainly the crime which had +been among us. The deep blue of the dress was changed to a darker hue +where the red life blood had flowed, and from the back was drawn the +treacherous implement of death. The hearts of all readily whispered the +murderer's name, and fuller proof was given in that ancient dagger that +had long been an heir-loom in the family of Conrad--a relic of the old +Teutonic race from whence they sprung--well was it known, and we had +often wondered at its disappearance. He, Conrad, was the murderer--he +had slain De Clairville, and fired the building to conceal his crime. +God was the avenger of the dark deed--the mighty hand of conscience +struck him in his proudest hour--the humblest things of earth, brought +deathly terror to his soul. 'Twas evident the appearance of the mullen +plant, which drew us to the spot, had been the cause of his death. The +words of the old sailor seemed true. The lowly herb had brought the +crime to light, and in the hand of heaven had punished the murderer. + +We buried De Clairville beneath a mossy mound, where the lofty pine and +spicy cedar waved above, and hallowed words were said o'er his rest. A +blight seemed to hover o'er our lonely settlement by the deed which had +been done within it. Nothing bound us to the spot; but hues of sadness +rested with it, and ever would. 'Twas an unhallowed spot, and we +prepared to leave it, and seek another resting place. + +Our boats lay ready by the beach, and some were already embarked. I +took a last look around--something white gleamed among the trees around +De Clairville's grave--'twas Ella, who lay there dead. She always +accused herself as the cause of De Clairville's death, and indirectly, +too, she had been--but restitution now was made. We laid her by his +side, and thus I lost my early, only love. + +Here then was it where we chose our heritage, and here we have since +remained, but everything is changed since then. Many an aged brow has +passed from earth, and many a bright eye closed in death. Every trace of +old is passing away, save where their shadows glide in the memory. Even +the grave where Ella slept is gone from earth. + +Twenty years after her death I made a pilgrimage to the place--the young +sapling pines which shaded it had grown to lofty trees--human voice +seemed never to have broken in tones of joy or woe the deep solitude +around--the long grass waved rank and dark above the walls we had +raised, and the red berries hung rich and ripe by the ruined +hearthstone. Again, when another twenty years passed, I came to it once +more--the weight of age had gathered o'er me, but there lay the buried +sunlight of my youth, and the spirit thoughts of other days drew me to +it. Again there was a change--a change which told me my own time drew +near. The woods were gone long since--the reaper had passed o'er the +lowly graves, and knew them not. The last record of my love and of my +woe, was gone. Dwellings were raised along the lonely beach, and laden +ships floated on the long silent waters. I bade the place farewell for +ever, and returned to await in peace and hope my summons to the promised +rest. + +The old man paused--the dreams of the past had weakened him, and he +retired for the night. Next morn we waited long for his presence, but he +came not. We sought his chamber, and found him dead. The soul had passed +away--one hand was folded on his heart, and oh! the might of earthly +love. It clasped a shining braid of silken hair, and something, of which +their faint perfume told to be the faded rose leaves--frail memorials of +his fondly loved Ella, but lasting after the warm heart which cherished +them was cold. He was gone where, if it be not in heaven "a crime to +love too well," his spirit may yet meet with her's, in that holy light, +whose purity of bliss may not be broken by the vain turmoil of earthly +feelings. So ends the story of uncle Ethel. + + * * * * * + +Well, said Grace, after we had discussed Ethel's melancholy story, +although I don't believe in ghosts, I cannot do away with my faith in +dreams, and last night I had a most disagreeable one, which disturbed me +much. I thought I had engaged my passage, and when I unclosed my purse +to pay down the money, nothing was in it but a plain gold ring and a +ruby heart. My money was gone, and, oh! the grief I felt was deeper than +waking language can describe. Then, Grace, said I, you must receive +consolation for your disagreeable dream, in the words of your own +favourite song, "Rory o'More," that dreams always go by contrary you +know, and so I shall read your dream. The plain gold ring means that +tie, which, like it, has no ending. The heart has, in all ages, been +held symbolical of its holiest feeling, and thus unite love and +marriage, and your sorrow will be turned to joy. So I prognosticate your +dream to mean. And time told I had foretold aright--for soon after we +had arrived in St. John's, the entrance to which, from the main river, +is extremely beautiful, showing every variety of scenery, from the green +meadows of rich intervale, where stand white dwellings and orchard +trees, to the grey and barren rocks, with cedary plumage towering to the +sky. + +Grace having engaged her passage home, we were turning from the office, +when a stranger bounded to us, and caught her by the hand. Grace Marley, +he exclaimed--my own, my beautiful. I felt her lean heavily on my arm; +she had fainted. And so deep was that trance, we fancied she was +gone--but joy rarely kills, and she awoke to the passionate exclamations +of her lover--for such he was, come o'er the deep sea to seek her. An +explanation ensued. Their letters to each other had all miscarried. None +had been received by either. (All this bitter disappointment, however, +happened before the establishment of our post.) So Grace, instead of +returning to Ireland, was wedded next day, her husband having brought +means with him to settle in the country. The magician, Love, flung his +rose-light o'er her path, and, when I saw her last, she fancied the +emerald glades of Oromot, where her home now lay, almost as beautiful as +those by the blue lakes of Killarney, in the land of her birth. + +With the end of September commence the night frosts. The woods now lose +their greenness; and the most brilliant hues of crimson, and gold, and +purple, are flung in gorgeous flakes of beauty over their boughs, as +though each leaf were crystal, and reflected and retained the light of +some glorious sunset. In this lovely season, which is most appropriately +termed the fall, we wished to _get along_ with our church, and have it +enclosed before the winter. This was rather an arduous undertaking in +young settlement like ours; but there were those here who loved + + "Old England's holy church, + And loved her form of prayer right well." + +And liberally they came forward to raise a temple to their faith in the +wilderness. The "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign +Lands" had promised assistance; but the frame must first be erected and +enclosed ere it could be claimed. In this country cash is a most scarce +commodity, and many species of speculation are made with the aid of +little real specie. Large sums are spoken of, but rarely appear bodily: +and our church got on in the same way. The owner of the saw-mill signed +twenty pounds as his subscription towards it, and paid it in boards--the +carpenters who did the work received from the subscribers pork and flour +for their pay--and our neighbour, the embarrassed lumber-man, who was +still wooden-headed enough to like anything of a _timber spec_, got out +the frame by contract, himself giving most generously five pounds worth +of work towards it. And thus the church was raised, and now it stands, +with white spire, pointing heavenward, above the ancient forest trees. + +As winter was now approaching, how to pass its long evenings agreeably +and rationally was a question which was agitated. The dwellers of +America are more enlightened now than in those old times when dancing +and feasting were the sole amusements, so a library was instituted and +formed by the same means as the church had been--a load of potatoes, or +a barrel of buckwheat, being given by each party to purchase books with. +The selection of these, to suit all tastes, was a matter of some +difficulty, the grave and serious declaiming against light reading, and +regarding a novel as the climax of human wickedness. One old lady, who +by the way was fond of reading, and had studied the ancient tale of +Pamela regularly, at her leisure, for the last forty years, was the +strongest against these, and, on being told that her favourite tome was +no less than a novel, she consigned it to oblivion, and seemed, for a +time, to have lost all faith in sublunary things. After some little +trouble, however, the thing was satisfactorily arranged. Even here, to +this lone nook of the western world, had reached the fame of the Caxtons +of modern times. Aught that bore the name of Chambers, had a place in +our collection, and the busy fingers of the little Edinburgh 'devils' +have brightened the solitude of many a home on the banks of the +Washedemoak. + +The Indian summer, which, in November, comes like breathing space, ere +the mighty power of winter sweeps o'er the earth, is beautiful, with its +balmy airs and soft bright skies, yet melancholy in its loveliness as a +fair face in death--'tis the last smile of summer, and when the last +wreath of crimson leaves fall to earth, the erratic birds take their +flight to warmer lands--the bear retires to his hollow tree--the +squirrel to his winter stores--and man calls forth all his genius to +make him independent of the storm king's power. In this country we have +a specimen of every climate at its utmost boundary of endurance; in +summer we have breathless days of burning heat shining on in shadowless +splendour of sunlight; but it is in the getting up of a winter's scene +that New Brunswick is perfect. True, a considerable tall sample of a +snow-storm can sometimes be enjoyed in England, but nothing to compare +with the free and easy sweep with which the monarch of clouds flings his +boons over this portion of his dominions. After the first snow-storm the +woods have a grand and beautiful appearance, festooned with their +garlands of feathery pearls--the raindrops which fall with the earlier +snows hang like diamond pendants, and flash in the sun, "As if gems were +the fruitage of every bough." + +I remember once coming from St. John's by water. The frost set in rather +earlier than we expected. The farther from the sea the sooner it +commences; so as we proceeded up the river our boat was stopped by the +crystal barrier across the stream, not strong enough yet to admit of +teaming, and we had nothing for it but a walk of seven miles through the +forest,--home we must proceed, though evening was closing in and +darkness would soon be around us, the heavy atmosphere told of a coming +storm, and ere to-morrow our path would be blocked up. America is the +land of invention; and here we were, on the dreary shore, in the dusky +twilight--a situation which requires the aid of philosophy. We were +something in the predicament of the Russian sailors in Spitzbergen, we +wanted light to guide us on the "blaze," without which we could not keep +it; but beyond the gleam of a patent congreve, our means extended not. +One of our company, however, a native of the country, took the matter +easy. Some birch trees were growing near, from which he stripped a +portion of the silvery bark, which being rolled into torches, were +ignited; each carried a store, and by their brilliant light we set out +on our pilgrimage. The effect of our most original Bude on the +snow-wreathed forest was magical--we seemed to traverse the palace +gardens of enchantment, so strange yet splendid was the scene--the snow +shining pure in the distance, and the thousand ice gems gleaming ruby +red in the rays of our torches. They are wondrous to walk through, those +boundless forests, when one thinks that by a slight deviation from the +track the path would be lost; and, ere it could be found again, the +spirit grow weary in its wanderings, and, taking its flight, leave the +unshrouded brows to bleach on summer flowers or winter snows, in the +path where the graceful carraboo bounds past, or the bear comes guided +by the tainted breeze to where it lies. + +It was on this midnight ramble that the facts of the following lines +were related to me, ending not, as such tales generally do, in death, +but in what perchance was worse,--civilisation lost in barbarism. + + +Many years ago two children, daughters of a person residing in this +province, were lost in the woods. What had been their fate none knew +--no trace of them could be found until, after a long period of time +had elapsed, one of them was discovered among some Indians, by whom they +had been taken, and with whom this one had remained, the other having +joined another tribe. She appeared an Indian squaw in every respect--her +complexion had been stained as dark as theirs--her costume was the same, +but she had blue eyes. This excited suspicion, which proved to be +correct. The story of the lost children was remembered, which event +occurred thirty years before. With some difficulty she was induced to +meet her mother, her only remaining parent. The tide of time swept back +from the mother's mind, and she hastened to embrace the child of her +memory, but, alas! the change. There existed for her no love in the +bosom of the lost one. Her relatives wishing to reclaim her from her +savage life, earnestly besought her to remain with them, but their ways +were not as her's--she felt as a stranger with them, and rejoined the +Indian band, with whom she still remains. + + + + + THE LOST CHILDREN. + + At early morn a mother stood, + Her hands were raised to heaven. + And she praised Almighty God + For the blessings He had given; + But far too deep were they + Encircled in her heart,-- + Too deep for human weal, + For earth and love must part. + She looked with hope too bright + On the forms that by her bent, + And loved, by far too fondly, + Those treasures God had sent. + They bound her to the earth, + With love's own golden chain, + How were its bright links severed + By the spirit's wildest pain? + She parted the rich tresses, + And kissed each snowy brow, + And where, oh! happy mother, + Was one so blest as thou? + The summer sun was shining + All cloudless o'er the lea, + When forth her children bounded, + In childhood's summer glee. + They strayed along the woody banks, + All fringed with sunny green, + Where, like a silver serpent, + The river ran between. + Their glad young voices rose, + As they thought of flower or bird, + And they sang the joyous fancies + That in each spirit stirred. + Oh! sister, see that humming bird; + Saw ye ever ought so fair? + With wings of gold and ruby, + He sparkles through the air; + Let us follow where he flies + O'er yonder hazel dell, + For oh! it must be beautiful + Where such a thing can dwell. + Yet to me it seemeth still, + That his rest must be on high; + Methinks his plumes are bathed + In the even's crimson sky: + How lovely is this earth, + Where such fair things we see, + And yet how much more glorious + The power that bids them be! + Nay, sister, let us stay + Where those water lilies float, + So spotless and so pure + Like a fairy's pearly boat. + Listen to the melody + That cometh soft and low, + As through the twining tendrils + The water glides below. + Perchance 'twas in a spot like this, + And by a stream as mild, + Where the Jewish mother laid + Her gentle Hebrew child. + Then rested they beneath the trees, + Where, through the leafy shade, + In ever-changing radiance, + The broken sun-light played; + And spoke in words, whose simple truth + Revealed the guileless soul, + Till softly o'er their senses + A quiet slumber stole. + Lo! now a form comes glancing + Along the waters blue, + And moored among the lilies + Lay an Indian's dark canoe. + The days of ancient feud were gone. + The axe was buried deep. + And stilled the red man's warfare, + In unawaking sleep. + Why stands he then so silently, + Where those fair children lie? + And say, what means the flashing + Of the Indian's eagle eye? + He thinks him of his lonely spouse, + Within her forest glade; + Around her silent dwelling + No children ever played. + No voice arose to greet him + When he at eve would come, + But sadness ever hovered + Around his dreary home. + Oh! with those lovely rose-buds + Were my lone hearth-stone blest, + My richest food should cheer them, + My softest furs should rest. + Their kindred drive us onward, + Where the setting sunbeams shine; + They claim our father's heritage, + Why may not these be mine? + He raised the sleeping children, + Oh! sad and dreary day! + And o'er the dancing waters + He bore them far away. + He wiled their hearts' young feelings + With words and actions kind, + And soon the past went fading + All dream-like from their mind. + + * * * * * + + Oh! brightly sped the beaming sun + Along his glorious way, + And feathery clouds of golden light + Around his parting lay. + In beauty came the holy stars, + All gleaming mid the blue, + It seemed as o'er the lovely earth + A blessed calm they threw. + A sound of grief arose + On the dewy evening air, + It bore the bitter anguish + Of a mortal's wild despair; + A wail like that which sounded + Throughout Judea's land, + When Herod's haughty minions + Obeyed his dark command. + The mourning mother wept + Because her babes were not, + Their forms were gone for ever + From each familiar spot. + Oh! had they sought the river, + And sunk beneath its wave; + Or had the dark recesses + Of the forest been their grave. + The same deep tinge of sorrow, + Each surmise ever bore; + Her gems from her were taken; + Of their fate she knew no more. + Long years of withering woe went on, + Each sadly as the last, + To other's ears the theme became + A legend of the past. + But she, oh! bright she cherished + Their memory enshrined, + With all a mother's fondness + And fadeless truth entwined. + Many a hope she treasured + In sorrow's gloom had burst, + But still her spirit knew + No grieving like the first. + Along her faded forehead + The hand of time had crost, + And every furrow told + Her mourning for the lost. + With such deep love within her, + What words the truth could give, + Howe'er she heard the tidings-- + "Thy children yet they live." + But one alone was near, + And with rushing feelings wild, + The aged mother flew + To meet once more her child. + A moment passed away-- + The lost one slowly came, + And stood before her there-- + A tall and dark-browed dame. + Far from her swarthy forehead + Her raven hair was roll'd; + She spoke to those around her, + Her voice was stern and cold: + "Why seek ye here to bind me, + I would again be free; + They say ye are my kindred-- + But what are ye to me? + My spring of youth was past + With the people of the wild: + And slumber in the green-wood + My husband and my child. + 'Tis true I oft have seen ye + In the visions of the night; + But many a shadow comes + From the dreamer's land of light. + If e'er I've been among ye, + Save in my wandering thought, + The memory has passed away-- + Ye long have been forgot." + And were not these hard words to come + To that fond mother's heart, + Who through such years of agony + Had kept her loving part. + Her wildest wish was granted-- + Her deepest prayer was heard-- + Yet it but served to show her + How deeply she had err'd. + The mysteries of God's high will + May not be understood; + And mortals may not vainly ask, + To them, what seemeth good. + With spirit wrung to earth, + In grief she bowed her head: + "Oh! better far than meet thee thus, + To mourn thee with the dead." + But, think ye, He who comforted + The widowed one of Nain-- + Who bade the lonely Hagar + With hope revive again? + Think ye that mother's trusting love + Should bleed without a balm? + No! o'er the troubled spirit + There came a blessed calm. + Amid the savage relics + Around her daughter flung, + Upon her naked bosom + A crucifix there hung. + And though the simple Indian + False tenets might enthral-- + Yet, 'twas the blessed symbol + Of Him who died for all. + And the mourner's heart rejoiced + For the promise seemed to say-- + She shall be thine in Heaven, + When the world has passed away. + Tho' now ye meet as strangers, + Yet there ye shall be one; + And live in love for ever, + When time and earth are gone. + +In the days of the early settling of the country, marriages were +attended with a ceremony called stumping. This was a local way of +publishing the banns, the names of the parties and the announcement of +the event to take place being written on a slip of paper, and inserted +on the numerous stumps bordering the corduroy road, that all who ran +might read, though perchance none might scan it save some bewildered fox +or wandering bear; the squire read the ceremony from the prayer-book, +received his dollar, and further form for wedlock was required not. Now +they order these things differently. A wedding is a regular frolic, and +generally performed by a clergyman (though a few in the back settlements +still adhere to the custom of their fathers), a large party being +invited to solemnise the event. The last winter we were in the country +we attended one some distance from home; but here, while flying along +the ice paths, distance is not thought of. Nothing can be more +exhilarating than sleigh-riding, the clear air bracing the nerves, and +the bells ringing gladly out. These bells are worn round the horse's +neck and on the harness, to give warning of the sleigh's approach, which +otherwise would not be heard over the smooth road. The glassy way was +crowded with skaters, gliding past with graceful ease and folded arms, +"as though they trod on tented ground." We soon reached our destination, +and found assembled a large and joyous party. The festival commenced in +the morning, and continued late. The fare was luxuriant, and the bride, +in her white dress and orange blossoms (for, be it known, such things +are sometimes seen, even in this region of spruce and pine), looked as +all brides do, bashful and beautiful. The "grave and pompous father," +and busy-minded mother, had a look which, though concealed, told that at +heart they rejoiced to see their "bairn respeckit like the lave," and +"all indeed went merry as a marriage bell." We and some others left at +midnight. The air was piercingly cold, and the bear skins in which we +were wrapped soon had a white fringe, where fell the fast congealing +breath. There was no moon, and the stars looked dim, in the fitful gleam +of the streamers of the aurora borealis, which were glancing in +corruscations of awful grandeur along the heavens, now throwing a blood +red glare on the snow, their pale sepulchral rays of green or blue +imparting a ghastly horror to the scene, or arranging themselves like +the golden pillars of some mighty organ, while, ever and again, a wild +unearthly sound is heard, as if swords were clashing. Those mysterious +northern lights, whose appearance in superstitious times was supposed to +threaten, or be the forerunner, of dire calamity; and no wonder was it, +for even now, with all the light science has thrown upon such things, +there is attached to them, seen as they are in this country, a feeling +of dread which cannot all be dispelled. + +Travelling on the ice is not altogether free from danger; and even when +it is thought safe, there are places where it is dangerous to go. The +best plan of avoiding these is to follow the track of those who have +gone before--never, but with caution, and especially at night, striking +out a new one. + +One of the parties who accompanied us wished to reach the shore. There +was a path which, though rather longer, would have led him safely to +it, but he determined to strike across the unmarked ice, to where be +wished to land. All advised him to take the longer way, but he was +resolute, and turned his horse's head from us. The gallant steed bounded +forward--the golden light was beaming from the sky--and we paused to +watch his progress. A fearful crashing was heard--then a sharp crack, +and sleigh, horse, and rider vanished from our sight. 'Twas horrible to +see them thus enclosed in that cold tomb. + +Assistance was speedily sought from the shore, but ere it came I heard +the horrid shout of "steeds that snort in agony," while the blue +sulphurous flash from above showed the man struggling helplessly among +the breaking ice. Poles were placed from the solid parts to where he +was, and he was rescued. He was carried to the nearest house, and with +some difficulty restored to warmth. The sleighing rarely passes without +many such accidents occurring, merely through want of caution. + +When the balmy breezes of spring again blew ever New Brunswick, +circumstances had arisen which induced me to leave it, and though I +loved it not as my native land, I sighed to go, so much of kindness and +good feeling had I enjoyed among its dwellers; and I stood on the +vessel's deck, gazing on it till the green trees and white walls of +Partridge-Island faded in the distance, and the rolling waves of the Bay +of Fundy, throwing me into that least terrestrial of all maladies, the +"mal du mer," rendered me insensible of all sublunary cares. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches And Tales Illustrative Of +Life In The Backwoods Of New Brunswick, by Mrs. F. 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