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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cedar Creek, by Elizabeth Hely Walshe
+
+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: Cedar Creek
+       From the Shanty to the Settlement
+
+Author: Elizabeth Hely Walshe
+
+Release Date: January 26, 2010 [EBook #31091]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CEDAR CREEK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ [Illustration:
+ ANDY HELPS THE INDIAN SQUAW TO CONSTRUCT THE WIGWAM.--_Page_ 225.]
+
+
+
+
+CEDAR CREEK
+
+_FROM THE SHANTY TO THE SETTLEMENT_
+
+A Tale of Canadian Life
+
+
+BY THE AUTHOR OF
+
+'GOLDEN HILLS, A TALE OF THE IRISH FAMINE'
+'THE FOSTER-BROTHERS OF DOON,' ETC.
+
+
+LONDON
+THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
+56 PATERNOSTER ROW, 65 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD
+AND 164 PICCADILLY
+
+MORRISON AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,
+PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+    CHAP.                                          PAGE
+
+        I. WHY ROBERT WYNN EMIGRATED,                 7
+       II. CROSSING THE 'FERRY,'                     22
+      III. UP THE ST. LAWRENCE,                      35
+       IV. WOODEN-NESS,                              44
+        V. DEBARKATION,                              52
+       VI. CONCERNING AN INCUBUS,                    63
+      VII. THE RIVER HIGHWAY,                        70
+     VIII. 'JEAN BAPTISTE' AT HOME,                  78
+       IX. 'FROM MUD TO MARBLE,'                     86
+        X. CORDUROY,                                 96
+       XI. THE BATTLE WITH THE WILDERNESS BEGINS,   105
+      XII. CAMPING IN THE BUSH,                     115
+     XIII. THE YANKEE STOREKEEPER,                  123
+      XIV. THE 'CORNER,'                            133
+       XV. ANDY TREES A 'BASTE,'                    138
+      XVI. LOST IN THE WOODS,                       145
+     XVII. BACK TO CEDAR CREEK,                     154
+    XVIII. GIANT TWO-SHOES,                         166
+      XIX. A MEDLEY,                                171
+       XX. THE ICE-SLEDGE,                          180
+      XXI. THE FOREST-MAN,                          186
+     XXII. SILVER SLEIGH-BELLS,                     196
+    XXIII. STILL-HUNTING,                           202
+     XXIV. LUMBERERS,                               214
+      XXV. CHILDREN OF THE FOREST,                  220
+     XXVI. ON A SWEET SUBJECT,                      229
+    XXVII. A BUSY BEE,                              235
+   XXVIII. OLD FACES UPON NEW NEIGHBOURS,           244
+     XXIX. ONE DAY IN JULY,                         250
+      XXX. VISITORS AND VISITED,                    259
+     XXXI. SUNDAY IN THE FOREST,                    260
+    XXXII. HOW THE CAPTAIN CLEARED HIS BUSH,        274
+   XXXIII. THE FOREST ON FIRE,                      280
+    XXXIV. TRITON AMONG MINNOWS,                    291
+     XXXV. THE PINK MIST,                           298
+    XXXVI. BELOW ZERO,                              309
+   XXXVII. A CUT, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES,             315
+  XXXVIII. JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES,                      324
+    XXXIX. SETTLER THE SECOND,                      329
+       XL. AN UNWELCOME SUITOR,                     338
+      XLI. THE MILL-PRIVILEGE,                      343
+     XLII. UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS,               351
+    XLIII. A BUSH-FLITTING,                         359
+     XLIV. SHOVING OF THE ICE,                      370
+      XLV. EXEUNT OMNES,                            378
+
+
+
+
+CEDAR CREEK.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+WHY ROBERT WYNN EMIGRATED.
+
+
+A night train drew up slowly alongside the platform at the Euston Square
+terminus. Immediately the long inanimate line of rail-carriages burst
+into busy life: a few minutes of apparently frantic confusion, and the
+individual items of the human freight were speeding towards all parts of
+the compass, to be absorbed in the leviathan metropolis, as drops of a
+shower in a boundless sea.
+
+One of the cabs pursuing each other along the lamplit streets, and
+finally diverging among the almost infinite ramifications of London
+thoroughfares, contains a young man, who sits gazing through the window
+at the rapidly passing range of houses and shops with curiously fixed
+vision. The face, as momentarily revealed by the beaming of a brilliant
+gaslight, is chiefly remarkable for clear dark eyes rather deeply set,
+and a firm closure of the lips. He scarcely alters his posture during
+the miles of driving through wildernesses of brick and stone: some
+thoughts are at work beneath that broad short brow, which keep him thus
+still. He has never been in London before. He has come now on an errand
+of hope and endeavour, for he wants to push himself into the army of the
+world's workers, somewhere. Prosaically, he wants to earn his bread,
+and, if possible, butter wherewith to flavour it. Like Britons in
+general, from Dick Whittington downwards, he thinks that the capital is
+the place in which to seek one's fortune, and to find it. He had not
+expected streets paved with gold, nor yet with the metaphorical plenty
+of penny loaves; but an indefinite disappointment weighs upon him as he
+passes through quarters fully as dingy and poverty-stricken as those in
+his own provincial town.
+
+Still on--on--across 'the province covered with houses;' sometimes in a
+great thoroughfare, where midnight is as noisy as noon-day, and much
+more glaring; sometimes through a region of silence and sleep, where
+gentility keeps proper hours, going to bed betimes in its respectable
+streets. Robert Wynn began to wonder when the journey would end; for,
+much as he knew of London by hearsay and from books, it was widely
+different thus personally to experience the metropolitan amplitude. A
+slight dizziness of sight, from the perpetual sweeping past of lamps and
+shadowy buildings, caused him to close his eyes; and from speculations
+on the possible future and the novel present, his thoughts went straight
+home again.
+
+Home to the Irish village where his ancestors had long been lords of the
+soil; and the peasantry had deemed that the greatest power on earth,
+under majesty itself, was his Honour Mr. Wynn of Dunore, where now,
+fallen from greatness, the family was considerably larger than the
+means. The heavily encumbered property had dropped away piece by piece,
+and the scant residue clung to its owner like shackles. With difficulty
+the narrow exchequer had raised cash enough to send Robert on this
+expedition to London, from which much was hoped. The young man had
+been tolerably well educated; he possessed a certain amount and
+quality of talent, extolled by partial friends as far above the
+average; but the mainstay of his anticipations was a promise of a
+Civil Service appointment, obtained from an influential quarter; and
+his unsophisticated country relatives believed he had only to present
+himself in order to realize it at once.
+
+He was recalled to London by the sudden stoppage of the cab. On the dim
+lamp over a doorway was stained the name of the obscure hotel to which
+he had been recommended as central in situation, while cheap in charges.
+Cabby's fare was exorbitant, the passenger thought; but, after a faint
+resistance, Mr. Wynn was glad to escape from the storm of h-less
+remonstrances by payment of the full demand, and so entered the
+coffee-room.
+
+It was dingy and shabby-genteel, like the exterior; a quarter of a
+century might have elapsed since the faded paper had been put up, or a
+stroke of painting executed, in that dispiriting apartment. Meanwhile,
+all the agencies of travel-stain had been defacing both. An odour of
+continual meal-times hung about it; likewise of smoke of every grade,
+from the perfumed havanna to the plebeian pigtail. The little tables
+were dark with hard work and antiquity; the chair seats polished with
+innumerable frictions. A creeping old waiter, who seemed to have known
+better days in a higher-class establishment, came to receive the
+new-comer's orders; and Robert sat down to wait for his modest chop and
+glass of ale.
+
+That morning's _Times_ lay on his table: he glanced over the broad sheet
+of advertisements--that wondrous daily record of need and of endeavour
+among the toiling millions of London. The inexplicable solitude in a
+crowd came about the reader's heart: what a poor chance had a provincial
+stranger amid the jostling multitude all eager for the prizes of comfort
+and competence! Robert went back for anchor to one strong fact. The
+Honourable Mr. Currie Faver, Secretary to the Board of Patronage, had
+declared to the member for the Irish county of C----, on the eve of an
+important division, that his young friend should have the earliest
+appointment at his disposal in a certain department. Robert Wynn felt an
+inward gratulation on the superiority of his auspices. True, the promise
+made in January yet remained due in July; but there were numberless
+excellent good reasons why Mr. Currie Faver had been as yet unable to
+redeem his pledge.
+
+Robert turned his paper to look for the news: a paragraph in the corner
+arrested his attention.
+
+'We learn from the best authority that, owing to the diminution of
+business consequent upon recent Acts of the Legislature, it is the
+intention of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Public Locomotion to reduce
+their staffs of officials, so that no fresh appointments can be made for
+some months.'
+
+He gazed at this piece of intelligence much longer than was necessary
+for the mere reading of it. The Board of Public Locomotion was the very
+department in which he had been promised a clerkship. Robert made up his
+mind that it could not be true; it was a mere newspaper report: at
+all events, Mr. Currie Faver was bound by a previous pledge; whoever
+remained unappointed, it could not be a friend of the hon. member for
+C----.
+
+There were voices in the next compartment, and presently their
+conversation was forced on Mr. Wynn's attention by the strongly stated
+sentiment, 'The finest country in the world--whips all creation, it
+does.'
+
+Some rejoinder ensued in a low tone.
+
+'Cold!' with a rather scornful accent, 'I should think so. Gloriously
+cold! None of your wet sloppy winters and foggy skies, but ice a yard
+and a half thick for months. What do you think of forty degrees below
+zero, stranger?'
+
+Robert could fancy the other invisible person shrugging his shoulders.
+
+'Don't like it, eh? That's just a prejudice here in the old country;
+natural enough to them that don't know the difference. When a man hears
+of seventy degrees below the freezing-point, he's apt to get a shiver.
+But there, we don't mind it; the colder the merrier: winter's our time
+of fun: sleighing and skating parties, logging and quilting bees, and
+other sociabilities unknown to you in England. Ay, we're the finest
+people and the finest country on earth; and since I've been to see
+yours, I'm the steadier in that opinion.'
+
+'But emigrants in the backwoods have so few of the comforts of
+civilisation,' began the other person, with a weak, irresolute voice.
+
+'Among which is foremost the tax-gatherer, I suppose?' was the
+triumphant rejoinder. 'Well, stranger, that's an animal I never saw in
+full blow till I've been to the old country. I was obliged to clear out
+of our lodgings yesterday because they came down on the furniture for
+poor-rate. Says I to the landlady, who was crying and wringing her
+hands, "Why not come to the country where there's no taxes at all,
+nor rent either, if you choose?" Then it would frighten one, all
+she counted up on her fingers--poor-rate, paving-rate, water-rate,
+lighting, income-tax, and no end of others. I reckon that's what you
+pay for your high civilisation. Now, with us, there's a water privilege
+on a'most every farm, and a pile of maple-logs has fire and gaslight in
+it for the whole winter; and there's next to no poor, for every man
+and woman that's got hands and health can make a living. Why, your
+civilisation is your misfortune in the old country; you've got to
+support a lot of things and people besides yourself and your family.'
+
+'Surely you are not quite without taxes,' said the other.
+
+'Oh, we lay a trifle on ourselves for roads and bridges and schools, and
+such things. There's custom-houses at the ports; but if a man chooses to
+live without tea or foreign produce, he won't be touched by the indirect
+taxes either. I guess we've the advantage of you there. You can't hardly
+eat or drink, or walk or ride, or do anything else, without a tax
+somewhere in the background slily sucking your pocket.'
+
+'A United States citizen,' thought Robert Wynn. 'What a peculiar accent
+he has! and the national swagger too.' And Mr. Wynn, feeling intensely
+British, left his box, and walked into the midst of the room with his
+newspaper, wishing to suggest the presence of a third person. He glanced
+at the American, a middle-aged, stout-built man, with an intelligent
+and energetic countenance, who returned the glance keenly. There was
+something indescribably foreign about his dress, though in detail it was
+as usual; and his manner and air were those of one not accustomed to the
+conventional life of cities. His companion was a tall, pale, elderly
+person, who bore his piping voice in his appearance, and seemed an eager
+listener.
+
+'And you say that I would make an independence if I emigrated?' asked
+the latter, fidgeting nervously with a piece of paper.
+
+'Any man would who has pluck and perseverance. You would have to work
+hard, though;' and his eyes fell on the white irresolute hands, dubious
+as to the requisite qualities being there indicated. 'You'd want a
+strong constitution if you're for the backwoods.'
+
+'The freedom of a settler's life, surrounded by all the beauties of
+nature, would have great charms for me,' observed the other.
+
+'Yes,' replied the American, rather drily; 'but I reckon you wouldn't
+see many beauties till you had a log shanty up, at all events. Now that
+young man'--he had caught Robert Wynn's eye on him again--'is the very
+build for emigration. Strong, active, healthy, wide awake: no offence,
+young gentleman, but such as you are badly wanted in Canada West.'
+
+From this began a conversation which need not be minutely detailed. It
+was curious to see what a change was produced in Robert's sentiments
+towards the settler, by learning that he was a Canadian, and not a
+United States man: 'the national swagger' became little more than a
+dignified assertion of independence, quite suitable to a British
+subject; the accent he had disliked became an interesting local
+characteristic. Mr. Hiram Holt was the son of an English settler, who
+had fixed himself on the left bank of the Ottawa, amid what was then
+primeval forest, and was now a flourishing township, covered with
+prosperous farms and villages. Here had the sturdy Saxon struggled with,
+and finally conquered, adverse circumstances, leaving his eldest son
+possessed of a small freehold estate, and his other children portioned
+comfortably, so that much of the neighbourhood was peopled by his
+descendants. And this, Hiram's first visit to the mother country--for
+he was Canadian born--was on colonial business, being deputed from his
+section of the province, along with others, to give evidence, as a
+landed proprietor, before the Secretary of State, whose gate-lodge
+his father would have been proud to keep when he was a poor Suffolk
+labourer.
+
+'Now there's an injustice,' quoth Mr. Holt, diverging into politics.
+'England has forty-three colonies, and but one man to oversee them
+all--a man that's jerked in and out of office with every successive
+Ministry, and is almost necessarily more intent on party manoeuvres
+than on the welfare of the young nations he rules. Our colony alone--the
+two Canadas--is bigger than Great Britain and Ireland three times over.
+Take in all along Vancouver's Island, and it's as big as Europe.
+_There's_ a pretty considerable slice of the globe for one man to
+manage! But forty-two other colonies have to be managed as well;
+and I guess a nursery of forty-three children of all ages left to
+one care-taker would run pretty wild, I do.'
+
+'Yet we never hear of mismanagement,' observed Robert, in an unlucky
+moment; for Mr. Hiram Holt retained all the Briton's prerogative of
+grumbling, and in five minutes had rehearsed a whole catalogue of
+colonial grievances very energetically.
+
+'Then I suppose you'll be for joining the stars and stripes?' said the
+young man.
+
+'Never!' exclaimed the settler. 'Never, while there's a rag of the union
+jack to run up. But it's getting late;' and as he rose to his feet with
+a tremendous yawn, Robert perceived his great length, hitherto concealed
+by the table on which he leaned. 'This life would kill me in six months.
+In my own place I'm about the farm at sunrise in summer. Never knew
+what it was to be sick, young man.' And so the party separated; Robert
+admiring the stalwart muscular frame of the Canadian as he strode before
+him up the stairs towards their sleeping-rooms. As he passed Mr. Holt's
+door, he caught a glimpse of bare floor, whence all the carpets had been
+rolled off into a corner, every vestige of curtain tucked away, and the
+window sashes open to their widest. Subsequently he learned that to
+such domestic softnesses as carpets and curtains the sturdy settler had
+invincible objections, regarding them as symptoms of effeminacy not
+suitable to his character, though admitting that for women they were
+well enough.
+
+Robert was all night felling pines, building log-huts, and wandering
+amid interminable forests; and when his shaving water and boots awoke
+him at eight, he was a little surprised to find himself a denizen
+of a London hotel. Mr. Holt had gone out hours before. After a hasty
+breakfast Mr. Wynn ordered a cab, and proceeded to the residence of the
+hon. member for C---- county.
+
+It was a mansion hired for the season in one of the fashionable squares;
+for so had the hon. member's domestic board of control, his lady-wife
+and daughters, willed. Of course, Robert was immensely too early; he
+dismissed the cab, and wandered about the neighbourhood, followed by
+suspicious glances from one or two policemen, until, after calling at
+the house twice, he was admitted into a library beset with tall dark
+bookcases. Here sat the M.P. enjoying the _otium cum dignitate_, in a
+handsome morning gown, with bundles of parliamentary papers and a little
+stack of letters on the table. But none of the legislative literature
+engrossed his attention just then: the _Morning Post_ dropped from his
+fingers as he arose and shook hands with the son of his constituent.
+
+'Ah, my dear Wynn--how happy--delighted indeed, I assure you. Have you
+breakfasted? all well at home? your highly honoured father? late sitting
+at the House last night--close of the session most exhausting even to
+seasoned members, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer said to me last
+evening in the lobby;' and here followed an anecdote. But while he thus
+ran on most affably, the under-current of idea in his mind was somewhat
+as follows: 'What on earth does this young fellow want of me? His
+family interest in the county almost gone--not worth taking pains to
+please any longer--a great bore--yet I must be civil;--oh, I recollect
+Currie Paver's promise--thinks he has given me enough this session'--
+
+Meanwhile, Robert was quite interested by his agreeable small talk.
+It is so charming to hear great names mentioned familiarly by one
+personally acquainted with them; to learn that Palmerston and Lord John
+can breakfast like ordinary mortals. By and by, with a blush and a
+falter (for the mere matter of his personal provision for life seemed so
+paltry among these world-famed characters and their great deeds, that he
+was almost ashamed to allude to it), Robert Wynn ventured to make his
+request, that the hon. member for C---- would go to the hon. Secretary
+of the Board of Patronage, and claim the fulfilment of his promise.
+Suddenly the M.P. became grave and altogether the senator, with his
+finger thoughtfully upon his brow--the identical attitude which Grant
+had commemorated on canvas, beaming from the opposite wall.
+
+'An unfortunate juncture; close of the session, when everybody wants to
+be off, and Ministers don't need to swell their majorities any longer.
+I recollect perfectly to what you allude; but, my dear young friend,
+all these ministerial promises, as you term them, are more or less
+conditional, and it may be quite out of Mr. Currie Paver's power to
+fulfil this.'
+
+'Then he should not have made it, sir,' said Robert hotly.
+
+'For instance,' proceeded the hon. gentleman, not noticing the
+interruption, 'the new arrangements of the Commissioners renders it
+almost impossible that they should appoint to a clerkship, either
+supernumerary or otherwise, while they are reducing the ordinary staff.
+But I'll certainly go to Mr. Faver, and remind him of the circumstance:
+we can only be refused at worst. You may be assured of my warmest
+exertions in your behalf: any request from a member of your family
+ought to be a command with me, Mr. Wynn.'
+
+Robert's feelings of annoyance gave way to gratification at Mr. A----'s
+blandness, which, however, had a slight acid behind.
+
+'And though times are greatly altered, I don't forget our old
+electioneering, when your father proposed me on my first hustings.
+Greatly altered, Mr. Wynn; greatly altered. I must go to the morning
+sitting now, but I'll send you a note as to the result of my interview.
+You must have much to see about London. I quite envy you your first
+visit to such a world of wonders; I am sure you will greatly enjoy it.
+Good morning, Mr. Wynn. I hope I shall have good news for you.'
+
+And so Robert was bowed out, to perambulate the streets in rather
+bitter humour. Was he to return to the poor, scantily supplied home,
+and continue a drag on its resources, lingering out his days in
+illusive hopes? Oh that his strong hands and strong heart had some
+scope for their energies! He paused in one mighty torrent of busy faces
+and eager footsteps, and despised himself for his inaction. All these
+had business of one kind or other; all were earnestly intent upon their
+calling; but he was a waif and a straw on the top of the tide, with
+every muscle stoutly strung, and every faculty of his brain clear and
+sound. Would he let the golden years of his youth slip by, without
+laying any foundation for independence? Was this Civil Service
+appointment worth the weary waiting? Emigration had often before
+presented itself as a course offering certain advantages. Mr. Holt's
+conversation had brightened the idea. For his family, as well as
+for himself, it would be beneficial. The poor proud father, who had
+frequently been unable to leave his house for weeks together, through
+fear of arrest for debt, would be happier with an ocean between him and
+the ancestral estates, thronged with memories of fallen affluence: the
+young brothers, Arthur and George, who were nearing man's years without
+ostensible object or employment, would find both abundantly in the
+labour of a new country and a settler's life. Robert had a whole
+picture sketched and filled in during half an hour's sit in the dingy
+coffee-room; from the shanty to the settlement was portrayed by his
+fertile fancy, till he was awakened from his reverie by the hearty
+voice of Hiram Holt.
+
+'I thought for a minute you were asleep, with your hat over your eyes. I
+hope you're thinking of Canada, young man?'
+
+Robert could not forbear smiling.
+
+'Now,' said Mr. Holt, apparently speaking aloud a previous train of
+thought, 'of all things in this magnificent city of yours, which I'm
+free to confess beats Quebec and Montreal by a long chalk, nothing seems
+queerer to me than the thousands of young men in your big shops, who are
+satisfied to struggle all their lives in a poor unmanly way, while our
+millions of acres are calling out for hands to fell the forests and own
+the estates, and create happy homes along our unrivalled rivers and
+lakes. The young fellow that sold me these gloves'--showing a new pair
+on his hands--'would make as fine a backwoodsman as I ever saw--six feet
+high, and strong in proportion. It's the sheerest waste of material to
+have that fellow selling stockings.'
+
+But Mr. Holt found Robert Wynn rather taciturn; whereupon he observed:
+'I'm long enough in the world young man, to see that to-day's experience,
+whatever it has been, has bated your hopes a bit; the crest ain't so
+plumy as last night. But I say you'll yet bless the disappointment,
+whatever it is, that forces you over the water to our land of plenty.
+Come out of this overcrowded nation, out where there's elbow-room and
+free breathing. Tell you what, young man, the world doesn't want you in
+densely packed England and Ireland, but you're wanted in Canada, every
+thew and sinew that you have. The market for such as you is overstocked
+here: out with us you'll be at a premium. Don't be offended if I've
+spoke plain, for Hiram Holt is not one of them that can chop a pine
+into matches: whatever I am thinking, out with the whole of it. But if
+you ever want a friend on the Ottawa'--
+
+Robert asserted that he had no immediate idea of emigration; his
+prospects at home were not bad, etc. He could not let this rough
+stranger see the full cause he had for depression.
+
+'Not bad! but I tell you they're nothing compared to the prospects you
+may carve out for yourself with that clever head and those able hands.'
+Again Mr. Holt seized the opportunity of dilating on the perfections of
+his beloved colony: had he been a paid agent, he could not have more
+zealously endeavoured to enlist Robert as an emigrant. But it was all
+a product of national enthusiasm, and of the pride which Canadians may
+well feel concerning their magnificent country.
+
+Next morning a few courteous lines from the hon. member for C---- county
+informed Mr. Wynn, with much regret, that, as he had anticipated, Mr.
+Currie Faver had for the present no nomination for the department
+referred to, nor would have for at least twelve months to come.
+
+'Before which time, I trust,' soliloquized Robert a little fiercely, 'I
+shall be independent of all their favours.' And amidst some severe
+reflections on the universal contempt accorded to the needy, and the
+corrupted state of society in England, which estimates a man by the
+length of his purse chiefly, Robert Wynn formed the resolution that he
+would go to Canada.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CROSSING THE 'FERRY.'
+
+
+Robert Wynn returned home to Dunore, having gained nothing by his
+London trip but a little of that bitter though salutary tonic called
+experience. His resolve did not waver--nay, it became his day-dream; but
+manifold obstacles occurred in the attempt to realize it. Family pride
+was one of the most stubborn; and not until all hope from home resources
+was at an end, did his father give consent.
+
+About a month after his meeting with Hiram Holt in the London
+coffee-house, he and his brother Arthur found themselves on board a fine
+emigrant vessel, passing down the river Lee into Cork harbour, under the
+leadership of a little black steam-tug. Grievous had been the wailing of
+the passengers at parting with their kinsfolk on the quay; but, somewhat
+stilled by this time, they leaned in groups on the bulwarks, or were
+squatted about on deck among their infinitude of red boxes and brilliant
+tins, watching the villa-whitened shores gliding by rapidly. Only an
+occasional vernacular ejaculation, such as 'Oh, wirra! wirra!' or, 'Och
+hone, mavrone!' betokened the smouldering remains of emotion in the
+frieze coats and gaudy shawls assembled for'ard: the wisest of the
+party were arranging their goods and chattels 'tween-decks, where they
+must encamp for a month or more; but the majority, with truly Celtic
+improvidence, will wait till they are turned down at nightfall, and have
+a general scramble in the dusk.
+
+Now the noble Cove of Cork stretches before them, a sheet of glassy
+water, dotted with a hundred sail, from the base of the sultry hill
+faced with terraces and called Queenstown, to the far Atlantic beyond
+the Heads. Heavy and dark loom the fortified Government buildings of
+Haulbowline and the prisons of Spike Island, casting forbidding
+shadows on the western margin of the tide. Quickly the steam-tug
+and her follower thread their way among islets and moored barques and
+guard-ships, southward to the sea. No pause anywhere; the passengers of
+the brig Ocean Queen are shut up in a world of their own for a while;
+yet they do not feel the bond with mother country quite severed till
+they have cleared the last cape, and the sea-line lies wide in view; nor
+even then, till the little black tug casts off the connecting cables,
+and rounds away back across the bar, within the jaws of the bay.
+
+Hardly a breath of breeze: but such as blows is favourable; and
+with infinite creaking all sail is set. The sound wakes up emigrant
+sorrow afresh; the wildly contagious Irish cry is raised, much to the
+discomposure of the captain, who stood on the quarterdeck with Robert
+Wynn.
+
+'The savages! they will be fitting mates for Red Indians, and may add
+a stave or two to the war-whoop. One would think they were all going
+to the bottom immediately.' He walked forward to quell the noise, if
+possible, but he might as well have stamped and roared at Niagara. Not a
+voice cared for his threats or his rage, but those within reach of his
+arm. The choleric little man had to come back baffled.
+
+'Masther Robert, would _ye_ like 'em to stop?' whispered a great hulking
+peasant who had been looking on; 'for if ye would, I'll do it while ye'd
+be taking a pinch of snuff.'
+
+Andy Callaghan disappeared somewhere for a moment, and presently emerged
+with an old violin, which he began to scrape vigorously. Even his tuning
+was irresistibly comical; and he had not been playing a lively jig for
+ten minutes, before two or three couples were on their feet performing
+the figure. Soon an admiring circle, four deep, collected about the
+dancers. The sorrows of the exiles were effectually diverted, for that
+time.
+
+'A clever fellow,' quoth the captain, regarding Andy's red hair and
+twinkling eyes with some admiration. 'A diplomatic tendency, Mr. Wynn,
+which may be valuable. Your servant, I presume?'
+
+'A former tenant of my father's, who wished to follow our fortunes,'
+replied Robert. 'He's a faithful fellow, though not much more civilised
+than the rest.'
+
+That grand ocean bluff, the Old Head of Kinsale, was now in the offing,
+and misty ranges of other promontories beyond, at whose base was
+perpetual foam. Robert turned away with a sigh, and descended to the
+cabins. In the small square box allotted to them, he found Arthur lying
+in his berth, reading Mrs. Traill's _Emigrant's Guide_.
+
+'I've been wondering what became of you; you've not been on deck since
+we left Cork.'
+
+'Of course not. I should have been blubbering like a schoolboy; and as I
+had enough of that last night, I mean to stay here till we're out of
+sight of land.'
+
+Little trace of the stoicism he professed was to be seen in the tender
+eyes which had for an hour been fixed on the same page; but Arthur was
+not yet sufficiently in manhood's years to know that deep feeling is an
+honour, and not a weakness.
+
+Towards evening, the purple mountain ranges of Kerry were fast fading
+over the waters; well-known peaks, outlines familiar from childhood to
+the dwellers at Dunore, were sinking beneath the great circle of the
+sea. Cape Clear is left behind, and the lonely Fassnet lighthouse; the
+Ocean Queen is coming to the blue water, and the long solemn swell
+raises and sinks her with pendulum-like regularity.
+
+'Ah, then, Masther Robert, an' we're done wid the poor ould counthry for
+good an' all!' Andy Callaghan's big bony hands are clasped in a tremor
+of emotion that would do honour to a picturesque Italian exile. 'The
+beautiful ould counthry, as has the greenest grass that ever grew, an'
+the clearest water that ever ran, an' the purtiest girls in the wide
+world! An' we're goin' among sthrangers, to pull an' dhrag for our bit
+to ate; but we'll never be happy till we see them blue hills and green
+fields once more!'
+
+Mr. Wynn could almost have endorsed the sentiment just then. Perhaps
+Andy's low spirits were intensified by the uncomfortable motion of
+the ship, which was beginning to strike landsmen with that rolling
+headache, the sure precursor of a worse visitation. Suffice it to say,
+that the mass of groaning misery in the steerage and cabins, on the
+subsequent night, would melt the heart of any but the most hardened 'old
+salt.' Did not Robert and Arthur regret their emigration bitterly, when
+shaken by the fangs of the fell demon, sea-sickness? Did not a chance of
+going to the bottom seem a trivial calamity? Answer, ye who have ever
+been in like pitiful case. We draw a curtain over the abject miseries of
+three days; over the Dutch-built captain's unseasonable joking and
+huge laughter--he, that could eat junk and biscuit if the ship was in
+Maelstrom! Robert could have thrown his boots at him with pleasure,
+while the short, broad figure stood in the doorway during his diurnal
+visit, chewing tobacco, and talking of all the times he had crossed
+'the ferry,' as he familiarly designated the Atlantic Ocean. The sick
+passengers, to a man, bore him an animosity, owing to his ostentatiously
+rude health and iron nerves, which is, of all exhibitions, the most
+oppressive to a prostrate victim of the sea-fiend.
+
+The third evening, an altercation became audible on the companion-ladder,
+as if some ship's officer were keeping back somebody else who was
+determined to come below.
+
+'That's Andy Callaghan's voice,' said Arthur.
+
+'Let me down, will ye, to see the young masthers?' came muffled through
+the doors and partition. 'Look here, now,'--in a coaxing tone,--'I don't
+like to be cross; but though I'm so bad afther the sickness, I'd set ye
+back in your little hole there at the fut of the stairs as aisy as I'd
+put a snail in its shell.'
+
+At this juncture Robert opened their state-room door, and prevented
+further collision. Andy's lean figure had become gaunter than ever.
+
+'They thought to keep me from seeing ye, the villains! I'd knock every
+mother's son of 'em into the middle o' next week afore I'd be kep' away.
+Sure I was comin' often enough before, but the dinth of the sickness
+prevented me; an' other times I was chucked about like a child's marvel,
+pitched over an' hether by the big waves banging the side of the vessel.
+Masther Robert, asthore, it's I that's shaking in the middle of my
+iligant new frieze shute like a withered pea in a pod--I'm got so thin
+intirely.'
+
+'We are not much better ourselves,' said Arthur, laughing; 'but I hope
+the worst of it is over.'
+
+'I'd give the full of my pockets in goold, if I had it this minit,' said
+Andy, with great emphasis, 'to set me foot on the nakedest sod of bog
+that's in Ould Ireland this day! an' often I abused it; but throth, the
+purtiest sight in life to me would be a good pratiefield, an' meself
+walkin' among the ridges!'
+
+'Well, Andy, we mustn't show the white-feather in that way; we could
+not expect to get to America without being sick, or suffering some
+disagreeables.'
+
+'When yer honours are satisfied, 'tisn't for the likes of me to
+grumble,' Andy said resignedly. 'Only if everybody knew what was before
+them, they mightn't do many a thing, maybe!'
+
+'Very true, Andy.'
+
+'So we're all sayin' down in the steerage, sir. But oh, Masther Robert,
+I a'most forgot to tell ye, account of that spalpeen that thought to
+hindher yer own fosther-brother from comin' to see ye; but there's the
+most wondherful baste out in the say this minit; an' it's spoutin' up
+water like the fountain that used to be at Dunore, only a power bigger;
+an' lyin' a-top of the waves like an island, for all the world! I'm
+thinkin' he wouldn't make much of cranching up the ship like a hazel
+nut.'
+
+'A whale! I wonder will they get out the boats,' said Arthur, with
+sudden animation. 'I think I'm well enough to go on deck, Bob: I'd like
+to have a shot at the fellow.'
+
+'A very useless expenditure of powder,' rejoined Robert. But Arthur,
+boy-like, sprang up-stairs with the rifle, which had often done execution
+among the wild-fowl of his native moorlands. Certainly it was a feat to
+hit such a prominent mark as that mountain of blubber; and Arthur felt
+justly ashamed of himself when the animal beat the water furiously and
+dived headlong in his pain.
+
+Now the only other cabin passengers on board the brig were a retired
+military officer and his family, consisting of a son and two daughters.
+They had made acquaintance with the Wynns on the first day of the
+voyage, but since then there had been a necessary suspension of
+intercourse. And it was a certain mild but decided disapproval in Miss
+Armytage's grave glance, when Arthur turned round and saw her sitting on
+the poop with her father and little sister, which brought the colour to
+his cheek, for he felt he had been guilty of thoughtless and wanton
+cruelty. He bowed and moved farther away. But Robert joined them, and
+passed half an hour very contentedly in gazing at a grand sunset. The
+closing act of which was as follows: a dense black brow of cloud on the
+margin of the sea; beneath it burst a flaming bolt of light from the
+sun's great eye, along the level waters. Far in the zenith were broad
+beams radiating across other clouds, like golden pathways. Slowly the
+dark curtain seemed to close down over the burning glory at the horizon.
+'How very beautiful!' exclaimed Miss Armytage.
+
+'Yes, my dear Edith, except as a weather barometer,' said her father.
+'In that point of view it means--storm.'
+
+'Oh, papa!' ejaculated the little girl, nestling close--not to him, but
+to her elder sister, whose hand instantly clasped hers with a reassuring
+pressure, while the quiet face looked down at the perturbed child,
+smiling sweetly. It was almost the first smile Robert had seen on her
+face; it made Miss Armytage quite handsome for the moment, he thought.
+
+Miss Armytage, caring very little for his thought, was occupied an
+instant with saying something in a low tone to Jay, which gradually
+brightened the small countenance again. Robert caught the words, 'Our
+dear Saviour.' They reminded him of his mother.
+
+Captain Armytage was correct in his prediction: before midnight a fierce
+north-easter was raging on the sea. The single beneficial result was,
+that it fairly cured all maladies but terror; for, after clinging to
+their berths during some hours with every muscle of their bodies, lest
+they should be swung off and smashed in the lurches of the vessel, the
+passengers arose next morning well and hungry.
+
+'I spind the night on me head, mostly,' said Andy Callaghan. 'Troth, I
+never knew before how the flies managed to walk on the ceilin' back
+downwards; but a thrifle more o' practice would tache it to meself, for
+half me time the floor was above at the rafters over me head. I donno
+rightly how to walk on my feet the day afther it.'
+
+This was the only bad weather they experienced, as viewed nautically:
+even the captain allowed that it had been 'a stiffish gale;' but
+subsequent tumults of the winds and waves, which seemed tremendous to
+unsophisticated landsmen, were to him mere ocean frolics. And so, while
+each day the air grew colder, they neared the banks of Newfoundland,
+where everybody who could devise fishing-tackle tried to catch the
+famous cod of those waters. Arthur was one of the successful captors,
+having spent a laborious day in the main-chains for the purpose. At
+eventide he was found teaching little Jay how to hold a line, and how to
+manage when a bite came. Her mistakes and her delight amused him: both
+lasted till a small panting fish was pulled up.
+
+'There's a whiting for you, now,' said he, 'all of your own catching.'
+
+Jay looked at it regretfully, as the poor little gills opened and shut
+in vain efforts to breathe the smothering air, and the pretty silver
+colouring deadened as its life went. 'I am very sorry,' she said,
+folding her hands together; 'I think I ought not to have killed it only
+to amuse myself.' And she walked away to where her sister was sitting.
+
+'What a strange child!' thought Arthur, as he watched the little figure
+crossing the deck. But he wound up the tackle, and angled no more for
+that evening.
+
+The calm was next day deepened by a fog; a dense haze settled on the
+sea, seeming by sheer weight to still its restless motion. Now was the
+skipper much more perturbed than during the rough weather: wrapt in a
+mighty pea-coat, he kept a perpetual look-out in person, chewing the
+tobacco meanwhile as if he bore it an animosity. Frequent gatherings
+of drift-ice passed, and at times ground together with a disagreeably
+strong sound. An intense chill pervaded the atmosphere,--a cold unlike
+what Robert or Arthur had ever felt in the frosts of Ireland, it was so
+much more keen and penetrating.
+
+'The captain says it is from icebergs,' said the latter, drawing up the
+collar of his greatcoat about his ears, as they walked the deck. 'I wish
+we saw one--at a safe distance, of course. But this fog is so
+blinding'--
+
+Even as he spoke, a vast whitish berg loomed abeam, immensely
+higher than the topmasts, in towers and spires snow-crested. What
+great precipices of grey glistening ice, as it passed by, a mighty
+half-distinguishable mass! what black rifts of destructive depth! The
+ship surged backward before the great refluent wave of its movement. A
+sensation of awe struck the bravest beholder, as slowly and majestically
+the huge berg glided astern, and its grim features were obliterated by
+the heavy haze.
+
+Both drew a relieved breath when the grand apparition had passed. 'I
+wish Miss Armytage had seen it,' said Arthur.
+
+'Why?' rejoined Robert, though the same thought was just in his own
+mind.
+
+'Oh, because it was so magnificent, and I am sure she would admire it.
+I could almost make a poem about it myself. Don't you know the feeling,
+as if the sight were too large, too imposing for your mind somehow? And
+the danger only intensifies that.'
+
+'Still, I wish we were out of their reach. The skipper's temper will be
+unbearable till then.'
+
+It improved considerably when the fog rose off the sea, a day or two
+subsequently, and a head-wind sprang up, carrying them towards the Gulf.
+One morning, a low grey stripe of cloud on the horizon was shown to the
+passengers as part of Newfoundland. Long did Robert Wynn gaze at that
+dim outline, possessed by all the strange feelings which belong to the
+first sight of the new world, especially when it is to be a future home.
+No shame to his manhood if some few tears for the dear old home dimmed
+his eyes as he looked. But soon that shadow of land disappeared, and,
+passing Cape Race at a long distance, they entered the great estuary
+of the St. Lawrence, which mighty inlet, if it had place in our little
+Europe, would be fitly termed the Sea of Labrador; but where all the
+features of nature are colossal, it ranks only as a gulf.
+
+One morning, when little Jay had gone on deck for an ante-breakfast run,
+she came back in a state of high delight to the cabin. 'Oh, Edith, such
+beautiful birds! such lovely little birds! and the sailors say they're
+from the land, though we cannot see it anywhere. How tired they must be
+after such a long fly, all the way from beyond the edge of the sea! Do
+come and look at them, dear Edith--do come!'
+
+Sitting on the shrouds were a pair of tiny land birds, no bigger than
+tomtits, and wearing red top-knots on their heads. How welcome were the
+confiding little creatures to the passengers, who had been rocked at
+sea for nearly five weeks, and hailed these as sure harbingers of solid
+ground! They came down to pick up Jay's crumbs of biscuit, and twittered
+familiarly. The captain offered to have one caught for her, but, after a
+minute's eager acquiescence, she declined. 'I would like to feel it in
+my hand,' said she, 'but it is kinder to let it fly about wherever it
+pleases.'
+
+'Why, you little Miss Considerate, is that your principle always?' asked
+Arthur, who had made a great playmate of her. She did not understand his
+question; and on his explaining in simpler words, 'Oh, you know I always
+try to think what God would like. That is sure to be right, isn't it?'
+
+'I suppose so,' said Arthur, with sudden gravity.
+
+'Edith taught me--she does just that,' continued the child. 'I don't
+think _she_ ever does anything that is wrong at all. But oh, Mr. Wynn,'
+and he felt a sudden tightening of her grasp on his hand, 'what big bird
+is that? look how frightened the little ones are!'
+
+A hawk, which had been circling in the air, now made a swoop on the
+rigging, but was anticipated by his quarry: one of the birds flew
+actually into Arthur's hands, and the other got in among some barrels
+which stood amidships.
+
+'Ah,' said Arthur, 'they were driven out here by that chap, I suppose.
+Now I'll give you the pleasure of feeling one of them in your hands.'
+
+'But that wicked hawk!'
+
+'And that wicked Jay, ever to eat chickens or mutton.'
+
+'Ah! but that is different. How his little heart beats and flutters! I
+wish I had him for a pet. I would love you, little birdie, indeed I
+would.'
+
+For some days they stayed by the ship, descending on deck for crumbs
+regularly furnished them by Jay, to whom the office of feeding them was
+deputed by common consent. But nearing the island of Anticosti, they
+took wing for shore with a parting twitter, and, like Noah's dove, did
+not return. Jay would not allow that they were ungrateful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+UP THE ST. LAWRENCE.
+
+
+Little Jay could hardly be persuaded into the belief that they were now
+sailing on a river; that the swift broad tide bearing against them, more
+than one hundred and twenty miles across at this island of Anticosti,
+was the mouth of a stream having source in a mountain far away, and once
+narrow enough to step over. Arthur showed her the St. Lawrence on a map
+hung in the saloon; but such demonstration did not seem to convince her
+much. 'Then where are the banks? My geography says that a river always
+has banks,' was her argument.
+
+In the evening he was able to show her the wide pitiless snow ranges of
+Labrador, whence blew a keen desert air. Perpetual pine-woods--looking
+like a black band set against the encroaching snow--edged the land,
+whence the brig was some miles distant, tacking to gain the benefit
+of the breeze off shore.
+
+Presently came a strange and dismal sound wafted over the waters from
+the far pine forests--a high prolonged howl, taken up and echoed by
+scores of ravenous throats, repeated again and again, augmenting in
+fierce cadences. Jay caught Mr. Wynn's arm closer. 'Like wolves,' said
+Arthur; 'but we are a long way off.'
+
+'I must go and tell Edith,' said the child, evidently feeling safer with
+that sister than in any other earthly care. After he had brought her
+to the cabin, he returned on deck, listening with a curious sort of
+pleasure to the wild sounds, and looking at the dim outlines of the
+shore.
+
+As darkness dropped over the circle of land and water, a light seemed
+to rise behind those hills, revealing their solid shapes anew, stealing
+silently aloft into the air, like a pale and pure northern dawn. At
+first he thought it must be the rising moon, but no orb appeared; and as
+the brilliance deepened, intensified into colour, and shot towards the
+zenith, he knew it for the aurora borealis. Soon the stars were blinded
+out by the vivid sweeping flicker of its rays; hues bright and varied as
+the rainbow thrilled along the iridescent roadways to the central point
+above, and tongues of flame leaped from arches in the north-west. Burning
+scarlet and amber, purple, green, trembled in pulsations across the
+ebony surface of the heavens, as if some vast fire beneath the horizon
+was flashing forth coruscations of its splendour to the dark hemisphere
+beyond. The floating banners of angels is a hackneyed symbol to express
+the oppressive magnificence of a Canadian aurora.
+
+The brothers were fascinated: their admiration had no words.
+
+'This is as bad as the iceberg for making a fellow's brain feel too big
+for his head,' said Arthur at last. 'We've seen two sublime things, at
+all events, Bob.'
+
+Clear frosty weather succeeded--weather without the sharp sting of cold,
+but elastic and pure as on a mountain peak. Being becalmed for a day
+or two off a wooded point, the skipper sent a boat ashore for fuel and
+water. Arthur eagerly volunteered to help; and after half an hour's
+rowing through the calm blue bay, he had the satisfaction to press his
+foot on the soil of Lower Canada.
+
+There was a small clearing beside a brook which formed a narrow deep
+cove, a sort of natural miniature dock where their boat floated. A
+log hut, mossed with years, was set back some fifty yards towards the
+forest. What pines were those! what giants of arborescence! Seventy feet
+of massive shaft without a bough; and then a dense thicket of black
+inwoven branches, making a dusk beneath the fullest sunshine.
+
+'I tell you we haven't trees in the old country; our oaks and larches
+are only shrubs,' he said to Robert, when narrating his expedition.
+'Wait till you see pines such as I saw to-day. Looking along the forest
+glades, those great pillars upheld the roof everywhere in endless
+succession. And the silence! as if a human creature never breathed among
+them, though the log hut was close by. When I went in, I saw a French
+_habitan_, as they call him, who minds the lighthouse on the point,
+with his Indian wife, and her squaw mother dressed in a blanket, and of
+course babies--the queerest little brown things you ever saw. One of
+them was tied into a hollow board, and buried to the chin in "punk," by
+way of bed-clothes.'
+
+'And what is punk?' asked Robert.
+
+'Rotten wood powdered to dust,' answered Arthur, with an air of superior
+information. 'It's soft enough; and the poor little animal's head
+was just visible, so that it looked like a young live mummy. But the
+grandmother squaw was even uglier than the grandchildren; a thousand and
+one lines seamed her coppery face, which was the colour of an old penny
+piece rather burnished from use. And she had eyes, Bob, little and wide
+apart, and black as sloes, with a snaky look. I don't think she ever
+took them off me, and 'twas no manner of use to stare at her in return.
+So, as I could not understand what they were saying,--gabbling a sort
+of _patois_ of bad French and worse English, with a sprinkling of
+Indian,--and as the old lady's gaze was getting uncomfortable, I went
+out again among my friends, the mighty pines. I hope we shall have some
+about our location, wherever we settle.'
+
+'And I trust more intimate acquaintance won't make us wish them a trifle
+fewer and slighter,' remarked Robert.
+
+'Well, I am afraid my enthusiasm would fade before an acre of such
+clearing,' rejoined Arthur. 'But, Bob, the colours of the foliage are
+lovelier than I can tell. You see a little of the tinting even from this
+distance. The woods have taken pattern by the aurora: it seems we are
+now in the Indian summer, and the maple trees are just burning with
+scarlet and gold leaves.'
+
+'I suppose you did not see many of our old country trees?'
+
+'Hardly any. Pine is the most plentiful of all: how I like its sturdy
+independent look! as if it were used to battling with snowstorms, and
+got strong by the exercise. The mate showed me hickory and hemlock,
+and a lot of other foreigners, while the men were cutting logs in the
+bush.'
+
+'You have picked up the Canadian phraseology already,' observed Robert.
+
+'Yes;' and Arthur reddened slightly. 'Impossible to avoid that, when
+you're thrown among fellows that speak nothing else. But I wanted
+to tell you, that coming back we hailed a boat from one of those
+outward-bound ships lying yonder at anchor: the mate says their wood and
+water is half a pretence. They are smuggling skins, in addition to their
+regular freight of lumber.'
+
+'Smuggling skins!'
+
+'For the skippers' private benefit, you understand: furs, such as sable,
+marten, and squirrel; they send old ship's stores ashore to trade with
+vagrant Indians, and then sew up the skins in their clothes, between the
+lining and the stuff, so as to pass the Custom-house officers at home.
+Bob! I'm longing to be ashore for good. You don't know what it is to
+feel firm ground under one's feet after six weeks' unsteady footing. I'm
+longing to get out of this floating prison, and begin our life among the
+pines.'
+
+Robert shook his head a little sorrowfully. Now that they were nearing
+the end of the voyage, many cares pressed upon him, which to the volatile
+nature of Arthur seemed only theme for adventure. Whither to bend their
+steps in the first instance, was a matter for grave deliberation. They
+had letters of introduction to a gentleman near Carillon on the Ottawa,
+and others to a family at Toronto. Former friends had settled beside the
+lonely Lake Simcoe, midway between Huron and Ontario. Many an hour of
+the becalmed days he spent over the maps and guide-books they had brought,
+trying to study out a result. Jay came up to him one afternoon, as he
+leaned his head on his hand perplexedly.
+
+'What ails you? have you a headache?'
+
+'No, I am only puzzled.'
+
+Her own small elbow rested on the taffrail, and her little fingers
+dented the fair round cheek, in unwitting imitation of his posture.
+
+'Is it about a lesson? But you don't have to get lessons.'
+
+'No; it is about what is best for me to do when I land.'
+
+'Edith asks God always; and He shows her what is best,' said the child,
+looking at him wistfully. Again he thought of his pious prayerful
+mother. She might have spoken through the childish lips. He closed his
+books, remarking that they were stupid. Jay gave him her hand to walk
+up and down the deck. He had never made it a custom to consult God,
+or refer to Him in matters of daily life, though theoretically he
+acknowledged His pervading sovereignty. To procure the guidance of
+Infinite Wisdom would be well worth a prayer. Something strong as a
+chain held him back--the pride of his consciously unrenewed heart.
+
+When the weather became favourable, they passed up the river rapidly;
+and a succession of the noblest views opened around them. No panorama
+of the choice spots of earth could be lovelier. Lofty granite islets,
+such as Kamouraska, which attains an altitude of five hundred feet;
+bold promontories and deep basin bays; magnificent ranges of bald blue
+mountains inland; and, as they neared Grosse Isle and the quarantine
+ground, the soft beauties of civilisation were superadded. Many ships of
+all nations lay at anchor; the shore was dotted with white farmhouses,
+and neat villages clustered each round the glittering spire of a church.
+
+'How very French that is, eh?' said Captain Armytage, referring to those
+shining metal roofs. 'Tinsel is charming to the eyes of a _habitan_. You
+know, I've been in these parts before with my regiment: so I am well
+acquainted with the ground. We have the parish of St. Thomas to our left
+now, thickly spotted with white cottages: St. Joachim is on the opposite
+bank. The nomenclature all about here smacks of the prevailing faith and
+of the old masters.'
+
+''Tis a pity they didn't hold by the musical Indian names,' said Robert
+Wynn.
+
+'Well, yes, when the music don't amount to seventeen syllables a-piece,
+eh?' Captain Armytage had a habit of saying 'eh' at every available
+point in his sentences. Likewise had he the most gentleman-like manners
+that could be, set off by the most gentleman-like personal appearance;
+yet, an inexplicable something about him prevented a thorough liking.
+Perhaps it was the intrinsic selfishness, and want of sincerity of
+nature, which one instinctively felt after a little intercourse had worn
+off the dazzle of his engaging demeanour. Perhaps Robert had detected
+the odour of rum, ineffectually concealed by the fragrance of a smoking
+pill, more frequently than merely after dinner, and seen the sad shadow
+on his daughter's face, following. But that did not prevent Captain
+Armytage's being a very agreeable and well-informed companion
+nevertheless.
+
+'Granted that "Canada" is a pretty name,' said he; 'but it's Spanish
+more than native. "Aca nada," nothing here,--said the old Castilian
+voyagers, when they saw no trace of gold mines or other wealth along
+the coast. That's the story, at all events. But I hold to it that our
+British John Cabot was the first who ever visited this continent, unless
+there's truth in the old Scandinavian tales, which I don't believe.'
+
+But the gallant officer's want of credence does not render it the less
+a fact, that, about the year 1001, Biorn Heriolson, an Icelander, was
+driven south from Greenland by tempestuous weather, and discovered
+Labrador. Subsequently, a colony was established for trading purposes
+on some part of the coast named Vinland; but after a few Icelanders
+had made fortunes of the peltries, and many had perished among the
+Esquimaux, all record of the settlement is blotted out, and Canada fades
+from the world's map till restored by the exploration of the Cabots and
+Jacques Cartier. The two former examined the seaboard, and the latter
+first entered the grand estuary of the St. Lawrence, which he named from
+the saint's day of its discovery; and he also was the earliest white
+man to gaze down from the mighty precipice of Quebec, and pronounce
+the obscure Indian name which was hereafter to suggest a world-famed
+capital. Then, the dwellings and navies of nations and generations yet
+unborn were growing all around in hundreds of leagues of forest; a dread
+magnificence of shade darkened the face of the earth, amid which the red
+man reigned supreme. Now, as the passengers of the good brig Ocean Queen
+gazed upon it three centuries subsequently, the slow axe had chopped
+away those forests of pine, and the land was smiling with homesteads,
+and mapped out in fields of rich farm produce: the encroachments of the
+irresistible white man had metamorphosed the country, and almost blotted
+out its olden masters. Robert Wynn began to realize the force of Hiram
+Holt's patriotic declaration, 'It's the finest country in the world!'
+
+'And the loveliest!' he could have added, without even a saving clause
+for his own old Emerald Isle, when they passed the western point of the
+high wooded island of Orleans, and came in view of the superb Falls of
+Montmorenci; two hundred and fifty feet of sheer precipice, leaped by a
+broad full torrent, eager to reach the great river flowing beyond, and
+which seemed placidly to await the turbulent onset. As Robert gazed, the
+fascination of a great waterfall came over him like a spell. Who has not
+felt this beside Lodore, or Foyers, or Torc? Who has not found his eye
+mesmerized by the falling sheet of dark polished waters, merging into
+snowy spray and crowned with rainbow crest, most changeable, yet most
+unchanged?
+
+Thousands of years has this been going on; you may read it in the worn
+limestone layers that have been eaten through, inches in centuries, by
+the impetuous stream. Thus, also, has the St. Lawrence carved out its
+mile-wide bed beneath the Heights of Abraham--the stepping-stone to
+Wolfe's fame and Canadian freedom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WOODEN-NESS.
+
+
+Piled on the summit of Cape Diamond, and duplicated in shadow upon the
+deep waters at its base, three hundred feet below, stands the fortress
+of Quebec. Edinburgh and Ehrenbreitstein have been used as old-world
+symbols to suggest its beauty and strength; but the girdle of mighty
+river is wanting to the former, and the latter is a trifling miniature
+of the Canadian city-queen. Robert Wynn knew of no such comparisons;
+he only felt how beautiful was that mass of interwoven rock, and wood,
+and town, reflected and rooted in the flood; he scarcely heard Captain
+Armytage at his left reminding him for the tenth time that he had been
+here before with his regiment.
+
+'There's Point Levi to the south, a mile away, in front of the mountains.
+Something unpleasant once befell me in crossing there. I and another
+sub. hired a boat for a spree, just because the hummocks of ice were
+knocking about on the tide, and all prudent people stayed ashore; but we
+went out in great dreadnought boots, and bearskin caps over our ears,
+and amused ourselves with pulling about for a while among the floes. I
+suppose the grinding of the ice deafened us, and the hummocks hid us
+from view of the people on board; at all events, down came one of the
+river steamers slap on us. I saw the red paddles laden with ice at every
+revolution, and the next instant was sinking, with my boots dragging me
+down like a cannon-ball at my feet. I don't know how I kicked them off,
+and rose: Gilpin, the other sub., had got astride on the capsized boat;
+a rope flung from the steamer struck me, and you may believe I grasped
+it pretty tightly. D'ye see here?' and he showed Robert a front tooth
+broken short: 'I caught with my hands first, and they were so numb, and
+the ice forming so fast on the dripping rope, that it slipped till I
+held by my teeth; and another noose being thrown around me lasso-wise,
+I was dragged in. A narrow escape, eh?'
+
+'Very narrow,' echoed Robert. He noticed the slight shiver that ran
+through the daughter's figure, as she leaned on her father's arm. His
+handsome face looked down at her carelessly.
+
+'Edith shudders,' said he; 'I suppose thinking that so wonderful an
+escape ought to be remembered as more than a mere adventure.' To which
+he received no answer, save an appealing look from her soft eyes. He
+turned away with a short laugh.
+
+'Well, at all events, it cured me of boating among the ice. Ugh! to be
+sucked in and smothered under a floe would be frightful.'
+
+Mr. Wynn wishing to say something that would prove he was not thinking
+of the little aside-scene between father and daughter, asked if the St.
+Lawrence was generally so full of ice in winter.
+
+It was difficult to believe now in the balmy atmosphere of the Indian
+summer, with a dreamy sunshine warming and gladdening all things,--the
+very apotheosis of autumn,--that wintry blasts would howl along this
+placid river, surging fierce ice-waves together, before two months
+should pass.
+
+'There's rarely a bridge quite across,' replied Captain Armytage;
+'except in the north channel, above the isle of Orleans, where the tide
+has less force than in the southern, because it is narrower; but in the
+widest place the hummocks of ice are frequently crushed into heaps
+fifteen or twenty feet high, which makes navigation uncomfortably
+exciting.'
+
+'I should think so,' rejoined Robert drily.
+
+'Ah, you have yet to feel what a Canadian winter is like, my young
+friend;' and Captain Armytage nodded in that mysterious manner which
+is intended to impress a 'griffin' with the cheering conviction that
+unknown horrors are before him.
+
+'I wonder what is that tall church, whose roof glitters so intensely?'
+
+'The cathedral, under its tin dome and spires. The metal is said to
+hinder the lodging and help the thawing of the snow, which might
+otherwise lie so heavy as to endanger the roof.'
+
+'Oh, that is the reason!' ejaculated Robert, suddenly enlightened as to
+the needs-be of all the surface glitter.
+
+'Rather a pretty effect, eh? and absolutely unique, except in Canadian
+cities. It suggests an infinitude of greenhouses reflecting sunbeams at
+a variety of angles of incidence.'
+
+'I presume this is the lower town, lying along the quays?' said Robert.
+
+'Yes, like our Scottish Edinburgh, the old city, being built in
+dangerous times, lies huddled close together under protection of its
+guardian rock,' said the Captain. 'But within, you could fancy yourself
+suddenly transported into an old Normandy town, among narrow crooked
+streets and high-gabled houses: nor will the degree of cleanliness
+undeceive you. For, unlike most other American cities, Quebec has a
+Past as well as a Present: there is the French Past, narrow, dark,
+crowded, hiding under a fortification; and there is the English Present,
+embodied in the handsome upper town, and the suburb of St. John's,
+broad, well-built, airy. The line of distinction is very marked between
+the pushing Anglo-Saxon's premises and the tumble-down concerns of the
+stand-still _habitan_.'
+
+Perhaps, also, something is due to the difference between Protestant
+enterprise and Roman Catholic supineness.
+
+'There's a boat boarding us already,' said Robert.
+
+It proved to be the Custom-house officers; and when their domiciliary
+visit was over, Robert and Arthur went ashore. Navigating through a
+desert expanse of lumber rafts and a labyrinth of hundreds of hulls,
+they stepped at last on the ugly wooden wharves which line the water's
+edge, and were crowded with the usual traffic of a port; yet singularly
+noiseless, from the boarded pavement beneath the wheels.
+
+Though the brothers had never been in any part of France, the peculiarly
+French aspect of the lower town struck them immediately. The old-fashioned
+dwellings, with steep lofty roofs, accumulated in narrow alleys, seemed
+to date back to an age long anterior to Montcalm's final struggle with
+Wolfe on the heights; even back, perchance, to the brave enthusiast
+Champlain's first settlement under the superb headland, replacing the
+Indian village of Stadacona. To perpetuate his fame, a street alongside
+the river is called after him; and though his 'New France' has long
+since joined the dead names of extinct colonies, the practical effects
+of his early toil and struggle remain in this American Gibraltar which
+he originated.
+
+Andy Callaghan had begged leave to accompany his young masters ashore,
+and marched at a respectful distance behind them, along that very
+Champlain Street, looking about him with unfeigned astonishment. 'I
+suppose the quarries is all used up in these parts, for the houses is
+wood, an' the churches is wood, and the sthreets has wooden stones
+ondher our feet,' he soliloquized, half audibly. 'It's a mighty quare
+counthry intirely: between the people making a land on top of the wather
+for 'emselves by thim big rafts, an' buildin' houses on 'em, and
+kindlin' fires'----
+
+Here his meditation was rudely broken into by the sudden somerset of a
+child from a doorstep he was passing; but it had scarcely touched the
+ground when Andy, with an exclamation in Irish, swung it aloft in his
+arms.
+
+'_Mono mush thig thu_! you crathur, is it trying which yer head or the
+road is the hardest, ye are? Whisht now, don't cry, me fine boy, and
+maybe I'd sing a song for ye.'
+
+'Wisha then, cead mille failthe a thousand times, Irishman, whoever ye
+are!' said the mother, seizing Andy's hand. 'And my heart warms to the
+tongue of the old counthry! Won't you come in, honest man, an' rest
+awhile, an' it's himself will be glad to see ye?'
+
+'And who's himself?' inquired Andy, dandling the child.
+
+'The carpenter, Pat M'Donagh of Ballinoge'--
+
+'Hurroo!' shouted Andy, as he executed a whirligig on one leg, and then
+embraced the amazed Mrs. M'Donagh fraternally. 'My uncle's son's wife!
+an' a darling purty face you have of yer own too.'
+
+'Don't be funnin', now,' said the lady, bridling; 'an' you might have
+axed a person's lave before ye tossed me cap that way. Here, Pat, come
+down an' see yer cousin just arrived from the ould counthry!'
+
+Robert and Arthur Wynn, missing their servitor at the next turn, and
+looking back, beheld something like a popular _émeute_ in the narrow
+street, which was solely Andy fraternizing with his countrymen and
+recovered relations.
+
+'Wait a minit,' said Andy, returning to his allegiance, as he saw them
+looking back; 'let me run afther the gentlemen and get lave to stay.'
+
+'Lave, indeed!' exclaimed the republican-minded Mrs. M'Donagh; 'it's I
+that wud be afther askin lave in a free counthry! Why, we've no masthers
+nor missusses here at all.'
+
+'Hut, woman, but they're my fostherers--the young Mr. Wynns of Dunore.'
+
+Great had been that name among the peasantry once; and even yet it had
+not lost its prestige with the transplanted Pat M'Donagh. He had left
+Ireland a ragged pauper in the famine year, and was now a thriving
+artisan, with average wages of seven shillings a day; an independence
+with which Robert Wynn would have considered himself truly fortunate,
+and upon less than which many a lieutenant in Her Majesty's infantry has
+to keep up a gentlemanly appearance. Pat's strength had been a drug in
+his own country; here it readily worked an opening to prosperity.
+
+And presently forgetting his sturdy Canadian notions of independence,
+the carpenter was bowing cap in hand before the gentlemen, begging them
+to accept the hospitality of his house while they stayed in Quebec. 'The
+M'Donaghs is ould tenants of yer honours' father, an' many a kindness
+they resaved from the family, and 'twould be the joy of me heart to see
+one of the ancient stock at me table,' he said; 'an' sure me father's
+brother's son is along wid ye.'
+
+'The ancient stock' declined, with many thanks, as they wanted to see
+the city; but Andy, not having the same zeal for exploring, remained in
+the discovered nest of his kinsfolk, and made himself so acceptable,
+that they parted subsequently with tears.
+
+Meanwhile the brothers walked from the Lower to the Upper Town, through
+the quaint steep streets of stone houses--relics of the old French
+occupation. The language was in keeping with this foreign aspect, and
+the vivacious gestures of the inhabitants told their pedigree. Robert
+and Arthur were standing near a group of them in the market-square,
+assembled round a young bear brought in by an Indian, when the former
+felt a heavy hand on his shoulder, and the next instant the tenacity of
+his wrist was pretty well tested in the friendly grasp of Hiram Holt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DEBARKATION.
+
+
+The chill of foreignness and loneliness which had been creeping over
+Robert Wynn's sensations since he had entered the strange city, was
+dissipated as if a cloud had suddenly lifted off. The friendly face
+of the colossal Canadian beaming a welcome upon him, with that broad
+sunshiny smile which seems immediately to raise the temperature of the
+surrounding air, did certainly warm his heart, and nerve it too. He was
+not altogether a stranger in a strange land.
+
+'And so you've followed my advice! Bravo, young blood! You'll never be
+sorry for adopting Canada as your country. Now, what are your plans?'
+bestowing an aside left-hand grasp upon Arthur. 'Can Hiram Holt help
+you? Have the old people come out? So much the better; they would only
+cripple you in the beginning. Wait till your axe has cut the niche big
+enough. You rush on for the West, I suppose?'
+
+All these inquiries in little longer than a breath; while he wrung
+Robert's hand at intervals with a heartiness and power of muscle which
+almost benumbed the member.
+
+'We have letters to friends on Lake Erie, and to others on Lake Simcoe,'
+said Robert, rescuing his hand, which tingled, and yet communicated a
+very pleasurable sensation to his heart. 'We are not quite decided on
+our line of march.'
+
+'Well, how did you come? Emigrant vessel?'
+
+Adopting the laconic also, Robert nodded, and said it was their first
+day in Quebec.
+
+'Get quit of her as soon as you can; haul your traps ashore, and come
+along with me. I'll be going up the Ottawa in a day or two, home; and
+'twill be only a step out of your way westward. You can look about you,
+and see what Canadian life is like for a few weeks; the longer, the more
+welcome to Hiram Holt's house. Is that fixed?'
+
+Robert was beginning to thank him warmly--
+
+'Now, shut up, young man; I distrust a fellow that has much palaver.
+_You_ look too manly for it. I calculate your capital ain't much above
+your four hands between you?'
+
+Arthur was rather discomfited at a query so pointed, and so directly
+penetrating the proud British reserve about monetary circumstances; but
+Robert, knowing that the motive was kind-hearted, and the manner just
+that of a straightforward unconventional settler, replied, 'You are
+nearly right, Mr. Holt; our capital in cash is very small; but I hope
+stout bodies and stout hearts are worth something.'
+
+'What would you think of a bush farm? I think I heard you say you had
+some experience on your father's farm in Ireland?'
+
+'My father's estate, sir,' began Arthur, reddening a little.
+
+Holt measured him by a look, but not one of displeasure. 'Farms in
+Canada grow into estates,' said he; 'by industry and push, I shouldn't
+be surprised if you became a landed proprietor yourself before your
+beard is stiff.' Arthur had as yet no symptom of that manly adornment,
+though anxiously watching for the down. The backwoodsman turned to
+Robert.
+
+'Government lands are cheap enough, no doubt; four shillings an acre,
+and plenty of them. If you're able, I'd have you venture on that
+speculation. Purchase-money is payable in ten years; that's a good
+breathing time for a beginner. But can you give up all luxuries for a
+while, and eat bread baked by your own hands, and sleep in a log hut on
+a mess of juniper boughs, and work hard all day at clearing the eternal
+forests, foot by foot?'
+
+'We can,' answered Arthur eagerly. His brother's assent was not quite so
+vivacious.
+
+Hiram Holt thought within himself how soon the ardent young spirit might
+tire of that monotony of labour; how distasteful the utter loneliness
+and uneventfulness of forest life might become to the undisciplined lad,
+accustomed, as he shrewdly guessed, to a petted and idling boyhood.
+
+'Well _said_, young fellow. For three years I can't say well _done_;
+though I hope I may have that to add also.'
+
+By this time they had passed from the Market Square to the Esplanade,
+overhanging the Lower Town, and which commands a view almost matchless
+for extent and varied beauty. At this hour the shades of evening were
+settling down, and tinging with sombre hues the colouring of the
+landscape: over the western edge the sun had sunk; far below, the noble
+river lay in black shadow and a single gleaming band of dying daylight,
+as it crept along under the fleets of ships.
+
+Indistinct as the details were becoming, the outlined masses were
+grander for the growing obscurity, and Robert could not restrain an
+exclamation of 'Magnificent!'
+
+'Well, I won't deny but it _is_ handsome,' said Mr. Holt, secretly
+gratified; 'I never expect to see anything like it for situation,
+whatever other way it's deficient. Now I'm free to confess it's only a
+village to your London, for forty thousand wouldn't be missed out of two
+or three millions; but bigness ain't the only beauty in the world, else
+I'd be a deal prettier than my girl Bell, who's not much taller than my
+walking-stick, and the fairest lass in our township.'
+
+The adjective 'pretty' seemed so ridiculously inappropriate to one of
+Mr. Holt's dimensions and hairy development of face, that Robert could
+not forbear a smile. But the Canadian had returned to the landscape.
+
+'Quebec is the key of Canada, that's certain; and so Wolfe and Montcalm
+knew, when they fought their duel here for the prize.'
+
+Arthur pricked up his ears at the celebrated names. 'Oh, Bob, we must
+try and see the battlefield,' he exclaimed, being fresh from Goldsmith's
+celebrated manual of English history.
+
+'To-morrow,' said Mr. Holt. 'It lies west on top of the chain of
+heights flanking the river. A monument to the generals stands near here,
+in the Castle gardens, with the names on opposite sides of the square
+block. To be sure, how death levels us all! Lord Dalhousie built that
+obelisk when he was Governor in 1827. You see, as it is the only bit of
+history we possess, we never can commemorate it enough; so there's
+another pillar on the plains.'
+
+Lights began to appear in the vessels below, reflected as long brilliant
+lines in the glassy deeps. 'Perhaps we ought to be getting back to the
+ship,' suggested Robert, 'before it is quite dark.'
+
+'Of course you are aware that this is the aristocratic section of the
+town,' said Mr. Holt, as they turned to retrace their steps. 'Here the
+citizens give themselves up to pleasure and politics, while the Lower
+Town is the business place. The money is made there which is spent here;
+and when our itinerating Legislature comes round, Quebec is very gay,
+and considerably excited.'
+
+'Itinerating Legislature! what's that?' asked Arthur.
+
+'Why, you see, in 1840 the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were
+legally united; their representatives met in the same House of Assembly,
+and so forth. Kingston was made the capital, as a central point; however,
+last year ('49) the famous device of itineration was introduced, by
+which, every four years, his Excellency the Governor and the Right
+Honourable Parliament move about from place to place, like a set of
+travelling showmen.'
+
+'And when will Quebec's turn come?'
+
+'In '51, next year. The removal of court patronage is said to have
+injured the city greatly: like all half-and-half measures, it pleases
+nobody. Toronto growls, and Kingston growls, and Quebec growls, and
+Montreal growls; Canada is in a state of chronic dissatisfaction, so far
+as the towns go. For myself, I never feel at home in Quebec; the lingo
+of the _habitans_ puzzles me, and I'm not used to the dark narrow
+streets.'
+
+'Are you a member of the Parliament, Mr. Holt?' asked Arthur.
+
+'No, though I might be,' replied Hiram, raising his hat for a moment
+from his masses of grizzled hair. 'I've been town reeve many times, and
+county warden once. The neighbours wanted to nominate me for the House
+of Assembly, and son Sam would have attended to the farms and mills; but
+I had that European trip in my eye, and didn't care. Ah, I see you look
+at the post-office, young fellow,' as they passed that building just
+outside the gate of the Upper Town wall; 'don't get homesick already
+on our hands; there are no post-offices in the bush.'
+
+Arthur looked slightly affronted at this speech, and, to assert his
+manliness, could have resigned all letters for a twelvemonth. Mr. Holt
+walked on with a preoccupied air until he said,--
+
+'I must go now, I have an appointment; but I'll be on board to-morrow
+at noon. The brig Ocean Queen, of Cork, you say? Now your path is right
+down to Champlain Street; you can't lose your way. Good-bye;' and his
+receding figure was lost in the dusk, with mighty strides.
+
+'He's too bluff,' said Arthur, resenting thus the one or two
+plain-spoken sentences that had touched himself.
+
+'But sound and steady, like one of his own forest pines,' said Robert.
+
+'We have yet to test that,' rejoined Arthur, with some truth. 'I wonder
+shall we ever find the house into which Andy was decoyed; those wooden
+ranges are all the image of one another. I am just as well pleased he
+wasn't mooning after us through the Upper Town during the daylight;
+for, though he's such a worthy fellow, he hasn't exactly the cut of a
+gentleman's servant. We must deprive him of that iligant new frieze
+topcoat, with its three capes, till it is fashioned into a civilised
+garment.'
+
+Mr. Pat M'Donagh's mansion was wooden--one of a row of such, situated
+near the dockyard in which he wrought. Andy was already on the look-out
+from the doorstep; and, conscious that he had been guilty of some
+approach to excess, behaved with such meek silence and constrained
+decorum, that his master guessed the cause, and graciously connived at
+his slinking to his berth as soon as he was up the ship's side.
+
+But when Mr. Wynn walked forward next morning to summon Andy's
+assistance for his luggage, he found that gentleman the focus of a knot
+of passengers, to whom he was imparting information in his own peculiar
+way. 'Throth an' he talks like a book itself,' was the admiring comment
+of a woman with a child on one arm, while she crammed her tins into her
+red box with the other.
+
+'Every single ha'porth is wood, I tell ye, barrin' the grates, an'
+'tisn't grates they are at all, but shtoves. Sure I saw 'em at Pat
+M'Donagh's as black as twelve o'clock at night, an' no more a sign of a
+blaze out of 'em than there's light from a blind man's eye; an' 'tisn't
+turf nor coal they burns, but only wood agin. It's I that wud sooner see
+the plentiful hearths of ould Ireland, where the turf fire cooks the
+vittles dacently! Oh wirra! why did we ever lave it?'
+
+But Mr. Wynn intercepted the rising chorus by the simple dissyllable,
+'Andy!'
+
+'Sir, yer honour!' wheeling round, and suddenly resuming a jocose
+demeanour; 'I was only jokin' about bein' back. I must be kapin' up
+their sperits, the crathurs, that dunno what's before them at all at
+all; only thinks they're to be all gintlemin an' ladies.' This, as he
+followed his master towards the cabins: 'Whisht here, Misther Robert,'
+lowering his tone confidentially.' You'd laugh if you heard what they
+think they're goin' to get. Coinin' would be nothin' to it. That
+red-headed Biddy Flannigan' (Andy's own chevelure was of carrot tinge,
+yet he never lost an opportunity of girding at those like-haired), 'who
+couldn't wash a pair of stockings if you gev her a goold guinea, expects
+twenty pund a year an' her keep, at the very laste; and Murty Keefe the
+labourin' boy, that could just trench a ridge of praties, thinks nothing
+of tin shillins a day. They have it all laid out among them iligant.
+Mrs. Mulrooney is lookin' out for her carriage by'ne-by; and they were
+abusin' me for not sayin' I'd cut an' run from yer honours, now that I'm
+across.'
+
+'Well, Andy, I'd be sorry to stand in the way of your advancement--'
+
+'Me lave ye, Misther Robert!' in accents of unfeigned surprise; 'not
+unless ye drove me with a whip an' kicked me--is it your poor fostherer
+Andy Callaghan? Masther Bob, asthore, ye're all the counthry I have
+now, an' all the frinds; an' I'll hold by ye, if it be plasing, as long
+as I've strength to strike a spade.'
+
+Tears actually stood in the faithful fellow's eyes. 'I believe you,
+Andy,' said his master, giving his hand to the servant for a grasp of
+friendship, which, if it oftener took place between the horny palm of
+labour and the whiter fingers of the higher born, would be for the
+cementing of society by such recognition of human brotherhood.
+
+When Andy had all their luggage on deck in order for the boats, he came
+up mysteriously to Mr. Wynn, where he stood by the taffrail.
+
+'There's that poor young lady strivin' and strugglin' to regulate them
+big boxes, an' her good-for-nothin' father an' brother smokin' in the
+steerage, an' lavin' everything on her. Fine gintlemin, indeed! More
+like the Injins, that I'm tould lies in bed while their wives digs the
+praties!'
+
+Edith Armytage was so well accustomed to such unequal division of labour
+in her family, that it had long ceased to seem singular to her that she
+was invariably the worker, who bore the brunt of every labour and of
+every trouble--on whose forecasting care depended the smooth arrangement
+of her father's designs; for he could plan well enough, but had a lofty
+disdain of details. The small matter of the luggage was type of all her
+experience.
+
+Jay rather enjoyed the hauling about of huge articles, and attempting
+to bring on deck things much larger than her strength; and when she and
+Edith were jointly essaying to push and pull up the companion-ladder a
+carpet-bag of unusual size, it was suddenly lifted from between them,
+over Jay's head, and borne on deck.
+
+'Oh, Mr. Wynn, thank you!' said the little thing demurely. 'It was a
+little too big for me and Edith. There is a leather valise besides,
+that's very heavy;' and she looked a wistful request. Robert thought
+internally that it would have been good business for the captain to
+bring, at least, his own things on deck; and he could not prevail on
+himself to do more than offer Andy's services as porter, which were
+gratefully received. Did Miss Armytage's grey eyes, as they rested upon
+his for a minute, understand his thoughts? Probably; he believed she
+did. Presently up sauntered her worthy father, wiping his silky
+moustache and beard from the smoke.
+
+'Well, dear, how have you managed? Beautifully, I have no doubt. She's a
+model of a daughter, Wynn!'
+
+'Papa, I hope we may soon land; I positively long to tread the firm
+earth again.'
+
+'What would you do if you were rocking and rolling in a transport
+five months round the Cape? All in good time, dear: I have one or
+two trifling matters to settle;' and he went down to the cabins.
+
+Just before noon Hiram Holt stepped on deck.
+
+'I hope you're ready,' were the second words of his greeting. 'Glorious
+day for sight-seeing; I've arranged to drive to Cape Rouge over the
+plains; for we must be off to-morrow, up the river to Montreal. Where
+are your boxes?'
+
+During a few minutes' delay for the transit of the luggage to the boat,
+Captain Armytage approached, and with those peculiarly pleasing manners
+which made him a fascinating man to all who did not know him somewhat
+deeper than the surface, he engaged Mr. Holt in conversation: he was
+invited to join the excursion to Wolfe's Cove, and stepped over the side
+of the ship after the others.
+
+'Reginald! take care of your sisters till my return. They need not go on
+shore till the afternoon. _Au revoir_;' and he kissed his hand gaily to
+Miss Armytage and Jay, who stood at the vessel's side. But Robert could
+not help remembering their expressed anxiety to get ashore, and the
+captain's fascinations were lost upon him for a good part of their
+expedition.
+
+Always thus: postponing business and anybody else's pleasure to his
+own whim or amusement,--for he was intrinsically the most selfish of
+men,--Captain Armytage had hitherto contrived never to succeed in
+any undertaking. He considered himself the victim of unprecedented
+ill-fortune, forgetting that he had himself been his own evil genius.
+His son could hardly be otherwise than a chip of the old block. Now he
+turned away from the taffrail with a scowl; and, vowing that he would
+not be mewed up while 'the governor' was enjoying himself, presently
+hailed a boat and went ashore, leaving his sisters to walk up and down
+the deck and long for the land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+CONCERNING AN INCUBUS.
+
+
+Andy carried his wrath at the captain's company so far as to shake his
+fist close to that gentleman's bland and courteous back, while he bent
+forward from his thwart in speaking to Mr. Holt; which gestures of
+enmity highly amused the Canadian boatmen, as they grinned and jabbered
+in _patois_ (old as the time of Henri Quatre) among themselves.
+
+'The deludherer?' muttered Andy. 'He'd coax a bird off a three wid
+his silver tongue. An' he must come betune my own gintlemen an'
+their frind--the old schamer!' Here a tremendous blow was lodged (in
+pantomime) under the captain's ribs. 'Sure, of coorse, they can't be up
+to his thricks, an' he an ould sojer!' And here Andy let fly vivaciously
+beneath his unconscious adversary's left ear, restraining the knuckles
+within about half an inch of his throat.
+
+'Are you speaking to me, my good man?' said the captain, suddenly
+wheeling round upon Andy, who sat face to his back.
+
+'Is it me, yer honour?' and the dolorous submissiveness of Andy's
+countenance was a change marvellous to behold. 'What could the likes
+of me have to say to the likes of you, sir?'
+
+Arthur Wynn's gravity was fairly overcome, and he got a heavy fit of
+coughing in his pocket-handkerchief. Captain Armytage gazed keenly at
+Andy for a moment, during which he might as well have stared at a
+plaster bust, for all the discoveries he made in the passive simple
+countenance.
+
+'Six hours' knapsack drill might do that fellow some good,' said the
+officer, resuming his former position and the thread of conversation
+together. 'In answer to your inquiry, Mr. Holt, I have not quite decided
+whether to settle in Upper or Lower Canada.'
+
+'Then, sir, you must know very little of either,' was the blunt reply.
+'There's no more comparison between them than between settling in
+Normandy and in North Britain.'
+
+'Can't say I should like either location,' rejoined the captain, with
+his brilliant smile. 'But I've been here with the regiment, and am not
+quite without personal experience. The life of a seigneur would just
+suit me; if I could find an eligible seignory for sale'--
+
+Hiram Holt stared. A man who had come out with his family in an emigrant
+vessel, talking of purchasing a seignory! But this was a magnificent
+manner of the captain's. Sixpence in his pocket assumed the dimensions
+of a sovereign in his imagination.
+
+'Some of them are thirty thousand acres in extent,' Mr. Holt remarked
+drily.
+
+'Ah, yes, quite a little principality: one should enjoy all the old
+feudal feelings, walking about among one's subject _censitaires_,
+taking a paternal interest in their concerns, as well as bound to them
+by pecuniary ties. I should build a castellated baronial residence,
+pepper-box turrets, etcetera, and resist modern new lights to the
+uttermost.'
+
+'As soon a living man chained to a dead man, as _I_ would hamper myself
+with that old-world feudality!' exclaimed the Western pioneer. 'Why,
+sir, can you have seen the wretched worn-out land they scratch with a
+wretched plough, fall after fall, without dreaming of rotation of crops,
+or drainage, or any other improvement? Do you remember the endless strips
+of long narrow fields edging the road, opening out of one another,
+in miserable divisions of one or two acres, perhaps, just affording
+starvation to the holders? What is the reason that where vast quantities
+of wheat were formerly exported, the soil now grows hardly enough for
+the people to eat? Sir, the country is cut up and subdivided to the
+last limits that will support even the sleepy life of a _habitan_; all
+improvement of every kind is barred; the French population stand still
+in the midst of our go-ahead age: and you would prolong the system that
+causes this!'
+
+It was one of the few subjects upon which Mr. Holt got excited; but he
+had seen the evils of feudalism in the strong light of Western progress.
+Captain Armytage, for peace' sake, qualified his lately expressed
+admiration, but was met again by a torrent of words--to the unalloyed
+delight of Andy, who was utterly unable to comprehend the argument,
+but only hoped 'the schamer was gettin' more than he bargained for.'
+
+'Pauperism will be the result, sir; the race is incorrigible in its
+stupid determination to do as its forefathers did, and nothing else.
+Lower Canada wants a clearing out, like what you are getting in Ireland,
+before a healthy regeneration can set in. The religion is faulty; the
+habits and traditions of the race are faulty; Jean Baptiste is the
+drone in our colonial hive. He won't gather honey: he will just live,
+indolently drawling through an existence diversified by feast and fast
+days; and all his social vices flourish in shelter of this seignorial
+system--this--this upas-tree which England is pledged to perpetuate:'
+and Mr. Holt struck his hand violently on the gunwale of the boat,
+awakening a responsive grin of triumph from Andy.
+
+The captain was spared a reply by the boat just then touching the wharf;
+and while they were landing, and lodging the luggage in Pat M'Donagh's
+house till the starting of the Montreal boat next afternoon, we may say
+a few words concerning the feudal system extant in Lower Canada at the
+period when this story begins.
+
+Henri Quatre was the monarch under whose sway the colony was originated.
+Champlain and De Levi knew no better than to reproduce the landed
+organization of France, with its most objectionable feature of the forced
+partition of estates, in the transatlantic province, for defensive
+purposes, against the numerous and powerful Indian tribes. Military
+tenure was superadded. Every farmer was perforce also a soldier, liable
+at any time to be called away from his husbandry to fight against the
+savage Iroquois or the aggressive British. Long after these combative
+days had passed away the military tenure remained, with its laws of
+serfdom, a canker at the roots of property; and thinking men dreaded to
+touch a matter so inwound with the very foundations of the social fabric
+in Lower Canada. But in 1854 and 1859 legislative acts were passed which
+have finally abolished the obnoxious tenure; each landholder, receiving
+his estate in freehold, has paid a certain sum, and the Province in
+general contributed £650,000 as indemnity to those whose old-established
+rights were surrendered for the public weal. Eight millions of inhabited
+acres were freed from the incubus, and Lower Canada has removed one
+great obstacle in the way of her prosperity.
+
+At the period when Hiram Holt expressed himself so strongly on the
+subject, a grinding vassalage repressed the industry of the _habitans_.
+Though their annual rent, as _censitaires_ or tenants, was not large,
+a variety of burdensome obligations was attached. When a man sold his
+tenure, the seigneur could demand a fine, sometimes one-twelfth of the
+purchase money; heavy duties were charged on successions. The ties of
+the Roman Catholic Church were oppressive. Various monopolies were
+possessed by the seigneurs. The whole system of social government was a
+reproduction, in the nineteenth century, of the France of the fifteenth.
+
+Mr. Holt was somewhat cooled when his party had reached the citadel,
+through streets so steep that the drive to their summit seemed a feat of
+horsemanship. Here was the great rock whence Jacques Cartier, first of
+European eyes, viewed the mighty river in the time of our Henry VIII.,
+now bristling with fortifications which branch away in angles round the
+Upper Town, crowned with a battery of thirty-two pounders, whose black
+muzzles command the peaceful shipping below. Robert Wynn could not help
+remarking on that peculiarly Canadian charm, the exquisite clearness of
+the air, which brought distant objects so near in vision that he could
+hardly believe Point Levi to be a mile across the water, and the woods
+of the isle of Orleans more than a league to the eastward.
+
+Captain Armytage had many reminiscences of the fortress, but enjoyed
+little satisfaction in the relating of any; for nothing could get the
+seignorial tenure out of Mr. Holt's head, and he drove in sentences
+concerning it continually.
+
+Outside the Castle gates the captain remembered important business,
+which must preclude him from the pleasure of accompanying his friends
+to Wolfe's Landing.
+
+'Well, sir, I hope you now acknowledge that the seignorial system is a
+blot on our civilisation.'
+
+'I wish it had never been invented!' exclaimed the captain, very
+sincerely. And, with the gracefullest of bows, he got quit of Mr. Holt
+and his pet aversion together.
+
+Hiram's features relaxed into a smile. 'I knew I could convince him; he
+appears an agreeable companion,' remarked Mr. Holt, somewhat simply.
+But the subject had given the keynote to the day; and in driving along
+the road to Cape Rouge, parallel with the St. Lawrence, he was finding
+confirmations for his opinion in most things they met and passed. The
+swarming country, and minute subdivisions of land, vexed Hiram's spirit.
+Not until they entered the precincts of the battlefield, and he was
+absorbed in pointing out the spots of peculiar interest, did the
+feudality of the Province cease to trouble him.
+
+All along the river was bordered by handsome villas and pleasure-grounds
+of Quebec merchants. Cultivation has gradually crept upon the battlefield,
+obliterating landmarks of the strife. The rock at the base of which
+Wolfe expired has been removed, and in its stead rises a pillar crowned
+with a bronze helmet and sword, and is inscribed:
+
+  HERE DIED WOLFE, VICTORIOUS.
+
+Not till seventy-five years after the deed which makes his fame was this
+memorial erected: a tardy recognition of the service which placed the
+noblest of our dependencies--a Province large as an old-world empire--in
+British hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE RIVER HIGHWAY.
+
+
+'Well, Misther Robert! if ever I laid my eyes on the likes of such a
+ship, in all my born days!'
+
+With this impressive ejaculation, Andy Callaghan backed on the wharf to
+take a completer view of the wondrous whole. His untravelled imagination
+had hitherto pictured steamers after the one pattern and similitude of
+those which sailed upon the river Lee and in the Cove of Cork--craft
+which had the aquatic appendages of masts and decks, and still kept up
+an exterior relation with the ship tribe. But this a steamboat! this
+great three-storied wooden edifice, massive-looking as a terrace of
+houses!
+
+'An' a hole in the side for a hall-door!' soliloquized Andy. 'No, but
+two holes, one for the quality an' the other for the commonality. An'
+no deck at all at all for the people to take the air, only all cabins
+intirely! If it isn't the very dead image of a side of a sthreet
+swimmin' away!'
+
+Andy's outspoken remarks attracted some notice when he was fairly
+aboard.
+
+'This is the fore-cabin, and you must try to keep quiet,' said Arthur.
+'We'll be off presently; and whatever you do,' he added in a low tone,
+'keep clear of that bar'--indicating a counter recess where liquors were
+sold, and where customers had congregated already.
+
+'Never fear, sir,' was the reply; 'though they've no right to put it
+there forenent us, an' they knowin' that the bare sight of it is like
+fire to tow with many a one. But sure they're not thinkin' only how to
+get money:' and Mr. Callaghan ended his moral reflections by sitting
+down beside a family of small children, who squalled in different keys,
+and treating one of them to a ride on his foot, which favour, being
+distributed impartially, presently restored good humour.
+
+'An' isn't there any peep of the fresh air allowed us at all?' inquired
+Andy of a man near him, whose peculiar cut of garments had already
+excited his curiosity. 'It's a quare vessel that hasn't aither a sail or
+deck: we might all go to the bottom of the say in this big box, 'athout
+bein' a bit the wiser.'
+
+The emigrant with the six children looked rather anxious, and hugged her
+baby closer, poor woman; glancing for a minute at the bar, where her
+husband was sipping gin, and already brawling with an American. But as
+the apple-complexioned man whom Andy addressed happened to be a French
+_habitan_, limited in English at the best of times, the Irish brogue
+puzzled him so thoroughly, that he could only make a polite bow, and
+signify his ignorance of Monsieur's meaning.
+
+'Maybe he's an Injin,' thought Andy; 'but sure I thought thim savages
+wore no clothes, and he has an iligant blue coat an' red tie. I wondher
+would it be any good to thry the Irish wid him;' and, as an experiment,
+he said something in the richest Munster dialect. The Canadian's
+politeness was almost forgotten in his stare of surprise, and he took
+the earliest opportunity of changing his place, and viewing Andy
+respectfully from afar.
+
+But if it had a repellent effect on the _habitan_, it exerted a strong
+attractive force upon other of the passengers. Mr. Callaghan was never
+happier than when at the focus of a knot of his countrymen, for his
+talents were essentially social; and before the evening was over, his
+musical feats with voice and violin had so charmed the aforesaid
+Canadian, that he came up and made him another of the polite bows.
+
+'Very much obliged to you, sir, if I only knew what you were sayin','
+replied Andy, with equal courtesy.
+
+'He's inviting you to his daughter's wedding,' interpreted one of the
+sailors who stood by; 'you and the fiddle.'
+
+'With all the pleasure in life, sir,' promptly replied Andy, as he
+imitated the bow of the worthy _habitan_ to perfection. 'I'm always
+ready for any fun-goin'. Ask the old gentleman when and where it's
+to be,' he continued, jogging the interpreter with his elbow.
+
+'The day after to-morrow, at a village near Montreal;' upon learning
+which, Andy's countenance fell, and the festive vision faded from his
+ken. 'Maybe it's in China I'd be by that time,' said he, with incorrect
+notions of geography; 'but I'm obliged to you all the same, sir, an'
+wherever I am I'll drink her health, if 'twas only in a glass of wather.
+I'll have a pain in me back if I bow much longer' added Andy _sotto
+voce_; 'I don't know how he's able to keep it up at all.'
+
+'Why, where are you going to?' asked the sailor, laughing; 'this ain't
+the way to China by a long chalk.'
+
+'Going to make me fortune,' replied Andy boldly, as he dropped the
+violin into its case and latched the cover tightly, as if a secret were
+locked in. While no more idea had he of his destination, nor plan for
+future life, poor faithful peasant, than the fine Newfoundland dog which
+slept not far from him that night in the fore-cabin, a mass of creamy
+curls.
+
+Meanwhile, all the evening, and all the night through, the noble steamer
+stemmed the broad brimming flood, steadily onwards, casting behind her
+on the moonlit air a breath of dark smoke ruddy with sparks, at every
+palpitation of her mighty engine-heart. Past black pine forests to the
+edge of the shore; past knots of white cottages centred round the usual
+gleaming metal spire; past confluence of other rivers, dark paths joining
+the great continental highway; blowing off steam now and then at young
+roadside towns, where upon wooden wharves, waited passengers and freight
+in the moonlight, swallowing into either mouth all presented to her, and
+on untiringly again. Robert Wynn stayed on the small open poop astern,
+gazing at the picturesque panorama, half revealed, half shaded by the
+silvery beams, long after the major part of the passengers were snug in
+their state rooms or berths below. With the urging of the fire-driven
+machinery he could hear mingled the vast moan of the river sweeping
+along eastwards. It saddened him, that never-silent voice of 'the Father
+of Waters.' Memories of home came thronging round him--a home for him
+extinct, dead, till in this distant land he should create another. At
+the threshold of a great undertaking, before hand has been put to work
+it out, the heart always shrinks and shivers, as did his here. Looking
+upon the length and breadth of all that had to be done, it seemed too
+hard for him.
+
+But not so when next morning he arose from a few hours' sleep, and
+beheld the bright sunshine lighting up the glorious Canadian world.
+Looming giants by moonlight are reduced to very ordinary obstacles by
+daylight; and the set of desponding thoughts which had weighed upon the
+young man as he contemplated the inky river and darkling country, seemed
+now to belong to another phase of being. Despondent! with the wide free
+world to work in, and its best prizes lying beside the goal, ready for
+capture by the steady heart and active hand. Robert felt almost as if
+that shadowy home in the forest were already built, already peopled with
+the dear old faces he had left behind. The pure fresh air--clear as is
+rarely breathed in Europe (for it is as if in our Old World the breath
+of unnumbered nations has for centuries been soiling the elements)--the
+richly coloured scene, were a cordial to his young brain. The steamer
+was fast approaching the isle of St. Helen's; and beyond, against a
+background of purple mountain, lay 'the Silver Town,' radiant with that
+surface glitter peculiar to Canadian cities of the Lower Province; as if
+Montreal had sent her chief edifices to be electro-plated, and they had
+just come home brightly burnished. In front was the shining blue current
+of the St. Lawrence, escaped from a bewildering perplexity of islets
+and rapids, which had apparently ruffled its temper not a little.
+
+'Part of our Ottawa flows here,' said Mr. Holt, glancing at the stream
+with a sort of home affection--'our clear emerald Ottawa, fresh from the
+virgin wilderness; and it hasn't quite mingled with its muddy neighbour
+yet, no more than we Westerns can comfortably mingle with the _habitans_
+and their old-world practices down here. You see, Wynn, the St. Lawrence
+has been running over a bed of marl for miles before it reaches Lake St.
+Louis; and the Ottawa has been purified by plenty of rocks and rapids;
+so they don't suit very well--no more than we and the _habitans_--ha!
+ha!' Mr. Holt was vastly amused by the similitude. He pointed to a very
+distinctly marked line of foam wavering on the river surface, and said,
+'There's the demarcation.'
+
+'I am glad it is of such an evanescent nature, sir,' replied Robert. He
+might have said how much grander the river became when all brawling was
+forgotten, and both currents fused into one glorious stream.
+
+'Now,' said Arthur, with the contrariety of youth (and _aside_, as is
+written in stage-plays), 'I'm certain these French Canadians are not so
+black as they're painted. I like those sociable white villages round the
+tin spires; and the guide-book says the people are amiable and civil.
+I'll investigate that subject, Bob.'
+
+'I would advise you to investigate breakfast just now,' was the reply,
+as the steward's bell swung forth its summons. Then commenced a procession
+of passengers to the eating-room; through the length of the sumptuously
+furnished saloon, where the richest Persian carpets, marble tables,
+brilliant chandeliers, and mirrors, were at the service of the public;
+by a narrow staircase amidships down to the lowest storey of the vessel,
+a long apartment lit by candles, and lined at the sides with curtained
+rows of berths. The usual pause followed for the advent of the ladies:
+nobody sat down till they had come from their cabin on the middle deck,
+and established themselves wheresoever they listed.
+
+'That's like Irish politeness' whispered Arthur, whose good spirits were
+always talkative. 'My father, dear old gentleman, would take off his hat
+to a petticoat on a bush, I do believe.'
+
+The company was very mixed, and quite as much conversation went on in
+French as in English. It seemed to the strangers as if the balance of
+gentlemanly deportment, and yet vivacity of manner, might possibly lie
+on the side of those who spoke the former tongue. Next to Arthur sat the
+sallow States'-man, bolting his breakfast with unconscionable speed,
+and between whiles, in a high treble voice, volunteering his opinion
+pretty freely on Canadian matters, as if he were endowed with a special
+commission to set them right. Badly as Hiram Holt thought of the
+seignorial system, he was perforce driven to defend it in some measure,
+much to Arthur's delectation; but he soon discovered that to carry
+war into the enemy's country was his best policy, so he seized the
+institution of slavery in his canine teeth, and worried it well. The
+States'-man thought that a gentleman might be permitted to travel
+without being subject to attacks on his country: Mr. Holt observed that
+he thought precisely the same, which species of agreement closed the
+conversation. And the States'-man relieved his feelings subsequently
+by whittling a stick from the firewood into impalpable chips, with his
+heels resting on the apex of the saloon stove. Kind-hearted Hiram Holt
+had meanwhile more than half repented his hostility.
+
+'Tell you what, sir,' said he, going up and extending his hand, 'it
+wasn't the matter, but the manner of your talk that raised my dander
+awhile since. I agree in most of what you say about this Province here,
+and I hope as much as you do that the last badge of feudalism may soon
+be swept away.'
+
+The American put his bony pale hand almost sullenly into the Canadian's
+brawny palm, and after suffering the pressure, returned to his interesting
+pursuit of whittling, which he continued in silence for the rest of the
+voyage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+'JEAN BAPTISTE' AT HOME.
+
+
+After seeing most of the thoroughfares of Montreal, and receiving the
+set of sensations experienced by all new-comers and recorded in all
+books of Canadian travel--principally wondering at the incongruities
+of French and English nationality grafted together, and coherent as
+the segments of the fabled centaur--the active commerce of a British
+port carried on beneath the shadow of walled-in convents suggesting
+Belgium--friars endued with long black robes, passing soldiers clothed
+in the immemorial scarlet--a Rue Notre Dame and a St. James's Street in
+neighbourhood--the brothers witnessed another phase of American life as
+they dined at a monster table-d'hôte in the largest hotel of the city.
+The imperial system of inn-keeping originated in the United States
+has been imported across the border, much to the advantage of British
+subjects; and nothing can be a queerer contrast than the Englishman's
+solitary dinner in a London coffee-room, and his part in the vast
+collective meals of a transatlantic hotel.
+
+'New to this sort of thing, I should imagine?' said the gentleman next
+beside Robert, in a particularly thin, wiry voice.
+
+'Yes, quite a stranger,' answered Robert, looking round, and seeing that
+the speaker was a person with a sharp nose and small keen black eyes.
+
+'So I thought; your looks betray it. Everything seems queer, I guess.
+Intending to be a settler, eh?' Then, without waiting for an answer,
+'That's right: I always welcome the infusion of young blood into our
+colony, particularly _gentle_ blood, for we are a rough set, mister,
+and want polish--and--and--all that.'
+
+These deferential words, uttered in the deferential manner of inferiority
+to acknowledged excellence, certainly pleased Robert; for what heart is
+unsusceptible to subtle flattery? And of all modes of influence, men
+are most easily flattered or disparaged by reference to what is no
+worthiness or fault of their own--the social station in which it has
+pleased the Creator that they should enter this world. The keen brain
+behind the keen eyes knew this well; the fact had oiled a way for his
+wedge many a time. What was his motive for endeavouring to ingratiate
+himself with young Wynn for the next twenty minutes?
+
+'Now, mister, if it's a fact that you be settling, I can give you a
+chance of some of the finest lots of land ever offered for sale in
+Montcalm township. A friend of mine has a beautiful farm there that
+would just suit you; best part cleared and under fence--fine water
+privilege--land in good heart, and going, I may say, dirt cheap.'
+
+Robert felt much obliged for the interest in his welfare which prompted
+this eligible offer. 'But, unfortunately, I have very little money to
+invest,' said he carelessly. The swift penetrating glance that followed
+from his companion was unseen, as he crumbled his biscuit on the
+table-cloth. 'I am rather disposed to try the backwoods,' he added.
+
+'The bush!' in accents of amazement. 'The bush! it may do very well
+for labourers, but for a gentleman of your pretensions, it would be
+misery--wholly unsuitable, sir--wholly unsuitable. No, no, take my
+advice, and settle where the advantages of civilisation--the comforts of
+life to which you have been accustomed--are accessible. A few thousand
+dollars'--
+
+'I regret to say,' Robert interposed, 'that even one thousand is
+immensely more than I possess,' turning to the Canadian with a frank
+smile, which was by no means reduplicated in the sharp face. And from
+the era of that revelation, conversation unaccountably flagged.
+
+'Do you know to whom you talked at table?' asked Hiram Holt afterwards.
+He had been sitting some way farther up at the other side. 'One of the
+most noted land-jobbers in the country--a man who buys wild lands at
+three shillings an acre, to sell them again at ten or fifteen, if he
+can; and he never loses an opportunity of driving a trade. His bargain
+of a cleared farm is probably some worn-out dilapidated location not
+worth half-a-dollar an acre till hundreds have been spent on it.'
+
+'Then I've gained one benefit by being poor,' said Robert; 'nobody can
+have a motive for over-reaching me'--which was philosophic consolation.
+
+Mr. Holt's business would not permit him to leave till next evening. And
+so the Wynns, continuing to lionize, looked into the vast but dreary
+Romish cathedral, which seats ten thousand people in its nine spacious
+aisles and seven chapels; clambered to the roof, and viewed the city
+from a promenade at an elevation of 120 feet; and then drove to that
+special beauty of Montreal--the mountain. This is a hill more than 500
+feet in height, and clothed from head to foot with the richest verdure
+of woods; among which grow the most delicious apples extant since Paris
+selected one as a prize. From the summit a landscape of level country
+stretches below westwards; in middle, distant villages; on the horizon,
+the Ottawa confluence, bounding Montreal Island and forming others.
+Southwards, across the St. Lawrence, the hills of Vermont far away;
+nearer, the fertile valley of the Richelieu.
+
+'Let's go off to one of the _habitan_ villages,' said Arthur suddenly.
+'Dismiss the calèche, and we will walk back. I'll ask for a drink of
+water in one of the cottages just to scrape acquaintance.'
+
+'Furbish up your French, too,' said Robert, 'for they do gabble it
+fast. I heard a fellow chattering in the steerage, coming up the river
+yesterday morning: by the way, he and Andy had struck up a friendship:
+and such bowing as they had to each other's incomprehensible lingo!'
+
+'I wonder what he is doing to-day,' said Arthur reflectively; 'he asked
+me so particularly whether we should want him again till the evening.'
+
+'Found out a nest of Irish somewhere, I suppose.'
+
+'There's a fellow taking off his hat to us,' remarked Arthur, as they
+passed a carter. 'Everybody seems to bow to everybody in this country.
+But did you ever see such an old-fashioned vehicle as he drives? And he
+keeps talking to himself and his horse all the way, apparently.'
+
+Rapidly walking down the fine road to the plain, they were not long
+in nearing a group of neat white houses round the invariable shining
+steeple.
+
+'The village looks as sociable as the people,' said Robert. 'How neat
+everything seems!--Hallo, Arthur, we've come in for some festivity or
+other, by all the gay ribbons about.'
+
+'Bon jour, Madame,' said Arthur boldly, to a tidy old lady, sitting in
+her green verandah. 'Nous sommes des étrangers--I'd like to ask her what
+it's all about,' he whispered confidentially to Robert; 'but I'm out of
+my depth already.'
+
+The aged _Canadienne_ arose, with the politeness so natural to her
+Gallic descent, and bade them welcome. But sounds issuing from the
+opposite house riveted their attention. 'As sure as I'm here, that's
+Andy's violin,' exclaimed Arthur; 'I'd know his scrape anywhere;' and he
+crossed the road in a moment.
+
+Without doubt Andy was the player, ay, and the performer too; for he was
+dancing a species of quickstep solo, surrounded by a circle of grinning
+and delighted _habitans_. The most perfect gravity dwelt in his own
+countenance meanwhile, alloyed by just a spice of lurking fun in his
+deep-set eyes, which altogether faded, as a candle blown out, when
+suddenly he perceived the accession to the company. Silence succeeded
+the dead blank on his features, down hung the violin and its bow on
+either side, and the corners of his mouth sunk into a dismal curve.
+
+'Go on, old boy--scrape away,' shouted Arthur hilariously. 'So many
+pretty faces would inspire anybody;' and whether it was that the
+black-eyed Canadian damsels felt the compliment through the foreign
+idiom, there was considerable blushing and bridling as the speaker's
+glance travelled round the group.
+
+They deserved his encomium. The slight sprightly type of dark beauty
+abounded; and so prettily decked out with bright ribbons and flowers,
+that it was evident the tastefulness which renders French modistes
+unrivalled had not died out in these collateral relatives of the nation.
+Forward stepped Monsieur, the master of the house and father of the bride,
+begging that Messieurs would be so benevolent as to seat themselves,
+and would honour him by partaking of refreshment; both which requests
+Messieurs were nothing loth to fulfil. It was hardly to be realized
+that these were the besotted _habitans_, the unimprovable race, the
+blotch on the fair face of Canadian civilisation; these happy-looking,
+simple-minded people. Hiram Holt was a slanderer. Full an hour passed
+before the Wynns could get away from the embarrassing hospitalities and
+politeness of the good villagers, who shook hands all round at parting
+in most affectionate style. As for Andy, much to his own discomfort, he
+was kissed by his host.
+
+'Now I could ondherstand if it was the missus that shaluted me,' said
+he, rubbing across his cheek with his cuff as soon as he was on the
+road; 'throth an' they're all very fond of me intirely, considherin'
+they never laid eyes on me till this mornin', barrin' himself. An' I
+never see nater houses--they're as clean as a gintleman's; you might ate
+off the flure. If only the people wud forget that queer talk they have,
+an' spake like Christians, that a body could know what they're sayin',
+'twould be a deal more comfortable.'
+
+'And how could you get on without understanding them?' asked Arthur.
+
+'Oh, 'twas aisy enough sometimes; for whin they wanted me to come to
+dinner they had only to show me the table; and when they wanted me to
+play, they only rubbed across their arm this way, and said, "Jawer,
+jawer" (I brought away that word, anyhow,' added Mr. Callaghan, with
+great satisfaction). 'All other times they spake to me I bowed plinty,
+and that did the business. But there was a man alongside me at the
+dinner that had a few words of English; an' he tould me that this time
+of the year they all marries to be ready against the winter. I likes
+that fashion, Misther Robert;' and herewith Andy heaved a little sigh,
+thinking perhaps of a certain pretty blue-eyed Mary in Ireland.
+
+'Put your best foot foremost, Callaghan,' said Mr. Wynn; 'we shall
+scarcely reach town in time;' and all three quickened their pace.
+
+'I'll never believe a syllable against the _habitans_ again,' said
+Arthur. 'Their old-fashioned politeness is a perfect relief from the
+bluff manners of most other Canadians. They seem to me to have a lot
+of virtues,--cleanliness, good-humour, good-nature,--and I like their
+habit of living altogether, children settled round the parent tree
+like branches of a banyan. We would give a trifle to be able to do it
+ourselves, Bob;' and the smile with which the brothers met each other's
+eyes was rather wistful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+'FROM MUD TO MARBLE.'
+
+
+Hiram Holt was proud of his ancestry. Not that he had sixteen quarterings
+whereof to boast, or even six; his pedigree could have blazoned an
+escutcheon only with spade, and shuttle, and saw, back for generations.
+But then, society all about him was in like plight; and it is a strong
+consolation in this, as in matters moral, to be no worse than one's
+neighbours. Truly, a Herald's College would find Canada a very jungle as
+to genealogy. The man of marble has had a grandfather of mud, as was the
+case with the owner of Maple Grove.
+
+And, instead of resenting such origin as an injury received from his
+progenitors, worthy Hiram looked back from the comfortable eminence of
+prosperity whereunto he had attained, and loved to retrace the gradual
+steps of labour which led thither. He could remember most of them; to
+his memory's eye the virgin forest stretched for unknown and unnumbered
+miles west and northward of the settler's adventurous clearing, and the
+rude log shanty was his home beside the sombre pines. Now the pines were
+dead and gone, except a few isolated giants standing gloomily among
+the maple plantations; but the backwoodsman's shanty had outlived all
+subsequent changes.
+
+Here, in the wide courtyard to the rear of Mr. Holt's house, it was
+preserved, like a curious thing set apart in a museum--an embodiment
+of the old struggling days embalmed. The walls of great unhewn logs
+fastened at the corners by notching; the crevices chinked up with chips
+and clay; the single rude square window shuttered across; the roof of
+basswood troughs, all blackened with age; the rough door, creaking
+on clumsy wooden hinges when Mr. Holt unlocked it,--these were not
+encouraging features, viewed by the light of a future personal experience.
+Robert stole a glance at Arthur as they stepped inside the low dark
+shed, and, as Arthur had with similar motives also stolen a glance at
+Robert, their eyes naturally met, and both laughed.
+
+They had been thinking a twin thought--'How will my brother like such
+quarters as this in the forest?'
+
+'A queer concern,' remarked Arthur in a low voice, and rubbing his chin.
+
+'Rather!' replied Robert, looking equally dubious.
+
+'I like to show the shanty to youngsters,' said Mr. Holt, as he turned
+from pushing back the shutter, 'that they may see what they have to
+expect. From such a start as this we Canadians have all waked up into
+opulence--that is, the hardworking share of us; and there's room enough
+for tens of thousands to do the same off in the bush.'
+
+'I hope so, sir,' was the least desponding remark of which Robert could
+think. For the naked reality of a forest life came before him as never
+previously. The halo of distance had faded, as he stood beside the
+rude fireplace, fashioned of four upright limestone slabs in a corner,
+reaching to a hole in the roof, down which the wind was howling just
+now. It was rather a bleak look-out, notwithstanding the honeyed
+promises of the old settler pouring on his ear.
+
+'To be sure there is. Fortune's at your back in the bush; and you
+haven't, as in the mother country, to rise by pushing others down.
+There's no impassable gulf separating you from anything you choose
+to aim at. It strikes me that the motto of our capital is as good
+as a piece of advice to the settler--"Industry, Intelligence, and
+Integrity"--with a beaver as pattern of the first two principles,
+anyhow. So recollect the beaver, my young chaps, and work like it.'
+
+'I don't remember the building of this,' he added; 'but every stick was
+laid by my father's own hands, and my mother chinked between them till
+all was tight and right. I tell you I'm prouder of it than of a piece
+of fancy-work, such as I've seen framed and glazed. I love every log in
+the old timbers.' And Mr. Holt tapped the wall affectionately with his
+walking-staff. 'It was the farthest west clearing then, and my father
+chose the site because of the spring yonder, which is covered with a
+stone and civilised into a well now-a-days.'
+
+'And is the town so modern as all that comes to?' said Robert.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+'Twenty years grows a city in Canada,' replied Mr. Holt, somewhat
+loftily. 'Twenty years between the swamp and the crowded street: while
+two inches of ivy would be growing round a European ruin, we turn a
+wilderness into a cultivated country, dotted with villages. The history
+of Mapleton is easily told. My father was the first who ever built a
+sawmill on the river down there, and the frame-houses began to gather
+about it shortly. Then he ventured into the grist line; and I'm the
+owner of the biggest mills in the place now, with half-a-dozen of
+others competing, and all doing a fair business in flour, and lumber
+for exportation. You see in this land we've room enough for all, and
+no man need scowl down another of the same trade. 'Taint so in England,
+where you must knock your bread out of somebody else's mouth.'
+
+'Not always, sir,' said Robert, 'nor commonly, I hope.'
+
+'I forgot you were a fresh importation,' observed Mr. Holt with a
+satisfied chuckle. 'You ain't colonized yet. Well, let's come and look
+at something else.'
+
+Meanwhile Arthur had measured the dimensions of the shanty, by pacing
+along and across: sixteen feet one way, twelve the other. Narrow limits
+for the in-door life of a family; but the cottage had somewhat grown
+with their growth, and thrown out a couple of small bed-chambers,
+like buds of incipient shanties, from the main trunk. A curiosity of
+wood-craft it looked, so mossy, gnarled, and weather-beaten, that one
+could easily have believed it had sprung from the ground without the
+intervention of hands, a specimen of some gigantic forest fungus.
+
+'I'll leave a charge in my will that it's not to be disturbed,' said
+Hiram. ''Twould be sacrilege to move a log of the whole consarn. D'ye
+hear, Sam?'
+
+His son had just come up and shaken hands; for this was a matutinal
+expedition of Mr. Holt and his guests round the farm. Being given to
+habits of extreme earliness, the former was wont to rouse any one in the
+house whose company he fancied, to go with him in his morning walks; and
+the Wynns had been honoured by a knocking-up at five o'clock for that
+purpose. Mr. Holt had strode into their room, flung open the window
+shutters and the sash with a resounding hand which completely dissipated
+sleep, and rendered it hardly matter of choice to follow him, since no
+repose was to be gained by lying in bed. Sam's clear brown eyes sparkled
+as he saw the victims promenading after his tall father at the Gothic
+hour of six, and marked Arthur furtively rubbing his eyes.
+
+'You're tremendously early people here,' remarked Arthur, when young
+Holt joined them. 'I had a mind to turn round and close the shutters
+again, but was afraid I might affront your father.'
+
+'Affront him! oh no; but he'd just come again and again to rouse you,
+till you were compelled to submit in self-defence. He wakes up young
+people on principle, he says.'
+
+'Well, he practises his precepts,' rejoined Arthur, 'and seems to have
+trained his children in the same.'
+
+'Yes, he has made us all practical men; seven chips of the old block,'
+observed Sam.
+
+'Seven brothers!' ejaculated Arthur. 'I saw only three last night. And
+are they all as tall as you?'
+
+'About forty-four feet of length among us,' said Sam. 'We're a long
+family in more ways than one;' and he looked down from his altitude of
+seventy-five inches on the young Irishman.
+
+'It is quite a pleasant surprise to see your sister,' Arthur remarked.
+
+'Bell hasn't kept up the family tradition of height, I must say. She's a
+degenerate specimen of the Holts;' and the speaker's brown eyes softened
+with a beam of fondness; 'for which reason, I suppose, she'll not bear
+the name long.'
+
+'And who's the lucky man?' asked Arthur, feeling an instant's disagreeable
+surprise, and blushing at the sensation.
+
+'Oh, out of half-a-dozen pretenders, 'twould be hard to say. We all
+marry early in Canada; most of my contemporaries are Benedicts long ago.
+Three brothers younger than I have wives and children, and are settled
+in farms and mills of their own.'
+
+'And might I ask'--began Arthur, hesitating when the very personal
+nature of the inquiry struck him.
+
+'To be sure you might. Well, in the first place, I took a fancy to go
+through college, and my father left me in Toronto for four years at the
+University of Upper Canada. That brought me up to twenty-three years
+old; and then--for the last two years nobody would have me,' added Sam,
+elevating his black brows.
+
+'Perhaps you are too fastidious; I remark that about men who have nice
+sisters,' said Mr. Arthur, with an air of much experience: 'now, Robert
+and I never see anybody so nice as Linda--at least hardly ever.'
+
+'A saving clause for Bell,' said her brother, laughing, 'which is polite,
+at all events. I must tell her there's a young lady at home that you
+prefer immensely.'
+
+Which he accordingly did, at the ensuing breakfast; and pretty Miss Holt
+pretended to take the matter greatly to heart, and would not permit
+Arthur to explain; while mischievous Sam scouted the notion of the
+unknown 'Linda' being his sister, except by the rather distant tie of
+Adam and Eve.
+
+What a plentiful table was this at Maple Grove! Several sorts of meat
+and wild fowl, several species of bread and cake, several indigenous
+preserves; and Robert could not help going back with aching heart to the
+scant supply of meagre fare at home; he saw again his sweet pale mother
+trying to look cheerful over the poor meal, and Linda keeping up an
+artificial gaiety, while her soul was sick of stints and privations.
+His face grew stern and sad at the memory; enjoyment or amusement was
+criminal for him while they were suffering. So when, by and by, Mr. Holt
+invited him and Arthur to remain for the winter months at Maple Grove,
+with a view of gaining insight of Canadian manners and Canadian farming,
+he decidedly declined. He wished to push on at once; whatever hardships
+lay before them, had better be combated as soon as possible. A lengthened
+stay here would be a bad preparation for the wilderness life; they could
+scarcely but be enervated by it.
+
+'You're a brave lad,' said Mr. Holt, 'and I admire your pluck, though
+you are plunging right into a pack of troubles; but the overcoming of
+each one will be a step in the ladder to fortune. Now I'll go and get
+out the horses, and ride you over to Mr. Landenstein's office: he'll
+know all about the wild lands, and perhaps has a cleared farm or two
+cheap.'
+
+But unfortunately such farms did not suit Robert's pocket. One of two
+hundred acres, fifty cleared and the rest bush, was offered for £240,
+with a wooden house thrown into the bargain; but the purchaser's fancy
+for the forest was unconquerable: it puzzled even Mr. Holt. He returned
+from Mapleton the proprietor of a hundred acres of bush in a newly
+settled western township, and felt much the better and cheerier that his
+excursion had ended so. The future had something tangible for his grasp
+now; and he only grudged every hour spent away from his sphere of labour
+as an opportunity of advantage lost.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+CORDUROY.
+
+
+'They wor very kind to us,' observed Andy, from his elevation in the
+waggon; 'an' this counthry bates all the world at 'ating and dhrinking.'
+
+This to Arthur Wynn, who was seated rather despondingly in front of the
+collection of boxes, pots, and pails, which formed their stock-in-trade
+for bush life. Sam Holt and Robert were walking on before the horse, a
+furlong ahead; but Arthur had dropped behind for meditation's sake, and
+taken up his residence on the waggon for awhile, with his cap drawn over
+his eyes. I dare say Miss Bell had something to do with the foolish boy's
+regret for leaving Maple Grove.
+
+'Every day was like a Christmas or an Aisther,' continued Andy, who had
+no idea that any one could prefer silence to conversation; 'an' the
+sarvints had parlour fare in the kitchen always, an' a supper that was
+like a dinner, just before goin' to bed. Throth, they had fine times of
+it--puddins an' pies, if you plaze: the bare lavins would feed a family
+at home. An' it's the same, they tell me, in all the farmers' houses
+round about. I never thought to see so much vittles.'
+
+No reply could be elicited from Mr. Arthur Wynn but a grunt.
+
+'Didn't you?' put in the driver, with a small sneer. Andy had deemed him
+too far distant to catch his words, as he walked beside his horse.
+
+'Why, then, you've long ears, my man; but sure it's kind for ye,'
+retorted Mr. Callaghan, his eye twinkling wickedly. I fear that his
+subtle irony was lost upon its subject. 'Of coorse I'm not used to ye're
+foreign food. Our vittles at home are a dale dacenter, though not so
+common.'
+
+And Arthur, through his half-drowsy ears, was amused by the colloquy
+that ensued, in the course of which Andy completely floored the Canadian
+by a glowing description of Dunore, delivered in the present tense, but
+referring, alas! to a period of sixteen or twenty years previously. But
+the smart black-eyed backwoodsman wound up with the utterly incredulous
+speech,--
+
+'They left all them riches to come and settle in our bush! whew!' He
+jerked his whip resoundingly upon the frying-pan and tin-kettle in the
+rear, which produced a noise so curiously illustrative of his argument,
+that Arthur laughed heartily, and shook off his fit of blues.
+
+The aspect of nature would have helped him to do that. The thousand dyes
+of the woods were brilliant, as if the richest sunset had gushed from
+the heavens, and painted the earth with a permanent glory of colour. A
+drapery of crimson and gold endued the maples; the wild bines and briars
+were covered with orange and scarlet berries; the black-plumed pine trees
+rose solemnly behind. A flat country, for the most part; and, as the
+travellers slowly receded westward, settlements became sparse and small;
+the grand forests closed more densely round them; solitary clearings
+broke the monotony of trees.
+
+The first of anything that one sees or experiences remains stronger than
+all after impressions on the memory. With what interest did the embryo
+settlers regard the first veritable log-hut that presented itself,
+surrounded by half an acre of stumps, among which struggled potatoes and
+big yellow squashes. A dozen hens pecked about; a consumptive-looking
+cow suspended her chewing, as also did her master his hoeing, to gaze
+after the waggon, till it disappeared beyond the square frame of forest
+which shut in the little clearing.
+
+Again the long lines of stately oaks and firs, with a straight and
+apparently endless road between them, like the examples of perspective
+in beginners' drawing-books, but with the vanishing point always
+receding.
+
+'I see they've turnpiked this road since I was on it before,' observed
+the driver.
+
+'Where?' asked Andy, looking about. 'I don't see a turnpike--an' sure I
+ought to know a tollman's dirty face in any place. Sorra house here at
+all at all, or a gate; or a ha'porth except trees,' he added in a
+disgusted manner.
+
+'There,' said the Canadian, pointing to a ploughed line along each side
+of the road, whence the earth had been thrown up in the centre by a
+scraper; 'that's turnpiking.'
+
+'Ye might have invented a new name,' rejoined the Irishman, with an
+offended air, 'an' not be mislading people. I thought it was one of the
+ould pike-gates where I used to have to pay fourpince for me, ass and
+car; an' throth, much as I hated it, I'd be a'most glad to see one of
+the sort here, just for company's sake. A mighty lonesome counthry ye
+have, to be sure!'
+
+'Well, we can't be far from Greenock now; and I see a bit of a snake
+fence yonder.'
+
+It was another clearing, on a more enterprising scale than the last
+described; the forest had been pushed back farther, and a good wooden
+house erected in the open space; zigzag rail fences enclosed a few
+fields almost clear of stumps, and an orchard was growing up behind.
+A man in a red shirt, who was engaged in underbrushing at a little
+distance, said that 'the town' was only a mile away--Greenock, on the
+Clyde.
+
+Alas for nomenclature! The waggon scrambled down a rather steep
+declivity, towards a dozen houses scattered beside a stream: stumps
+stood erect in the single short street, and a ferry-boat was the only
+craft enlivening the shore. A Greenock without commerce or warehouses, a
+Clyde without wharves or ships, or the possibility of either--what mere
+travestie effected by a name!
+
+'A nest of Scottish emigrants, I suppose,' said Robert Wynn, as he
+contemplated 'the town.'
+
+'Yes, and they'll push their place up to something,' replied Sam Holt:
+'if pluck and perseverance can do it, they will. Only one enemy can
+ruin a Scotchman here, and that's the "drap drink." Ten to one that in
+twenty years you find this ground covered with factories and thousands
+of houses; that solitary store is the germ of streets of shops, and the
+tavern will expand into half a score hotels. Sandy will do it all.'
+
+'I'm afraid you could not speak so well of Irish progress.'
+
+'Because the canker of their religion continues to produce its legitimate
+effects in most cases; and the influence of whisky--the great bane of
+social life in our colony--is even more predominant than over the lower
+class Scotch settlers. Still, they do infinitely better here than at
+home; and you'll meet with many a flourishing Hibernian in the backwoods
+and pioneer cities.'
+
+'I presume this is a pioneer city?' looking round at the handful of
+wooden shanties.
+
+'Don't despise it; Rome had as small a beginning, and was manned by no
+more indomitable hands and hearts than our frontier emigrants.'
+
+'We are producing quite a sensation,' said Robert. For the major part
+of the inhabitants came out of doors to view the strangers, with that
+curiosity which characterizes a new-born society; many of the men
+bethought themselves of some business at the wooden tavern by the
+water-side, where the waggon drew up and the new arrivals entered in.
+
+A store where everything was sold, from a nail or a spool of 'slack' to
+a keg of spirits or an almanac: sold for money when it could be had,
+for flour or wool or potash when it couldn't; likewise a post-office,
+whither a stage came once a week with an odd passenger, or an odd dozen
+of newspapers and letters; likewise the abode of a magistrate, where
+justice was occasionally dispensed and marriages performed. The dwelling
+that united all these offices in its single person, was a long, low,
+framed house, roofed with shingles, and but one storey in height;
+proprietor, a certain canny Scot, named Angus Macgregor, who, having
+landed at Quebec with just forty shillings in the world, was making
+rapid strides to wealth here, as a landed proprietor and store-keeper
+without rivalry. Others of the clan Gregor had come out, allured by
+tidings of his prosperity; and so the broad Doric of lowland Scotch
+resounded about the tavern table almost as much as the Canadian twang.
+
+All doing well. Labour was the sole commodity they possessed, and it
+sufficed to purchase the best things of life in Canada, especially that
+slow upward rising in circumstances and possessions which is one of the
+sweetest sensations of struggling humanity, and which only a favoured
+few among the working classes can enjoy at home. Robert Wynn was almost
+as curious about their affairs as they were about his; for he was
+energized afresh by every instance of progress, and little inducement
+was required to draw from the settlers their own histories, which had
+the single monotony running through each of gradual growth from poverty
+to prosperity.
+
+'What sort of roads have you across the ferry to the Cedars?' inquired
+Sam Holt of mine host.
+
+'The first part of the concession line is pretty good, but I canna say
+as much for the "corduroy" afterwards: the riding's not so easy there, I
+guess.'
+
+'Corduroy!' ejaculated Arthur.
+
+'Oh, wait till you feel it,' said Sam, with much amusement in his eyes.
+'It's indescribable. I hope we won't meet in the dark, that's all.'
+
+'Drivin' across ladders for ever, with the rungs very far apart,'
+explained a Canadian to Andy, in the background, as the latter rubbed
+his finger-tips over the ribs in the material of his pantaloons, and
+looked puzzled.
+
+'An' what description of vahicle stands sich thratement?' asked Mr.
+Callaghan, 'an' what description of baste?'
+
+'Oxen is the handiest, 'cos they've the strongest legs,' returned his
+informant, with a fresh puff of his pipe.
+
+'Well, of all the counthries'--began Andy, for the twentieth time that
+day; and perhaps as many as ten additional utterances of the ejaculation
+were forced by the discovery that he and the gentlemen were to occupy
+the same sleeping apartment; but, above all, by the revelation that
+behind a ragged curtain in the corner reposed two wayfaring women, going
+to join their husbands in the woods, and having also a baby. The latter
+creature, not being at all overawed by its company, of course screamed
+in the night whenever the fancy seized it; and good-natured Andy found
+himself at one period actually walking up and down with the warm bundle
+of flannel in his arms, patting it on the back soothingly.
+
+Next morning they left the little settlement, and, crossing the ferry
+again, plunged into the primeval forest. Robert felt as if that mock
+Clyde were the Rubicon of their fate.
+
+'I leave the old degenerate life,' he murmured to himself, 'with all
+its traditions of ease. I go forth to face Fortune in these wilds, and
+to win her, if ever sturdy toil of limb and brain succeeded.'
+
+This spirit of independence was manly, but Robert did not at the moment
+join to it the nobler spirit of dependence on the Divine Disposer of
+events: self-trust filled his heart; and this is the great snare of
+youth.
+
+'You are looking unusually valorous,' said Sam Holt, who marched
+alongside. He had volunteered to stay with them for their first
+fortnight of bush life, like a kind fellow as he was. Something about
+these young Wynns had attracted his regard, and perhaps a touch of
+compassion. He would, at least, help them to put up the shanty, he said.
+
+And truly the road grew very bad; at a short bit of swamp they made
+their first acquaintance with 'corduroy.' Sam explained the structure
+when the waggon had done bumping over it: trunks of trees had been laid
+along the road as 'sleepers' in three continuous lines; and across them
+round logs, close together by theory, but in practice perhaps a foot or
+two apart, with unknown abysses of mud between.
+
+They wished even for the corduroy expedient a little farther on, when
+the line became encumbered with stumps left from the underbrushing,
+and which caught in the axletree every few score yards. Now came the
+handspikes into action, which provident Sam had cut, and laid into the
+waggon when the road was fair and smooth; for the wheels had to be
+lifted high enough to slip over the obstacles. In the pauses of manual
+labour came the chilling thought, 'All this difficulty between us and
+home.'
+
+Sunlight faded from the tree-tops; and soon night was descending darkly
+among the pines.
+
+'We must either camp in the woods, or get shelter at some settler's,'
+decided Sam. 'We'll try a quarter of a mile farther, and see what it
+brings.' So away they went again, shouting at the oxen, and endeavouring
+to steer the equipage free of mud-holes and stumps.
+
+'I am afraid our cups and saucers are all in a smash,' said Arthur.
+Robert had a secret misgiving to the same effect; but, then, crockeryware
+is a luxury to which no shanty-man has a right. Andy rescued a washing
+basin and ewer, by wearing the former on his head and the latter on his
+left arm--helmet and shield-wise; except at intervals, when he took his
+turn at handspiking.
+
+A light gleamed through the trees, and a dog barked simultaneously:
+they were on the verge of a clearing; and, hearing the voices outside,
+the owner of the house came forth to welcome the travellers, with a
+heartiness widely different from the commonplace hospitality of more
+crowded countries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE BATTLE WITH THE WILDERNESS BEGINS.
+
+
+A roaring fire of logs upon the wide hearth, logs built up into walls
+and roof, logs wrought into rough furniture of tables and stools--here,
+within the emigrant's hut, the all-encompassing forest had but changed
+its shape. Man had but pressed it into his service; from a foe it had
+become a friend; the wooden realm paid tribute, being subjugated.
+
+The still life of the cabin was rude enough. No appliances for ease,
+not many for comfort, as we in England understand the words. Yet the
+settler's wife, sitting by her wheel, and dressed in the home-spun
+fruits thereof, had a well-to-do blooming aspect, which gaslight and
+merino could not have improved; and the settler's boy, building a
+miniature shanty of chips in the corner, his mottled skin testifying to
+all sorts of weather-beating, looking as happy as if he had a toyshop
+at his command, instead of the word being utterly unknown in his
+experience; and the baby, rolled up in the hollowed pine-log, slept as
+sweetly as if satin curtains enclosed its rest. Back to Sam Holt's mind
+recurred words which he knew well: 'A man's life consisteth not in the
+abundance of the things that he possesseth.'
+
+The woman rose and curtsied. She had not been accustomed to make that
+respectful gesture for a long time back; but something in the appearance
+of the strangers half involuntarily constrained it.
+
+'I needn't ask if you're Canadian born,' said Mr. Holt; 'you've the
+manners of the old country.'
+
+'My father and mother were from Wiltshire, and so be I,' she answered,
+setting back her wheel, and looking gratified at the implied commendation.
+'But that be so long ago as I scarce remember.'
+
+'And she made amends by marrying me,' said the settler, entering from
+the outer door, and latching it behind him. 'Mary, get the pan and fix
+some supper quick. Them duck I shot won't be bad. You see, I've been
+expectin' you along rather;' and he flung down an armful of wood, which
+he began to arrange with architectural reference to the back-log and
+fore-stick.
+
+'Expecting us?' exclaimed Robert Wynn.
+
+'You're for lot fifteen in ninth concession, township of Gazelle? Wall,
+so I guessed; for I heard from Zack Bunting who lives at the "Corner,"
+that it was sold by Landenstein; and I calc'lated you'd be along
+presently:' and he finished his fire-building by a touch with his foot,
+which appeared to demolish much of his labour, but in reality conduced
+to his object of intensifying the heat and blaze.
+
+'Benny,' to the boy, who had sat on the ground staring at the
+new-comers, 'go tell your mother to be spry.' The little fellow went
+accordingly, by the side door through which she had disappeared a few
+minutes previously; and the Irish servant, planting himself on the
+vacated spot with his toes to the fire comfortably, commenced to erect
+of the child's chips a two-storied mansion.
+
+'You've got a good slice of bush there, back from the pond; though the
+cedars will be troublesome, I guess.'
+
+'Oh, we bargained for the cedars,' said Sam Holt. 'There's enough to
+clear without laying an axe to _them_ for many a day.'
+
+'It's all the doing of that spring creek, running through the middle of
+the lot, as fine a water-privilege as ever I see; but the cedars are
+where it gets to the pond. If the bed was deepened down below, it's my
+opinion the swamp would be drained.'
+
+'You seem to know the ground well,' said Robert, with interest.
+
+'I guess I ought to, that have shot over it before ever a blazed line
+ran through them woods. We was farthest west once, but that's over by a
+long spell; the neighbourhood's pretty thick now, and the "Corner" will
+be a town shortly.'
+
+'Well, if this is a thick neighbourhood, I should like to know his idea
+of a thin one,' said Arthur, _sotto voce_, to Sam Holt. 'We have met
+only this house for miles.'
+
+'Oh, they ain't many miles, only you thought they was, cos' I guess you
+ain't used to the stumps,' put in the settler. 'The back lot to ours, of
+the same number, is took by a Scotchman, and last week I run a blazed
+line across to his clearing through the bush; for you see I'm often
+away, trapping or still-hunting, and Mary here thought she'd be a trifle
+less lonesome if she had a way of going over the hill to her friend
+Mrs. Macpherson. The other way is round by the "Corner," which makes it
+five miles full; but now Benny can run across of a message, by minding
+the marks; can't you, my lad?'
+
+'Yes, father,' answered the boy proudly. 'And I can chop a blaze myself,
+too.' Benny was not much taller than an axe handle.
+
+Arthur looked from the child round at the wife, who was often left alone
+in this solitude of woods, and longed for the slender chain of a scarred
+line of trees between her and some other woman. A healthy, firm outline
+of face, wholly unacquainted with nervousness; quiet, self-reliant,
+hard-working; perhaps of a Dutch type of character. Her husband was a
+sturdy broad-set man, with lithe limbs, and quick senses looking out
+from his clear-featured countenance: he had a roving unsubdued eye,
+befitting the hunter more than the farmer.
+
+'I wouldn't desire,' said the latter, seating himself on the end of
+the table, while his wife superintended a pan of frizzling pork on the
+coals--'I wouldn't desire, for a feller that wanted to settle down for
+good, a more promising location than yourn at the Cedars. The high
+ground grows the very best sorts of hard wood--oak, sugar maple, elm,
+basswood. Not too many beech, or I'd expect sand; with here and there a
+big pine and a handful of balsams. The underbrushing ain't much, except
+in the swamp.'
+
+'I'm glad to hear that,' said Mr. Holt, 'for the fall is going fast, and
+we'll have to work pretty hard before snow comes.'
+
+'So I'm thinkin'. But _you_ ain't going to settle: you haven't the cut
+of it: you're settled already.'
+
+'How do you know?'
+
+'Oh, you didn't listen as they did,' pointing his thumb towards the
+Wynns, 'when I fell to talkin' of the ground. I know'd my men at once.
+Nor you didn't stare about as they did, as if the house and fixins was a
+show at a copper ahead.'
+
+'You must excuse our curiosity,' said Robert politely.
+
+'Surely; every man that has eyes is welcome to use 'em,' replied the
+backwoodsman bluntly. 'We ain't got no manners in the bush, nor don't
+want 'em, as I tell Mary here, when she talks any palaver. Now, wife,
+them pritters must be done;' and he left his seat on the table to pry
+over her pan.
+
+'Then take the cakes out of the bake-kettle, will you?' said Mary; 'and
+if them ducks be raw, 'tain't my fault, remember.' She was evidently a
+woman of few words, but trenchant.
+
+Thus warned, her husband did not press the point, but took the stewing
+fowl under his own care, displaying a practical experience of cookery
+won in many a day of bush life.
+
+'These duck was shot on your pond, stranger; if you be a good hand
+with the gun, you'll never want for fresh meat while that water holds
+together. The finest maskelonge and pickerel I ever see was hooked out
+of it.'
+
+Arthur's face brightened; for the sportsman instinct was strong in him,
+and he had been disappointed hitherto by finding the woods along their
+track empty of game.
+
+''Cos the critters have more sense than to wait by the road to be
+shot,' explained the backwoodsman, as he dished up his stew--a sort of
+hodgepodge of wild-fowl, the theory of which would have horrified an
+epicure; but the practical effect was most savoury.
+
+Now the boy Benny had never in his small life seen any edifice nobler
+than a loghouse on the ground-floor; and the upper storey which Mr.
+Callaghan had built with his chips seemed to him as queer a phenomenon
+as a man having two heads.
+
+'Well, only think of that!' exclaimed Andy; 'the boy doesn't know what a
+stairs is.'
+
+'And how should he?' asked the father, rather sharply. 'He ha'n't seen
+nothin' but the bush. One time I took him to Greenock, and he couldn't
+stop wonderin' what med all the houses come together. For all that, he
+ha'n't a bad notion of chopping, and can drive a span of oxen, and is
+growin' up as hardy as my rifle--eh, Benny?'
+
+'He cut all the wood I wanted while you were away last time, Peter,'
+chimed in the mother. So the strangers saw that the principle which
+leads parents to bore their unoffending visitors with copybooks and the
+'Battle of Prague,' is applicable to backwood accomplishments also.
+
+As a general rule, conversation does not flourish in the bush. The
+settler's isolated life is not favourable to exchange of thought, and
+events are few. Silence had fallen upon the woman in this house to a
+remarkable degree, and become incorporated with her. She went about her
+work quietly and quickly, speaking but five sentences in the course of
+the evening. The last of these was to notify to her husband that 'the
+skins was ready.'
+
+'We've no beds,' said he, with equal curtness. 'You must try and
+be snug in a wrap-up on the floor to-night. More logs, Benny;' and
+additional wood was heaped down, while he brought forward a bundle of
+bear and buffalo skins, enough to blanket them all. Mary had already
+picked up the pine-log containing her baby, and taken it into the other
+room out of sight, whither her husband followed; and Benny crept into a
+sort of bed-closet in the far corner.
+
+All night long, through the outer darkness, came a sound as of a
+limitless sea upon a lonely strand. Robert knew it for the wind
+wandering in the forest, and even in his home dreams it mingled a
+diapason, until the early sun gleamed through the chinks of the door,
+and flung a ray across his face. Simultaneously the poultry outside and
+the infant within woke up, commencing their several noises; and the
+farmer, coming out, built up the fire, and hung down the bake-kettle to
+heat for the breakfast bread. Then he invited his company to 'a wash'
+at the spring; and, leading them by a wood path beside the house, they
+came to a pellucid pool fed by a rivulet, which, after flowing over its
+basin, ran off rapidly to lower ground. Here Benny was flung in by his
+father, though the water was quite deep enough to drown him; but he
+dived, and came out buoyant as a coot.
+
+'Now go fetch the cow, my lad, and help your mother to fix breakfast,
+while we walk round the clearing.' But this morning she had an efficient
+coadjutor in the person of Andy Callaghan, who dandled the baby while
+the cakes were being made, his sharp eye learning a lesson meantime;
+and milked the cow while the child was being dressed; and cut slices
+of pork, superintending its frizzling while the room was being set to
+rights. Three or four attempts to draw the silent woman into conversation
+were utterly abortive.
+
+'Troth, an' you're a jewil of a wife,' remarked the Irishman, when
+everything seemed done. 'I'll engage I won't have the good luck to get
+one wid her tongue in such good ordher.'
+
+Mary Logan laughed. 'It be from having no folk to talk with,' she said.
+
+'An' a sin an' a shame it is for himself to lave you alone,' rejoined
+Andy, looking complimentary. 'Now I want to know one thing that has been
+botherin' me ever since I came in here. What's them strings of yallow
+stuff that are hangin' out of the rafthers, an' are like nothin' I see
+in all my days, 'cept shavin's?'
+
+'Sarce,' answered Mrs. Logan, looking up; 'them's sarce.'
+
+'I'm as wise as ever,' said Andy. Whereupon she went to the compartment
+which acted as store-closet, and, bringing out a pie which had a wooden
+spoon erect in it, proffered him a bit.
+
+'Ah,' quoth Mr. Callaghan with satisfaction, 'that's English talk; I
+know what that manes well. So ye calls apples "sarce!" I've heerd tell
+that every counthry has a lingo of its own, an' I partly b'lieve it now.
+But throth, that way of savin' 'em would be great news intirely for the
+childer at home!'
+
+So thought Robert Wynn afterwards, when he found the practice almost
+universal among the Canadians, and wondered that a domestic expedient so
+simple and serviceable should be confined to American housekeepers.
+
+'Peter planted an orchard the first thing when we settled, and maples be
+plenty in the bush,' said Mrs. Logan, with unusual communicativeness.
+
+'Yes, ma'am,' rejoined Andy suavely, and not in the least seeing the
+connection between maple trees and apple-pie. 'I wondher might I make
+bould to ax you for one of them sthrings? they're sich a curiosity to
+me.' And he had the cord of leathern pieces stowed away in one of the
+provision hampers before the others came in from the fields.
+
+There they had seen the invariable abundance and wastefulness of
+bush-farming; no trace of the economy of land, which need perforce be
+practised in older countries, but an extravagance about the very zigzag
+fences, which unprofitably occupied, with a succession of triangular
+borderings, as much space as would make scores of garden beds. 'Nobody
+cares for the selvedges when there is a whole continent to cut from,'
+remarked Sam Holt, in a sententious way he had.
+
+A yield of from twenty to five-and-twenty bushels per acre of wheat, and
+two hundred and fifty bushels of potatoes, were mentioned by the farmer
+as an average crop. His barns and root-house were full to repletion.
+Nothing of all this property was locked up: a latch on the door
+sufficed.
+
+'I suppose, then, you have no rogues in the bush?' said Robert.
+
+'Where everybody's as well off as another, there ain't no thievin',' was
+the pithy answer. 'A wolf now and then among our sheep, is all the robbers
+we has.'
+
+After breakfast the bullocks were yoked afresh.
+
+'I guess as how you've stumps before you to-day, a few,' said the farmer,
+coming out axe on shoulder. ''Tain't only a blaze up beyond your place
+at the Cedars, and not much better than a track of regulation width from
+the "Corner" to there. Only for that job of underbrushing I want to get
+finished, I'd be along with you to-day.'
+
+He and his boy Benny walked with the travellers so far as their way lay
+together. The wife stood at the door, shading her eyes with her hand,
+till the lumbering waggon was lost to view round the edge of the woods.
+
+The day's journey was just a repetition of yesterday's, with the stumps
+and the mud holes rather worse. The 'Corner' with its single sawmill and
+store, offered no inducement for a halt; and a tedious two miles farther
+brought them to 'hum.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CAMPING IN THE BUSH.
+
+
+'Well!' exclaimed Robert Wynn, 'here is my estate; and neither pond, nor
+swamp, nor yet spring creek do I behold.'
+
+He looked again at the landmark--an elm tree at the junction of the lot
+line and the concession road, which bore the numbers of each, 'Nine,
+Fifteen,' in very legible figures on opposite sides. A 'blaze' had been
+made by chopping away a slice of the bark with an axe about three feet
+from the ground, and on the white space the numbers were marked by the
+surveyor. All roads through the forest, and all farm allotments, are
+first outlined in this way, before the chopper sets to work.
+
+The new townships in Upper Canada are laid out in parallel lines, running
+nearly east and west, sixty-six chains apart, and sixty-six feet in
+width, which are termed concession lines, being conceded by Government
+as road allowances. These lands thus enclosed are subdivided into lots
+of two hundred acres by other lines, which strike the concession roads
+at right angles every thirty chains; and every fifth of these lot lines
+is also a cross-road. We have all looked at maps of the country, and
+wondered at the sort of chess-board counties which prevail in the back
+settlements: the same system of parallelograms extends to the farms.
+
+Robert's face was a little rueful. Twenty yards in any direction he
+could not see for the overpowering bush, except along the line of road
+darkened with endless forest. The waggon was being unpacked, for the
+driver sturdily declared that his agreement had been only to bring them
+as far as this post on the concession: he must go back to the 'Corner'
+that evening, on his way home.
+
+'An' is it on the road ye'll lave the masther's things?' remonstrated
+Andy.
+
+'I guess we han't no masters here, Pat,' was the reply; 'but if you see
+anywar else to stow the traps, I ain't partic'ler.' And he stolidly
+continued unloading.
+
+'Come,' said the cheery voice of Sam Holt, 'we will have daylight enough
+to explore the lot, and select a site for a camp. I think I can discover
+the tops of cedars over the hardwood trees here. The boxes will take
+care of themselves, unless a squirrel takes into his head to inspect
+them. Let's follow the concession line along westward first.'
+
+Callaghan stayed by the luggage, feeling by no means sure of its safety,
+and saw the rest of the party gradually receding among the trees, with
+sensations akin to those of a sailor on a desert island. Sitting upon
+the tool-chest, like an item of property saved from a wreck, Andy looked
+from the base to the summit of the huge walls of forest that encompassed
+him, and along the canal of sky overhead, till his countenance had
+fallen to zero.
+
+The shipwrecked sensation had gone farther; Mr. Holt saw it lurking in
+other faces, and forthwith found all advantages possible in the lot. The
+soil was sure to be the best: he could tell by the timber. Its height
+proved the depth of earth. When the trees grew shorter, a hidden
+treasure of limestone flag lay beneath the surface, useful for drains
+and building. And even the entangled cedar swamp was most desirable, as
+furnishing the best wood for rail-fences and logs for a house.
+
+But nothing could look more unpromising. Blackish pools of water
+alternated with a network of massive roots all over the soil, underneath
+broad evergreen branches; trunks of trees leaned in every direction, as
+if top-heavy. Wilder confusion of thicket could not be conceived. 'The
+cedars troublesome! I should think so,' groaned their owner.
+
+'This is the worst bit,' acknowledged Sam. 'Now, if we could see it, the
+lake is down yonder; perhaps if we strike a diagonal across the lot, we
+may come to some rising ground.' With the pocket compass for guide they
+left the blazed line, which they had followed hitherto. After a short
+distance the bush began to thin, and the forest twilight brightened.
+
+'A beaver meadow!' exclaimed Sam Holt, who was foremost. Green as emerald,
+the small semicircular patch of grass lay at the foot of gentle slopes,
+as if it had once been a lakelet itself. 'Two acres ready cleared, with
+the finest dairy grass only waiting to be eaten,' continued encouraging
+Sam. 'And the clearing on the hill will command the best view in the
+township; there's the site for your house, Wynn. Altogether you've had
+rare luck in this lot.'
+
+'But why is that green flat called a _beaver_ meadow?' asked Robert.
+
+'Do you see the creek running alongside? No, you can't for the underbrush;
+but it's there all the same. Well, they say that long ago beavers dammed
+up the current in such places as this with clay and brushwood, so that
+the water spread over all level spaces near; and when the Indians and
+French were at war, the red men cut away the dams and killed the beavers
+wholesale to spite their enemies. You're to take that just as an _on
+dit_, recollect.'
+
+'And is all that verdure an appearance or a reality?'
+
+'Something of both. I don't say but you will occasionally find it
+treacherous footing, needing drainage to be comfortable. See! there's
+the pond at last.'
+
+They had been climbing out of the denser woods, among a younger growth
+on the face of the slope; and when they turned, the sheet of water was
+partially visible over the sunken cedar swamp.
+
+'A pond!' exclaimed Arthur; 'why, it must be three miles across to those
+limestone cliffs. What pretty islets! Such endless varieties of wood and
+water!'
+
+'I think we Americans are rather given to the diminutive style of
+parlance,' quoth Mr. Holt. 'We have some justification in the colossal
+proportion of all the features of nature around us. What is this pretty
+lake but a mere pool, compared with our Erie and Superior?'
+
+  [Illustration: PREPARING FOR THE FIRST NIGHT IN THE BUSH.]
+
+'It is one of a chain,' remarked Robert, taking from his breast pocket
+a map of the district, which had his own farm heavily scored in red
+ink. Often had he contemplated that outline of the _terra incognita_
+on which he now trod, and longed for the knowledge he now possessed,
+which, after its manner, had brought him both good and evil. Like balls
+threaded on a cord, a succession of lakes, connected by cascades and
+portages, or by reaches of river, stretched away to the north-west,
+sorely marring the uniformity of the chess-board townships.
+
+As they picked their way back along the lot line northward, Mr. Holt
+stopped suddenly. 'I hear a very singular noise,' he said, 'for which
+I am wholly at a loss to account, unless there be Indians about in the
+neighbourhood. Even then it is totally unlike their cries. Listen!'
+
+His sharper senses had detected before theirs a distant wail, proceeding
+from some distance in front, apparently--weird and wild as it could be,
+dying away or surging upon the ear as the wind swept it hither or
+thither. Arthur shrugged his shoulders. 'You have no ghosts in these
+forests, Holt, I suppose?'
+
+'The country's too new for anything of the sort,' replied he gravely.
+
+'Nor any mocking birds that can be playing us a trick? Or dryads warning
+us off their territory?'
+
+He had recognised the performance of Andy Callaghan, who, when they
+turned the corner of the allotment, was discovered seated on the boxes
+as when they saw him last, and crooning the dismalest melody. But
+he had, in the meantime, recovered himself sufficiently to gather
+brushwood, and kindle a fire beside the road; likewise to cook a panful
+of rashers as the shadows grew longer and the day later.
+
+'But sure I thought ye wor lost entirely; sure I thought ye wor never
+comin' at all, Masther Robert, avourneen. 'Twas that med me rise the
+keen. A single livin' thing I didn't lay my eyes on since, barrin' a big
+frog. I'm afeard thim are like sticks, Masther Arthur, they're so long
+fryin'.'
+
+'No matter, Andy, they'll do first-rate. I'd only advise you to chop up
+more. I feel like eating all that myself;' and, trencher on knee, they
+dined with real backwood appetites.
+
+A shelter for the night was the next consideration. Mr. Holt constituted
+himself architect, and commenced operations by lashing a pole across
+two trees at about his own height; the others cut sticks and shrubs for
+roofing. Three young saplings sloped back to the ground as principal
+rafters, and on these were laid a thatch of brushwood; the open ends of
+the hut were filled with the same material.
+
+'Now,' said Sam Holt, contemplating the work of his hands with
+professional pride, 'when we have a big fire built in front, and a
+lot of hemlock brush to lie on, we shall be pretty comfortable.'
+
+And he instructed his novices further in the art of making their couch
+luxuriously agreeable, by picking the hemlock fine, and spreading over
+it a buffalo skin. Sam Holt had evidently become acquainted with
+'considerable' bush lore at his University of Toronto.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE YANKEE STOREKEEPER.
+
+
+Three men stood with their axes amid the primeval forest. Vast trunks
+rose around them to an altitude of thirty or even fifty feet without
+a bough; above, 'a boundless contiguity of shade,' and below, a dense
+undergrowth of shrubs, which seemed in some places impenetrable jungle.
+Three axes against thirty thousand trees. The odds were immensely in the
+dryads' favour; the pines and hardwoods might have laughed in every leaf
+at the puny power threatening their immemorial empire, and settled that
+_vis inertiæ_ alone must overcome.
+
+If, as Tennyson has bestowed upon the larkspur ears, the higher vegetation
+can listen also, the following conversation would that day have been
+heard from the triad of axe-men beginning their campaign against the
+forest, and 'bating no jot of heart or hope' in the contest.
+
+'Here's the site for your shanty,' said Mr. Holt, dealing a blow on a
+fine maple before him, which left a white scar along the bark. 'It has
+the double advantage of being close to this fine spring creek, and
+sufficiently near the concession line.'
+
+'And I'm sanguine enough to believe that there will be a view at some
+future period,' added Robert, 'when we have hewed through some hundred
+yards of solid timber in front. By the way, Holt, why are all the
+settlers' locations I have yet seen in the country so destitute of wood
+about them? A man seems to think it his duty to extirpate everything
+that grows higher than a pumpkin; one would imagine it ought to be easy
+enough to leave clumps of trees in picturesque spots, so as to produce
+the effect of the ornamental plantations at home. Now I do not mean
+exclusively the lowest grade of settlers, for of course from them so
+much taste was not to be expected; but gentlemen farmers and such like.'
+
+'I dare say they contract such an antipathy to wood of every species
+during their years of clearing, that it is thenceforth regarded as a
+natural enemy, to be cut down wherever met with. And when you have seen
+one of our Canadian hurricanes, you will understand why an umbrageous
+elm or a majestic oak near one's dwellings may not always be a source of
+pleasurable sensations.'
+
+'Still, I mean to spare that beautiful butternut yonder,' said Robert;
+'of all trees in the forest it is prettiest. And I shall try to clear
+altogether in an artistic manner, with an eye to the principles of
+landscape gardening. Why, Holt! many an English _parvenu_ planning the
+grounds of his country seat, and contemplating the dwarf larches and
+infantine beeches struggling for thirty years to maturity, would give a
+thousand guineas for some of these lordly oaks and walnuts, just as they
+stand.'
+
+Sam Holt refrained from expressing his conviction that, after a winter's
+chopping, Robert would retract his admiration for timber in any shape,
+and would value more highly a bald-looking stumpy acre prepared for fall
+wheat, than the most picturesque maple-clump, except so far as the
+latter boded sugar.
+
+'To leave landscape gardening for after consideration,' said he, with
+some slight irony, 'let us apply ourselves at present to the shanty. I
+think, by working hard, we might have walls and roof up before dark.
+Twenty by twelve will probably be large enough for the present--eh,
+Robert?'
+
+Oh yes, certainly; for the house was to be commenced so soon, that
+the shanty could be regarded only as a temporary shelter. Blessed,
+labour-lightening sanguineness of youth! that can bound over intermediate
+steps of toil, and accomplish in a few thoughts the work of months or
+years.
+
+So Mr. Holt measured the above dimensions on the ground, choosing a spot
+where the trunks appeared something less massive, than elsewhere, and
+set his auxiliaries to cut down all the trees within the oblong, and for
+a certain distance round; arranging also that the logs should fall as
+near as might be to where they were wanted for the walls.
+
+Now, the settler's first-felled tree is to him like a schoolboy's first
+Latin declension, or a lawyer's first brief--the pledge of ability, the
+earnest of future performances. Every success braces the nerves of mind,
+as well as the muscles of body. A victory over the woodland was embodied
+in that fallen maple. But Andy was so near getting smashed in the coming
+down of his tree, that Mr. Holt ordered him to lay by the axe, and bring
+his spade, to dig a hole in a certain spot within the oblong.
+
+'An' its mighty harmless that crathur 'ud be agin the wood,' muttered
+the Irishman; 'throth, the earth in this counthry is mostly timber. An'
+in the name of wondher what does he want wid a hole, barrin' we're to
+burrow like rabbits?'
+
+But the others were too busy felling or chopping trees into lengths of
+log to heed Andy's wonderment; and the novices were agreeably surprised
+to find how dexterous they became in the handling of the axe, after even
+a few hours' practice. Their spirits rose; for 'nothing succeeds like
+success,' saith the Frenchman.
+
+'Now I'll give you a lesson in basswood troughs,' said Mr. Holt. 'This
+shanty of yours is to be roofed with a double layer of troughs laid
+hollow to hollow; and we choose basswood because it is the easiest split
+and scooped. Shingle is another sort of roofing, and that must be on
+your house; but troughs are best for the shanty. See here; first split
+the log fair in the middle; then hollow the flat side with the adze.'
+
+Robert was practising his precepts busily, when he was almost startled
+by a strange nasal voice beside him.
+
+'Considerable well for a beginner; but I guess you put a powerful deal
+too much strength in yer strokes yet, stranger.'
+
+The speaker was a tall lank man, with black hair to correspond, and
+lantern jaws; little cunning eyes, and a few scrubby patches of rusty
+stubble on chin and cheeks. Robert disliked him at once.
+
+'Why didn't you stop at the "Corner" yesterday? 'Twarn't neighbourly
+to go on right away like that. But it all come, I reckon, of Britisher
+pride and impudence.'
+
+Robert looked at him full, and demanded, 'Pray who are you, sir?'
+
+'Zack Bunting as keeps the store,' replied the other. 'I'm not ashamed
+neither of my name nor country, which is the U--nited States, under the
+glorious stars and stripes. I come up to help in raising the shanty, as
+I guessed you'd be at it to-day.'
+
+Young Wynn hardly knew what to reply to such an odd mixture of insolence
+and apparent kindness. The Yankee took the adze from his hand before he
+could speak, and set about hollowing troughs very rapidly.
+
+'You chop, and I'll scoop, for a start. Now I guess you hain't been used
+to this sort of thing, when you was to hum? You needn't hardly tell, for
+white hands like yourn there ain't o' much use nohow in the bush. You
+must come down a peg, I reckon, and let 'em blacken like other folks,
+and grow kinder hard, afore they'll take to the axe properly. How many
+acres do you intend to clear this winter?'
+
+'As many as I can.'
+
+'Humph! you should blaze 'em off all round, and work 'em reglar. You
+han't more than a month's "brushing" now. Are you married?'
+
+'No,' replied Robert, waxing fierce internally at this catechism. 'Are
+you?' by way of retaliation.
+
+'This twenty year. Raised most of our family in the States. The old
+woman's spry enough yet, as you'll see when you come to the "Corner."'
+
+All this time Mr. Bunting was chewing tobacco, and discharging the
+fluid about with marvellous copiousness, at intervals. Robert thought
+his dried-up appearance capable of explanation. 'What made you come to
+settle in the bush?' was his next question.
+
+'Holt!' called out Robert, quite unable patiently to endure any further
+cross-examination; and he walked away through the trees to say to his
+friend,--'There's an intolerable Yankee yonder, splitting troughs as
+fast as possible, but his tongue is more than I can bear.'
+
+'Leave him to me,' answered Sam; 'his labour is worth a little annoyance,
+anyhow. I'll fix him.' But he quietly continued at his own work,
+notwithstanding, and kept Robert beside him.
+
+Mr. Bunting speedily tired of manufacturing the basswood troughs alone,
+and sloped over to the group who were raising the walls of the shanty.
+
+'Wal, I guess you're gitting along considerable smart,' he observed,
+after a lengthened stare, which amused Arthur highly for the concentration
+of inquisitiveness it betrayed. ''Tain't an easy job for greenhorns
+nohow; but you take to it kinder nateral, like the wood-duck to the
+pond.' He chewed awhile, watching Sam's proceedings narrowly. 'I guess
+this ain't your first time of notching logs, by a long chalk, stranger?'
+
+'Perhaps so, perhaps not,' was the reply. 'Here, lend a hand with this
+stick, Mr. Bunting.'
+
+Zack took his hands from the pockets of his lean rusty trousers, and
+helped to fit the log to its place on the front wall, which, in a
+shanty, is always higher than the back, making a fall to the roof. Mr.
+Holt managed to keep the Yankee so closely employed during the next
+hour, that he took out of him the work of two, and utterly quenched his
+loquacity for the time being. 'He shall earn his dinner, at all events,'
+quoth Sam to himself.
+
+'Wal, stranger, you _are_ a close shave,' said Zack, sitting down
+to rest, and fanning himself with a dirty brownish rag by way of
+handkerchief. 'I hain't worked so hard at any "bee" this twelve month.
+You warn't born last week, I guess.'
+
+'I reckon not,' replied Sam, receiving the compliment as conscious
+merit should. 'But we're not half done, Mr. Bunting; and I'd like such
+a knowledgeable head as yours to help fix the troughs.'
+
+'Oil for oil in this world,' thought Robert.
+
+'Throth, they'll build me up entirely,' said Andy to himself; 'an' sorra
+door to get out or in by, only four walls an' a hole in the middle of
+the floor. Of all the quare houses that iver I see, this shanty bates
+them hollow. Masther Robert,' calling aloud, 'I wondher have I dug deep
+enough?'
+
+'Come out here, and get dinner,' was the response. 'We'll see to-morrow.'
+
+''Tis asier said than done,' remarked Andy, looking for a niche between
+the logs to put his foot in. 'I hope this isn't the way we'll always
+have to be clamberin' into our house; but sorra other way do I see,
+barrin' the hole's to be a passage ondherground.'
+
+'You goose! the hole is to be a cellar, wherein to keep potatoes and
+pork,' said his master, overhearing the tale of his soliloquy. Andy
+departed to his cookery enlightened.
+
+Before the pan had done frizzling, whole rows of the ready-made troughs
+were laid along the roof, sloping from the upper wall plate to the back;
+and Mr. Bunting had even begun to place the covering troughs with either
+edge of the hollow curving into the centre of that underneath. Robert
+and Arthur were chinking the walls by driving pieces of wood into every
+crevice between the logs: moss and clay for a further stuffing must be
+afterwards found.
+
+If the Yankee were quick at work, he fulfilled the other sequent of the
+adage likewise. His dinner was almost a sleight-of-hand performance.
+Arthur could hardly eat his own for concealed amusement at the gulf-like
+capacity of his mouth, and the astonishing rapidity with which the
+eatables vanished.
+
+'While you'd be sayin' "thrapstick," he tucked in a quarter of a stone
+of praties and a couple of pound of rashers,' said Andy afterwards.
+'Before the gintlemen was half done, he was picking his long yellow
+teeth wid a pin, an' discoorsin' 'em as impident as if he was a
+gintleman himself, the spalpeen!'
+
+All unwitting of the storm gathering in the person of the cook, Mr.
+Bunting did indulge in some free and easy reflections upon Britishers in
+general, and the present company in particular; also of the same cook's
+attendance during their meal.
+
+'Now I guess we free-born Americans don't be above having our helps to
+eat with us; we ain't poor and proud, as that comes to. But I'll see ye
+brought down to it, or my name's not Zack Bunting. It tickles me to see
+aristocrats like ye at work--rael hard work, to take the consait out of
+ye; and if I was this feller,' glancing at Andy, 'I'd make tracks if ye
+didn't give me my rights, smart enough.'
+
+The glow in the Irish servant's eyes was not to be mistaken.
+
+'I guess I've riled you a bit,' added the Yankee wonderingly.
+
+'An' what's my rights, sir, if yer honour would be plasin' to tell me?'
+asked Andy, with mock obsequiousness; 'for I donno of a single one this
+minit, barrin' to do what my master bids me.'
+
+'Because I calc'late you've been raised in them mean opinions, an' to
+think yerself not as good flesh an' blood as the aristocrats that keep
+you in bondage.'
+
+'Come now,' interrupted Sam Holt, 'you shut up, Mr. Bunting. It's
+no bondage to eat one's dinner afterwards; and he'll be twice as
+comfortable.'
+
+'That's thrue,' said Andy; 'I never yet could ate my bit in presence of
+the quality; so that's one right I'd forgive; and as for me--the likes
+of _me_--bein' as good blood as the Masther Wynns of Dunore, I'd as soon
+think the Yankee was himself.'
+
+With sovereign contempt, Andy turned his back on Mr. Bunting, and
+proceeded to cook his dinner.
+
+'Wal, it's the first time I see a feller's dander riz for tellin' him
+he's as good as another,' remarked Zack, sauntering in the wake of the
+others towards the unfinished shanty. 'I reckon it's almost time for me
+to make tracks to hum; the ole woman will be lookin' out. But I say,
+stranger, what are you going to do with that heaver meadow below on the
+creek? It's a choice slice of pasture that.'
+
+'Cut the grass in summer,' replied Sam Holt, tolerably sure of what was
+coming.
+
+'I've as fine a red heifer,' said the Yankee confidentially, 'as ever
+was milked, and I'd let you have it, being a new-comer, and not up to
+the ways of the country, very cheap.' His little black eyes twinkled.
+'I'd like to drive a trade with you, I would; for she's a rael prime
+article.'
+
+'Thank you,' said Mr. Holt, 'but we don't contemplate dairy farming as
+yet.' Zack could not be rebuffed under half-a-dozen refusals. 'Wal, if
+you won't trade, you'll be wantin' fixins from the store, an' I have
+most everythin' in stock. Some of my lads will be along to see you
+to-morrow, I reckon, and any whisky or tobacco you wanted they could
+bring; and if you chose to run a bill'--
+
+Refused also, with thanks, as the magazines say to rejected contributions.
+This, then, was the purport of Mr. Bunting's visit: to gratify curiosity;
+to drive a trade; to estimate the new settlers' worldly wealth, in order
+to trust or not, as seemed prudent. While at dinner he had taken a mental
+inventory and valuation of the boxes and bales about, submitting them
+to a closer examination where possible. At the time Robert thought it
+simply an indulgence of inordinate curiosity, but the deeper motive of
+self-interest lay behind.
+
+'In their own phrase, that fellow can see daylight,' remarked Mr. Holt,
+as Zack's lean figure disappeared among the trees. 'I never saw little
+eyes, set in a parenthesis of yellow crowsfeet at the corners, that did
+not betoken cunning.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE 'CORNER.'
+
+
+Several days were employed in plastering all the crevices of the shanty
+with clay, cutting out a doorway and a single window in the front wall,
+and building a hearth and chimney. But when completed, and the goods and
+chattels moved in, quite a proud sense of proprietorship stole into the
+owner's heart.
+
+As yet, this arduous bush-life had not ceased to be as it were a play:
+Sam Holt's cheery companionship took the edge off every hardship; and
+their youthful health and strength nourished under toil.
+
+'Now, considering we are to be dependent on ourselves for furniture, the
+best thing I can fashion in the first instance will be a work bench,'
+said Arthur, whose turn for carpentering was decided. 'Little I ever
+thought that my childish tool-box was educating me for this.'
+
+'I think a door ought to be your first performance,' suggested Robert.
+'Our mansion would be snugger with a door than a screen of hemlock
+brush.'
+
+'But I must go to the "Corner" for boards, and that will take an entire
+day, the road is so vile. I can't see why I couldn't hew boards out of
+a pine myself; eh, Holt?'
+
+'You want to try your hand at "slabbing," do you? I warn you that the
+labour is no joke, and the planks never look so neat as those from the
+sawmill.'
+
+'We have flung "looks" overboard long ago,' replied Arthur. 'Come, teach
+me, like a good fellow.'
+
+'Choose your tree as clean and straight in the grain as possible.'
+
+'And how am I to tell how its grain runs?' asked the pupil.
+
+'Experiment is the only certainty; but if the tree be perfectly clear of
+knots for thirty or forty feet, and its larger limbs drooping downwards,
+so as to shelter the trunk in a measure from the influence of the sun,
+these are presumptions in favour of the grain running straight.'
+
+'What has the sun to do with it?'
+
+'The grain of most trees naturally inclines to follow the annual course
+of the sun. Hence its windings, in great measure. Having selected and
+felled your pine, cut it across into logs of the length of plank you
+want.'
+
+'But you said something of experiment in deciding about the grain of the
+wood.'
+
+'Oh, by cutting out a piece, and testing it with the axe, to see whether
+it splits fair. When you have the logs chopped, mark the ends with a bit
+of charcoal into the width of your planks: then slab them asunder with
+wedges.'
+
+'Holt, where did you pick up such a variety of knowledge as you have?'
+
+'I picked up this item among the lumber-men. You must know I spent more
+than one long vacation in exploring the most-out-of-the-way locations I
+could find. But I'd advise you to go to the sawmill for your planks,
+though I do understand the theory of slabbing.'
+
+After due consideration--and as glass for the window was a want for
+which the forest could supply no substitute--it was agreed that all
+should take a half-holiday next day, and go down to the 'Corner' to
+Uncle Zack's store.
+
+'Now that is settled,' said Robert, with a little difficulty, 'I wanted
+to say--that is, I've been thinking--that we are here in the wilderness,
+far away from all churches and good things of that kind, and we ought to
+have prayers of our own every evening, as my mother has at home.'
+
+'Certainly,' said both Arthur and Sam Holt.
+
+'I have never so felt the presence of God,' added Robert solemnly,
+'as since I've been in these forest solitudes; never so felt my utter
+dependence upon Him for everything.'
+
+'No,' rejoined Sam. 'He seems to draw very near to the soul in the midst
+of these His grand works. The very stillness exalts one's heart towards
+Him.'
+
+And so that good habit of family worship was commenced, inaugurating the
+shanty that very night. Andy Callaghan sat by and listened.
+
+'Throth, but they're fine words,' said he. 'I wouldn't believe any one
+now, that that book is bad to listen to.'
+
+'And at home you'd run away from the sight of it. How's that, Andy?'
+asked Mr. Wynn.
+
+'It's aisy explained, sir,' replied the servant, looking droll. 'Don't
+you see, I haven't his riverence at me elbow here, to turn me into a
+goat if I did anything contrary, or to toss me into purgatory the minit
+the breath is out of my poor body.'
+
+Thousands of Andy's countrymen find the same relief to their consciences
+as soon as they tread the free soil of Canada West.
+
+Truly a primitive settlement was the 'Corner.' The dusk forest closed
+about its half dozen huts threateningly, as an army round a handful of
+invincibles. Stumps were everywhere that trees were not; one log-cabin
+was erected upon four, as it had been, legs ready to walk away with the
+edifice. 'Uncle Zack's' little store was the most important building in
+the place, next to the sawmill on the stream.
+
+'The situation must be unhealthy,' said Robert; 'here's marsh under my
+very feet. Why, there's a far better site for a town plot on my land,
+Holt.'
+
+'Ay, and a better water privilege too. Let me see what your energy does
+towards developing its resources, Robert.'
+
+They discovered one source of the storekeeper's prosperity in the
+enormous price he exacted for the commonest articles. Necessity alone
+could have driven Arthur to pay what he did for the wretched little
+window of four panes to light the shanty. And Uncle Zack had as much to
+say about the expense and difficulty of getting goods to a locality so
+remote, and as much sympathizing with his purchaser because of the
+exorbitant cost, as if he were a philanthropist, seeking solely the
+convenience of his neighbours by his sales.
+
+'That fellow's a master of soft sawder when he chooses: but did you see
+how he clutched the hard cash after all? My opinion is, he don't often
+get paid in the circulating medium,' said Arthur.
+
+'Of that you may be sure,' rejoined Sam Holt; 'currency here lies more
+in potash or flour, just as they have salt in Abyssinia. Society seems
+to be rather mixed at the "Corner." Yonder's a French Canadian, and
+here's an Indian.'
+
+No glorious red man, attired in savage finery of paint and feathers;
+no sculptor's ideal form, or novelist's heroic countenance; but a
+mild-looking person, in an old shooting jacket and red flannel shirt,
+with a straw hat shading his pale coppery complexion. He wield a
+tomahawk or march on a war trail! Never. And where was the grim
+taciturnity of his forefathers? He answered when spoken to, not in
+Mohawk, or Cherokee, or Delaware, but in nasal Yankeefied English; nay,
+he seemed weakly garrulous.
+
+'There's another preconceived idea knocked on the head,' said Arthur.
+'My glorious ideal Indian! you are fallen, never to rise.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+ANDY TREES A 'BASTE.'
+
+
+Door and window were fitted into the holes cut in the front wall of the
+shanty, and no carpenter's 'prentice would have owned to such clumsy
+joinery; but Arthur was flushed with success, because the door could
+positively shut and the window could open. He even projected tables
+and chairs in his ambitious imagination, _en suite_ with the bedstead
+of ironwood poles and platted bass-work bark, which he had already
+improvised; and which couch of honour would have been awarded by common
+consent to Mr. Holt, had he not adhered to the hemlock brush with all
+the affection of an amateur.
+
+The great matter on the minds of our settlers now, was the underbrushing.
+They might calculate on the whole month of November for their work--the
+beautiful dreamy November of Canada, as different from its foggy and
+muddy namesake in Britain as well may be. Measuring off thirty acres as
+next summer's fallow, by blazing the trees in a line around, took up the
+best part of a day; and it necessitated also a more thorough examination
+of Robert's domains. Such giant trees! One monarch pine must be nigh a
+hundred feet from root to crest. The great preponderance of maple showed
+that the national leaf symbol of Canada had been suitably selected.
+
+'And is there no means,' quoth Robert, who had been mentally gauging his
+small axe with the infinitude of forest--'is there no means of getting
+rid of wood without chopping it down?'
+
+'Well, yes, some slower means still; the trees may be "girdled;" that
+is, a ring of bark cut from the trunk near the base, which causes death
+in so far that no foliage appears next spring: consequently the tall
+melancholy skeleton will preside over your crops without injury.'
+
+'Can't say I admire that plan.'
+
+'You are fastidious. Perhaps you would like "niggers" better?'
+
+'I thought they were contraband in any but slave states.'
+
+'Oh, these are "niggers" inanimate--pieces of wood laid round the trunk,
+and set on fire where they touch it; of course the tree is burned
+through in process of time. These two expedients might be useful in
+subsidiary aids; but you perceive your grand reliance must be on the
+axe.'
+
+'There is no royal road to felling, any more than to learning. And when
+may I hope to get rid of the stumps?'
+
+'I don't think the pine stumps ever decay; but the hardwood, or those of
+deciduous trees, may be hitched up by oxen and a crowbar after six or
+seven years; or you might burn them down.'
+
+'Hulloa! what's that?'
+
+The exclamation was from Robert, following a much louder exclamation
+from Andy in advance. 'He has met with some wild animal,' concluded Mr.
+Holt. He was certainly cutting the strangest capers, and flourishing his
+hand as if the fingers were burned, howling the while between rage and
+terror.
+
+'You disgustin' little varmint! you dirty vagabone, to stick all thim
+things in me hand, an' me only goin' to lay a hold on ye gentle-like, to
+see what sort of an outlandish baste ye was! Look, Masther Robert, what
+he did to me with a slap of his tail!'
+
+Callaghan's fingers radiated handsomely with porcupine's quills, some
+inches long, stuck in pretty strongly and deeply; and the animal himself,
+quite ready for further offensive warfare, crouched in the fork of a
+small maple, just out of reach.
+
+'Ah, then, come down here, you unnatural baste, an' may be I won't strip
+off your purty feathers,' exclaimed Andy with unction.
+
+'Cut down the tree,' suggested Arthur. But the porcupine, being more _au
+fait_ with the ways of the woods than these new-comers, got away among
+the branches into a thicket too dense for pursuit.
+
+'They're as sharp as soords,' soliloquized the sufferer, as he picked
+out the quills from his hand and wrist in rather gingerly fashion, and
+stanched the blood that followed. 'Masther Robert, avourneen, is he a
+four-footed baste or a fowl? for he has some of the signs of both on
+him. Wisha, good luck to the poor ould counthry, where all our animals
+is dacent and respectable, since St. Patrick gev the huntin' to all the
+varmint.'
+
+'A thrashing from a porcupine's tail would be no joke,' observed Arthur.
+
+'I've known dogs killed by it,' said Mr. Holt. 'The quills work into
+all parts of their bodies, and the barbed points make extraction very
+difficult.'
+
+'I believe the Indians use these in some sort of embroidery.' Robert
+held in his hand a bunch of the quills such as had wounded Andy's
+fingers. 'I've seen penholders of them, when I little thought I should
+handle the unsophisticated originals out here.'
+
+Before this time he had learned how enervating were reminiscences of
+home; he resolutely put away the remembrance from him now, and walked on
+to chop the blaze on the next tree. Breast-high the mark was cut, and at
+one blaze another could always be discerned ahead.
+
+'I've a regard for the beeches and elms,' quoth he, as he hacked at a
+hickory stem. 'They are home trees; but the shrubs have chiefly foreign
+faces, so I can chop them down without compunction.'
+
+'All such sentimental distinctions will evaporate when you get into the
+spirit of your work,' said his friend Sam. 'Your underbrushing rule does
+not spare anything less than six inches in diameter; all must be cut
+close to the ground, and piled in heaps for the burning.'
+
+'A tolerable job to clear such a thicket as this! What a network of
+roots must interlace every foot of soil!'
+
+'Rather, I should say. But the first crop will amply repay your pains,
+even though your wheat and Indian corn struggle into existence through
+stumps and interlacing roots. Then there's the potash--thirty dollars a
+barrel for second quality: less than two and a half acres of hardwood
+timber will produce a barrel.'
+
+'I don't quite understand.'
+
+'Next summer, after your logging bee, you'll know what I mean. This
+creek is as if 'twas made on purpose for an ashery.'
+
+'By the way, here's my site for a town plot;' as they came to a fine
+natural cascade over a granite barrier, after which plunge the stream
+hurried down the slope towards the beaver meadow. 'Water power for half
+a dozen mills going to waste there, Holt.'
+
+'Let's give it a name!' sang out Arthur--'this our city of magnificent
+intentions.'
+
+'I hope you won't call it Dublin on the Liffey,' said Mr. Holt. 'How I
+hate those imported names--sinking our nationality in a ludicrous parody
+on English topography--such as London on the Thames, Windsor, Whitby,
+Woodstock; while the language that furnished "Toronto," "Quebec,"
+"Ottawa," lies still unexplored as a mine of musical nomenclature.'
+
+'In default of an Indian name,' said Robert, 'let us call our future
+settlement after the existing fact--CEDAR CREEK.'
+
+'And posterity can alter it, if it chooses,' rejoined Arthur. 'All
+right. Now I'll cut down this birch where the post-office is to stand
+hereafter;' and a few sturdy blows of his axe prostrated the young tree.
+'When I'm writing to Linda, I shall date from Cedar Creek, which will
+give her an exalted idea of our location: at the same time she will be
+convinced it is situated on the seashore, if I forget to say that in
+Canada every stream is a "creek."'
+
+'Our people have an absurd partiality for what they imagine "handsome
+names,"' said Mr. Holt. 'Not satisfied with giving their children
+the most far-fetched they can discover,--for instance, we have a maid
+Armenia, at Maple Grove, and I could not resist designating her brother
+as Ararat, by way of localizing their relationship,--but also the young
+settlements of the country have often the most bombastic names. In the
+backwoods, one time, I found a party of honest settlers in a tavern over
+an old romance, searching for some sufficiently high-sounding title to
+confer on their cluster of cabins.'
+
+'I was amused to find that Zack Bunting's eldest son is called Nimrod,
+familiarized to "Nim,"' said Robert. 'I never saw a more remarkable
+likeness to a parent, in body and mind, than that youth exhibits; every
+tuft of ragged beard and every twinkle of the knowing little eyes are to
+match.'
+
+Nearing the shanty they heard a sound as of one making merry, and espied
+in the window the glow of a glorious fire. Within, Peter Logan was
+making himself at home, cooking his dinner, while he trilled a Yankee
+ditty at the top of his powerful voice.
+
+No manner of apology for having opened their cellar, and made free with
+their barrel of pork, did he seem to think necessary; but when his meal
+was finished, he inquired abruptly why they hadn't built their chimney
+of 'cats'? 'For I reckon this stick chimney will blaze up some night,'
+added he.
+
+Robert hearkened at that startling intimation.
+
+'Mine is of cats,' said Mr. Logan. 'Cats is clay,' he continued
+sententiously, 'kinder like straw an' clay mixed up. I guess I'll stay
+an' help you to fix one to-morrow, if you've a mind to.'
+
+With rugged but real kindness, he took a day from his hunting excursion
+for the purpose. The framework of the new chimney was of four upright
+poles, set in one corner of the shanty, and laced across by rungs of
+wood, round which the clay was well kneaded, and plastered inside. An
+opening three feet high was left for the fireplace in front. Peter
+promised that by and by the clay would burn hard and red, like tilework.
+
+'I wonder you have not built yourself a handsome house, before now,'
+said Mr. Wynn, 'instead of that handsome barn. Why you live in a shanty,
+while your corn is in a frame building, puzzles me.'
+
+'Ay,' assented the settler, 'but the frame barn is paving the way for
+the frame house, I calculate: Benny'll have both; and for the present
+I'd sooner have my crops comfortable than myself;' a persuasion which
+Robert afterwards found to be rooted in common sense, for the Canadian
+climate permits not of stacks or ricks wintering in the open air.
+
+After his usual unmannerly fashion, Mr. Logan bade no farewell, but
+shouldered his gun at some hour prior to daybreak, and knapsack on back,
+left the sleeping camp by the light of a young moon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+LOST IN THE WOODS.
+
+
+One day it happened that about noon, while Arthur was 'brushing' at a
+short distance from the shanty, he noticed a pack of grouse among the
+underwood within shot. Dropping his axe, he ran home for the gun, which
+stood loaded in one corner.
+
+It was not altogether the sportsman's organ of destructiveness (for he
+had never forgotten little Jay's lesson on that head), but probably
+a growing dislike to the constant diet of pork, that urged him to an
+unrelenting pursuit. Cautiously he crept through the thickets, having
+wafted an unavailing sigh for the pointer he had left at Dunore, his
+companion over many a fallow and stubble field, who would greatly have
+simplified this business. Unconsciously he crossed the blazed side-line
+of the lot into the dense cover beyond, tantalized by glimpses of game,
+which never came near enough for good aim. 'I must regularly stalk
+them,' thought Arthur.
+
+Noiselessly creeping on, he was suddenly brought to by an unexpected
+sight. The head and horns of a noble buck were for a moment visible
+through the thicket. Arthur's heart throbbed in his ears as he stood
+perfectly motionless. Grouse were utterly forgotten in the vision of
+venison. With every sense concentrated in his eyes, he watched the
+brush which screened the browsing deer. By a slight crackling of twigs
+presently, he was made aware that the animal was moving forward; he
+crept in the same direction. The leaves had been damped by a shower two
+hours before, and the cloudy day permitted them to retain moisture, or
+their crispness might have betrayed his tread.
+
+Ha! a dried stick on which he inadvertently set his foot snapped across.
+The splendid shy eyes of the deer looked round in alarm as he bounded
+away. A shot rang through the forest after him, waking such a clamour
+of jays and crows and woodpeckers, that Arthur was quite provoked with
+them, they seemed exulting over his failure. Pushing aside the dried
+timber which had caused this mischance, he pressed on the track of
+the deer impetuously. He could not believe that his shot had missed
+altogether, though the white tail had been erected so defiantly; which
+'showing of the white feather,' as the Canadian sportsman calls it, is a
+sign that the animal is unwounded.
+
+But four feet had much the advantage of two in the chase. One other
+glimpse of the flying deer, as he came out on the brow of a ridge, was
+all that Arthur was favoured with. Some partridge got up, and this time
+he was more successful; he picked up a bird, and turned homewards.
+
+Homewards! After walking a hundred yards or so he paused. Had he indeed
+gone back on his own track? for he had never seen this clump of pines
+before. He could not have passed it previously without notice of its
+sombre shade and massive boles. He would return a little distance, and
+look for the path his passage must have made in brushing through the
+thickets.
+
+Brought to a stand again. This time by a small creek gurgling deeply
+beneath matted shrubs. He had gone wrong--must have diverged from his
+old course. More carefully than before, he retraced his way to the
+pine-clump, guided by the unmistakeable black plumage of the tree-tops.
+There he stood to think what he should do.
+
+The sky was quite obscured: it had been so all the morning. No guidance
+was to be hoped for from the position of the sun. He had heard something
+of the moss on the trees growing chiefly at the north side; but on
+examination these pines seemed equally mossed everywhere. What nonsense!
+surely he must be close to his own path. He would walk in every
+direction till he crossed the track.
+
+Boldly striking out again, and looking closely for footmarks on the soft
+ground, he went along some distance; here and there turned out of his
+straight course by a thicket too dense for penetration, till before him
+rose pine-tops again. Could it be? The same pines he had left!
+
+He covered his eyes in bewilderment. Having stood on the spot for
+several minutes previously, he could not be mistaken. Yet he thought he
+could have been sure that he was proceeding in a direction diametrically
+opposite for the last quarter of an hour, while he must have been going
+round in a circle. Now, indeed, he felt that he was lost in the woods.
+
+Poor Arthur's mind was a sort of blank for some minutes. All the trees
+seemed alike--his memory seemed obliterated. What horrid bewilderment
+had possession of his faculties? Shutting him in, as by the walls of a
+living tomb, the great frowning forest stood on all sides. A mariner on
+a plank in mid-ocean could not have felt more hopeless and helpless.
+
+Rousing himself with a shake from the numb, chill sensation which had
+begun to paralyze exertion, he thought that, if he could reach the little
+creek before mentioned, he might pursue his course, as it probably fell
+into their own lake at the foot of the Cedars. Keeping the pine-tops
+in a right line behind him, he succeeded in striking the creek, and
+discovering which way it flowed. After pushing his way some hours along
+a path of innumerable difficulties, he found himself, in the waning
+light, at the edge of a cypress swamp.
+
+Almost man though he was, he could have sat down and cried. Blackest
+night seemed to nestle under those matted boughs, and the sullen gleams
+of stagnant water--the plash of a frog jumping in--the wading birds that
+stalked about--told him what to expect if he went farther. At the same
+instant a gleam of copper sunset struck across the heavens on the tops
+of the evergreens, and the west was not in the direction that the
+wanderer had imagined; he now easily calculated that he had all this
+time been walking _from_ home instead of towards it.
+
+Strange to say, a ray of hope was brought upon that sunbeam, even
+coupled with the conviction that he had been hitherto so wofully astray.
+To-morrow might be bright (and to all the wanderers in this world the
+anchor is to-morrow); he would be able to guide his course by the sun,
+and would come all right. He resolved to spend the night in a tree near
+his fire for fear of wild beasts, and selected a fine branching cedar
+for his dormitory. Laying his gun securely in one of the forks, and
+coiling himself up as snugly as possible, where four boughs radiated
+from the trunk, about twenty feet from the ground, he settled himself to
+sleep as in an arm-chair, with the great hushing silence of the forest
+around him. Unusual as his circumstances were, he was soon wrapt in a
+dreamless slumber.
+
+Dull and slow dawned the November morning among the trees; broad
+daylight on their tops, when but a twilight reached the earth, sixty or
+eighty feet below. Arthur found himself rather stiff and chill after
+his unwonted night's lodging; he tried to gather up the brands of the
+evening's fire, which had sunk hours before into grey ashes, that he
+might at least warm himself before proceeding farther. Simultaneously
+with its kindling appeared the sun--oh, welcome sight! and shot a golden
+arrow aslant a line of trees. Then was revealed to Arthur the mossy
+secret of wood-craft, that the north side bears a covering withheld from
+the south; for he perceived that, viewed in the aggregate, the partial
+greenery on the various barks was very distinct. Examining individual
+trunks would not show this; but looking at a mass, the fact was evident.
+
+Now he knew the points of the compass; but of what practical avail was
+his knowledge? Whether he had wandered from the shanty to the north,
+south, east, or west, was only conjecture. How could that creek have
+led him astray? He must have crossed the rising ground separating two
+watersheds--that sloping towards his own lake and towards some other.
+There flowed the little stream noiselessly, sucked into the swampy
+cypress grove: of course it got out somewhere at the other side; but as
+to following it any farther into the dismal tangled recesses, with only
+a chance of emergence in a right direction, he felt disinclined to try.
+
+No breakfast for him but a drink of water; though with carnivorous eyes
+he saw the pretty speckled trout glide through the brown pool where he
+dipped his hand; and he crossed the creek over a fallen tree, ascending
+to the eastward. He could not be insensible to the beauty of nature
+this morning--to the majesty of the mighty forest, standing in still
+solemnity over the face of the earth. Magnificent repose! The world
+seemed not yet wakened; the air was motionless as crystal; the infinitely
+coloured foliage clung to maples and aspens--tattered relics of the
+royal raiment of summer. The olden awe overshadowed Arthur's heart; his
+Creator's presence permeated these sublime works of Deity. Alone in the
+untrodden woods, his soul recognised its God; and a certain degree of
+freedom from anxiety was the result. Personal effort was not his sole
+dependence, since he had felt that God was present, and powerful.
+
+Still he kept on to the south-east, hoping at last to strike some of the
+inhabited townships; and the unvarying solidity of forest was well-nigh
+disheartening him, when he saw, after several miles' walking, the
+distinctly defined imprint of a man's foot on some clayey soil near a
+clump of chestnut trees. Yes, there could be no mistake: some person
+had passed not long since; and though the tracks led away considerably
+from the south-easterly direction he had hitherto kept, he turned,
+without hesitation to follow them, and proceeded as rapidly as possible,
+in hope of overtaking the solitary pedestrian, whoever he might be. He
+shouted aloud, he sang some staves of various familiar old songs; but no
+response from other human voice came, anxiously as he listened for such
+echo. But the footmarks were before his eyes as tangible evidence; he
+had got very sharp by this time at detecting the pressure of a heel on
+the dead leaves, or the displacement of a plant by quick steps. The
+tracks must lead to something. Certainly; they led to a creek.
+
+Impossible! It cannot be that he has followed his own footprints of
+yesterday! Planting his boot firmly on the bank beside the other mark,
+he compared the twain. A glance was enough; the impressions were
+identical.
+
+The bewildered feeling of one in a labyrinth recurred. He saw nothing
+better for it than to return to the point whence he had diverged to
+follow the tracks. He now remembered having made this detour the
+previous day to avoid cutting his way through a dense underwood on the
+bank of the stream.
+
+Nigh an hour had been lost by this delusive retracing of footmarks. He
+thought that if he climbed the highest tree he could find, he would be
+able to get a bird's-eye view of the country round. Oh that he might
+behold some islet of clearing amid the ocean of woods!
+
+To reach the branches of any of the largest trees was the difficulty;
+for the smooth shaft of a massive marble pillar would be as easily
+climbed as the trunk of some arboreal giants here, rising fifty feet
+clear of boughs. However, by swinging from the smaller trees he
+accomplished his object, and saw beneath him on all sides the vast
+continuity of forest.
+
+Desert could not be lonelier nor more monotonous. No glimmer even of
+distant lake on the horizon; no brown spots of clearing; no variety,
+save the autumn coat of many colours, contrasted with sombre patches of
+pine. Stay--was not that a faint haze of smoke yonder? a light bluish
+mist floating over a particular spot, hardly moving in the still air.
+Arthur carefully noted the direction, and came down from his observatory
+on the run. He was confident there must be a trapper's fire, or a camp,
+or some other traces of humanity where that thin haze hung. He could not
+be baulked this time. Hope, which is verily a beauteous hydra in the
+young breast, revived again in strength. If he only had somewhat to eat,
+he wouldn't mind the long tramp before him. Beech-mast rather increased
+than appeased his hunger; and nothing came in view that could be shot.
+
+He had not walked far, when a sharp, wild cry, as of some small animal
+in pain, struck his ear. Pushing away the brush at the left, he saw the
+cause--a little dark furry creature hanging to a sapling, as it seemed;
+and at his appearance the struggles to escape were redoubled, and the
+weakly cries of fear became more piteous. Arthur perceived that to the
+top of the sapling was fastened a steel snaptrap, clasping a forepaw in
+its cruel teeth, and that each convulsive effort to get free only set the
+animal dangling in the air, as a trout is played from a rod. Hopelessly
+snared, indeed, was the poor marten; he had not even the resource
+of parting with his paw, which, had he had any 'purchase' to strive
+against, would probably have been his choice. By what blandishments of
+bait he had ever been seduced into his present melancholy position was
+out of Arthur's power to imagine.
+
+But now at least it was beyond all doubt that men were near. Raising his
+eyes from inspection of the marten-trap, he saw on a tree close by a
+freshly-cut blaze. Some rods farther on he could see another. Now a
+question arose, which way should he follow the line?--one end was
+probably in pathless forest. He concluded to take that direction which
+suited the smoke he had seen.
+
+He wondered what blazed lino this was--whether marking the side lots of
+a concession, or a hunter's private road through the woods. Presently,
+at a little distance, the sight of a man's figure stooping almost made
+his heart leap into his mouth. How lonely he had been, how almost
+desperate at times, he had not fully known till this his deliverance.
+Oh, that blessed human form! be he the rudest trapper or Indian, Arthur
+could have embraced him. Much more when, the face being lifted from
+examining the trap, and fixing its eyes with a very astonished stare on
+the approaching figure, Arthur recognised the shrewd features of Peter
+Logan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+BACK TO CEDAR CREEK.
+
+
+'I declar, if you hain't 'most skeered me!' was Peter's exclamation.
+'For sartin I never seed a ghost, but it looked like enough this time.
+Now, do tell what brought you so far from hum? Thirteen mile, if it's
+a rod. You ain't lookin' partic'ler spry, anyhow. Now, Arthur, doen't,
+poor lad, doen't.'
+
+For he could not speak during a minute or two; his arm pressed heavily
+on the backwoodsman's sturdy shoulder, in the effort to steady the
+strong trembling that shook him from head to foot like a spasm of ague.
+
+'Lost in the bush, you war? Well, that ain't agreeable nohow exactly;'
+and Peter betook himself to a fumbling in his capacious pocket for a tin
+flask, containing some reviving fluid. 'Here, take a pull--this'll fix
+you all right. Warn't it wonderful that I went my road of traps when I
+did, instead of early this mornin'. There's a providence in that, for
+sartin.'
+
+Deep in Arthur's heart he acknowledged the same truth gratefully.
+
+'You've got a plaguy touch of ague, likely,' added Peter considerately,
+willing to shift the responsibility of that trembling from the mind to
+the body. 'Campin' out is chill enough these nights. I han't much furder
+to go to the end of my blaze, and then I'll be back with you. So will
+you wait or come along?'
+
+Arthur had too lately found human company to be willing to relinquish
+it, even with certainty of its return; he dreaded nothing so much as the
+same solitude whence he had just emerged; therefore he followed Peter,
+who over his shoulder carried a bag containing various bodies of minks,
+fishers, and other furry animals, snared in his traps, and subsequently
+knocked on the head by his tough service-rod.
+
+That night Arthur found comfortable shelter in Peter's hut, and was
+initiated into many mysteries of a trapper's life by him and his
+half-Indian assistant. Next morning they guided him as far as a
+surveyor's post, on which was legibly written the names of four
+townships, which was the signal for the separation of the party. Arthur
+turned his face towards civilisation, along a blazed boundary line. The
+others plunged deeper into the woods, walking in the unsociable Indian
+file.
+
+The blazed line went on fairly enough for some miles, over hillocks of
+hardwood, and across marshes of dank evergreens, where logs had been
+laid lengthwise for dry footing. At last Arthur thought he must be
+drawing near to a clearing, for light appeared through the dense veil
+of trees before him, as if some extensive break to the vast continuity
+of forest occurred beyond. Soon he stood on its verge. Ay, surely a
+clearing; but no human hands had been at work.
+
+Hundreds of huge trees lay strewn about, as if they had been wrenched
+off their stumps by some irresistible power seizing the branched heads
+and hurling them to the earth. Torn up by the massy roots, or twisted
+round as you would try to break an obstinately tough withe, for many
+score of acres the wildest confusion of prostrate maples and elms
+and pines, heaped upon one another, locked in death-embraces, quite
+obliterated any track, and blocked across the country. Arthur had come
+upon what French Canadians call a 'renversé' effected by some partial
+whirlwind during the preceding summer.
+
+Such tornadoes often crash a road of destruction through the bush for
+miles; a path narrow in comparison with its length, and reminding the
+traveller of the explosive fury of some vast projectile. The track of
+one has been observable for more than forty miles right through the
+heart of uninhabited forest.
+
+To cross the stupendous barrier seemed impossible to Arthur. There was
+a tangled chaos of interlaced and withering boughs and trunks; such a
+_chevaux de frise_ might stop a regiment until some slow sap cut a path
+through, and he was without axe, or even a large knife. He must work his
+way round; and yet he was most unwilling to part company with the blaze.
+
+While hesitating, and rather ruefully contemplating the obstacle, a
+sound at a considerable distance struck his ear. It was--oh, joy!--the
+blows of an axe. Instantly he went in the direction. When near enough to
+be heard, he shouted. An answering hail came from the other side of the
+windfall; but presently he saw that an attempt had been made to log up
+the fallen timber in heaps, and, making his way through the blackened
+stumps of extinct fires, he reached the spot where two rough-looking men
+were at work with handspikes and axes.
+
+They had built a little hut, whence a faint smoke curled, the back wall
+of piled logs still wearing dead branches and foliage at the ends. A
+reddish cur, as lawless-looking as his masters, rushed from the doorway
+to snap at Arthur's heels. The suspicious glances of the foresters bore
+hardly more welcome, till they heard that the stranger belonged to the
+settlers on Cedar Pond, and had simply lost his way. They informed him
+in return, with exceeding frankness, that they were squatters, taking
+possession of this strip of bush without anybody's leave, and determined
+to hold their own against all comers. An apparently well-used rifle
+lying against a log close by gave this speech considerable emphasis.
+
+Arthur wanted nothing more from them than to be put on the surveyor's
+line again; and, when directed to the blaze, speedily left the sound of
+their axes far behind. In half an hour he reached other traces of
+mankind--a regularly chopped road, where the trees had been felled for
+the proper width, and only here and there an obstinate trunk had come
+down wrongly, and lay right across, to be climbed over or crept under
+according to the wayfarer's taste. In marshy spots he was treated to
+strips of corduroy; for the settled parts of the country were near.
+
+'Holloa! Uncle Zack, is that you?'
+
+The person addressed stood in a snake-fenced field, superintending a
+couple of labourers. He turned round at the hail, and stared as if he
+did not believe his senses.
+
+'Wal, I guess I warn't never skeered in my life before. They're all out
+lookin' for you--Nim, an' the whole "Corner" bodily. Your brother's
+distracted ravin' mad this two days huntin' the bush; but I told him
+you'd be sartin sure to turn up somehow. Now, whar are you runnin' so
+fast? There ain't nobody to hum, an' we 'greed to fire the rifles as a
+signal whoever fust got tidins of you. Three shots arter another,' as
+young Wynn fired in the air. 'Come, quick as wink, they'll be listenin'.'
+
+'Robert will know the report,' observed Arthur, with a smile, to think
+of his pleasure in the recognition, 'if he's near enough.'
+
+'We'll make tracks for the "Corner," I guess,' said Uncle Zack with
+alacrity; 'that war the meetin'-place, an' you must be powerful hungry.
+I'd ha' been to sarch for you to-day, only them Irish fellers at the
+clearin' wanted lookin' arter precious bad.' ('Lucky I got in them kegs
+o' whisky; he'll have to stand treat for the neighbours,' thought 'cute
+Uncle Zack in a sort of mental parenthesis.) 'But now do tell! you must
+ha' gone a terrible big round, I guess. They took the Indjin out to
+foller your trail; them savages has noses an' eyes like hounds. We'll
+fire my rifle from the store; it's bigger than yourn.'
+
+His abstraction of mind during Arthur's narrative was owing to a
+judicious maturing of certain plans for exacting the greatest amount of
+profit from the occurrence; but he contrived to interlard his listening
+with such appropriate interjections as, 'Now do tell! How you talk! Wal,
+I kinder like to know!' mentally watering his whisky the while.
+
+Mrs. Zack, also scenting the prey afar off, was polite as that lady
+could be to good customers only. Arthur's impatience for the arrival of
+the parties from the bush hardly permitted him to do more than taste the
+meal she provided. Within doors he could not stay, though weary enough
+to want rest. The few log-cabins of the 'Corner' looked more drowsily
+quiet than usual; the sawmill was silent. Zack was turning over some
+soiled and scribbled ledgers on his counter. Suddenly a shot in the
+woods quite near: a detachment of the searchers had arrived.
+
+That the rejoicing would take its usual form, an emptying of his
+spirit-kegs, Zack Bunting had never doubted. But the second word to
+the bargain, Mr. Wynn's promise to stand treat, had not been given,
+though it was a mere matter of form, Zack thought. Robert spoke to the
+neighbours, and thanked them collectively for their exertions in a most
+cordial manner on behalf of himself and his brother, and was turning to
+go home, when the Yankee storekeeper touched his elbow.
+
+''Tain't the usual doins to let 'em away dry,' suggested he, with a
+meaning smile. ''Spose you stand treat now; 'twill fix the business
+handsome.'
+
+That keen snaky eye of his could easily read the momentary struggle in
+Robert's mind between the desire not to appear singular and unfriendly,
+and the dislike to encouraging that whisky drinking which is the bane of
+working men everywhere, but most especially in the colonies. Sam Holt
+watched for his decision. Perhaps the knowledge of what that calm strong
+nature by his side would do helped to confirm Robert's wavering into
+bold action.
+
+'Certainly not,' he said loudly, that all might hear. 'I'll not give
+any whisky on any account. It ruins nine-tenths of the people. I'm quite
+willing to reward those who have kindly given time and trouble to help
+me, but it shall not be in that way.'
+
+Zack's smoke-dried complexion became whitewashed with disappointment.
+
+A day or two afterwards, Zack's son, Nimrod, made his appearance at the
+Wynns' shanty.
+
+'I say, but you're a prime chap arter the rise you took out of the ole
+coon,' was his first remark. 'Uncle Zack was as sartin as I stand of
+five gallons gone, anyhow; and 'twar a rael balk to put him an' them off
+with an apology. I guess you won't mind their sayin' it's the truth of a
+shabby dodge, though.'
+
+'Not a bit,' replied Robert; 'I expected something of the kind. I didn't
+imagine I'd please anybody but my own conscience.'
+
+'"Conscience!"' reiterated Nim, with a sneer. 'That stock hain't a long
+life in the bush, I guess. A storekeeper hain't no business on it,
+nohow--'twould starve him out; so Uncle Zack don't keep it.' And his
+unpleasant little eyes twinkled again at the idea of such unwonted
+connection as his father and a conscience.
+
+'That Indjin war hoppin' mad, I can tell you; for they be the greatest
+brutes at gettin' drunk in the univarsal world. They'll do 'most anythin'
+for whisky.'
+
+'The greater the cruelty of giving it to them,' said Robert.
+
+'What are you doin'?' asked Nimrod, after a moment's survey of the
+other's work.
+
+'Shingling,' was the reply. 'Learning to make shingles.'
+
+'An' you call _them_ shingles?' kicking aside, with a gesture of
+contempt, the uneven slices of pinewood which had fallen from Robert's
+tool. 'You hain't dressed the sapwood off them blocks, and the grain
+eats into one another besides. True for Uncle Zack that gentry from the
+old country warn't never born to be handlin' axes an' frows. It don't
+come kinder nateral. They shouldn't be no thicker than four to an inch
+to be rael handsome shingles,' added he, 'such as sell for
+seven-an'-sixpence a thousand.'
+
+Nimrod's pertinacious supervision could not be got rid of until dinner;
+not even though Mr. Wynn asked him his errand in no conciliatory tone.
+
+'Thought I'd kinder like to see how ye were gettin' on,' was the answer.
+'New settlers is so precious awk'ard. Thought I'd loaf about awhile, an'
+see. It's sorter amusin'.'
+
+He was so ignorantly unconscious of doing anything offensive by such
+gratification of his curiosity, that Robert hardly knew whether to laugh
+or be angry. Nimrod's thick-skinned sensibilities would have cared
+little for either. He lounged about, whittling sticks, chewing tobacco,
+and asking questions, until Andy's stentorian call resounded through the
+woods near.
+
+'I guessed I'd dine with you to-day,' said Nim, marching on before his
+host. With equal coolness, as soon as the dish of trout appeared, he
+transfixed the largest with his case-knife.
+
+'Not so fast, my friend,' interrupted Mr. Holt, bringing back the
+captive. 'We divide fair here, though it's not Yankee law, I'm aware.'
+
+'Ah, you warn't born yesterday,' rejoined Nim, showing his yellow
+teeth, which seemed individually made and set after the pattern of his
+father's. 'You're a smart man, I guess--raised in Amerikay, an' no
+mistake.'
+
+'But come, Andy,' said Arthur, 'tell us where you caught these fine
+trout? You've altogether made a brilliant effort to-day in the purveying
+line: the cakes are particularly good.'
+
+'They're what them French fellers call "galettes,"' observed Nimrod,
+biting one. 'Flour an' water, baked in the ashes. Turnpike bread is
+better--what the ole gall makes to hum.'
+
+Be it remarked that this periphrasis indicated his mother; and that the
+bread he alluded to is made with a species of leaven.
+
+'So ye _ate_ turnpikes too,' remarked Andy, obliquely glancing at the
+speaker. 'The English language isn't much help to a man in this
+counthry, where everythin' manes somethin' else. Well, Misther Arthur,
+about the trout; you remimber I went down to the "Corner" this mornin'.
+Now it's been on my mind some days back, that ye'd want a few shirts
+washed.'
+
+'But what has that to do with the trout'--interrupted Arthur, laughing.
+
+'Whisht awhile, an' you'll hear. I didn't know how to set about it, no
+more than the child of a month old; for there's an art in it, of coorse,
+like in everythin' else; an' one time I thried to whiten a shirt of my
+own--beggin' yer honours' pardon for mintionin' the article--it kem out
+of the pot blacker than it wint in. So sez I to meself, "I'll look out
+for the clanest house, an' I'll ax the good woman to tache me how to
+wash a thing;" an' I walks along from the store to a nate little cabin
+back from the river, that had flowers growin' in the front; an' sure
+enough, the floor was as clane as a dhrawin' room, an' a dacent tidy
+little woman kneadin' a cake on the table. "Ma'am," sez I, "I'm obliged
+to turn washerwoman, an' I don't know how;" but she only curtseyed, and
+said somethin' in a furrin tongue.'
+
+'A French Canadian, I suppose,' said Mr. Wynn.
+
+'Jackey Dubois lives in the log-hut with the flowers,' observed Nim, who
+was whittling again by way of desert.
+
+'May be so; but at all events she was as like as two peas to the girl
+whose weddin' I was at since I came ashore. "Ma'am," sez I, "I want to
+larn to be a washerwoman:" and wid that I took off my neckerchief an'
+rubbed it, to show what I meant, by the rule of thumb. "Ah, to vash,"
+sez she, smilin' like a leathercoat potato. So, afther that, she took my
+handkercher and washed it fornent me out; an' I'd watched before how she
+med the cakes, an' cleared a little space by the fire to bake 'em, an'
+covered them up wid hot ashes.'
+
+'Not a word about the trout,' said Arthur.
+
+'How can I tell everything intirely all at wanst?' replied the Irishman,
+with an injured tone. 'Sure I was comin' to that. I observed her lookin'
+partikler admirin' at the handkercher, which was a handsome yellow spot,
+so I up an' axed her to take a present of it, an' I settled it like an
+apron in front, to show how iligant 'twould look; an' she was mighty
+plased, an' curtseyed ever so often, an' Jackey himself gev me the trout
+out of a big basket he brought in. The river's fairly alive wid 'em, I'm
+tould: an' they risin' to a brown-bodied fly, Misther Arthur.'
+
+'We'll have a look at them some spare day, Andy.'
+
+'But what tuk my fancy intirely, was the iligant plan of bilin' 'em she
+had. There war round stones warmin' in the fire, and she dropped 'em
+into a pot of water till it was scalding hot; then in wid the fish,
+addin' more stones to keep it singin'. It's an Indjin fashion, Jackey
+told me; for they haven't nothin' to cook in but wooden pails; but I
+thried it wid them trout yer atin', an' it answered beautiful.'
+
+Andy bid fair to be no mean _chef-de-cuisine_, if his experiments always
+resulted so favourably as in the present instance.
+
+'An' the whole of it is, Misther Robert, that this Canada is a counthry
+where the very best of atin' and dhrinkin' is to be had for the throuble
+of pickin' it up. Don't I see the poorest cabins wid plenty of bacon
+hangin' to the rafthers, an' the trees is full of birds that nobody can
+summons you for catchin', and the sthrames is walkin' wid fish; I'm
+tould there's sugar to be had by bilin' the juice of a bush; an' if you
+scratch the ground, it'll give you bushels of praties an' whate for the
+axin'. I wish I had all the neighbours out here, that's a fact; for it's
+a grand poor man's counthry, an' there's too many of us at home, Misther
+Robert; an' (as if this were the climax of wonders) I never see a beggar
+since I left the Cove o' Cork!'
+
+'All true, Andy, quite true,' said his master, with a little sigh. 'Hard
+work will get a man anything here.'
+
+'I must be goin',' said Nimrod, raising his lank figure on its big feet.
+'But I guess that be for you;' and he tossed to Robert a soiled piece of
+newspaper, wrapped round some square slight packet.
+
+'Letters from home! Why, you unconscionable'--burst forth Arthur;
+'loafing about here for these three hours, and never to produce them!'
+But Nim had made off among the trees, grinning in every long tooth.
+
+Ah! those letters from home! How sweet, yet how saddening! Mr. Holt went
+off to chop alone. But first he found time to intercept Nimrod on the
+road, and rather lower his triumphant flush at successfully 'riling the
+Britishers,' by the information that he (Mr. Holt) would write to the
+post-office authorities, to ask whether their agent at the 'Corner' was
+justified in detaining letters for some hours after they might have been
+delivered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+GIANT TWO-SHOES.
+
+
+The calendar of the settler is apt to get rather confused, owing to the
+uniformity of his life and the absence of the landmarks of civilisation.
+Where 'the sound of the church-going bell' has never been heard, and
+there is nothing to distinguish one day from another, but the monotonous
+tide of time lapses on without a break, it will easily be imagined
+that the observance of a Sabbath is much neglected, either through
+forgetfulness or press of labour. The ministrations of religion by no
+means keep pace with the necessities of society in the Canadian wilds.
+Here is a wide field for the spiritual toil of earnest men, among a
+people speaking the English language and owning English allegiance;
+and unless the roots of this great growing nation be grounded in
+piety, we cannot hope for its orderly and healthful expansion in
+that 'righteousness which exalteth a people.'
+
+Once a year or so, an itinerant Methodist preacher visited the 'Corner,'
+and held his meeting in Zack Bunting's large room. But regular means
+of grace the neighbourhood had none. A result was, that few of the
+settlers about Cedar Creek acknowledged the Sabbath rest in practice;
+and those who were busiest and most isolated sometimes lost the count
+of their week-days altogether. Robert Wynn thought it right to mark
+off Sunday very distinctly for himself and his household by a total
+cessation of labour, and the establishment of regular worship. Andy
+made no sort of objection, now that he was out of the priest's reach.
+
+Other days were laborious enough. In the underbrushing was included the
+cutting up all fallen timber, and piling it in heaps for the spring
+burnings. Gradually the dense thickets of hemlock, hickory, and balsam
+were being laid in windrows, and the long darkened soil saw daylight.
+The fine old trees, hitherto swathed deeply in masses of summer foliage,
+stood with bared bases before the axe, awaiting their stroke likewise.
+
+Then the latest days in November brought the snow. Steadily and silently
+the grey heavens covered the shivering earth with its smooth woolly
+coating of purest flakes. While wet Atlantic breezes moaned sorrowfully
+round Dunore, as if wailing over shattered fortunes, the little log-shanty
+in the Canadian bush was deep in snow. Not so large as the butler's
+pantry in that old house at home, nor so well furnished as the meanest
+servant's apartment had been during the prosperous times, with hardly
+one of the accessories considered indispensable to comfort in the most
+ordinary British sitting-room, yet the rough shanty had a pleasantness
+of its own, a brightness of indoor weather, such as is often wanting
+where the fittings of domestic life are superb. Hope was in the
+Pandora's box to qualify all evils.
+
+By the firelight the settlers were this evening carrying on various
+occupations. Mr. Holt's seemed the most curious, and was the centre of
+attraction, though Robert was cutting shingles, and Arthur manufacturing
+a walnut-wood stool in primitive tripod style.
+
+'I tell you what,' said he, leaning on the end of his plane, whence a
+shaving had just slowly curled away, 'I never shall be able to assist
+at or countenance a logging-bee, for I consider it the grossest waste
+of valuable merchandise. The idea of voluntarily turning into smoke
+and ashes the most exquisitely grained bird's-eye maple, black walnut,
+heart-of-oak, cherry, and birch--it's a shame for you, Holt, not to
+raise your voice against such wilful waste, which will be sure to make
+woful want some day. Why, the cabinetmakers at home would give you
+almost any money for a cargo of such walnut as this under my hand.'
+
+'I regret it as much as you do; but till the country has more railroads
+it is unavoidable, and only vexatious to think of. We certainly do burn
+away hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of the most expensive wood,
+while people in England pay enormous prices for furniture which our
+refuse timber could supply.'
+
+'And don't you export any ornamental wood?' asked Robert. 'I saw plenty
+of deals swimming down the St. Lawrence.'
+
+'Yes, pine timber meets with the readiest market, and is easiest
+procurable. But even in that there is the most unjustifiable wastefulness
+practised. I was among the lumberers once, and saw the way they square
+the white pine. You know that every tree is of course tapering in the
+trunk, narrower at the top than at the base; now, to square the log, the
+best timber of the lower part must be hewn away, to make it of equal
+dimensions with the upper part. I am not above the mark when I say that
+millions of excellent boards are left to rot in the forest by this piece
+of mismanagement, and the white-pine woods are disappearing rapidly.'
+
+But Arthur's sympathies could not be roused for such ordinary stuff as
+deal, to the degree of resentment he felt for the wholesale destruction
+of cabinetmakers' woods.
+
+'If I may make so bould, sir,' said Andy, edging forward, 'might I ax
+what yer honour is makin'? Only there aren't any giants in the counthry,
+I'd think it was a pair of shoes, may be.'
+
+'You've guessed rightly,' replied Mr. Holt, holding up his two colossal
+frames, so that they rested on edge. 'Yes, Andy, a pair of shoes near
+six feet long! What do you think of that new Canadian wonder?'
+
+'I dunno where you'll get feet to fit 'em,' said Andy dubiously. 'They're
+mostly as big as boats, an' much the same shape. May be they're for
+crossin' the wather in?'
+
+'I intend to wear them myself, Andy,' said the manufacturer, 'but on dry
+land. You must be looking out for a pair too, if the snow continues, as
+is pretty certain, and you want to go down to the "Corner" before it is
+frozen over.'
+
+'Why have you cut that hole in the middle of the board?' asked Robert,
+inspecting the gigantic wooden sole.
+
+'To give the toes play,' was the answer. 'All parts of the foot must
+have the freest action in snow-shoes.'
+
+'I remember a pair at Maple Grove,' said Arthur, 'made of leathern
+network, fastened to frames and crossbars, with the most complicated
+apparatus for the foot in the middle.'
+
+'It is said by scientific men,' said Mr. Holt, 'that if the theory of
+walking over soft snow were propounded, not all the mechanical knowledge
+of the present day could contrive a more perfect means of meeting the
+difficulty, than that snow-shoe of the Ojibbeway Indians. It spreads the
+weight equally over the wide surface: see, I've been trying, with these
+cords and thongs, to imitate their mechanism in this hollow of my plank.
+Here's the walking thong, and the open mesh through which the toes pass,
+and which is pressed against by the ball of the foot, so as to draw the
+shoe after it. Then here's the heel-cord, a sort of sling passing round
+so as partially to imprison and yet leave free. The centre of the foot
+is held fast enough, you perceive.'
+
+Robert shook his head. 'One thing is pretty clear,' said he, '_I_ shall
+never be able to walk in snow-shoes.'
+
+'Did you think you would ever be expert at felling pines?' was Mr.
+Holt's unanswerable answer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A MEDLEY.
+
+
+'We may soon expect winter,' said Sam Holt, as he drew forth his
+gigantic snow-shoes, which had been standing up against the interior
+wall of the shanty, and now emerged into the brilliant sunshine.
+
+'Soon expect it!' ejaculated Robert; 'why, I should say it had very
+decidedly arrived already. I am sure twelve inches of snow must have
+fallen last afternoon and night.'
+
+'It is late this year; I've seen it deep enough for sleighing the second
+week in November; and from this till March the ground will be hidden,
+generally under a blanket four feet thick. You are only on the outskirts
+of winter as yet.'
+
+'Four months! I wonder it doesn't kill all vegetation.'
+
+'On the contrary, it is the best thing possible for vegetation. Only for
+the warm close covering of snow, the intense and long-continued frost
+would penetrate the soil too deeply to be altogether thawed by the
+summer sun.'
+
+'I was very much struck,' said Robert, 'by seeing, in a cemetery near
+Quebec, a vault fitted with stone shelves, for the reception of the
+bodies of people who die during winter, as they cannot be properly
+interred till the next spring.'
+
+'Yes; Lower Canada is much colder than our section of the Province.
+Learned men say something about the regular northward tendency of the
+isothermal lines from east to west; certain it is that, the farther west
+you go, the higher is the mean annual temperature, back to the Pacific,
+I believe. So the French Canadians have much the worst of the cold. You
+might have noticed flights of steps to the doors of the _habitans_? That
+was a provision against snowing time; and another proof of the severity
+of the frost is that any mason work not bedded at least three feet deep
+into the earth is dislodged by the April thaws.
+
+'Now what would you say to freezing up your winter stores of meat and
+fowls? They're obliged to do it in Lower Canada. Fresh mutton, pork,
+turkeys, geese, fowls, and even fish, all stiff and hard as stone,
+are packed in boxes and stowed away in a shed till wanted. The only
+precaution needful is to bring out the meat into the kitchen a few days
+before use, that it may have time to thaw. Yet I can tell you that
+winter is our merriest time; for snow, the great leveller, has made all
+the roads, even the most rickety corduroy, smooth as a bowling-green;
+consequently sleighing and toboggin parties without end are carried on.'
+
+'That's a terribly hard word,' remarked Arthur.
+
+'It represents great fun, then, which isn't generally the case with hard
+words. A toboggin is an Indian traineau of birch-bark, turned up at one
+end, and perfectly level with the snow. A lady takes her seat on this,
+and about a foot and a half of a projection behind her is occupied by a
+gentleman, who is the propelling instrument for the vehicle. He tucks
+one leg under him, and leaves the other trailing on the snow behind, as
+a rudder. I should have told you that, first of all, the adventurous
+pair must be on the top of a slope; and when all is ready, the gentleman
+sets the affair in motion by a vigorous kick from his rudder leg. Of
+course the velocity increases as they rush down the slope; and unless he
+is a skilful steersman, they may have a grand upset or be embosomed in
+a drift; however, the toboggin and its freight generally glides like an
+arrow from the summit, and has received impetus enough to carry it a
+long distance over the smooth surface of the valley at foot.'
+
+'How first-rate it must be!' exclaimed Arthur. 'But we shall never see
+a human being in these backwoods;' and over his handsome face came an
+expression of _ennui_ and weariness which Robert disliked and dreaded.
+'Come, Holt, I'm longing to have a try at the snow-shoes:' and his white
+volatile nature brightened again immediately at the novelty.
+
+'I'm afraid they're too long for this clearing, among all the stumps,'
+said the manufacturer; 'you may wear them eighteen inches shorter in the
+forest than on the roads or plains. At all events, I'll have to beat the
+path for you first;' and having fixed his mocassined feet in the walking
+thong and heel-cord, with his toes just over the 'eye,' he began to glide
+along, first slowly and then swiftly. Now was the advantage of the
+immense sole visible; for whereas Robert and Arthur sank far above their
+ankles at every step in the loose dry snow, Mr. Holt, though much the
+heaviest of the three, was borne on the top buoyantly.
+
+'You see the great necessity is,' said he, returning by a circuit, 'that
+the shoe should never press into the snow; so you must learn to drag it
+lightly over the surface, which requires some little practice. To render
+that easier, I've beaten the track slightly.'
+
+'Holt, are those genuine Indian mocassins?' asked Robert, as he ungirded
+his feet from the straps of the snow-shoes.
+
+'Well, they're such as I've worn over many a mile of Indian country,'
+was the answer; 'and I can recommend them as the most agreeable
+_chaussure_ ever invented. Chiropodists might shut shop, were mocassins
+to supersede the ugly and ponderous European boot, in which your foot
+lies as dead as if it had neither muscles nor joints. Try to cross a
+swamp in boots, and see how they'll make holes and stick in them, and
+only come up with a slush, leaving a pool behind; but mocassined feet
+trip lightly over: the tanned deer-hide is elastic as a second skin, yet
+thick enough to ward off a cut from thorns or pebbles, while giving free
+play to all the muscles of the foot.'
+
+'You haven't convinced me: it's but one remove from bare-footedness.
+Like a good fellow, show me how I'm to manage these monstrous
+snow-shoes: I feel as queer as in my first pair of skates.'
+
+Mr. Holt did as required. But the best theoretical teaching about
+anything cannot secure a beginner from failures, and Arthur was
+presently brought up by several inches of snow gathered round the
+edges of his boards, and adding no small weight.
+
+'It _will_ work up on them,' said he (as, when a smaller boy, he had
+been used to blame everything but himself), 'in spite of all I can do.'
+
+'Practice makes perfect,' was Sam Holt's consolatory remark. 'Get the
+axes, Robert, and we'll go chop a bit.'
+
+'I'll stay awhile by the snow-shoes,' said Arthur.
+
+The others walked away to the edge of the clearing, Mr. Holt having
+first drawn on a pair of the despised European boots.
+
+Never had Robert seen such transparent calm of heaven and earth as on
+this glorious winter day. It was as if the common atmosphere had been
+purified of all grosser particles--as if its component gases had been
+mixed afresh, for Canadian use only. The cold was hardly felt, though
+Mr. Holt was sure the thermometer must be close upon zero; but a bracing
+exhilarating sensation strung every nerve with gladness and power.
+
+'You'll soon comprehend how delightful our winter is,' said Sam Holt,
+noticing his companion's gradually glowing face. 'It has phases of the
+most bewitching beauty. Just look at this white spruce, at all times one
+of our loveliest trees, with branches feathering down to the ground, and
+every one of its innumerable sea-green leaves tipped with a spikelet
+which might be a diamond!'
+
+They did stand before that splendid tree--magnificent sight!
+
+'I wonder it escaped the lumberers when they were here; they have
+generally pretty well weeded the forests along this chain of lakes of
+such fine timber as this spruce. I suppose it's at least a hundred feet
+high: I've seen some a hundred and forty.'
+
+'And you think lumberers have been chopping in these woods? I saw no
+signs of them,' said Robert.
+
+'I met with planks here and there, hewed off in squaring the timber: but
+even without that, you know, they're always the pioneers of the settler
+along every stream through Canada. This lake of yours communicates with
+the Ottawa, through the river at the "Corner," which is called "Clyde"
+farther on, and is far too tempting a channel for the lumberers to leave
+unused.'
+
+The speaker stopped at the foot of a Balm-of-Gilead fir, on the edge of
+the swamp, and partially cleared away the snow, revealing a tuft of
+cranberries, much larger and finer than they are ever seen in England.
+
+'I noticed a bed of them here the other day. Now if you want a proof of
+the genial influence of the long-continued snow on vegetation, I can
+tell you that these cranberries--ottakas, the French Canadians call
+them--go on ripening through the winter under three or four feet of
+snow, and are much better and juicier than in October, when they are
+generally harvested. That cedar swamp ought to be full of them.'
+
+'I wonder can they be preserved in any way,' said Robert, crushing in
+his lips the pleasant bitter-sweet berry. 'Linda is a wonderful hand at
+preserves, and when she comes'--
+
+The thought seemed to energize him to the needful preparation for that
+coming: he immediately made a chop at a middle-aged Weymouth pine
+alongside, and began to cut it down.
+
+'Well, as to preserving the cranberries,' said Mr. Holt, laughing in his
+slight silent way, 'there's none required; they stay as fresh as when
+plucked for a long time. But your sister may exercise her abilities on
+the pailfuls of strawberries, and raspberries, and sand cherries, and
+wild plums, that fill the woods in summer. As to the cranberry patches,
+it is a curious fact that various Indian families consider themselves to
+have a property therein, and migrate to gather them every autumn, squaws
+and children and all.'
+
+'It appears that my swamp is unclaimed, then,' said Robert, pausing in
+his blows.
+
+'Not so with your maples,' rejoined the other; 'there's been a sugar
+camp here last spring, or I'm much mistaken.'
+
+He was looking at some old scars in the trunks of a group of maples, at
+the back of the Weymouth pine on which Robert was operating.
+
+'Yes, they've been tapped, sure enough; but I don't see the _loupes_--the
+vats in which they leave the sap to crystallize: if it were a regular
+Indian "sucrerie," we'd find those. However, I suspect you may be on the
+look-out for a visit from them in spring--_au temps des sucres_, as the
+_habitans_ say.'
+
+'And I'm not to assert my superior rights at all?'
+
+'Well, there's certainly sugar enough for both parties during your
+natural lives, and the Indians will sheer off when they find the ground
+occupied; so I'd advise you to say nothing about it. Now, Wynn, let
+your pine fall on that heap of brushwood; 'twill save a lot of trouble
+afterwards; if not, you'll have to drag the head thither and chop and
+pile the branches, which is extra work you'd as soon avoid, I dare
+say.'
+
+After some judicious blows from the more experienced axe, the pine was
+good enough to fall just as required.
+
+'Now the trunk must be chopped into lengths of twelve or fourteen feet;'
+and Mr. Holt gashed a mark with his axe at such distances, as well as he
+could guess. When it was done--
+
+'What's the rate of speed of this work?' asked Robert. 'It seems so slow
+as to be almost hopeless; the only consideration is, that one is doing
+it all for one's self, and--for those as dear as self,' he could have
+added, but refrained.
+
+'About an acre in eight or nine days, according to your expertness,' was
+the reply. Robert did a little ciphering in his mind immediately. Three
+axes, plus twenty-seven days (minus Sundays), equal to about the chopping
+of ten acres and a fraction during the month of December. The calculation
+was somewhat reassuring.
+
+'What curious curves there are in this Canadian axe!' he remarked, as he
+stood leaning on the handle and looking down. 'It differs essentially
+from the common woodman's axe at home.'
+
+'And which the English manufacturers persisted in sending us, and could
+not be induced to make on precisely the model required, until we dispensed
+with their aid by establishing an edge-tool factory of our own in Galt,
+on the Grand River.'
+
+'That was a declaration of independence which must have been very
+sensibly felt in Sheffield,' remarked Robert.
+
+They worked hard till dinner, at which period they found Arthur limping
+about the shanty.
+
+'I practised those villainous snow-shoes for several hours, till I
+walked beautifully; but see what I've got by it,' he said: 'a pain
+across the instep as if the bones would split.'
+
+'Oh, just a touch of _mal de raquette_,' observed Sam Holt, rather
+unsympathizingly. 'I ought to have warned you not to walk too much in
+them at first.'
+
+'And is there no cure?' asked Arthur, somewhat sharply.
+
+'Peter Logan would scarify your foot with a gun-flint, that is, if the
+pain were bad enough. Do you feel as if the bones were broken, and
+grinding together across the instep?'
+
+But Arthur could not confess to his experiences being so bad as this.
+Only a touch of the _mal de raquette_, that was all. Just a-paying for
+his footing in snow-shoes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE ICE-SLEDGE.
+
+
+Sam Holt had long fixed the first snow as the limit of his stay. He had
+built his colossal shoes in order to travel as far as Greenock on them,
+and there take the stage, which came once a week to that boundary of
+civilisation and the post.
+
+Two or three days of the intensest frost intervened between the first
+snow and the Thursday on which the stage left Greenock. Cedar Pond was
+stricken dead--a solid gleaming sheet of stone from shore to shore. A
+hollow smothered gurgle far below was all that remained of the life of
+the streams; and nightly they shrank deeper, as the tremendous winter in
+the air forced upon them more ice, and yet more.
+
+Notwithstanding the roaring fires kept up in the shanty chimney, the
+stinging cold of the night made itself felt through the unfinished
+walls. For want of boards, the necessary interior wainscoting had never
+been put up. The sight of the frozen pond suggested to Mr. Holt a plan
+for easily obtaining them. It was to construct an ice-boat, such as he
+had seen used by the Indians: to go down to the 'Corner' on skates,
+lade the ice-boat with planks, and drive it before them back again.
+
+Arthur, who hailed with delight any variety from the continual chopping,
+entered into the scheme with ardour. Robert would have liked it well
+enough, but he knew that two persons were quite sufficient for the
+business; he rather connived at the younger brother's holidays; he must
+abide by the axe.
+
+One board, about nine feet long, remained from Arthur's attempts at
+'slabbing.' This Mr. Holt split again with wedges, so as to reduce it
+considerably in thickness, and cut away from the breadth till it was
+only about twenty inches wide. The stoutest rope in the shanty stores
+was fastened to it fore and aft, and drawn tightly to produce a curve
+into boat shape, and a couple of cross pieces of timber were nailed to
+the sides as a sort of balustrade and reinforcement to the rope. The
+ice-sledge was complete; the voyagers tied down their fur caps over
+their ears, strapped the dreadnought boots tightly, and launched forth.
+
+'Throth, I donno how they do it at all, at all,' said Andy, who had lent
+his strength to the curving of the sledge, and now shook his head as
+he viewed them from the shore. 'I'd as soon go to walk on the edges of
+knives as on them things they call skates; throth, betune the shoes as
+long as yerself for the snow, an' the shoes wid soles as sharp as a
+soord for the ice, our own ould brogues aren't much use to us. An' as
+for calling that boord a boat, I hope they won't thry it on the wather,
+that's all.'
+
+As if he had discharged his conscience by this protesting soliloquy, Mr.
+Callaghan turned on his heel, and tramped after Robert up to the shanty.
+
+Meanwhile, the voyagers had struck out from the natural cove formed by
+the junction of the creek with the pond, where were clumps of stately
+reeds, stiffened like steel by the frost. The cedar boughs in the
+swamp at the edge drooped lower than ever under their burden of snow;
+the stems looked inky black, from contrast. The ice-boat pushed on
+beautifully, with hardly any exertion, over the greyish glistening
+surface of the lake.
+
+'I fancy there's a bit of breeze getting up against us,' said Mr. Holt,
+in a momentary pause from their rapid progression.
+
+''Twill be in our backs coming home,' suggested Arthur, as an obvious
+deduction.
+
+'And if we can fix up a sail anyhow, we might press it into our service
+to propel the sledge,' said Mr. Holt.
+
+'Well, I never did hear of sails on dry land before,' said Arthur,
+thereby proving his Irish antecedents; of which his quick-witted
+companion was not slow to remind him.
+
+'But I don't much admire that greyish look off there,' he added,
+becoming grave, and pointing to a hazy discolouration in the eastern
+skies. 'I shouldn't be surprised if we had a blow to-night; and our
+easterly winds in winter always bring snow.'
+
+Uncle Zack was lost in admiration of the spirit which projected and
+executed this ice-boat voyage. 'Wal, you are a knowin' shave,' was his
+complimentary observation to Mr. Holt. ''Twar a smart idee, and no
+mistake. You'll only want to fix runners in front of the ice-sled goin'
+back, an' 'twill carry any load as easy as drinkin'. 'Spose you han't
+got an old pair of skates handy? I've most remarkable good 'uns at the
+store, that'll cut right slick up to the Cedars in no time if tacked on
+to the sled. You ain't disposed to buy 'em, are you? Wal, as you be hard
+fixed, I don't care if I lend 'em for a trifle. Quarter dollar, say.
+That's dog-cheap--it's a rael ruination. Take it out in potash or maple
+sugar next spring--eh? Is it five cents cash you named, Mister Holt?
+Easy to see you never kep a backwoods store. Did anybody ever hear of
+anythin' so onreasonable?'
+
+To which offer he nevertheless acceded after some grumbling; and the
+runners of the borrowed skates were fastened underneath the sled by Mr.
+Holt's own hands and hammer. Next, that gentleman fixed a pole upright
+in the midst, piling the planks from the sawmill close to it, edgeways
+on both sides, and bracing it with a stay-rope to stem and stern. At the
+top ran a horizontal stick to act as yard, and upon this he girt an old
+blanket lent by Jackey Dubois, the corners of which were caught by cords
+drawn taut and fastened to the balustrade afore-mentioned.
+
+Sam Holt had in his own brain a strong dash of the daring and love of
+adventure which tingles in the blood of youthful strength. He thoroughly
+enjoyed this rigging of the ice-boat, because it was strange, and
+paradoxical, and quite out of everyday ship-building. The breeze, become
+stronger, was moaning in the tops of the forest as he finished; the
+greyish haze had thickened into well-defined clouds creeping up the
+sky, yet hardly near enough to account for one or two flakes that
+came wandering down.
+
+'Ye'll have a lively run to the Cedars, I guess,' prophesied Zack, as he
+helped to pack in the last plank. 'An' the quicker the better, for the
+weather looks kinder dirty. See if them runners ain't vallyable now; and
+only five cents cash for the loan.' The queer little craft began to push
+ahead slowly, her sail filling out somewhat, as the wind caught in it at
+a curve of the shore.
+
+Certainly the runners materially lessened the friction of the load
+of timber on the ice. The skaters hardly felt the weight more than in
+propelling the empty sledge. When they got upon the open surface of the
+pond, they might expect aid from the steady swelling of the sail, now
+fitful, as gusts swept down, snow-laden, from the tree-covered banks of
+the stream. They hardly noticed the gradually increasing power of the
+wind behind them; but the flakes in the air perceptibly thickened, even
+before they had reached the pond.
+
+'Now make a straight course across for the pine point yonder,' said Sam
+Holt, as they passed in lee shelter for an instant. 'I suspect we might
+almost embark ourselves, Arthur, for the breeze is right upon it.'
+
+A few minutes of great velocity bore them down on the headland. They
+stopped for breath, the turned-up prow of their ice-boat resting even in
+the brush on shore. Then they coasted awhile, until another wide curve
+of the pond spread in front.
+
+By this time the falling snow was sufficiently dense to blur distant
+outlines, and an indistinct foggy whiteness took the place of the
+remaining daylight. Mr. Holt hesitated whether to adopt the safer and
+more laborious plan of following the windings of the shore, or to strike
+across boldly, and save a mile of meandering by one rapid push ahead.
+The latter was Arthur's decided choice.
+
+'Well, here goes!' and by the guiding rope in his hand Mr. Holt turned
+the head of the ice-boat before the wind. They grasped the balustrades
+at each side firmly, and careered along with the former delightful
+speed; until suddenly, Arthur was astonished to see his companion cast
+himself flat on the ice, bringing round the sledge with a herculean
+effort broadside to the breeze. A few feet in front lay a dark patch on
+the white plain--_a breathing-hole_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE FOREST MAN.
+
+
+During the momentary pause that followed the bringing up of the ice-boat
+broadside to the breeze, they could hear the fluctuating surge of deep
+waters, sucking, plunging--in that large dark patch on the ice. An
+instant more of such rapid progression would have sunk them in it,
+beyond all hope.
+
+'Live and learn, they say,' remarked Sam Holt, rising from his prostrate
+position beside the cargo; 'and I certainly had yet to learn that
+breathing-holes could form at such an early period in the winter as
+this. We had better retrace our steps a bit, Wynn; for the ice is
+probably unsound for some distance about that split.'
+
+'A merciful escape,' said Arthur, after they had worked their way
+backwards a few yards.
+
+'Ay, and even if we could have pulled up ourselves on the brink, the
+sledge must have been soused to a dead certainty. Had the snow-flakes
+been a trifle thicker, we wouldn't have seen the hole till we were
+swimming, I guess. And it's well this cord of Uncle Zack's was rotten,
+or the sail would have been too much for my pull.' One of the ropes
+stretching the lower side of the blanket had snapped under the sudden
+pressure of Sam Holt's vigorous jerk round, and thereby lessened the
+forward force.
+
+They made a long circuit of the deadly breathing-hole, and then ran
+for the nearest shore on the farthest side. The deepening layer of
+soft snow on the surface of the ice impeded the smooth action of the
+runners considerably, and made travelling laborious.
+
+Under the lee of a promontory covered with pines they drew up to rest
+for a few minutes, and shake away loose snow.
+
+'You know everything, Holt, so you can tell me why those treacherous
+breaks in the ice are called breathing-holes.'
+
+'I believe there's no reason to be given beyond a popular Canadian
+superstition that a lake needs air as well as a human being, and must
+have it by bursting these openings through its prison of ice. The
+freezing is generally uniform all over the surface at first, and after a
+month or so it cracks in certain spots, perhaps where there exists some
+eddy or cross current in the water. But evidently the hole we saw a
+while ago was never frozen at all. Uncle Zack would tell you it is over
+some dismal cavern whence issue whirlwinds and foul air.'
+
+'I think we should get on almost better without skates,' said Arthur,
+when they had struggled a furlong farther.
+
+'We are in a drift just now,' answered Mr. Holt; 'the wind has heaped
+the snow up along here. Certainly the skates would be of more use to us
+farther out on the pond; but I think we had better be cautious, and
+continue to coast;' and so they did, having the fear of other possible
+breathing-holes before their eyes.
+
+How grandly roared the wind through the forest of pines with a steady
+persistent swelling sound, as of breakers upon an iron shore, sweeping
+off masses of snow wherewith to drown all landmarks in undistinguishable
+drifts of whiteness, and driving aslant the descending millions of flakes,
+till the outlines of the lake landscape were confused to the eyes which
+tried to trace familiar copse or headland.
+
+Sam Holt was secretly somewhat disquieted, and watched narrowly for
+the cedars which denoted the Wynns' land. He would have abandoned the
+ice-boat but for unwillingness to risk the fruit of their day's journey.
+They must be near the swamp and the creek now; it was scarcely possible
+they could have passed without recognising the cove whence they had
+issued in the morning; and yet there was a chance. For the weather was
+extremely thick, and daylight was fading quickly: the disguise of drifts
+is bewildering, even to the most practised eye.
+
+'Ha! there are our cedars at last!' exclaimed Arthur. 'How the snow has
+buried them; they look stunted. I suppose up here's the creek;' and he
+laid his hand beside his mouth to shout a signal to the shanty, which
+was smothered immediately in the greater tumult of the storm.
+
+Mr. Holt left the grounded ice-boat, and proceeded farther inland to
+examine the locality, returning in a few minutes, when Arthur had his
+skates off, with the information that this was merely a cove running
+in among trees, and by no means the estuary of a stream.
+
+'Now you know, Holt, if this isn't our creek it must be our swamp, and
+I'm blinded and petrified on that lake. Do let us get overland to the
+shanty. I'm certain we would travel faster; and we can haul up the planks
+to-morrow or next day. You see it's getting quite dark.'
+
+'And do you think the pathless forest will be more lightsome than the
+open ice? No; we'd better kindle a fire, and camp out to-night. I'm
+pretty sure we must have passed Cedar Creek without knowing.'
+
+Arthur was already so drowsy from the excessive cold that he was
+only glad of the pretext for remaining still, and yielding to the
+uncontrollable propensity. But Mr. Holt pulled him on his feet and
+commanded him to gather brushwood and sticks, while he went about
+himself picking birch-bark off the dead and living trees. This he spread
+under the brush and ignited with his tinder-box. The sight of the flame
+seemed to wake up Arthur with a shock from the lethargy that was stealing
+over his faculties. Mr. Holt had chosen a good site for his fire in the
+lee of a great body of pines, whose massive stems broke the wind; so
+the blaze quickened and prospered, till a great bed of scarlet coals
+and ends of fagots remained of the first relay of fuel, and another was
+heaped on. Now Arthur was glowing to his fingers' ends, thoroughly wide
+awake, and almost relishing the novelty of his lodgings for the night;
+with snow all around, curtaining overhead, carpeting under foot.
+
+'Curious way they camp out in the Far West,' said Holt, with his arms
+round his knees, as he sat on their hemlock mattress and gazed into the
+fire, wherein all old memories seem ever to have a trysting-place with
+fancy. And so scenes of his roving years came back to him.
+
+'You must know that out in the Hudson's Bay territory the snow is often
+ten or fourteen feet deep, not only in drifts, but in smooth even layers,
+obliterating the country inequalities wonderfully. That's the native
+land of snow-shoes and of furs, where your clothes must be mainly of
+both for half the year. But I was going to tell you how the _voyageurs_
+build a fire when they have to camp out on a winter's night, and there's
+twelve feet of snow between them and the solid ground.'
+
+'Sheer impossibility,' said Arthur presumptuously; 'the fire would work
+a hole down.'
+
+'You shall hear. First, they cut down a lot of trees--green timber--about
+twenty feet or more in length. These are laid closely parallel on the
+snow, which has previously been beaten to a little consistency by
+snow-shoes; on the platform thus made the fire is lit, and it burns
+away merrily.'
+
+'Don't the trees ever burn through?' asked Arthur.
+
+'Seldom; but the heat generally works a cavity in the snow underneath,
+sometimes quite a chasm, seven or eight feet deep--fire above, water
+below. Ha! I'm glad to see my old friend the Great Bear looking through
+over the pines yonder. Our storm has done its worst.'
+
+'Holt, though I'm rather hungry and sleepy, I'm heartily glad of this
+night's outing, for one reason: you won't be able to leave us to-morrow,
+and so are booked for another week, old fellow.'
+
+It seemed irrevocably the case; and under this conviction Arthur rolled
+himself in the blanket (cut from the spar of the ice-boat), and went
+into dreamland straight from his brushwood bed, Mr. Holt continuing
+to sit by the fire gazing into it as before; which sort of gazing,
+experienced people say, is very bad for the eyes. Perhaps it was that
+which caused a certain moisture to swell into most visible bright drops,
+filling the calm grey orbs with unspeakable sadness for a little while.
+The Great Bear climbed higher round the icy pole; the sky had ceased
+to snow before the absorbed thinker by the fire noticed the change of
+weather. Then he rose gently, laid further wood on the blazing pile,
+threw brush about Arthur's feet and body for additional warmth, and,
+skates in hand, went down to the lake to explore.
+
+On reaching the point of the headland, he looked round. The weather
+was much clearer; but westwards a glimmering sheen of ice--black land
+stretching along, black islands, snow-crowned, rising midway afar.
+Eastward, ha! that is what should have been done hours ago. A fire
+burned on the edge of the woods at some distance. So they had really
+passed Cedar Creek unawares, as he suspected from the nature of the
+ground and trees.
+
+While Robert and Andy crouched by their fire, feeding it up to full
+blaze with the most resinous wood they could find, the distant shout
+of the coming travellers gladdened their ears. The servant flung his
+whole stock of balsam on the beacon at once, causing a most portentous
+flame-burst, and sprang up with a wild 'hurroo!' wielding one half-burnt
+fagot _à la_ shillelah about his head.
+
+'Oh, then, Mister Robert, achora, it's yerself is the janius; an' to
+think of mekin' a lighthouse to guide 'em wid, an' here they are safe
+home by the manes of it. But now, sir, if ye'll take my advice, as we're
+always lost when we goes anywhere by ourselves, we ought niver part for
+the futhur, an' thin we'll all go asthray together safe an' sound.'
+
+'Let's warm ourselves at this glorious fire before we go up to the
+shanty,' said Arthur, stretching out his feet to the fire. 'Pity to let
+it waste its sweetness on the desert air.'
+
+So they stood explaining matters by the fire for a few minutes, till
+Andy, who was never tired of heaping on fresh fuel, came forward with an
+armful and a puzzled face.
+
+'Mr. Holt, there's somethin' quare in that three, sir, which has a big
+hole in it full of dhry sticks an' brush, and there's something woolly
+inside, sir, that I felt wid me two hands; an' more be token it's a big
+baste, whatever it is.'
+
+'A bear, probably,' said Mr. Holt, as he warmed the sole of one foot.
+'Better let him alone till morning, and tuck in his bedclothes again for
+to-night, poor fellow.' But Arthur had started up to investigate, and
+must pull the black fleece for his personal satisfaction.
+
+'Oh, throth he's stirrin' now!' exclaimed Andy, who had begun to cram
+the orifice with the former stuffing of dried bough and brush. 'We've
+woke him up, Masther Arthur, if it's asleep he was at all, the rogue;
+an' now he's sthrugglin' out of the hole wid all his might. Keep in
+there, you big villyan, you don't dare to offer to come out;' for Andy
+set his shoulder against the great carcase, which nevertheless sheered
+round till muzzle and paws could be brought into action, and their use
+illustrated on Andy's person.
+
+'Och, murther!' roared the sufferer; 'he has his arms round me, the
+baste; he's squeezing me into m--m--mash!'
+
+A blazing stick, drawn from the fire by Mr. Holt's hand, here struck
+the bear's nose and eyes; which, conjoined with Andy's own powerful
+wrenching, caused him to loosen his hold, and a ball from the rifle
+which Robert had fortunately brought down as the companion of their
+night watch, finished his career.
+
+'Well done, Bob!' when, after a run of thirty yards or so, they stood
+beside the prostrate enemy; 'you've won our first bear-skin. Now we
+shall see what the paws are like, in the way of eatables; don't you say
+they're delicious, Holt?'
+
+Borne upon two strong poles, the bear made his way up to the shanty, and
+was housed for the rest of the night. Poor Andy was found to be severely
+scratched by the long sharp claws. 'Sure I'm glad 'twas none of yerselves
+he tuk to huggin',' said the faithful fellow; 'an' scrapin' as if 'twas
+a pratie he wanted to peel!'
+
+He had his revenge on the forepaws next morning when Mr. Holt cut them
+off, some time before breakfast, and set them in a mound of hot ashes
+to bake, surrounding and crowning them further with live coals. Bruin
+himself was dragged outside into the snow, preparatory to the operation
+of skinning and cutting up into joints of excellent meat.
+
+'Do you know, I saw an amazing resemblance to a fur-coated man, as he
+stood up last night before Robert's shot,' said Arthur.
+
+'You're not the first to see it,' replied Holt. 'The Indians call
+him "the forest man," and the Lower Canadians the "bourgeois;" they
+attribute to him a sagacity almost human; the Crees and Ojibbeways fancy
+him an enchanted being, and will enter into conversation with him when
+they meet in the woods.'
+
+'Yet they take an unfair advantage of his paws.'
+
+'That's true: my cookery must be almost done.' And he re-entered the hut
+to dish up his dainty. 'Come, who'll feast with me?'
+
+'Appearances are much against them,' said Robert, eyeing the
+charcoal-looking paws, which presented soles uppermost on the trencher.
+Mr. Holt scooped out a portion on to his own plate, and used no further
+persuasion.
+
+''Twould never do not to know the taste of bear's paw,' said Arthur, as
+if winding himself up to the effort of picking a small bit. Mr. Holt was
+amused to see the expression of enlightened satisfaction that grew on
+his face. 'Oh, Bob, 'tis really capital. That's only a prejudice about
+its black look,' helping himself again. 'The Indians aren't far removed
+from epicures, when this is their pet dish.'
+
+'Well,' observed Mr. Holt, filling his horn cup with tea from the
+kettle, 'they equally relish fried porcupines and skunks; but some of
+their viands might tempt an alderman--such as elk's nose, beaver's tail,
+and buffalo's hump.'
+
+'Holt,' said Arthur, scooping the paw a third time, 'it seemed to me
+that chap had fixed himself in a hole barely big enough, to judge by the
+way he wriggled out.'
+
+'Very likely. "Bears are the knowingest varmint in all creation," as
+Uncle Zack would say. They sometimes watch for days before entering a
+tree, and then choose the smallest opening possible, for warmth's sake,
+and scrape up brush and moss to conceal themselves. I've known the
+hollow tree to be such a tight fit that the hunters were compelled to
+cut it open to get at the bear after he was shot. I suspect the heat of
+our fire had roused this one, even before Andy pulled away the brush, or
+he wouldn't ha' been so lively.'
+
+'What's the meat like, Holt? I hope it don't taste carnivorous.'
+
+'You'll hardly know it from beef, except that the shorter grain makes it
+tenderer; for the bear lives on the best products of the forest. He'll
+sit on his haunches before a serviceberry tree, bend the branches with
+his paws, and eat off the red fruit wholesale. He'll grub with his
+claws for the bear potatoes, and chew them like tobacco. He'll pick the
+kernels out of nuts, and help himself to your maize and fall wheat when
+you have them, as well as to your sucking pigs and yearly calves.'
+
+'Then we may fairly eat him in return,' said Robert; 'but I'll leave the
+paws to you and Arthur.'
+
+'Thank you for the monopoly. Now these knives are sufficiently sharp.'
+Sam Holt had been putting an edge on them at the grindstone during his
+talk. 'Come and have your lesson in fur-making, for I must be off.'
+
+'Off! oh, nonsense; not to-day,' exclaimed both. But he was quite
+unpersuadeable when once his plan was fixed. He took the stage at
+Greenock that afternoon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+SILVER SLEIGH-BELLS.
+
+
+The shanty was ere long lined in a comely manner with the planks which
+had journeyed up the pond in the ice-boat, affording many an evening's
+work for Arthur. About Christmas all was right and tight.
+
+Now, to those who have any regrets or sadnesses in the background of
+memory, the painfullest of all times are these anniversaries. One is
+forced round face to face with the past and the unalterable, to gaze on
+it, perchance, through blinding tears. The days return--unchanged: but,
+oh, to what changed hearts!
+
+Were they not thinking of the Canadian exiles to-day, at home, at dear
+old Dunore? For nothing better than exiles did the young men feel
+themselves, this snow-white Christmas morning, in the log-hut among the
+backwoods, without a friendly face to smile a greeting, except poor
+Andy's; and his was regretful and wistful enough too.
+
+'I say, Bob, what shall we do with ourselves? I'm sure I wish I didn't
+know 'twas Christmas day at all. It makes a fellow feel queer and
+nonsensical--homesick, I suppose they call it--and all that sort of
+thing. I vote we obliterate the fact, by chopping as hard as any other
+day.'
+
+So, after reading the chapters for the day (how the words brought up a
+picture of the wee country church in Ireland, with its congregation of a
+dozen, its whitewashed walls and blindless lancet windows!), they went
+forth to try that relief for all pains of memory--steady hard work. The
+ten acres allotted for December were nearly chopped through by this
+time, opening a considerable space in front of the shanty, and beginning
+to reveal the fair landscape of lake and wooded slopes that lay beyond.
+The felled trees lay piled in wind rows and plan heaps so far as was
+possible without the help of oxen to move the huge logs; snow covered
+them pretty deeply, smoothing all unsightliness for the present.
+
+'How I long to have something done towards the building of our house!'
+said Robert, pausing after the fall of a hemlock spruce, while Arthur
+attacked the upper branches. 'I'd like so much to have it neatly
+finished before my father and mother and Linda come next summer.'
+
+'Well, haven't you no end of shingles made for the roof?' said
+the other, balancing his axe for a blow. 'You're working at them
+perpetually; and Andy isn't a bad hand either at wooden slates, as
+he calls them.'
+
+'We must have a raising-bee in spring,' concluded Robert, after some
+rumination--'as soon as the snow melts a little. Really, only for such
+co-operative working in this thinly peopled country, nothing large
+could be ever effected. Bees were a great device, whoever invented
+them.'
+
+'By the way,' said Arthur presently, returning from chopping apart the
+trunk into two lengths of fifteen feet, 'did you hear that the Scotchman
+between us and the "Corner," at Daisy Burn, wants to sell his farm and
+improvements, and is pushing out into the wild land farther up the
+pond? Nim told me yesterday. He expects three pounds sterling an acre,
+including fixtures, and he got the ground for nothing; so that's
+doubling one's capital, I imagine.'
+
+'How for nothing?'
+
+'It was before a human being had settled in these townships, and the
+concession lines were only just blazed off by the surveyors. Davidson
+obtained a grant of land on condition of performing what are called
+settlement duties, which means chopping out and clearing the concession
+lines for a certain distance. Of course that was another way of payment,
+by labour instead of cash. But on swearing that it was done, he obtained
+what Nim calls a "lift," a crown patent, we should say, and the land was
+his estate for ever.'
+
+'I wish we could transfer a couple of his fenced fields here,' said
+Robert, 'and his young orchard. We must have some sort of a garden,
+Arthur, before Linda comes.'
+
+'Yes, she never could get on without her flower beds. I say, Bob, won't
+Cedar Creek look awfully wild to them?'
+
+They worked on awhile both thinking of that. Any one accustomed to
+smooth enclosed countries, with regular roads and houses at short
+distances, would indeed find the backwoods 'awfully wild.' And that
+most gentle mother, how would she bear the transplanting?
+
+'I had a very misty idea of what bush-life was, I own, till I found
+myself in it,' quoth Robert, after a long silence, broken only by the
+ring of the axes.
+
+'Living like a labourer at home, but without half his comforts,' said
+Arthur, piling the boughs. 'Tell you what, Bob, we wouldn't be seen
+doing the things we do here. Suppose Sir Richard Lacy or Lord Scutcheon
+saw us in our present trim?'
+
+'But you know that's all false pride,' said Robert, with a little glow
+on his cheek nevertheless. 'We shouldn't be ashamed of anything but
+wrong.'
+
+'Say what you will, Bob, it strikes me that we aren't of the class which
+do best in Canada. The men of hard hands, labouring men and women, are
+those who will conquer the forest and gain wealth here.'
+
+'Well, if that be the rule, you and I must strive to be the exception,'
+said Robert; 'for I'm determined to have a comfortable homestead for the
+dear old people from Dunore, and I'm equally determined to set my mark
+on Canadian soil, and to prosper, if it be God's will.'
+
+He lifted off his cap for a moment, looking at the serene sky. The
+rising discontent in his brother's heart was stilled by the gesture.
+Both worked assiduously, till Andy, with an unusual twinkle in his eyes,
+summoned them to dinner.
+
+'What has the fellow been about, I wonder? I know 'twasn't respect for
+the holiday kept him indoors all the morning.'
+
+It was presently explained. Andy, ignorant of courses, dished up,
+together with the ham, a very fine dumpling emitting the odour of
+apples.
+
+'Sure, as ye can't have yer own plum puddin' in this outlandish
+counthry, ye can have a thing the same shape, anyhow. Mrs. Jackey showed
+me how to make it iligant, of the string of dried bits I had thrun in
+the box since we kem here first. Throth an' I'm cur'ous to see did they
+ever swell out agin, afther the parchin' they got.'
+
+But for a slightly peculiar taste in the sweet, the dumpling was
+unimpeachable.
+
+'I suppose Mrs. Jackey uses maple sugar in her confectionery,' said
+Robert; 'a _soupçon_ of trees runs through it.'
+
+Late in the evening, as the pitch-pine logs were flaring abundance of
+light through the cabin--light upon Robert at his shingles, and upon
+Arthur at his work-bench, and upon Andy shaving and packing the slips
+of white pine as fast as his master split them, with a stinging night
+outside, some twenty-five degrees below zero, and the snow crusted at
+top hard enough to bear anything--all three raised their heads to listen
+to some approaching sound through the dead silence of the frozen air. It
+was a very distant vagrant tinkling, as of sheep-bells on a common in
+old Europe; they looked at one another, and Andy crossed himself
+reverently.
+
+'Like chapel bells over the say from poor Ireland,' he muttered, and
+crept to the door, which Robert had opened. 'Sure there isn't fairies
+all the ways out here? an' 'tis mighty like it'--
+
+'Hush--h--!' Andy crossed himself again as the tinkling became more
+plainly audible. A sweetly plaintive jangling it seemed--a tangled
+careless music. Nearer, and still nearer it came.
+
+'What a fool I am!' exclaimed Robert; 'it must be sleigh-bells.
+Travellers, I suppose.'
+
+And before many minutes were past, the sleigh had rounded its way among
+the stumps, over the smooth snow, to the shanty door, filled with
+brilliant wood-light.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+'STILL-HUNTING.'
+
+
+From the buffalo robes of the sleigh emerged a gentleman so wrapped
+in lynx-furs and bearskin, that, until his face stood revealed by
+the firelight, nothing but his voice was recognisable by the Wynns.
+
+'Argent! is it possible?'
+
+'Most possible: didn't you remember that my regiment was quartered out
+here? But I'm sure it is a very unexpected pleasure to meet you in
+the bush, old fellow;' and they shook hands warmly again. 'For though
+I heard from my mother that you had gone to settle in Canada, she
+didn't mention the locality, and I've been inquiring about you in all
+directions without success, until, as good fortune would have it, I
+stopped at the odious Yankee tavern yonder this evening, and overheard a
+fellow in the bar mention your name. You may imagine I seized him, and
+ascertained particulars--harnessed the sleigh again, and started off up
+here, to ask you for a night's lodging, which means a rug before the
+fire.'
+
+His servant had been unloading the sleigh of knapsacks, and rifles, and
+other hunting gear. Captain Argent gave him a few directions, and
+presently the silver-sounding bells tinkled swiftly away along the
+concession road, and back to the 'Corner' again.
+
+  [Illustration: STILL-HUNTING.]
+
+'Och sure,' quoth Andy to himself, as he witnessed from among his
+shingles the reunion of the old acquaintances, 'what a house for him to
+come into--not as big as the butler's bedroom at Scutcheon Castle--an'
+nothin' but pork an' bear's mate to give the likes of a gran' gintleman
+like him: I wish he'd sted at home, so I do. Oh, Misther Robert asthore,
+if I ever thought to see the family so reduced; an' sure I was hopin'
+nobody would know it but ourselves--leastways, none of the quality at
+home.'
+
+Andy's soliloquy was interrupted by a summons from his master to prepare
+supper; but the under-current of his thoughts went on as he set about
+his cooking.
+
+'An' to have to be fryin' mate ondher his very nose, an' the kitchen in
+the castle is a good quarther of a mile from the dinin' parlour, anyhow;
+an' all our chaney is made of wood, barrin' the couple of plates; an'
+our glasses is nothin' but cows' horns. An' sorra a bit of a table-cloth,
+unless I spread one of the sheets. An' to sit on shtools for want of
+chairs. An' to sleep on the flure like meself. Arrah, what brought him
+here at all?'
+
+The subject of these reflections had meanwhile lighted his silver-mounted
+meerschaum, and was puffing contentedly in the intervals of animated
+chat, apparently quite satisfied with his position and prospective
+hardships, not giving a thought to the humble accommodations of his
+friends' shanty; which, on the first entrance, had contracted in
+Robert's vision into a mere wood-cutter's hut, devoid of every elegance
+and most of the comforts of civilised life. He imagined that thus it
+would be seen through Argent's eyes. But if it was so, Argent neither by
+look nor manner gave token of the least thought of the sort.
+
+He was the youngest son of a poor peer, Lord Scutcheon, living in the
+neighbourhood of Dunore; and often had the Wynns ridden with him at the
+same meet, and shouldered fowling-pieces in the same sporting party.
+
+'But picking off pheasants in a preserve is tame work to the noble game
+one can shoot in these forests,' said he. 'I'm bound at present on a
+"still-hunting" expedition; which doesn't mean looking out for illegal
+distilleries, as it might signify in Ireland, ha, ha!'
+
+Captain Argent had very high animal spirits, and a small joke sufficed
+to wake them into buoyant laughter, which was infectious by its very
+abundance.
+
+'Deer-stalking is the right word; I've done it in Scotland, but now I
+mean to try my hand on the moose--grandest of American ruminants. I've
+engaged an old trapper to come with me for a few days into their haunts.
+Now, 'twould be a delightful party if you two would join. What do you
+say, Wynn? Come, lay by your axe, and recreate yourself for a week,
+man.'
+
+Arthur looked a very decided acceptance of the proposition, but Robert
+shook his head. 'Couldn't leave the place,' said he, smiling; 'too much
+to be done.'
+
+'Nonsense; the trees will stand till your return, and you can't plough
+through four feet of snow.'
+
+'If I was far enough advanced to have land fit for ploughing, nothing
+could be pleasanter than to join you, Argent; but unfortunately no end
+of trees have to be cut down, and logged in heaps for burning before
+then. But, Arthur, wouldn't you go?'
+
+His faint opposition, because he did not like to leave his brother,
+was easily overcome. Captain Argent made another attack upon Robert's
+resolve. 'People always consider winter the time for amusement in
+Canada. Nature gives a tolerably good hint to the same effect, by
+blocking up the rivers so that ships can't sail, and snowing up the
+farms, so that the ground isn't seen for months; and if that isn't a
+licence for relaxation'--
+
+'I suspect that in the earlier stages of bush-life there are no
+holidays,' replied Robert: 'if you just reflect that everything in the
+way of civilisation has to be done afresh from the beginning pretty much
+like living on a desert island. Now I've got a house to build by summer
+time, and here are all the preparations towards it as yet;' and he
+pointed to the shingles.
+
+'Why, thin, I'd like to know for what Misther Robert is dhrawin' up
+the poverty of the family, an' makin' little of himself before the
+captain,' thought Andy angrily, and betraying the feeling by a bang of
+the frying-pan as he laid it aside. 'Can't he talk to him of sojers,
+or guns, or wild bastes, or somethin' ginteel of that kind, an' not be
+makin' a poor mouth, as if he hadn't a single hap'ny.' Andy was relieved
+when the conversation veered round to a consideration of Canada as
+military quarters.
+
+'About the pleasantest going,' was the Hon. Captain Argent's opinion.
+'Of course I can't exactly make out why we're sent here, unless
+to stave off the Yankees, which it seems to me the colonists are
+sufficiently inclined and sufficiently able to do themselves; neither
+can I imagine why Joe Hume and his school of economists submit to such
+expense without gaining anything in return, save the honour and glory of
+calling Canada our colony. But leaving that matter to wiser heads than
+mine, I can say for myself that I like the quarters greatly, and am
+inclined to agree with Canadian eulogists, that it is the finest country
+in the world--barring our own little islands.'
+
+'I don't feel, though, as if it ever could be _home_,' observed Robert,
+who had taken to his shingles again.
+
+'Perhaps not; but we military men have an essentially homeless
+profession, you know.'
+
+'The red-coats in Montreal and Quebec seemed a visible link with mother
+country, most welcome to my eyes in the new land; and so, Argent, when
+you're commander-in-chief, do continue the regiments in Canada, for my
+sake.'
+
+'But, my dear fellow,' said the officer quite seriously, as he struck
+the ashes from his pipe, 'it is waste of the most expensive manufactured
+material on earth, the British soldier. When he's within reach of the
+States, he deserts by whole pickets, ready armed and accoutred to the
+Yankees' hands; I've had the pleasant job of pursuing the chaps myself,
+and being baulked by the frontier. It's the garrison duty they detest;
+and an unlimited licence beckons them over the border.'
+
+'And you think,' said Robert, 'the colonists are sufficiently loyal, and
+all that, to be left to themselves?'
+
+'I don't think they would join the States, at all events. What a horrid
+set those Yankees are! Canadians are too respectable to wish to sail in
+the same ship with them.' This truly cogent argument was followed by
+a series of profound whiffs. 'And if they did,' added Captain Argent
+presently, 'we've been building the strongest fortifications in the
+world, spending millions at Halifax and Quebec and other places, on
+fosses and casemates, and bomb-proof towers, just for the Yankees! And
+I suppose that Barrack Hill in the middle of Bytown will be made into
+another Acropolis for the same end.'
+
+'Ah,' said Robert, shaving his shingle attentively, 'so long as Canadians
+look back to England as home, and speak of it as home, there's little
+fear of annexation or revolt. Mother country has only to keep up the
+motherly relation, and patiently loosen the leading strings, according
+as her colonies grow able to run alone.'
+
+'That sentiment might fall from the lips of a Colonial Secretary in his
+place in the Commons. By the way, did you hear that my brother Percy has
+been returned member for the county at home?'
+
+'No; we have not seen a newspaper since we left, except a shabby little
+Canadian print, which gives half a dozen lines to the English mail. Tell
+us about it, Argent. Was there a contest?'
+
+How intensely interesting were the particulars, and how Robert and
+Arthur did devour the ill-printed provincial news-sheet issuing from
+the obscure Irish country town, and burning all through with political
+partisanship! Luckily Argent had the last received copy in his pocket,
+which detailed all the gossip of the election, with the familiar names,
+and localities of the struggle.
+
+Looking back half a lifetime seemed to be concentrated in the months
+since they had left Europe. Things widely different from all past
+experience had filled their thoughts to overflowing, and drowned out
+old sympathies, till this evening vivified them afresh. Yet Robert
+felt, with a sort of little pain, that they must gradually die away, be
+detached, and fall off from his life. His logs and shingles, his beaver
+meadow and water privilege, were more to him now than all the political
+movements which might shake Ireland to its centre.
+
+Long after Argent's short athletic figure, crowned with fair curls, lay
+fast asleep on his buffalo rugs, enjoying hunters' repose, the brothers
+sat talking and musing. It was not the first time that Robert had to
+reason down Arthur's restless spirit, if he could. This rencontre had
+roused it again. He was not satisfied with the monotonous life of the
+backwoods. He envied Argent, rather, who could make pleasure his
+pursuit, if he chose.
+
+They set off for the hunting grounds with sunrise next morning; the
+experienced Ina Moose, a half-bred trapper, marching in advance of the
+sledge. First, he had stored in the shanty the jingling strings of
+bells, without consulting their owner; he had a constitutional antipathy
+to noise of all sorts, and could see no especial good in warning the
+game.
+
+'What an erect fellow he is, and as taciturn as a mole!' quoth the
+lively Argent. 'I hope we shall meet with some of his step-relations,
+the Indians; I've quite a passion for savage life, that is, to look at.
+Last winter's leave I made some excursions on Lake Simcoe; the islands
+there are all savage territory, belonging to the Ojibbeways. Poor
+fellows, they're dying out--every year becoming fewer; yet one can
+discern the relics of a magnificent race. Red cunning has been no match
+for white wisdom, that's certain.'
+
+Arthur was a willing listener to many stories about his friend's
+excursions; and so the time was wiled away as they drove deeper into the
+recesses of the forest, even to the extreme end of all concession lines.
+
+Here was Ina's wigwam, on the edge of a small pond, which was closely
+hedged in with pines. Wasting no words, he merely stepped back to
+unbuckle the shaggy pony, and at the ensuing noonday meal Arthur for the
+first time tasted the wilderness preserve called 'pemmican.' It was not
+unlike what housewives at home denominate 'collar,' he thought, cutting
+in compact slices of interwoven fat and lean.
+
+'How is it made, Argent?'
+
+'I believe the dried venison is pounded between stones till the fibres
+separate, and in that powdery state is mixed with hot melted buffalo's
+fat, and sewed up in bags of skin. They say it is most nutritive--a
+pound equal to four pounds of ordinary meat. A sort of concentrated
+nourishment, you see.'
+
+'What are those blackish things hanging up in the smoke, I wonder?'
+
+'Beavers' tails, captured in the creeks off the lake, I suppose; capital
+food, tasting like bacon, but a little gristly.'
+
+'And does the fellow live here, all alone?' A quick and perhaps
+unfriendly glance of Ina's black eyes proved that he was not deaf,
+though by choice dumb.
+
+'Well, I suppose so, this year; but he's a great rover. Was with me on
+the Simcoe last year. I never met such a lover of the chase for its own
+sake. His forefathers' instincts are rampant in him. Ina, have we any
+chance of a moose?'
+
+The trapper shook his grisly head. 'Only on the hard wood ridges all
+winter,' he answered; 'they "yard" whar maples grows, for they live on
+the tops and bark. Bariboos come down here, mostly.'
+
+What these were, Arthur had soon an opportunity of knowing. Ina kindled
+into a different being when the hunting instinct came over him. Every
+sense was on the alert.
+
+The hunters had drawn white shirts over their clothes, to disguise their
+approach through the snow from the far-seeing deer which they were to
+stalk. They proceeded some distance before meeting with game. What
+intense and inexpressible stillness through the grand woods! Arthur
+started, and almost exclaimed, when, from a pine tree close to him,
+issued a report sharp as a pistol shot. It was only the violent
+contraction of the wood from the severe frost, as he knew in a moment;
+and the deer browsing yonder on branch tops never winced, though a
+whisper or a footfall would have sent them bounding away. Presently the
+crack of Argent's rifle was followed by the spring of a buck high into
+the air, all four feet together, poor animal, as the death-pang pierced
+his heart.
+
+'I thought I never should get fair aim, from the way he was protected
+by trees,' said the sportsman, reloading with satisfaction. 'And it's
+cruel to maim a creature, you know;' whence the reader may perceive that
+Captain Argent was humane.
+
+'Holloa! what's this?' said Arthur, nearly stumbling over a pair of
+antlers.
+
+'Moose,' replied Ina laconically, as he glanced upwards to see whether
+the maple twigs had been nipped short.
+
+'He must have been a trifle lighter for the loss of these,' observed
+Arthur, lifting them. 'Nearly six feet across, and half-a-hundred
+weight, if an ounce. I'm curious to see the animal that can carry them
+composedly.'
+
+'The largest beast on the continent,' said Argent. But much as they
+searched, the shed antlers were all they saw of moose for that day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+LUMBERERS.
+
+
+Scene, early morning; the sun pouring clear light over the snowy world,
+and upon Captain Argent in front of the hut, just emerged from his
+blankets and rugs.
+
+'Why, Arthur, here's an elk walking up to the very hall door!'
+
+Almost at the same minute Ina appeared among the distant trees, and
+fired. He had gone off on snow-shoes long before daybreak, to run down
+the moose he knew to be in the neighbourhood, had wounded a fine bull,
+and driven him towards his camp.
+
+'Why didn't you finish him off on the spot,' asked Arthur, 'instead of
+taking all that trouble?'
+
+'No cart to send for the flesh,' replied Ina significantly.
+
+There might be a thousand pounds of that, covered with long coarse hair,
+and crested with the ponderous antlers. A hunch on the shoulders seemed
+arranged as a cushion support to these last; and in the living specimens
+seen afterwards by Arthur, they carried the huge horns laid back
+horizontally, as they marched at a long trot, nose in the air, and
+large sharp eyes looking out on all sides.
+
+'It was a sharp idea to make the elk his own butcher's boy,' quoth
+Argent.
+
+The massive thick lips formed the 'mouffle,' prized in the wilderness as
+a dainty: Arthur would have been ashamed to state his preference for a
+civilised mutton chop. Other elks shared the fate of this first; though
+it seemed a wanton waste of nature's bounties to slay the noble animals
+merely for their skins, noses, and tongues. Ina was callous, for he knew
+that thus perished multitudes every year in Canada West, and thousands
+of buffaloes in the Hudson's Bay territory. Arthur could not help
+recalling little Jay; and many a time her lesson kept his rifle silent,
+and spared a wound or a life.
+
+One day, while stalking wild turkeys, creeping cautiously from tree to
+tree, an unwonted sound dissipated their calculations. Coming out on a
+ridge whence the wood swept down to one of the endless ponds, they heard
+distant noises as of men and horses drawing a heavy load.
+
+'Lumberers,' explained Ina, pricking his ears. He would have immediately
+turned in a contrary direction; but the prospect of seeing a new phase
+of life was a strong temptation to Captain Argent, so they went forward
+towards a smoke that curled above a knot of pines.
+
+It proceeded from the lumber shanty; a long, windowless log-hut with a
+door at one end, a perpetual fire in the centre, on a large open hearth
+of stones; the chimney, a hole in the roof. Along both sides and the
+farther end was a sort of dais, or low platform of unhewn trees laid
+close together, and supporting the 'bunks,' or general bed, of spruce
+boughs and blankets. Pots slung in the smoke and blaze were bubbling
+merrily, under presidence of a red night-capped French Canadian, who
+acted as cook, and was as civil, after the manner of his race, as if
+the new arrivals were expected guests.
+
+'Ah, bon-jour, Messieurs; vous êtes les bienvenus. Oui, monsieur--sans
+doute ce sont des gens de chantier. Dey vork in forest,' he added, with
+a wave of his hand--plunging into English. 'Nous sommes tous les gens de
+chantier--vat you call hommes de lumbare: mais pour moi, je suis chef
+de cuisine pour le présent:' and a conversation ensued with Argent,
+in which Arthur made out little more than an occasional word of the
+Canadian's--with ease when it was so Anglican as 'le foreman.'
+
+'What a good-looking, merry-faced chap he is!' observed Arthur, when the
+red nightcap had been pulled off in an obeisance of adieu, as they went
+to seek for the others, and witness their disforesting operations.
+
+'French Canadians are generally the personifications of good humour and
+liveliness,' returned Argent; 'the pleasantest possible servants and the
+best voyagers. Listen to him now, carolling a "chanson" as he manages
+his smutty cookery. That's the way they sing at everything.'
+
+'So the lumberers have a foreman?'
+
+'Curious how the French can't invent words expressive of such things,
+but must adopt ours. He tells me "le foreman's" duty is to distribute
+the work properly, allotting to each gang its portion; and also to make
+a report of conduct to the overseer at the end of the season, for which
+purpose he keeps a journal of events. I had no idea there was so much
+organization among them; and it seems the gangs have regular duties--one
+to fell, one to hew, one to draw to the water's edge with oxen; and each
+gang has a headman directing its labours.'
+
+Nearing the sound of the axes, they came to where a group of lumber-men
+were cutting down some tall spruce-firs, having first laid across over
+the snow a series of logs, called 'bedding timbers,' in the line that
+each tree would fall. One giant pine slowly swayed downwards, and
+finally crashed its full length on the prepared sleepers, just as the
+strangers approached. Immediately on its fall, the 'liner' commenced to
+chop away the bark for a few inches wide all along the trunk, before
+marking with charcoal where the axes were to hew, in squaring the
+timber; meantime another man was lopping the top off the tree, and
+a third cutting a sort of rough mortise-hole at the base, which he
+afterwards repeated at the upper end.
+
+So busy were the whole party, that the hewer, a genuine Paddy, who stood
+leaning on his broad axe until the timber was ready for him, was the
+first to raise his eyes and notice the new-comers. Arthur asked him what
+the holes were for.
+
+'Why, then, to raft the trees together when we get 'em into the water,'
+was his reply; and in the same breath he jumped on to the trunk, and
+commenced to notch with his axe as fast as possible along the sides,
+about two feet apart. Another of his gang followed, splitting off the
+blocks between the deep notches into the line mark. And this operation,
+repeated for the four sides, squared the pine into such a beam as we
+see piled in our English timber yards.
+
+What was Arthur's surprise to recognise, in the mass of lumberers
+gathered round a huge mast, the Milesian countenance of Murty Keefe, a
+discontented emigrant with whom he had picked up a casual acquaintance
+on the steamboat which took him to Montreal. He was dressing away the
+knots near the top with his axe, as though he had been used to the
+implement all his life. When, after infinite trouble and shouting in all
+tongues, the half-dozen span of strong patient oxen were set in motion,
+dragging the seventy-feet length of timber along the snow towards the
+lake, Arthur contrived to get near enough to his countryman for audible
+speech. Murty's exaggerated expectations had suffered a grievous eclipse;
+still, if he became an expert hewer, he might look forward to earning
+more than a curate's salary by his axe. And they were well fed: he had
+more meat in a week now than in a twelvemonth in Ireland. He was one of
+half-a-dozen Irishmen in this lumberers' party of French Canadians,
+headed by a Scotch foreman; for through Canada, where address and
+administrative ability are required, it is found that Scotchmen work
+themselves into the highest posts.
+
+During the rude but abundant dinner which followed, this head of the
+gang gave Argent some further bits of information about the lumber
+trade.
+
+'We don't go about at random, and fell trees where we like,' said he.
+'We've got a double tax to pay: first, ground rent per acre per annum
+for a licence, and then a duty of a cent for every cubic foot of timber
+we bring to market. Then, lest we should take land and not work it, we
+are compelled to produce a certain quantity of wood from every acre of
+forest we rent, under pain of forfeiting our licence.'
+
+'And will you not have it all cut down some day? Then what is the
+country to do for fuel and the world for ships?'
+
+The foreman rubbed his rusty beard with a laugh.
+
+'There's hundreds of years of lumbering in the Bytown district alone,'
+said he; 'why, sir, it alone comprehends sixty thousand square miles of
+forest.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+CHILDREN OF THE FOREST.
+
+
+There could hardly be a wider contrast than between Captain Argent's
+usual dinner at his regimental mess, and that of which he now partook in
+the lumbermen's shanty. Tables and chairs were as unknown as forks and
+dishes among the _gens de chantier_; a large pot of tea, dipped into by
+everybody's pannikin, served for beer and wine; pork was the _pièce de
+résistance_, and tobacco-smoking the dessert; during all of which a
+Babel of tongues went on in French patois, intermingled with an
+occasional remark in Irish or Scottish brogue.
+
+'Your men seem to be temperance folk,' observed Argent to the foreman.
+
+'Weel, they must be,' was the laconic reply. 'We've no stores where they
+could get brandy-smash in the bush, and it's so much the better for
+them, or I daursay they wad want prisons and juries next. As it is,
+they're weel behaved lads eneugh.'
+
+'I'm sure it must be good in a moral point of view; but do you find them
+equal to as much work as if they had beer or spirits?' asked Captain
+Argent. 'And lumbering seems to me to be particularly laborious.'
+
+'Weel, there's a fact I'll mak a present to the teetotallers,' answered
+the foreman. 'Our lumberers get nothing in the way of stimulant, and
+they don't seem to want it. When I came fresh from the auld country, I
+couldna hardly b'lieve that.'
+
+'Au large, au large!'
+
+At this word of command all hands turned out of the shanty, and went
+back to work in their several gangs. Again the fellers attacked the
+hugest pines; the hewers sprang upon the fallen, lining and squaring
+the living trees into dead beams; and the teamsters yoked afresh their
+patient oxen, fitting upon each massive throat the heavy wooden collar,
+and attaching to chains the ponderous log which should be moved towards
+the water highway.
+
+Argent and Arthur found themselves presently at the foot of a colossal
+Weymouth or white pine, the trunk and top of which were almost as
+disproportionate as a pillar supporting a paint-brush, but which the
+Scottish foreman admired enthusiastically, considering it in the
+abstract as 'a stick,' and with reference to its future career in the
+shape of a mast. All due preparation had been made for its reception
+upon level earth; a road twenty feet wide cut through the forest, that
+it and half-a-dozen brother pines of like calibre in the neighbourhood
+might travel easily and safely to the water's edge; and forty yards of
+bedding timbers lay a ready-made couch, for its great length.
+
+'I daursay now, that stick's standing aboot a thousand years: I've
+counted fourteen hunder rings in the wood of a pine no much bigger. Ou,
+'twill mak a gran' mast for a seventy-four--nigh a hunder feet lang,
+and as straight as a rod.'
+
+Stripping off the bark and dressing the knots was the next work, which
+would complete its readiness for Devonport dockyards, or perchance for
+the Cherbourg shipwrights. During this operation the foreman made an
+excursion to visit his other gangs, and then took his visitors a little
+aside into the woods to view what he termed a 'regular take-in.' It was
+a group of fine-looking pines, wearing all the outward semblance of
+health, but when examined, proving mere tubes of bark, charred and
+blackened within, and ragged along the seam where the fire had burst
+out.
+
+'How extraordinary!' said Argent. 'Why were they not burned equally
+through?'
+
+'I hae been thinkin' the fire caught them in the spring, when the sap
+rins strong; so the sap-wood saved thae shells, to misguide the puir
+axmen. I thought I had a fair couple o' cribs o' lumber a' ready to
+hand, when I spied the holes, and found my fine pines naething but empty
+pipes.'
+
+He had been fashioning two saplings into strong handspikes, and now
+offered one each to the gentlemen. 'Ye'll not be too proud to bear a
+hand wi' the mast aboon: it'll be a kittle job lugging it to the pond;
+so just lend us a shove now and then.'
+
+The great mass was at last got into motion, by a difficult concerted
+starting of all the oxen at the same moment.
+
+Round the brilliant log fire, while pannikins of tea circulated, and
+some flakes of the falling snow outside came fluttering down into the
+blaze, the lumberers lay on their bunks, or sat on blocks, talking,
+sleeping, singing, as the mood moved. French Canadians are native-born
+songsters; and their simple ballad melodies, full of _réfrain_ and
+repetition, sounded very pleasing even to Argent's amateur ears.
+
+'I can imagine that this shanty life must be pleasant enough,' said
+Argent, rolling himself in his buffalo robe preparatory to sleep by the
+fire.
+
+'I'll just tell ye what it is,' returned the foreman; 'nane that has
+gane lumbering can tak' kindly to ony ither calling. They hae caught
+the wandering instinct, and the free life o' the woods becomes a
+needcessity, if I might say sae. D'ye ken the greatest trouble I find
+in towns? Trying to sleep on a civilised bed. I canna do't, that's the
+fact; nor be sitting to civilised dinners, whar the misguided folk spend
+thrice the time that's needfu', fiddling with a fork an' spune. I like
+to eat an' be done wi' it.'
+
+Which little social trait was of a piece with Mr. Foreman's energy and
+promptness in all the circumstances of life. In a very few minutes from
+the aforesaid speech he was sound asleep, for he was determined to waste
+no time in accomplishing that either.
+
+Argent and Arthur left this wood-cutting polity next morning, and
+worked, or rather hunted their way back to the settled districts. The
+former stayed for another idle week at Cedar Creek; and then the
+brothers were again alone, to pursue their strife with the forest.
+
+It went on, with varying success, till 'the moon of the snow crust,' as
+the Ojibbeways poetically style March. A chaos of fallen trunks and
+piled logs lay for twenty-five acres about the little shanty; Robert
+was beginning to understand why the French Canadians called a cleared
+patch 'un désert,' for beyond doubt the axe had a desolating result, in
+its present stage.
+
+'Why, then, Masther Robert, there's one thing I wanted to ax you,' said
+Andy, resting a moment from his chopping: 'it's goin' on four months now
+since we see a speck of green, an' will the snow ever be off the ground
+agin, at all, at all?'
+
+'You see the sun is only just getting power enough to melt,' returned
+his master, tracing with his axe-head a furrow in the thawing surface.
+
+'But, sure, if it always freezes up tight agin every evenin', that
+little taste of meltin' won't do much good,' observed Andy. 'Throth,
+I'm fairly longin' to see that lake turn into wather, instead ov bein'
+as hard as iron. Sure the fish must all be smothered long ago, the
+crathurs, in prison down there.'
+
+'Well, Andy, I hope they'll be liberated next month. Meanwhile the ice
+is a splendid high road. Look there.'
+
+From behind a wooded promontory, stretching far into the lake, at the
+distance of about half a mile from where they were chopping, emerged the
+figure of a very tall Indian, wrapped in a dark blanket and carrying a
+gun. After him, in the stately Indian file, marched two youths, also
+armed; then appeared a birchen traineau, drawn by the squaw who had
+the honour of being wife and mother respectively to the preceding
+copper-coloured men, and who therefore was constituted their beast of
+burden. A girl and a child--future squaws--shared the toil of pulling
+along the family chattels, unaided by the stalwart lords of the creation
+stalking in front.
+
+'Why, thin, never welcome their impidence, an' to lave the poor women
+to do all the hard work, an' they marchin' out forenenst 'em like three
+images, so stiff an' so sthraight, an' never spakin' a word. I'm afeard
+it's here they're comin.' An' I give ye my word she has a child on her
+back, tied to a boord; no wondher for 'em to be as stiff as a tongs whin
+they grows up, since the babies is rared in that way.'
+
+Not seeming to heed the white men, the Indians turned into a little
+cove at a short distance, and stepped ashore. The woman-kind followed,
+pulling their traineau with difficulty over the roughnesses of the
+landing place; while husband and sons looked on tranquilly, and smoked
+'kinne-kanik' in short stone pipes. The elderly squaw deposited her baby
+on the snow, and also comforted herself with a whiff; certain vernacular
+conversation ensued between her and her daughters, apparently about the
+place of their camp, and the younger ones set to work clearing a patch
+of ground under some birch trees. Mrs. Squaw now drew forth a hatchet
+from her loaded sledge, and chopped down a few saplings, which were
+fixed firmly in the earth again a few yards off, so as to make an oval
+enclosure by the help of trees already standing.
+
+'Throth an' I'll go an' help her,' quoth good-natured Andy, whose native
+gallantry would not permit him to witness a woman's toil without trying
+to lighten it. 'Of all the ould lazy-boots I ever see, ye're the biggest,'
+apostrophizing the silent stoical Indians as he passed where they
+lounged; 'ye've a good right to be ashamed of yerselves, so ye have,
+for a set of idle spalpeens.'
+
+The eldest of the trio removed his pipe for an instant and uttered the
+two words--'I savage.' Andy's rhetoric had been totally incomprehensible.
+
+'Why, then, ye needn't tell me ye're a savidge: it's as plain as a
+pikestaff. What'll I do with this stick, did ye say, ma'am? Oh, surra
+bit o' me knows a word she's sayin', though it's mighty like the Irish
+of a Connaught man. I wondher what it is she's tryin' to make; it
+resimbles the beginnin' of a big basket at present, an' meself standin'
+in the inside of the bottom. I can't be far asthray if I dhrive down the
+three where there's a gap. I don't see how they're to make a roof, an'
+this isn't a counthry where I'd exactly like to do 'athout one. Now
+she's fastenin' down the branches round, stickin' 'em in the earth, an'
+tyin' 'em together wid cord. It's the droll cord, never see a rope-walk
+anyhow.'
+
+Certainly not; for it was the tough bast of the Canadian cedar,
+manufactured in large quantities by the Indian women, twisted into all
+dimensions of cord, from thin twine to cables many fathoms long; used
+for snares, fishing nets, and every species of stitching. Mrs. Squaw,
+like a provident housekeeper, had whole balls of it in her traineau
+ready for use; also rolls of birch-bark, which, when the skeleton wigwam
+was quite ship-shape, and well interlaced with crossbars of supple
+boughs, she began to wrap round in the fashion of a covering skirt.
+
+Had crinoline been in vogue in the year 1851, Robert would have found
+a parallel before his eyes, in these birch-bark flounces arranged
+over a sustaining framework, in four successive falls, narrowing in
+circumference as they neared the top, where a knot of bast tied the
+arching timbers together. He was interested in the examination of
+these forest tent cloths, and found each roll composed of six or seven
+quadrangular bits of bark, about a yard square apiece, sewed into a
+strip, and having a lath stitched into each end, after the manner in
+which we civilised people use rollers for a map. The erection was
+completed by the casting across several strings of bast, weighted at
+the ends with stones, which kept all steady.
+
+The male Indians now vouchsafed to take possession of the wigwam.
+Solemnly stalking up to Andy, the chief of the party offered his pipe to
+him for a puff.
+
+'Musha thin, thank ye kindly, an' I'm glad to see ye've some notions o'
+civiltude, though ye do work the wife harder than is dacent.' But after
+a single 'draw,' Andy took the pipe in his fingers and looked curiously
+into its bowl. 'It's the quarest tobacco I ever tasted,' he observed:
+'throth if I don't think it's nothin' but chips o' bark an' dead leaves.
+Here 'tis back for you, sir; it don't shute my fancy, not bein' an
+Indjin yet, though I dunno what I mightn't come to.' The pipe was
+received with the deepest gravity.
+
+No outward sign had testified surprise or any other emotion, at the
+discovery that white men had settled close to their 'sugar-bush,' and
+of course become joint proprietors. The inscrutable sphinx-like calm of
+these countenances, the strangeness of this savage life, detained Robert
+most of the afternoon as by a sort of fascination. Andy's wrath at the
+male indolence was renewed by finding that the squaw and her girls had
+to cut and carry all the firewood needful: even the child of seven years
+old worked hard at bringing in logs to the wigwam. He was unaware that
+the Indian women hold labour to be their special prerogative; that this
+very squaw despised him for the help he rendered her; and that the
+observation in her own tongue, which was emphasized by an approving
+grunt from her husband, was a sarcasm levelled at the inferiority and
+mean-spiritedness of the white man, as exemplified in Andy's person.
+
+One of the young fellows, who had dived into the forest an hour before,
+returned with spoil in the shape of a skunk, which the ever-industrious
+squaw set about preparing for the evening meal. The fearful odour of the
+animal appeared unnoticed by the Indians, but was found so hateful by
+Robert and his Irish squire, that they left the place immediately.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+ON A SWEET SUBJECT.
+
+
+This Indian family was only the precursor of half a dozen others, who
+also established 'camps,' preparatory to their great work of tapping the
+maple trees. The Wynns found them inoffensive neighbours, and made out a
+good deal of amusement in watching their ways.
+
+'I'd clear 'em out of that in no time,' said Zack Bunting, 'if the land
+were mine. Indians hain't no rights, bein' savages. I guess they darsn't
+come nigh my farm down the pond--they'd be apt to cotch it right slick,
+I tell you. They tried to pull the wool over my eyes in the beginnin',
+an' wanted to be tappin' in my bush as usual, but Zack Buntin' warn't
+the soft-headed goney to give in, I tell you. So they vamosed arter jest
+seein' my double-barrel, an' they hain't tried it on since. They know'd
+I warn't no doughface.'
+
+'Well, I mean to let them manufacture as much sugar as they want,' said
+Robert; 'there's plenty for both them and me.'
+
+'Rights is rights,' returned Zack, 'as I'd soon show the varmints if
+they dar'st come near me. But your Britisher Government has sot 'em
+up altogether, by makin' treaties with 'em, an' givin' 'em money, an'
+buyin' lands from 'em, instead of kickin' 'em out as an everlastin'
+nuisance.'
+
+'You forget that they originally owned the whole continent, and in
+common justice should have the means of livelihood given to them now,'
+said Robert. 'It is not likely they'll trouble the white man long.'
+
+'I see yer makin' troughs for the sap,' observed Zack. 'What on airth,
+you ain't never hewin' 'em from basswood?'
+
+'Why not?'
+
+''Cos 'twill leak every single drop. Yer troughs must be white pine or
+black ash; an' as ye'll want to fix fifty or sixty on 'em at all events,
+that half-dozen ain't much of a loss.'
+
+'Couldn't they be made serviceable anyhow?' asked Robert, unwilling
+quite to lose the labour of his hands.
+
+'Wal, you might burn the inside to make the grain closer: I've heerd
+tell on that dodge. If you warn't so far from the "Corner," we could fix
+our sugar together, an' make but one bilin' of it, for you'll want a
+team, an' you don't know nothin' about maples.' Zack's eyes were askance
+upon Robert. 'We might 'most as well go shares--you give the sap, an' I
+the labour,' he added. 'I'll jest bring up the potash kettle on the sled
+a Monday, an' we'll spill the trees. You cut a hundred little spouts
+like this: an' have you an auger? There now, I guess that's fixed.'
+
+But he turned back after a few yards to say--'Since yer hand's in, you
+'most might jest as well fix a score troughs for me, in case some o'
+mine are leaked:' and away he went.
+
+'That old sharper will be sure to have the best of the bargain,' thought
+Robert. 'It's just his knowledge pitted against my inexperience. One
+satisfaction is that I am learning every day.' And he went on with his
+troughs and spouts until near sundown, when he and Arthur went to look
+at the Indian encampment, and see what progress was being made there.
+
+'I can't imagine,' said the latter, 'why the tree which produces only a
+watery juice in Europe should produce a diluted syrup in Canada.'
+
+'Holt said something of the heat of the March sun setting the sap in
+motion, and making it sweet. You feel how burning the noon is, these
+days.'
+
+'That's a statement of a fact, but not an explanation,' said the
+cavilling Arthur. 'Why should a hot sun put sugar in the sap?'
+
+Robert had no answer, nor has philosophy either.
+
+The Indians had already tapped their trees, and placed underneath each
+orifice a sort of rough bowl, for catching the precious juice as it
+trickled along a stick inserted to guide its flow. These bowls, made of
+the semicircular excrescences on a species of maple, serve various uses
+in the cooking line, in a squaw's ménage, along with basins and boxes of
+the universally useful birchen bark. When the sap has been boiled down
+into syrup, and clarified, it is again transferred to them to
+crystallize, and become solid in their keeping.
+
+An Indian girl was making what is called gum-sugar, near the kettles:
+cutting moulds of various shapes in the snow, and dropping therein small
+quantities of the boiling molasses, which cooled rapidly into a tough
+yellowish substance, which could be drawn out with the fingers like
+toffy. Arthur much approved of the specimen he tasted; and without doubt
+the sugar-making was a sweetmeat saturnalia for all the 'papooses' in
+the camp. They sat about on the snow in various attitudes, consuming
+whole handfuls and cakes of the hot sweet stuff, with rather more
+gravity, but quite as much relish, as English children would display if
+gifted with the run of a comfit establishment.
+
+'Did you ever see anything like their solemnity, the young monkeys!'
+said Arthur. 'Certainly the risible faculties were left out in the
+composition of the Indian. I wonder whether they know how to laugh if
+they tried?'
+
+'Do you know,' said Robert, 'Holt says that Indian mythology has a sort
+of Prometheus, one Menabojo, who conferred useful arts upon men; amongst
+others, this art of making maple-sugar; also canoe-building, fishing,
+and hunting.'
+
+'A valuable and original genius,' rejoined Arthur; 'but I wonder what
+everybody could have been doing before his advent, without those sources
+of occupation.'
+
+Zack and his team arrived two mornings subsequently.
+
+'Wal, Robert, I hope you've been a clearin' yer sugar-bush, an' choppin'
+yer firewood, all ready. Last night was sharp frosty, an' the sun's
+glorious bright to-day--the wind west, too. I hain't seen a better day
+for a good run o' sap this season. Jump on the sled, Arthur--there's
+room by the troughs.'
+
+'No, thank you,' said the young man haughtily, marching on before with
+his auger. He detested Zack's familiar manner, and could hardly avoid
+resenting it.
+
+'We're worth some punkins this mornin', I guess,' observed Zack,
+glancing after him. 'He'll run his auger down instead of up, out
+o' pure Britisher pride an' contrariness, if we don't overtake him.'
+
+Arthur was just applying the tool to the first tree, when he heard
+Zack's shout.
+
+'The sunny side! Fix yer spile the sunny side, you goney.'
+
+Which term of contempt did not contribute to Arthur's good humour. He
+persisted in continuing this bore where he had begun; and one result was
+that, at the close of the day, the trough underneath did not contain by
+a third as much as those situate on the south side of the trees.
+
+'It ain't no matter o' use to tap maples less than a foot across. They
+hain't no sugar in 'em,' said Zack, among his other practical hints.
+'The older the tree, the richer the sap. This 'ere sugar bush is as fine
+as I'd wish to tap: mostly hard maple, an' the right age. Soft maple
+don't make nothing but molasses, hardly--them with whitish skin; so you
+are safe to chop 'em down.'
+
+The little hollow spouts drained, and the seventy troughs slowly filled,
+all that livelong day in the sunny air; until freezing night came down,
+and the chilled sap shrank back, waiting for persuasive sunbeams to draw
+its sweetness forth again. Zack came round with his team next afternoon,
+emptied all the troughs into one big barrel on his sled, and further
+emptied the barrel into the huge kettle and pot which were swung over a
+fire near the shanty, and which he superintended with great devotion
+for some time.
+
+'I could not have believed that the trees could spare so much juice,'
+observed Robert. 'Are they injured by it, Bunting?'
+
+'I ha' known a single maple yield a matter o' fifty gallons, an' that
+not so big a one neither,' was the reply. 'An' what's more, they grow
+the better for the bleedin'. I guess you hadn't none of this sort o'
+sugar to hum in England?'
+
+'Not a grain: all cane sugar imported.'
+
+'Wal, you Britishers must be everlastin' rich,' was Zack's reply. 'An'
+I reckon you don't never barter, but pays hard cash down? I wish I'd
+a good store somewhar in your country, Robert: I guess I'd turn a
+profit.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A BUSY BEE.
+
+
+'We'd ha' best sugar off the whole lot _al_together,' Zack had said,
+and being the only one of the makers who knew anything about the
+manufacture, he was permitted to prescribe the procedure. The dark
+amber-coloured molasses had stood and settled for some days in deep
+wooden troughs, before his other avocations, of farmer and general
+storekeeper at the 'Corner,' allowed him to come up to the Cedars and
+give the finishing touch.
+
+A breathless young Bunting--familiarly known as Ged, and the veriest
+miniature of his father--burst into the shanty one day during dinner--a
+usual visiting hour for members of his family.
+
+'Well, Ged, what do you want?'
+
+'Uncle Zack'll be here first thing in the mornin' to sugar the syrup,
+and he says yo're to have a powerful lot o' logs ready chopped for the
+fires,' was the message. 'I guess I thought I'd be late for dinner,'
+the boy added, with a sort of chuckle, 'but I ain't;' and he winked
+knowingly.
+
+'Well,' observed Arthur, laughing, 'you Yankees beat all the world for
+cool impudence.'
+
+'I rayther guess we do, an' fur most things else teu,' was the lad's
+reply, with his eyes fixed on the trencher of bear's meat which Andy
+was serving up for him. 'Don't you be sparing of the pritters--I'm
+rael hungry:' and with his national celerity, the viands disappeared.
+
+When the meal was ended, Robert, as always, returned thanks to God for
+His mercies, in a few reverent words. The boy stared.
+
+'I guess I hain't never heerd the like of that 'afore,' he remarked.
+'Sure, God ain't nowhar hereabouts?'
+
+Robert was surprised to find how totally ignorant he was of the very
+rudiments of the Christian faith. The name of God had reached his ear
+chiefly in oaths; heaven and hell were words with little meaning to his
+darkened mind.
+
+'I thought a Methodist minister preached in your father's big room once
+or twice a year,' observed Robert, after some conversation.
+
+'So he do; but I guess we boys makes tracks for the woods; an' besides,
+there ain't no room for us nowhar,' said Ged.
+
+Here I may just be permitted to indicate the wide and promising field
+for missionary labour that lies open in Canada West. No fetters of a
+foreign tongue need cramp the ardent thought of the evangelist, but in
+his native English he may tell the story of salvation through a land
+large as half a dozen European kingdoms, where thousands of his brethren
+according to the flesh are perishing for want of knowledge. A few stray
+Methodists alone have pushed into the moral wilderness of the backwoods;
+and what are they among so many? Look at the masses of lumberers: it is
+computed that on the Ottawa and its tributaries alone they number thirty
+thousand men; spending their Sabbaths, as a late observer has told us,
+in mending their clothes and tools, smoking and sleeping, and utterly
+without religion. Why should not the gospel be preached to these our
+brothers, and souls won for Christ from among them?
+
+And in outlying germs of settlements like the 'Corner,' which are the
+centre of districts of sparse population, such ignorance as this of
+young Bunting's, though rare elsewhere in Canada or the States, is far
+from uncommon among the rising generation.
+
+Zack arrived with the ox-sled at the time appointed, and Ged perched on
+it.
+
+'Just look at the pile of vessels the fellow has brought to carry away
+his share of the molasses and sugar,' said Arthur, as the clumsy vehicle
+came lumbering up. ''Twas a great stroke of business to give us all the
+trouble, and take all the advantage to himself--our trees, our fires,
+nothing but the use of his oxen as a set-off.'
+
+The advantage was less than Arthur supposed; for maples are not
+impoverished by drainage of sap, and firewood is so abundant as to
+be a nuisance. But for Zack's innate love of even the semblance of
+overreaching, he might have discerned that his gain in this transaction
+was hardly worth the pains.
+
+'Wal, Robert, you ha' poured off the molasses into the kettles; an' now
+fur the clarifyin'. I knowed as how ye had nothen' fit--milk, nor calf's
+blood, nor eggs, nor nothen'--so I brought up the eggs, an' when we're
+settlin' shares they kin be considered.'
+
+'The old sharper!' muttered Arthur.
+
+'I'm afeerd like they're beat up already,' said Mr. Bunting, picking
+them gingerly out of his pockets, 'though I made Ged drive a purpose.
+But that near ox has a trick of stickin' over stumps, an' I had obliged
+to cut a handspike to him. I declar' if they ain't all whole arter all,
+'cept one.' He smashed them into a wooden bowl half full of molasses,
+and beat them up with a chip, then emptied the contents into the kettles,
+stirring well. Hung over a slow fire, from a pole resting on two notched
+posts, the slight simmering sound soon began; and on the top of the
+heated fluid gathered a scum, which Zack removed. After some repetitions
+of this skimming, and when the molasses looked bright and clear, Mr.
+Bunting asked for a bit of fat bacon.
+
+'Which can be considered when we're dividing shares,' said Arthur,
+handing it to him a few minutes afterwards. A glance was Zack's reply,
+as he strung the bacon on a cord, and hung it below the rim, within two
+inches of the boiling surface.
+
+'Indeed,' quoth Robert, looking on at the operation of this expedient
+for preventing the spilling over of the molasses, 'I wonder some cleaner
+mode of keeping the boiling within bounds has not been invented.'
+
+'The Scotchman Davidson cools with a run of cold sap, out of a little
+spout an' a keg; but them notions don't suit me nohow; the bit o' bacon
+fixes it jest as right. By the way, did you hear that his farm is took?
+By a Britisher gentleman--I'm told an officer, too; I guess he'll want
+to back out o' the bush faster than he got in, ef he's like the most
+of 'em. I know'd some o' the sort, an' they never did a cent's worth o'
+good, hardly, though they was above bein' spoke to. 'Tain't a location
+for soft hands an' handsome clothes, I guess; an' I declar ef I don't
+think I ever saw gentlemen Britishers git along so remarkably smart as
+yerselves: but ye hain't been above work, that's a fact.'
+
+The Wynns were glad enough of the prospect of a new neighbour of the
+educated class; for, more than once or twice, the total absence of
+congenial society in any sense of the word had been felt as a minor
+privation. Robert foresaw that when with future years came improved
+means and enlarged leisure, this need would be greater. Zack thought
+the new settlers ought to try and arrive before spring thaw.
+
+'Yer own logging-bee might be 'bout that time, Robert,' he observed,
+while he narrowly watched his kettles and their incipient sugar. 'The
+fallow looks ready for burnin', I guess.'
+
+'Yes, 'tis nearly all chopped and piled; but I'm more anxious to have
+a raising-bee for my new house. The logging can wait for a couple of
+months, Davidson tells me.'
+
+'Wal, you'll want considerable of whisky for the teu,' observed Zack
+briskly; 'all the "Corner" 'll be sure to come, an' raise yer house off
+the ground right slick at onst. A frame-house, I calc'late?'
+
+'Clapboarded and painted, if I can, Mr. Bunting.'
+
+'Now I don't want ever to hear of no better luck than I had in gittin'
+that consignment of ile an' white lead t'other day. Jest the very thing
+fur you, I guess!'
+
+Robert did not seem similarly struck by the coincidence.
+
+'Any one but Zack would have melted away long ago over that roaring
+fire,' said Arthur some time afterwards, withdrawing from his kettle to
+fan himself. 'Being a tall bag of bones, I suppose he can't dissolve
+readily. What's he going to do now, I wonder?'
+
+Mr. Bunting had chipped a thin piece of wood from one of the fire logs,
+and wrought through it a narrow hole, inch long; this he dipped in the
+seething molasses, and drew it forth filled with a thin film, which he
+blew out with his breath into a long bubble of some tenacity.
+
+'Thar! 'tis sugared at last,' said he, jerking aside the chip; 'an' now
+fur the pans.'
+
+By a remarkable clairvoyance, just at this juncture various younger
+members of the Bunting family made their appearance in the sugar-bush;
+and as fast as Uncle Zack poured forth the sweet stuff into the tins
+and shallow wooden vessels placed to receive it, did half-a-dozen
+pilfering hands abstract portions to dip in the snow and devour. Zack's
+remonstrances and threats were of no avail, and whenever he made a dash
+towards them, they dispersed in all directions 'quick as wink.'
+
+'Ef I ketch you, Ged, you'll know the defference of grabbin' a pound out
+of this 'ere tin, I guess, you young varmint!'
+
+''Taint so kinder aisy to catch a 'coon, Uncle Zack,' was the lad's
+rejoinder from the fork of a birch where he had taken refuge, and sucked
+his stolen goods at ease. Similar raids harassed the long line of cooling
+tins, and not all the efforts of the sugar-makers at mounting guard
+could protect them, until the guerilla corps of youngsters became in
+some degree surfeited, and slid away through the woods as they had come.
+Meanwhile, the best part of a stone of the manufacture had vanished.
+
+'Them are spry chaps, I reckon,' was the parent's reflection, with some
+pride in their successful free-booting, though he had opposed its
+details.
+
+'I would teach them to be honest, Mr. Bunting;' which speech only evoked
+a laugh.
+
+'Now I guess you're riled 'cos they ran away with yer sugar, jest as ef
+'twarn't more mine than yourn.'
+
+This was unpromising as portended the division into shares, wherein
+Robert was overreached, as he knew he should be; but he comforted
+himself by the reflection that next year he should be able to do without
+his odious assistant, and that for this summer he had housekeeping-sugar
+enough. He utterly refused to enter into any coalition for the making of
+vinegar or beer. Towards the close of the sap season he tapped a yellow
+birch, by his Scotch neighbour's advice, drew from it thirty gallons in
+three days, boiled down that quantity into ten gallons, and set it to
+ferment in a sunny place, with a little potato yeast as the exciting
+cause. Of course the result was immensely too much vinegar for any
+possible household needs, considering that not even a cucumber bed
+was as yet laid out in the embryo garden.
+
+But now April, 'the moon for breaking the snow-shoes,' in Ojibbeway
+parlance, was advancing; patches of brown ground began to appear under
+the hot sunlight, oozy and sloppy until the two-feet depth of frost was
+gradually exhaled. The dwellers in the shanty had almost forgotten the
+look of the world in colours, for so many months had it slept in white
+array. Robert could have kissed the earliest knot of red and blue
+hepaticas which bloomed at the base of a log-heap. But he looked
+in vain for that eldest child of an English spring, 'the wee modest
+crimson-tipped' daisy, or for the meek nestling primrose among the
+moss. And from the heaven's blue lift no music of larks poured down;
+no twitter of the chaffinch or whistle of the thrush echoed from the
+greening woods. Robert thought the blue-bird's voice a poor apology for
+his native songsters.
+
+He had, indeed, little time for any reflections unconnected with hard
+work. The cedar swamp was shrinking before his axe, and yielding its
+fragrant timbers for the future house. From early morning till late at
+night the three men never ceased labour except for short meals; having,
+as their object and reward, the comfort of those dear ones who would
+arrive in July or August at farthest.
+
+The existing shanty was to be retained as kitchen, and a little room
+could be railed off the end as a place for stores. Four apartments
+would constitute the new house, one of them to be a sitting room for
+the mother and Linda. How easy to build and furnish in fancy; how
+difficult in fact! Yet the raising-bee accomplished a great deal, though
+the Yankee storekeeper was discomfited to find that Davidson of Daisy
+Burn had undertaken the guidance of the hive; he sulked somewhat in
+consequence, and also because the consumption of spirits was not, as he
+had contemplated, to intoxication. Robert was backed by his sturdy
+Scottish neighbour in that resolve; and the more sensible of the workers
+could not but approve.
+
+Four walls and roof were put together by the joint-stock labour of the
+day. Standing in the vacant doorway, Robert looked over the moonlit view
+of woods and islanded lake well pleased.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+OLD FACES UPON NEW NEIGHBOURS.
+
+
+Now, while Arthur devoted himself chiefly to the interior carpentering,
+Robert burned and cleared a patch of fallow to be a garden. Their good
+friend Hiram Holt, among his other useful gifts, had sent with them in
+the waggon a stock of young apple trees, which had lain all winter half
+buried in a corner of the hut, to be grubbed up in spring and planted
+out in rows four rods apart. Beds of potatoes and turnips, set at the
+edges with pumpkin seeds and squares of Indian corn, filled the garden
+space in an orderly manner before the end of May; then rail fences
+sprang up about it, and the first bit of forest was fairly reclaimed.
+
+During breakfast one morning, Andy rushed in, proclaiming that a raft
+was in sight on the lake, 'one 'most as big as a five-acre field,' he
+said. This proved rather an imaginative description on Andy's part, like
+many other of his verbal sketches; for the raft was infantine compared
+with its congeners of the great lake and the St. Lawrence. A couple
+of bonds lashed together--that was all; and a bond containeth twenty
+cribs, and a crib containeth a variable amount of beams, according to
+lumberers' arithmetical tables. Arthur recognised his acquaintance,
+the Scotch foreman, pacing the deck; he hailed the unwieldy craft,
+and shipped himself aboard for a voyage to the 'Corner,' where he had
+business at the store.
+
+'Wid a horn in front, an' a tail behind, there it goes,' observed Andy,
+in allusion to the long oars projecting from rowlocks at each end. 'An'
+now, Masther Robert, what'll become o' that in the rapids below the
+sawmill? Sure 'twill be batthered in pieces, an' the water so mighty
+coorse intirely there; enough to make chaneys of any raft.'
+
+''Twill be taken asunder, and the cribs sent down separately over the
+falls,' replied Mr. Wynn.
+
+Arthur saw the operation by and by, and the hardy raftsmen shooting the
+rapids in what appeared to him circumstances of exciting peril. While he
+and all the disengaged dwellers at the 'Corner' were as yet looking on,
+a waggon came in sight from among the trees, and turned their curiosity
+into another channel.
+
+Gradually it drew near, stumbling among the stumps and ruts, with all
+sorts of language applied to the oxen. Arthur thought he had formerly
+seen that figure marching by the off-wheel. That peculiar gentleman-like
+and military air, even shouldering a handspike, could not be mistaken.
+
+'I guess as how 'tis the Britisher officer as has took Davidson's
+betterments,' said 'cute Zack; 'an' thar's womanfolks behind the waggon
+afoot. Wal, now, but I say I _do_ pity them Britisher ladies a-coming
+into the bush--them that hain't never in their hull life as much as
+baked a biscuit. I ha' seen the like o' such in Montreal--delicate
+critters, that you wouldn't hardly think knowed the use of a fryin'-pan
+when they see'd it, an' couldn't lift one if they was to git a handful
+o' dollars. I guess these ain't much betterer nohow.'
+
+It was a homily on the appearance of Edith Armytage and the child Jay
+picking their steps along after the waggon; while within, on hampers and
+boxes, stretched heavily, lay their brother, taking things easy by means
+of sleep. The captain's salute to Arthur was most cordial.
+
+'So, my dear young friend! What most fortunate fate has thrown us
+together again? A very pleasant freak of destiny, truly. I left you last
+with an uncomfortable old gentleman, who was particularly obstinate in
+his opinions about the seignorial system, as I remember. He was right,
+my young friend, in condemning that system, eh? Perfectly right. I left
+it in disgust. Incompatible with a British officer's feelings, eh?'
+
+Here his monologue was disturbed by little Jay's running up to Arthur
+very joyously. 'I told Edith we should meet you. I knew we should. And
+how is Robert and your funny servant? Ah, I am very glad!'
+
+'Jane, my dear, I have repeatedly told you not to be so boisterous,' put
+in her father. 'Go back, and walk with your sister Edith.'
+
+The little girl tried to withdraw her hand and obey, though with a
+wistful look; but Arthur detained it, and went with her the few steps to
+meet Miss Armytage:
+
+'Edith, are you not glad? They all live at Cedar Creek, quite close to
+Daisy Burn, and we can see them every day; and he says Daisy Burn is a
+very nice place'--
+
+'I have had some experience of children,' began Captain Armytage
+stiffly, 'but one so talkative as Jane I have seldom met. You should
+correct her, Edith, my dear.' For the man's voice was what he wished to
+hear. Edith's hand was most gently laid on the dear little sister's arm
+as a caution; but at this juncture both gentlemen were obliged to press
+forward and help the oxen out of some critical situations, and Jay could
+whisper her delight and her anticipations without fear of reprimand for
+a few minutes at least.
+
+Then, when the waggon brought up in front of Mr. Bunting's store, young
+Armytage woke up with a mighty yawn and stretch to declare that bush
+travelling was the greatest bore--would they ever reach the farm? And
+he thereupon arose to the exertion of kindling his pipe.
+
+'Nonsense, Wynn, can that be you? Glad to see some face I know among
+these endless trees. They're nearly as sickening to me as waves to a
+fellow in his first voyage. Hope the farm has been well cleared of them.
+You know the ground, eh?'
+
+'Not all cleared by any means; but if you had to take the axe in hand as
+we have'--
+
+'Gentlemen, are you going to liquor?' said Zack in a persuasive tone,
+marshalling the way into his bar. 'Almeria, tell your ma to bring here
+some of her best beer to treat these gentlemen--partic'lar friends. Be
+spry, will you?'
+
+The tawny black-eyed young lady answering to the above high-sounding
+cognomen returned in a few moments with a jug, whence her father poured
+forth three horn goblets of dark fluid. Arthur, through superior knowledge
+not touching his, was highly amused by the grimaces of the others.
+Indeed, the captain had swallowed a huge gulp of it before he realized
+fully its strange flavour, and then could but sputter and scour his
+moustache and lips with his handkerchief. Mr. Bunting looked on with
+exemplary gravity.
+
+'Thar! I told th' ole woman that spruce beer ain't so good as usual this
+brewin'.'
+
+'Good! the vilest compound. A fir-tree steeped in a stagnant pool!'
+exclaimed the irate captain, with considerable warmth of colouring.
+'Bring me something, sirrah, to take away the odious taste--anything you
+like.'
+
+Mr. Bunting obeyed with alacrity. Arthur left father and son over their
+pipes and glasses, and went outside to join Miss Armytage and Jay, who
+had declined various overtures to enter the store, and were the cynosure
+of all eyes in the 'Corner' as they walked to and fro on the stumpless
+strip of ground in the place--a fair child and a pale girl. Presently
+forth came the captain.
+
+'Edith, my dear,' he said blandly, 'I may be detained here for half an
+hour; I find that mine host, Mr. Bunting, has a very exact knowledge of
+the locality to which we are going. I think you both might be going on
+with the waggon; your brother will follow in a minute or so when his
+smoke is finished, he says. Driver, you may go forward; _au revoir_,
+Edith.'
+
+He kissed the tips of his fingers to his daughter gallantly, and passed
+into the bar again with a jaunty air.
+
+'If you will allow me to accompany you,' said Arthur, seeing that she
+hesitated, 'you will do me a kindness, for I have rather a large pack to
+carry going home; I can rest it on the waggon; and Daisy Burn is more
+than half-way to Cedar Creek.'
+
+'Did I not tell you we would find out Arthur and Robert?' said the child
+Jay, with an ecstatic clasp of her fingers upon young Wynn's. 'You said
+you were afraid we should have no friends in the woods, but I knew that
+God would not let us be so forsaken as that.'
+
+And the three walked on into the long vista of the concession line.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+ONE DAY IN JULY.
+
+
+A summer more glorious than our settlers could have imagined, followed
+on the steps of the tardy spring. What serene skies--what brilliant
+sunshine--what tropical wealth of verdure! At every pore the rich earth
+burst forth into fruit and flower. Two months after the grass had been
+sunk deep beneath the snow, sheets of strawberries were spread in the
+woods, an extemporized feast.
+
+One might think that the cottage at Cedar Creek had also bloomed under
+the fair weather; for when July--hottest of Canadian months--came, the
+dingy wooden walls had assumed a dazzling white, with a roof so grey
+that the shingles might have been veritable slates. Resemblance to the
+lime-washed houses of home was Robert's fancy; which, in Zack Bunting's
+mind, was a perverted taste, as he recommended a brilliant green
+groundwork, picked out with yellow, such canary-bird costume being
+favourite in Yankee villages.
+
+The few feet of garden railed off in front are filled with bushes
+of the fragrant Canadian wild-rose; yellow violets, lobelias, and
+tiger-lilies, transplanted thither from the forest glades, appear to
+flourish. The brothers had resolved that Linda should not miss her
+flower-beds and their gentle care even in bush-life.
+
+For the rest, the clearing looks wild enough, notwithstanding all
+civilising endeavours. That mighty wall of trees has not been pushed
+back far, and the _débris_ of the human assault, lying on the soil in
+vast wooden lengths, seems ponderous even to discouragement. Robert has
+been viewing it all through stranger eyes for the last week, since he
+heard the joyful news that they for whom he has worked have landed at
+Montreal; he has been putting finishing touches wherever he could, yet
+how unfinished it is!
+
+To-day Andy alone is in possession; for his young masters have gone to
+meet the expected waggon as far as Peter Logan's--nay, to Greenock if
+necessary. He has abundance of occupation for the interval; first, to
+hill up a patch of Indian corn with the hoe, drawing the earth into
+little mounds five or six inches high round each stalk; and after
+that, sundry miscellaneous duties, among which milking the cow stands
+prominent. She is enjoying herself below in the beaver meadow, while
+the superior animal, Andy, toils hard among the stumps, and talks to
+himself, as wont.
+
+'Why, thin, I wondher what th' ould masther 'ull say to our clearin',
+an' how he'll take to the life, at all, at all; he that niver did a
+hand's turn yet in the way of business, only 'musin' himself wid papers
+an' books as any gintleman ought; how he'll stand seein' Masther Robert
+hoein' and choppin' like a labourin' man? More be token, it's little o'
+that thim pair down at Daisy Burn does. I b'lieve they 'spect things to
+grow ov thimselves 'athout any cultivatin'. An' to see that poor young
+lady hillin' the corn herself--I felt as I'd like to bate both the
+captin an' his fine idle son--so I would, while I could stand over 'em.'
+
+He executed an aërial flourish with his hoe, and the minute after, found
+practical occupation for it in chasing two or three great swine who were
+poking at the fence, as if they longed for the sweet young cornstalks
+within. Whence the reader may perceive that Mr. Wynn had become proprietor
+of certain items of live stock, including sundry fowls, which were apt to
+keep all parties in exhilarating exercise by their aggressions on the
+garden.
+
+'Musha, but 'tis very hot intirely,' soliloquized Andy, returning from
+the aggravated stern-chase of the swine, and lifting his grass hat to
+fan his flushed face. 'The sun don't know how to obsarve a madium at all
+in this counthry, as our poor ould Irish sun does. We're aither freezin'
+or fryin' the year round.' Hereupon, as reminded by the last-named
+experience, he threw down his hoe, and went to settle the smouldering
+fires in the fallow, where one or two isolated heaps of brush were
+slowly consuming, while their bluish smoke curled up lazily in the still
+air. 'It's quare to think of how lonesome I am this minnit,' continued
+he, as he blackened himself in ministering to the heaps. 'Sorra livin'
+sowl to spake to nearer than the captin's, barrin' the cow, an' the
+pigs, an' thim savidges down at the swamp.'
+
+Here he made an infuriate swing backwards of a bush, fortunately in
+his hand; but it was against no Indian foe; on the contrary, his own
+shoulders received the blow, and another to make sure; whereby an
+individual enemy was pasted to the spot where its proboscis had
+pierced shirt and skin, and half-a-dozen others saved themselves by
+flight--being the dreaded black flies of Canada.
+
+'Why, thin, ye murtherin' villins, will ye follow me into the smoke
+itself?' said Andy, whirling his bush in the air to disperse their
+squadrons. 'I thought ye wor satisfied wid most atin' us last week, an'
+blindin' the young gintlemin, an' lavin' lumps on their faces as big as
+hazel nuts. Betune yerselves an' the miss kitties, it's hard for a man
+to do a sthroke of work, wid huntin' ye. Ay, ye may well moo, ye crathur
+below in the meadow, that has only horns an' a tail to fight 'em. An'
+sure, may be 'tain't the cow at all that's roarin', only one of them big
+frogs that bellows out of the swamp, for all the world as if they was
+bullocks.'
+
+To settle the question, he walked away down to the beaver meadow, now
+an expanse of the most delicious level green, and found that the cow
+had protected herself against all winged adversaries by standing in
+the creek up to her throat in the cool water, where she chewed the
+cud tranquilly, and contemplated with an impassive countenance the
+construction of a canoe at a little distance by two red men and their
+squaws. Andy paused and looked on likewise.
+
+One woman was stripping a large white birch of its bark with a sharp
+knife; she scraped away the internal coating as a tanner would scrape
+leather, and laid the pieces before the other squaw, whose business
+was to stitch them together with bast. The men meanwhile prepared a
+sausage-shaped framework of very thin cedar ribs, tying every point of
+junction with firm knots; for the aforesaid bast is to the Indian what
+glue and nails are to the civilised workman.
+
+'Throth, only for the birch threes I dunno what they'd do; for out of
+it's skin they make houses, an' boats, an' pots to bile vittles, an'
+candles to burn, an' ornaments like what Mr. Robert has above.' A pause,
+as he watched the bark turned over the ribs, and wedge-shaped pieces
+cut out to prevent awkward foldings near the gunwale--all carried on in
+solemn silence. 'Well, there's no manner of doubt but savages are great
+intirely at houldin' their tongues; sure, may be it's no wondher, an'
+their langidge the quare sort it is, that they don't want to spake to
+each other but as little as they can help.'
+
+Here the nearest Indian raised his head, and appeared to listen to a
+distant sound; a low word or two attracted the attention of the others,
+who also listened, and exchanged a few sentences, with a glance at Andy,
+whose curiosity was roused; and he asked, chiefly by signs, what it was
+all about.
+
+'Oxen--waggon,' was the reply; 'me hear driver. White man no have long
+ears.'
+
+Andy fled with precipitation to his neglected duties, while the red men
+laughed their low quiet laugh, knowing that the waggon they heard could
+not reach Cedar Creek in less than an hour.
+
+But at last it came. At last Linda, pressing eagerly forward upon
+Robert's arm, had caught a first glimpse of their cottage home, and
+exclaimed, 'O Bob, how pretty! Why, you told me it was a rough sort
+of a place; how very pretty!'
+
+'Well, you can't deny that the _place_ is rough,' said he, after a
+pause of much satisfaction; 'look at the log-heaps--as tangled as a
+lady's work-basket.'
+
+'Never mind the log-heaps; the house is neat enough for a picture; and
+the view! what a lovely placid lake! what islands! what grand woods!'
+
+Linda's speech was nothing but interjections of admiration for the next
+half-hour; she _would_ be charmed with every handiwork of the dear
+brothers who had wrought so hard for them. And how were these repaid
+for that past toil, by the sweet mother's smile as she entered the neat
+little parlour, and was established in the rocking-chair which Arthur
+had manufactured and cushioned with exceeding pains! The other furniture
+was rather scholastic, it is true, being a series of stools and a table,
+set upon rushen matting of Indian make; the beams overhead were unceiled,
+and the hearth necessarily devoid of a grate. But the chimney space--huge
+in proportion to the room--was filled with fragrant and graceful forest
+boughs; and through the open casement window (Arthur had fitted the
+single sash on hinges, doorwise) looked in stray sprays of roses,
+breathing perfume. Mrs. Wynn was well satisfied with her exile at that
+moment, when she saw the loving faces of her sons about her again, in
+the home of their own raising.
+
+A most joyful reunion! yet of that gladness which is near akin to tears.
+Robert would not give anybody a minute to think, or to grow sad. His
+father and George must walk with him all round the clearing and down to
+the beaver meadow. His acres of spring-burned fallow, his embryo garden,
+his creek and its waterfalls, must be shown off as separate articles of
+the exhibition.
+
+'Bob, what are these?' The old gentleman stopped before an expanse of
+blackened stumps, among which a multitude of molehills diversified the
+soil.
+
+'Potatoes, sir. That's the Canadian way of raising them on new land--in
+hills of five thousand to the acre. You see ridges would be out of the
+question, or any even system of culture, on account of the stumps and
+roots.'
+
+'I suppose so,' said Mr. Wynn drily; 'such ground must certainly require
+a peculiar method of working. I daresay you find it incumbent on you to
+forget all your Irish agriculture.'
+
+'Well, I had a good deal to unlearn,' answered Robert. 'I hoped to have
+had our logging-bee before your arrival, and then the farm would have
+looked tidier; but I could not manage it.'
+
+'Do you mean to say the trees stood as thick here as they do there? If
+so, you have done wonders already,' said his father. 'My poor boys, it
+was killing work.'
+
+'Not at all, sir,' contradicted Robert right cheerily; 'I enjoyed it
+after the first few weeks, as soon as I began to see my way. We've been
+quite happy this winter in the woods, though bush-life was so new and
+strange.'
+
+'It seems to me simply to mean a permanent descent into the ranks of the
+labouring classes, without any of the luxuries of civilisation such as
+an English artisan would enjoy,' said the old gentleman.
+
+'Except the luxury of paying neither rent nor taxes,' rejoined Robert
+promptly.
+
+'You seem to have been carpenter, house-painter, wood-cutter, ploughman'--
+
+'No, sir; there isn't a plough on the premises, and I shouldn't know what
+to do with it if there were.'
+
+'Had you no assistance in all this?'
+
+'Oh yes; invaluable help in Jacques Dubois, a lively little French
+Canadian from the "Corner," whose indomitable _esprit_ was worth more
+than the stronger physique of a heavy Anglo-Saxon. But come, sir, I hear
+the dinner bell.'
+
+Which was the rattling of a stick on an invalided kettle, commonly used
+by Andy to summon his masters home. To impress the new arrivals with a
+sense of their resources, a feast, comprising every accessible delicacy,
+had been prepared. Speckled trout from the lake, broiled in the hot wood
+ashes, Indian fashion; wild-fowl of various species, and wild fruits,
+cooked and _au naturel_, were the components.
+
+'I hardly thought that you would have found time for strawberry
+cultivation,' observed Mr. Wynn the elder.
+
+'And we have far more extensive strawberry beds, sir, than I ever saw
+in Ireland,' said Robert, with a twinkle of his eyes. 'I'm thinking of
+turning in the pigs to eat a few pailfuls; they are quite a drug for
+abundance.'
+
+'A raspberry tart!' exclaimed Linda, 'and custards! Why, Bob!'
+
+'Would you like to know a secret?'--followed by a whisper.
+
+'Nonsense! not you!'
+
+They seemed to have other secrets to tell by and by, which required the
+open air. The eleven months last gone past had brought many changes to
+both. And there they walked to and fro on the margin of the forest,
+until the moon's silver wheel rolled up over the dusk trees, and lit
+Cedar Creek gloriously.
+
+'What pure and transparent air!' exclaimed Linda, coming back to the
+present from the past. 'Is your moonlight always laden with that sweet
+aromatic odour?'
+
+'Don't you recognise balm of Gilead? Your greenhouse and garden plant is
+a weed here. Our pines also help in the fragrance you perceive.'
+
+'Robert, I know that the red patches burning steadily yonder are the
+stumps you showed me; but the half circular rings of fire, I don't
+understand them.'
+
+'The niggers round the trunks of some trees,' explained Robert. 'That's
+a means we use for burning through timber, and so saving axe-work. Do
+you notice the moving light in the distance, on the lake? It comes from
+a pine-torch fixed in the bow of a canoe, by which an Indian is spearing
+fish.'
+
+'Oh, have you Indians here? how delightful! I have always so longed to
+see a real live red man. Are they at all like Uncas and Chingachgook? I
+shall pay them a visit first thing in the morning.'
+
+'You'll be visited yourself, I imagine;' and Robert laughed. 'You don't
+know the sensation your arrival has caused.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+VISITORS AND VISITED.
+
+
+And next day Mrs. and Miss Wynn had indeed visitors. Up from the
+'Corner' trundled Mrs. Zack Bunting on the ox-sled, accompanied by her
+son Nimrod, and by her daughter Almeria; and truly, but for the honour
+of bringing a vehicle, it had been better for her personal comfort to
+have left it at home. Dressed in the utmost finery they could command,
+and which had done duty on all festive occasions for years back, they
+lumbered up to the front door, where Linda was doing some work in the
+flower-beds.
+
+'Good morning, Miss. Is your ma to hum?' said Mrs. Zack, bestowing a
+stare on her from head to foot. 'I'm Miss Bunting, as you may have heerd
+Robert speak on. This young lady is my daughter Almeria; I guess you're
+older than her, though she's a good spell taller. Nim, call that boy to
+mind the oxen while you come in, or I've a notion they'll be makin' free
+with Miss's flowers here.'
+
+The boy was George Wynn, who came up slowly and superciliously in
+answer to Nim's shout, and utterly declined to take charge of the
+team, intimating his opinion that it was very good employment for
+'swallow-tail' himself. Which remark alluded to the coat worn by Mr.
+Nimrod--a vesture of blue, with brass buttons, rendered further striking
+by loose nankeen continuations, and a green cravat.
+
+How insignificant was gentle Mrs. Wynn beside the Yankee woman's
+portly presence! How trifling her low voice in answer to the shrill
+questioning! Linda cast herself into the breach (metaphorically), and
+directed the catechism upon herself. As for the young lady Almeria,
+she was quite satisfied to sit and stare with unwinking black eyes,
+occasionally hitching up her blue silk cape by a shrug of shoulder, or
+tapping the back of her faded pink bonnet against the wall, to push it
+on her head. Nim entered the room presently, and perched himself on the
+edge of a stool; but his silent stare was confined to Linda's face, now
+flushed prettily through the clear skin with a mixture of anger and
+amusement.
+
+'I guess now, that's the latest Europe fashion in yer gown?' taking
+up the hem of the skirt for closer inspection. 'Half-a-dollar a yard
+'twould be in Bytown, I reckon; but it's too fine for a settler's wife,
+Miss. You've come to the right market for a husband, I guess; gals is
+scarce in Gazelle township,' with a knowing smile. The crimson mounted
+to Linda's brow, under the conjoint influence of Nimrod's stare and also
+of the entrance of another person, Sam Holt, who had come with the party
+yesterday from Mapleton.
+
+But in two minutes he had quietly turned the conversation, and repressed,
+as much as it was in man's power to do, Mrs. Bunting's interrogative
+propensities.
+
+'That's a washy, good-for-nothin' woman, that Mis' Wynn,' was the
+visitor's judgment, as she departed in state on the ox-sled. 'The young
+un's spryer; but I'd like to be waitin' till they'd ha' the house clar'd
+up between 'em, wouldn't I? Did you see that hired help o' theirn,
+Almeria?'
+
+'Yes, ma, an Irish girl, I guess. She was a-top o' the waggon
+yesterday.'
+
+'So our Libby hain't no chance o' bein' took, 'less this young un should
+grow cockish, as 'most all Britisher helps does, when they gets a taste
+o' liberty. Wal, now, but I'd like to know what business them ladies
+has--for they're rael, an' no mistake, very different from Mis' Davidson,
+with her hands like graters an' her v'ice like a loon's so loud an'
+hard--an' you may know the rael ladies by the soft hand an' the aisy
+v'ice.'
+
+Almeria rubbed her own knuckles, seeking for the symptom of gentle
+blood.
+
+'What business has they,' continued Mrs. Zack, 'away down here in the
+bush? I guess they couldn't wash a tub o' clothes or fix a dinner for
+the men.'
+
+'But they hadn't need to,' put Miss Almeria, out of sorts at finding her
+hand rough as a rasp. 'They've helps, an' needn't never look at a tub.'
+Which circumstance apparently set her in a sulk for the next mile.
+
+Although Mrs. Davidson was failing in some ladylike requirements, as
+the storekeeper's wife had indicated, and also came to visit her new
+neighbour in a homespun suit, the very antipodes of Mrs. Zack's attire
+of many colours, yet her loud cheery voice and sensible face--with a
+possible friendship in it--were exceedingly pleasing, in contrast with
+the first visitor's nasal twang and 'smart' demeanour. Mrs. Wynn would
+like to see her often; but the Scotchwoman was thrifty and hardworking,
+with a large family to provide for: she could not afford to pay visits,
+and scarcely to receive them.
+
+'I wadna ha' come down the day, but thinkin' mayhap ye wad be wantin'
+help o' some sort; an' if there's anything we could do--Sandy or me and
+the lads--just send your lad rinnin' up; we'll be glad eneugh. Sabbath,
+may be, I'd ha' time to tak' a stroll down: ye ken there's na kirk.'
+
+Ah, it was one of Mrs. Wynn's greatest troubles in coming to the bush
+that there were no public means of grace, and that no sound of the
+church-going bell was ever heard in these solitudes.
+
+Late in the afternoon Linda was able to find Robert, and bring him with
+her towards the Indian encampment. Sam Holt joined them.
+
+'Now for my first introduction into savage life: I hope I shan't be
+disappointed.'
+
+'Unreasonable expectations always are,' observed Mr. Holt. 'Don't expect
+to find Fenimore Cooper's model Indians. But I believe them in the main
+to be a fine people, honest and truthful where "civilisation" has not
+corrupted them.'
+
+'Is it not dreadful that the first effect of European contact with
+original races everywhere should be destructive?' said Linda; 'even of
+the English, who have the gospel!'
+
+'Yes: how sad that they who bear Christ's name should dishonour Him
+and thwart His cause among men, by practical disregard of His precepts!
+I shouldn't wonder if the red man hated the white man with a deadly
+hatred; for to him is owing the demoralization and extinction of a
+noble race--if it were by no other means than the introduction of the
+"fire-water," which has proved such a curse.'
+
+'I have heard,' said Robert, 'that in the Indian languages there are no
+words which could be employed in swearing; and the native must have
+recourse to the tongue of his conquerors if he would thus sin.'
+
+'And has no effort been made to Christianize them?' asked Linda.
+
+'I have visited the Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron,' said Mr. Holt,
+'where the remains of several Indian tribes have been collected by Sir
+Francis Head, with a view to their civilisation; and I can hardly
+say that the experiment impressed me favourably. It is the largest
+fresh-water island in the world, more than a hundred miles long, and
+serves as a fine roomy cage for the aborigines, who support themselves
+by hunting, fishing, and a little agriculture, and receive those luxuries
+which to us are necessaries, such as blankets and clothes, as annual
+presents from Government. They seemed miserably depressed and stolid;
+but the schools are well attended, and we may indulge some hope about
+the rising generation.'
+
+'They seem too apathetic to improve,' said Robert.
+
+'Still, it is our duty to work, however unpromising the material. I was
+pleased with a service which I attended in one of their log-schoolhouses.
+Nothing could be more devout than the demeanour of the Indians; the
+women's sweet plaintive hymns haunted me for a long while.'
+
+'That's curious; for in their wild state I can't make out that they
+sing at all,' remarked Robert. 'The noise they call music is far more
+like the growling of beasts; and their only instruments, that I have
+ever seen, is a sort of drum with one head.'
+
+'Hush, here are some of them,' said Linda.
+
+In a glade of the forest two young girls were cutting wood, wielding
+hatchets as though well accustomed to their use, and displaying finely
+formed arms at every movement. For, as a general rule, the hardworking
+Indian woman is more strongly developed in proportion than her lazy
+lord. Lounging against a pine close by, was a tall, slender young man,
+attired in a buffalo skin cloak, of which the head and fore-legs portion
+hung down with a ragged effect; from under his arm projected an
+ornamented pipe.
+
+'I think he might work, and the ladies look on,' observed Linda.
+
+She could hardly repress an exclamation as he turned his face towards
+her. Round his eyes were traced two yellow circles, and his mouth was
+enclosed by a parenthesis of vermilion; an arabesque pattern adorned
+each dusky cheek.
+
+'Isn't he a brilliant fellow?' whispered Robert. 'A lover, you may be
+certain, who has attired himself thus to come out here and display his
+painted face to these girls.'
+
+'But he does not appear to speak a single word to them.'
+
+'Oh, they do a good deal with the eyes,' he answered, laughing. 'Now
+that I look at the girls, one of them is quite pretty, and I fancy I
+can detect a blush through the olive of her cheek.'
+
+'What a hideous custom that painting the face is!'
+
+'I can't agree with you; that young fellow would look much worse if he
+washed the paint off, and he knows it. You'd regret the change yourself,
+when you saw him look mean, dirty, and insignificant, as at ordinary
+times; for rarely he decorates himself thus.'
+
+'Well, I beg you won't carry your liking so far as to practise it, nor
+Mr. Holt either.' Sam bowed obediently.
+
+Perhaps nothing in the camp amused the European young lady more than the
+infants, the 'papooses,' in their back-board cradles, buried up to the
+armpits in moss, and protected overhead by an arch of thin wood, whence
+hung various playthings for the inmate.
+
+'Now I can comprehend the use of this rattle, or even of the tiny
+mocassins,' said Mr. Holt philosophically, as they investigated the
+pendants to the papoose. 'But why this piece of deer-leather, with bits
+of stag-horn attached? Except as a charm'--
+
+Here nature answered the ingenious speculation, by the little coppery
+hand put forth to grasp the debated toy, and champ it in the baby mouth,
+after the fashion of our own immemorial coral-and-bells. This was the
+beginning of Linda's acquaintance with, and interest for, the poor
+Indians. She afterwards saw much of them in their wigwams and at their
+work. A little kindness goes far towards winning the Indian heart. They
+soon learned to regard all at Cedar Creek as friends, while to the young
+lady they gave the admiring cognomen of Ahwao, the Rose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+SUNDAY IN THE FOREST.
+
+
+Linda soon learned to hail it with delight. For the overwhelming labours
+of the other six days were suspended during this bright first: the
+woodman's axe lay quietly in its niche by the grindstone, the hoe hung
+idly in the shed; Robert shook off sundry cares which were wont to
+trouble his brotherly brow from Monday till Saturday, and almost to
+obscure the fact of his loving little sister to his brotherly eyes;
+and was able to enjoy that rarity in bush-life, an interval of leisure.
+
+She found a considerable development in these brothers of hers. From
+coping with the actual needs and stern realities of existence, from
+standing and facing fortune on their own feet, so to speak, they had
+mentally become more muscular. The old soft life of comparative
+dependence and conventionality was not such as educates sturdy
+characters or helpful men. This present life was just the training
+required. Linda discovered that Robert and Arthur were no longer boys
+to be petted or teased, as the case might be; but men in the highest
+attributes of manhood--forethought, decision, and industry. It was on
+Sunday that she got glimpses of their old selves, and that the links of
+family affection were riveted and brightened; as in many a home that is
+not Canadian.
+
+For the rest; these Sundays were barren days. The uncommon toil of the
+past week was not favourable to spirituality of mind; and which of all
+the party could become teacher to the others? Mr. Wynn had some volumes
+of sermons by old orthodox divines, brought out indeed in his emigration
+with a view to these Sabbath emergencies. When prayers were read, and
+the usual psalms and lessons gone through, he would mount his silver
+spectacles, fix himself in a particularly stately attitude in his
+high-backed chair, and commence to read one of the discourses (taking
+out a paper mark beforehand) in a particularly stately voice. It is not
+exceeding the truth to say that George oftentimes was driven to frantic
+efforts to keep himself awake; and even Arthur felt the predisposition
+of Eutychus come stealing over him.
+
+Sometimes the Davidsons came down. The sturdy Scotchman had all his
+national objections to 'the paper;' and when convinced that it was
+better to hear a printed sermon than none at all, he kept a strict
+outlook on the theology of the discourse, which made Mr. Wynn rather
+nervous. A volume of sermons was altogether interdicted as containing
+doctrine not quite orthodox; as he proved in five minutes to
+demonstration, the old gentleman having fled the polemic field
+ignominiously.
+
+'Robert, in all your dreams for a settlement, have you ever thought of
+the church there ought to be?'
+
+'Thought of it?--to be sure, and planned the site. Come along, and I'll
+show it to you--just where the tinned spire will gleam forth prettily
+from the woods, and be seen from all sides of the pond. Come; I'll bring
+you an easy way through the bushes:' and as she was leaning on his arm
+for an afternoon stroll, with the other dear brother at her left hand,
+of course she went where he wished.
+
+'When I was out with Argent last winter,' observed Arthur, we came to
+a lot of shanties, called by courtesy a village (with some grand name
+or other, and intending, like all of them, to be some day at least a
+capital city), where they were beginning to build a church. It was to be
+a very liberal-minded affair, for all sects were to have it in turn till
+their own places were built: and on this understanding all subscribed.
+Odd subscriptions! The paper was brought to Argent and me, he gave a few
+dollars; most people gave produce, lumber, or shingles, or so many days'
+work, or the loan of oxen, and so on.'
+
+'And as they do everything by "bees," from building a house down to
+quilting a counterpane, I suppose they had a bee for this,' said Linda.
+
+'Exactly so. But it seemed a great pull to get it on foot at all. New
+settlers never have any money--like ourselves,' jauntily added Arthur.
+'I never thought I could be so happy with empty pockets. Don't be
+deceived by that jingling--it is only a few keys which I keep for
+purposes of deception. Haven't I seen Uncle Zack's eyes glisten, and I
+am certain his mouth watered, when he thought the music proceeded from
+red cents!'
+
+'But why must our church have a tin spire?' asked Linda by and by. 'It
+would remind me of some plaything, Bob.'
+
+'Because it's national,' was the reply. 'But you needn't be afraid; if
+we have a shed like a whitewashed barn for the first ten years, with
+seats of half-hewn logs, we may deem ourselves fortunate, and never
+aspire to the spire. Excuse my pun.'
+
+'Oh, did you intend that for a pun?' asked Linda innocently. 'I beg your
+pardon for not laughing in the proper place. But how about the minister
+of these bush churches, Bob?'
+
+'Well, as the country opens up and gets cleared, we may reckon on having
+some sort of minister. I mean some denomination of preacher, within
+twenty-five or thirty miles of us; and he will think nothing of riding
+over every Sunday. It's quite usual.'
+
+'He's a zealous man that does it in the bitter winter, with the weather
+some degrees below zero,' remarked Arthur.
+
+'How happy he must feel to be able to deny himself, and to suffer for
+Jesus' sake,' said Linda softly. 'Robert, I often think could _we_ do
+nothing down in that wretched place they call the "Corner," where nobody
+appears to know anything about God at all? Couldn't we have a Sunday
+school, or a Bible class, or something of that sort? It hardly appears
+right to be Christians, and yet hold our tongues about our Saviour among
+all these dark souls.'
+
+The thought had been visiting Robert too, during some of his Sundays;
+but had been put aside from a false timidity and fear of man. 'How holy
+must be my life, how blameless my actions, if I set up to teach others?'
+was one deterring consideration. As if he could not trust his God's help
+to keep him what a Christian ought to be!
+
+'We will think over it, Linda,' he said gravely.
+
+An opening seemed to come ere next Sabbath. On the Saturday arrived at
+the 'Corner' the worthy itinerant preacher who occasionally visited
+there, and was forthwith sent up to the Wynns' shanty for entertainment
+by Zack Bunting; who, however willing to enjoy the eclat of the minister's
+presence, was always on the look-out for any loophole to save his own
+purse; and had indeed been requested by Mr. Wynn to commit the pastor
+to his hospitality when next he came round. Little of the cleric in
+appearance or garb was about this man of God. A clear-headed, strongly
+convictioned person, with his Bible for sole theologic library, and
+a deep sense of the vast consequence of his message at his heart, he
+dismounted from the sturdy Canadian horse which his own hands were
+used to attend, and entered the emigrant's dwelling with apostolic
+salutation--'Peace be to this house.'
+
+'Very unlike our old-country ministers, my dear,' said gentle Mrs.
+Wynn to her daughter; 'and I fear I never could get reconciled to that
+blanket-coat and top-boots; but he's a good man--a _very_ good man, I am
+sure. I found him speaking to Andy Callaghan in the kitchen about his
+soul; and really Andy looked quite moved by his earnestness. It seems
+he makes it a rule never to meet any person without speaking on the
+subject: I must say I highly approve of that for a minister.'
+
+What a strange congregation was gathered in Zack Bunting's large room
+next noon! All sorts of faces, all sorts of clothes. Mrs. Zack and
+Almeria in rainbow garments; the Davidsons in sensible homespun; the
+Wynns in old-country garb, were prominent. News had gone far and near
+that preaching was to be enjoyed that Sabbath at the 'Corner;' and from
+daybreak it had made a stir along the roads. Ox-sleds, waggons, mounted
+horses, came thither apace by every available path through the woods.
+Old men and maidens, young men and matrons and children, crowded before
+the preacher, as he spoke to them from the verse--'Peace be with all
+them that love our Lord Jesus Christ _in sincerity_.'
+
+Now an emphasis was laid on those last two words that might well make
+hypocrites wince. And Zack Punting had been singing with considerable
+fervour various hymns totally unsuited to his state of soul; as
+proprietor of the meeting-place, it became him to set an example of
+devotion--besides, was not religion a highly respectable thing? Among
+other hymns had been that beautiful outpouring of individual faith and
+love,--
+
+  Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone,
+  He whom I fix my hopes upon.'
+
+All this had Zack sung unflinchingly, as though one syllable of it were
+true for _him_!
+
+The preacher dealt with the evil faithfully. He told his hearers that
+the common words repeated continually and often thoughtlessly, 'Our
+Lord Jesus Christ,' contained in themselves the very essence of God's
+glorious salvation. 'Jesus,' Saviour--He whose precious blood was shed
+to take away the sin of the world, and who takes away our sins for
+ever, if only we believe in Him: 'Christ,' the Divine title, whose
+signification gave value inconceivable to the sacrifice on Calvary; the
+Anointed One, the Prince of the kings of the earth; 'Our Lord,' our
+Master--the appropriation clause which makes Him and all the blessings
+of His gospel truly ours for ever, by faith in His name. In simpler
+words than are written here it was told; and the grand old story of
+peace, the good news of all the ages, that which has gladdened the
+hearts of unnumbered millions with the gladness which death does not
+extinguish, but only brighten into celestial glory--how God can be
+'just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus;' how there
+is no preparation needed for the reception of this vast boon of pardon,
+but simply the prerequisite of being a sinner and needing a Saviour; how
+all present might there, that hour, become forgiven souls, children of
+the royal family of heaven, heirs of God, and joint heirs of Christ, by
+means no more laborious than believing on Jesus as the Pardoner, coming
+to Him in prayer for His great gift of forgiveness, and taking it, being
+sure of it from His hands, as a beggar takes alms for no deservings of
+his own. The preacher spoke all this with soul-felt earnestness; it was
+the message of his life.
+
+Even when the motley congregation drifted away down the creaking
+narrow stairs and into the open sunny air, where their motley vehicles
+stood among the stumps waiting, they could not at once shake off the
+impression of those earnest words. In amidst their talk of fall wheat,
+and burning fallow, and logging-bees, would glide thoughts from that
+sermon, arresting the worldliness with presentations of a mightier
+reality still; with suggestions of something which perhaps indeed was
+of deeper and more vital interest than what to eat, or what to drink,
+or wherewithal to be clothed.
+
+Plenty of invitation had the pastor as to his further progress. Few
+settlers but would have deemed it an honour to have his shanty turned
+for the nonce into a church. Many there were accustomed to the means of
+grace weekly at home, who pined unavailingly for the same blessings in
+the bush. Ah, our English Sabbaths, how should we thank God for them!
+
+Robert plucked up heart, and asked two or three seriously disposed young
+men to meet him every Sunday afternoon in the cottage of Jacques Dubois,
+for the purpose of reading the Bible together. Linda's plan of a
+Scripture class for girls was rather slower of realization, owing partly
+to a certain timidity, not unnatural in a gently nurtured girl, which
+made her shrink from encountering the quick-witted half-republican, and
+wholly insubordinate young ladies of the 'Corner.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+HOW THE CAPTAIN CLEARED HIS BUSH.
+
+
+The next great event in our settlers' history was their first logging-bee,
+preparatory to the planting of fall wheat. The ladies had been quite
+apprehensive of the scene, for Robert and Arthur could give no pleasant
+accounts of the roysterings and revelry which generally distinguished
+these gatherings. But they hoped, by limiting the amount of liquor
+furnished to sufficient for refreshment, though not sufficient for
+intoxication, that they could in a measure control the evil, as at their
+raising-bee four months previously.
+
+The mass of food cooked for the important day required so much extra
+labour, as sorely to discompose the Irish damsel who acted under Linda's
+directions. Miss Biddy Murphy had already begun to take airs on herself,
+and to value her own services extravagantly. Life in the bush was not
+her ideal in coming to America, but rather high wages, and perchance a
+well-to-do husband; and, knowing that it would be difficult to replace
+her, she thought she might be indolent and insolent with impunity.
+Linda's mother never knew of all the hard household work which her
+frail fragile girl went through in these days of preparation, nor what
+good reason the roses had for deserting her cheeks. Mamma should not be
+vexed by hearing of Biddy's defection; and there was an invaluable and
+indignant coadjutor in Andy.
+
+Everybody was at the bee. Zack Bunting and his team, Davidson and his
+team, and his tall sons; Captain Armytage and Mr. Reginald; Jacques
+Dubois and another French Canadian; a couple of squatters from the other
+side of the lake; altogether two dozen men were assembled, with a fair
+proportion of oxen.
+
+It was a burning summer day: perhaps a hundred degrees in the sun at
+noon. What a contrast to the season which had witnessed the fall of the
+great trees now logging into heaps. Robert could hardly believe his
+memory, that for three months since the year began, the temperature of
+this very place had been below the freezing-point.
+
+Mr. Reginald Armytage volunteered to be grog-bos, an office which suited
+his 'loafing' propensities, since his duties consisted in carrying about
+a pail of water and a bottle of whisky to the knots of workmen. His
+worthy father's position was almost as ornamental, for after one or
+two feeble efforts with a handspike, he went to talk with Mr. Wynn the
+elder--chiefly of a notable plan which he had for clearing a belt of
+wood lying between his farmhouse and the lake, and which quite shut out
+all view.
+
+'You see that Scotch fellow had no taste about his place, eh? He just
+thought of the vulgar utilitarian facts of the farm as it were; but for
+the cultivation of the eye, the glorious influence of landscape, he had
+no thought. Daisy Burn might as well be in the bottom of a pit; all one
+can see is the sky and the walls of forest outside the clearing. Now
+my plan is--Reginald, my boy,' as the grog-bos passed within hearing
+distance, 'give me the cup. The day is sultry to an extreme, eh?' Having
+refreshed his throat, he proceeded: 'My plan is, to set on fire that
+strip of forest, eh? I never could abide the slow work of the axe. With
+proper precautions, such as engineers use along the new rail-lines, the
+burning might be kept within bounds, eh?'
+
+Mr. Wynn, who knew nothing at all about the matter, courteously
+assented.
+
+'Just look at my father, the glorious old gentleman, how he stands like
+a general overseeing a lot of pioneers,' said Robert to Arthur, as they
+passed one another. 'Wonder what he and that drone are conversing about
+so long.'
+
+'I heard Armytage saying he would clear the belt of his forest on the
+lake with fire,' was the reply. 'In which case we may look out.'
+
+'Whew!' Robert whistled a long note. But his gang of teamsters wanted
+him and his handspike, so he went on. Each yoke of oxen had four men
+attached to it, for the purpose of rolling the logs on top of each
+other, and picking the ground clear after them; which last means
+gathering all chips and sticks into the pile likewise. An acre to each
+team is considered a fair day's work. Robert was so busy as quite to
+forget the captain and his alarming method of clearing, thenceforth.
+
+By evening something had been done towards disentangling Cedar Creek.
+The trees, which had lain about at every conceivable angle, in the
+wildest disorder, were rolled into masses ready for burning, through six
+acres of the clearing. The men had worthily earned their supper. In the
+old shanty it was laid out, on boards and tressels from end to end. The
+dignified Mr. Wynn of Dunore took the chair; Captain Armytage was vice,
+or croupier. As to attendance, the Irish damsel struck work at the most
+critical juncture, and refused to minister to them in the article of
+tea. The ever-ready Andy, just in with blackened hands from his long
+day's field-work, washed them hurriedly, and became waiter for the
+nonce, having first energetically declared that if he was Biddy Murphy,
+he'd be 'shamed to ate the bread he didn't airn; and that she might go
+home to her mother as soon as she liked, for an iligant young lady as
+she was. Zack Bunting overheard the strife, and the same night, on his
+return home, dropped a hint to the girl Libby--short for Liberia--his
+wife's orphan and penniless niece, who dwelt with them as a servant,
+and whose support they were anxious to get off their hands; and so, to
+her own prodigious astonishment, the recalcitrant Biddy found herself
+superseded, and the American help hired a day or two afterwards.
+
+'The whole affair of the bee was not so formidable as you thought,' said
+Robert to his sister subsequently. They were together in a canoe upon
+the pond, enjoying a tranquil afternoon, and ostensibly fishing.
+
+'Oh no, not so bad. You know I saw very little of your hive, except
+indeed the storekeeper's son, who was dressed so fantastically, and who
+would come offering his help in my cookery.'
+
+'I saw you talking to Jackey Dubois. Could you make anything of his
+French?'
+
+'Well, I tried, and of course could understand him; but the accent is
+very queer. He calls Canada always Conodo; in fact, he puts "o" for "a"
+and "i" constantly. The article "la" turns into "lo," "voir" becomes
+"voar." That puzzles one--and the nasal twang besides. I wonder why
+_that_ is so universal. Even your nice friend Mr. Holt is affected by
+it, though slightly.'
+
+'He told me once that it is a national peculiarity; and no matter
+what pains a man takes to preserve himself or his children from it,
+insensibly it grows in the pronunciation. He believes that something
+in the climate affects the nasal organs; he predicts it for me, and I
+suppose for all of us.'
+
+'I hope not. Robert, I think the foliage on the shores is changing
+colour already.'
+
+'I daresay; the maple blushes scarlet very early. Ah, wait till you see
+the Indian summer, with its gorgeous tinting and soft pink mists.'
+
+And here Robert jerked into the boat a fine speckled trout caught by the
+bait of a garden worm. He had captured half-a-dozen in half-an-hour.
+
+'One would think the mists were come already,' said Linda, still gazing
+at the waved outline of the shore. 'There seems to be fog away yonder.'
+
+'The captain burning his fallow, I presume,' said Robert, raising his
+eyes from his hook. But the smoke was larger than that would account
+for.
+
+'We will paddle a little nearer and investigate,' said he, laying down
+his tackle. A dread of suspicion stole into his mind, which whitened his
+very lips.
+
+They approached and coasted; the smell of burning wood becoming
+stronger--the smoke hanging over those headlands denser.
+
+It was as he feared--the forest was on fire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE FOREST ON FIRE.
+
+
+Robert drew his paddle into the canoe, and sat perfectly still for some
+moments, gazing towards the fire and taking in its circumstances. They
+could hear the dull roar of the blaze distinctly, and even caught a
+glimpse of its crimson glare through an opening in the tall pines
+fringing the lake. It must have been burning a couple of hours to have
+attained such mastery. Dark resinous smoke hung heavily in the air: a
+hot stifling gust of it swept down on the canoe.
+
+'The wind is towards the pond, most providentially,' said Robert, taking
+up his paddle, and beginning to stroke the water vigorously towards home.
+'The burning _may_ do no harm; but fire is a fearful agent to set afoot.
+I'm sure the captain heartily wishes his kindling undone by this time.'
+
+'Is there no danger to the farm, Robert?' asked his sister, who had
+become blanched with fear. 'I never heard such a terrible sound as that
+raging and crackling.'
+
+'To Daisy Burn none, I should say; for, of course, the man had sense
+enough to fire the bush only a long way down in front, an extensive
+clearing rather round the house, and the breeze will keep away the
+blaze.'
+
+'Thank God,' fervently ejaculated Linda. 'I wish we could bring Miss
+Armytage and little Jay to the Creek while it lasts. Wouldn't you go
+across for them, Bob? I know they must be frightened.'
+
+Robert hardly heard her, and certainly did not take in the import of her
+words. With some wonder at his set face and earnest watch along shore,
+she did not press her wish. He was looking at the belt of fat resinous
+pines and balsams, dry as chips from the long summer droughts and
+tropical heats, which extended along from the foot of Armytage's farm
+even to the cedar swamp; he was feeling that the slight wind was blowing
+in a fair direction for the burning of this most inflammable fuel, and
+consequently the endangering of his property on the creek. A point or
+two from the east of south it blew; proved by the strong resinous smell
+wafted towards the landing cove.
+
+'Bob, you're forgetting the trout and the tackle,' as he jumped ashore,
+helped her out, and hurried up the beaten path beside the beaver meadow.
+'Never mind; I want to see Holt,' was his answer. 'If any man can help,
+'tis he.'
+
+'Then there is danger!' She still thought of the Daisy Burn people.
+Before they reached the house, they met Mr. Holt and half-a-dozen
+Indians.
+
+'We must burn a patch of brushwood, to deprive the fire of fuel,' said
+the former. 'These Indians have done the like on the prairies westward.
+It is worth trying, at all events.'
+
+'Go up to my mother, Linda; there's nothing to be much alarmed for as
+yet; I hope this plan of Holt's may stop its progress. I'll be at the
+house as soon as I can, tell her;' and he ran after the others, down to
+the mouth of the creek, where a strip of alluvial land, covered with
+bushes and rank grass, interrupted the belt of firs and cedars. Calling
+in fire as an ally against itself seemed to Robert very perilous; but
+the calm Indians, accustomed to wilderness exigencies, set about the
+protective burning at once. The flame easily ran through the dry
+brushwood; it was kept within bounds by cutting down the shrubs where it
+might spread farther than was desirable. Soon a broad blackened belt lay
+beside the creek, containing nothing upon which the fire could fasten.
+Axes were at work to widen it still further.
+
+'The wind has risen very much, Holt,' said Robert, as they felt hot
+currents of air sweep past them.
+
+'Just the result of the rarified atmosphere over the flames,' he
+answered. They spoke little: the impending risk was too awful. For once,
+the white man submitted himself to the guidance of the red. To prevent
+the fire from crossing the creek was the great object. The water itself,
+perhaps a hundred feet wide, would be an ineffectual barrier; such
+fierce flame would overleap it. Therefore the Indians had burned
+the left bank, and now proceeded to burn the right. Indomitably
+self-possessed, cool and silent, they did precisely what met the
+emergency, without flurry or confusion.
+
+  [Illustration: THE FOREST ON FIRE.]
+
+All this time the fire was advancing behind the green veil of woods.
+Volumes of thick smoke were borne off across the pond, alarming the
+dwellers in distant shanties and oases of clearing, with suggestion
+of the most terrific danger that can befall a settler in the bush.
+Before sunset the conflagration came in sight of Cedar Creek. Marching
+resistlessly onward, to the sound of great detonations of crashing and
+crackling timber, and its own vast devouring roar, the mighty fire
+presented a front of flame thirty feet higher than the tree-tops.
+Daylight went down before that huge glare. The low hanging clouds were
+crimsoned with a glow, not from the sinking sun, but from the billows
+of blaze beneath. As the dusk deepened, the terrors of the scene
+intensified by contrast, though in reality the triumphant fire recoiled
+from that blackened space fringing the stream, where it must die for
+want of fuel.
+
+To prevent its spreading up to the concession line, and catching the
+forest there, and perhaps destroying the whole township, all the men in
+the neighbourhood had assembled to cut down trees, and leave a barrier
+of vacancy. If the wind had not been blowing from that direction, it is
+improbable that their endeavours would have been sufficient to keep
+back the burning. The crestfallen Captain Armytage, author of all the
+mischief, wielded an axe among them. Truly he had created a view of
+black smoking poles and cheerful charcoal vistas before his dwelling.
+Whether that were better than the utilitarian Scotchman's green woods,
+he did not say just now, nor have spirit even to answer Davidson's
+sarcastic remarks on his 'muckle clearin'.'
+
+Far into the night, the great gaunt boles of trees stood amid wreathing
+flame. When all risk was over that it would communicate further, and
+destroy the garden or the house, Robert and the rest could admire its
+magnificence, and Sam Holt could tell of other forest-burnings of which
+he had heard, especially of the great fire which occurred in the year
+1825, and consumed about two hundred square miles of woods on the
+Miramichi River in New Brunswick, left fourteen houses standing in the
+town of Newcastle, and destroyed five hundred people. Two thousand were
+thus reduced to pauperism.
+
+'Such things are never heard of in Europe. Why are these forests more
+inflammable than those in the old world?' asked Mr. Wynn the elder.
+
+'Because the drought and heat of the climate are so much greater,'
+answered Sam Holt; 'and the preponderance of pines, loaded to the end
+of every leaf and twig with pitch and resin, affords uncommon food for
+fire.'
+
+Then as to the cause; he considered it could never be spontaneous
+combustion, but always accident, unless, indeed, in an exceptional case
+like the present, said Mr. Holt _sotto voce_. Settlers, burning brush
+heaps, or logging, sometimes permit the flame to run along the ground
+into the bush; and in dry weather entrance was sufficient. The boundary
+fences of farms were often consumed in this way, and more extensive
+mischief might follow.
+
+For days the charred chaos of timber poles and fallen trunks gave forth
+such heat and flickering flames as to be unapproachable. Zack's Yankee
+brain had a scheme for utilizing the ashes, if only he had machinery big
+enough for converting all into potash and pearlash. This man was old Mr.
+Wynn's special aversion. There was indeed little in common between the
+well-bred European gentleman, who always, even in these poor circumstances,
+wore the whitest linen (he never knew how Linda toiled over those neat
+shirt-fronts and ruffles), and kept up the _convenances_ of society in
+the bush, and had a well-educated range of thought--between all this and
+the Yankee storekeeper, who wore no linen at all, nor had the faintest
+idea of the usages of the polite world, nor an idea which might not be
+paralleled in the mental experience of a rat in a barn. 'Get' and
+'grasp' were the twin grooves of his life.
+
+Unconscious of the antipathy, Zack would saunter up to Cedar Creek
+sometimes of an evening, and, if not intercepted, would march straight
+into the parlour where the ladies sat, and fix his feet on the wooden
+chimney-piece, discharging tobacco juice at intervals into the fire
+with unerring labial aim. Mr. Wynn's anger at the intrusion signified
+nothing, nor could a repellent manner be understood by Zack without some
+overt act, which a strained respect for hospitality prevented on the
+part of the old gentleman.
+
+'Well, Robert, how you could permit that man to walk with you for the
+last half-hour I do not know.' Mr. Wynn stood on the threshold, looking
+a complete contrast to the shuffling, retreating figure of the lank
+Yankee striding over to the road.
+
+'I assure you it is not for the pleasure I take in his society, sir; but
+he gives me useful hints. We were talking just now of potash, and I
+showed him my new rail-fences; he has rather put me out of conceit with
+my week's work because it is of basswood, which he says does not hold.'
+
+'Are those the rails which I helped to split?'
+
+Be it noticed here that Mr. Wynn the elder could not bear to be totally
+dependent on his sons, nor to live the life of a _faineant_ while they
+laboured so hard; he demanded some manual task, and believed himself of
+considerable use, while they had often to undo his work when he turned
+his back; and at all times the help was chiefly imaginary. No matter, it
+pleased him; and they loved the dear old gentleman too well to undeceive
+him.
+
+'As to the potash business, sir, I fear it is too complicated and
+expensive to venture upon this year, though the creek is an excellent
+site for an ashery, and they say the manufacture is highly remunerating.
+What do you think, father?' And they had a conference that diverged far
+from potash.
+
+After closely watching Davidson's management, and finding that he
+realized twenty-eight shillings per hundredweight, Robert resolved to
+try the manufacture. Details would be tedious. Both reader and writer
+might lose themselves in leach-tubs, ash-kettles, and coolers. The 'help,'
+Liberia, proved herself valuable out of doors as well as indoors at this
+juncture; for Mrs. Zack's principle of up-bringing was that young folk
+should learn to turn their hand to 'most everythin'. And Libby, a large
+plump girl with prodigiously red cheeks and lips, had profited so far by
+her training as to be nearly as clever in the field as in the kitchen.
+Her great strength was a constant subject of admiration to Andy, though
+the expression of any such sentiment was met by unmitigated scorn on the
+lady's part.
+
+'Why, thin, Miss Green, an' it's yerself has the beautifullest arm, all
+to nothing', that ever I see; an' it's mottled brown with freckles, an'
+as big as a blacksmith's anyhow. Och, an' look how she swings up the
+potash kettle as light as if it was only a stone pot; musha, but yer
+the finest woman, my darlin', from this to yerself all round the world
+agin!'
+
+'I guess, Mister Handy, if yer was to bring some logs, an' not to stand
+philanderin' thar, 'twould be a sight better,' rejoined Miss Liberia
+sourly.
+
+'Look now,' answered Andy; 'ye couldn't make yerself ugly musthore, not
+if yer wor thryin' from this till then, so ye needn't frown; but ye're
+very hard-hearted intirely on a poor orphant like me, that has nayther
+father nor mother, nor as much as an uncle, nor a cousin near me itself.
+Though sorra bit o' me but 'ud sooner never have one belongin' to me
+than thim out-an-out disgraceful cousins of yer own at the "Corner."'
+
+Libby was immovable by this as by any other taunt, to all appearance.
+'Throth, I thried her every way,' quoth Andy subsequently, after
+an experience of some months; 'I thried her by flatthery an' by
+thruth-tellin', by abusing her relations an' herself, an' by praisin'
+'em, by appalin' to her compassion an' by bein' stiff an' impident, an'
+I might as well hould me tongue. A woman that couldn't be coaxed wid
+words, I never seen afore.'
+
+Perhaps she was the better servant for this disqualification; at all
+events, she had no idea of any nonsense keeping her from the full
+discharge of her duties in the house. Her propensity to call the
+gentlemen by their baptismal names, without any respectful prefix, was
+viewed by Linda as a very minor evil when set off against strength and
+willing-heartedness. But one day that she wanted her young mistress,
+and abruptly put her head into the parlour, asking, in a strong tone,
+'Whar's Linda? Tell her the men that's settin' the fall wheat'll be
+'long in no time for dinner,' Mr. Wynn could have turned her away on the
+spot.
+
+'Wal! sure it ain't no sin to forget the "miss" of an odd time, I
+guess,' was the large damsel's rejoinder, though without the least spice
+of sauciness. 'Come, I hain't no time to be spendin' here;' and she
+closed the door after her with a bang which made gentle Mrs. Wynn start.
+There was some trouble in convincing her husband that it was only the
+servant's rough manner--no real disrespect was intended; the incident
+put him into low spirits for the day, and turned many a backward thought
+upon the wealth of his youth.
+
+He would say, in these downcast moods, that Canada was no place for the
+gentleman emigrant; but could he point out any colony _more_ suited?
+Also, that his sons earned daily bread by harassing toil, worse than
+that of a bricklayer or day labourer at home; but were they not happier
+than in pursuit of mere pastime like thousands of their equals in the
+province they had left? Robert would certainly have answered in the
+affirmative. Arthur's restless spirit less wisely pined for the
+pleasure-seeking of such a life as Argent's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+TRITON AMONG MINNOWS.
+
+
+Linda was stooping one morning in the corner of her garden. Some precious
+plant was there, protected from the full glare of the noon sun by a
+calico shade, carefully adjusted, and with a circle of brown damp about
+it, which told of attentive watering. A few roundish leaves were the
+object of all this regard; in the centre of the knot to-day stood a
+little green knob on a short stem.
+
+'Oh, Georgie! papa! come and look at my daisy; it has actually got a
+bud.'
+
+Master George, nothing loth to have lessons disturbed by any summons,
+ran round from the open window through the open hall door, and his
+father followed more slowly to behold the marvel.
+
+'You see, papa, I thought it never would get on, it was such a sickly
+little thing; but it must be growing strong, or it could not put out a
+bud. How glad I shall be to see a daisy's face again! I would give all
+the fragrance of the blue wild iris for one. But, papa, the laurel
+cuttings are dead, I fear.'
+
+They looked very like it, though Mr. Wynn would still give them a
+chance. He apprehended the extreme dryness of the air might prove too
+much for the infant daisy also. But Linda would see nothing except
+promise of prosperity as yet.
+
+'Now, papa, when I am done with my melons, and you have finished Georgie's
+lessons, I want you to walk down to Daisy Burn with me. I have something
+to say to Edith.'
+
+'With pleasure, my dear. But I have always wondered why that name was
+given to that farm, except on the principle of _lucus a non_.'
+
+After the mid-day dinner they went. Meeting Andy on the road, trudging
+up from the 'Corner' on some message, he informed them that the captain
+and his son had gone to a cradling-bee at Benson's, an English settler a
+few miles off. 'But as to whether 'tis to make cradles they want, or to
+rock 'em, meself doesn't rightly know.'
+
+The fact being that a 'cradle,' in American farming, signifies a machine
+for cutting down corn wholesale. It is a scythe, longer and wider than
+that used in mowing hay, combined with an apparatus of 'standard,'
+'snaith,' and 'fingers,' by means of which a single workman may level
+two acres and a half of wheat or oats in one day.
+
+'Captain Armytage is of a very sociable disposition,' remarked Mr. Wynn,
+after a few steps. 'A man fresh from the mess table and clubs must
+find the bush strangely unsuitable.' He was thinking of certain petty
+occurrences at his own bee, which demonstrated the gallant officer's
+weaknesses.
+
+'Oh, papa, did you ever see anything like these vines? Grapes will be
+as plentiful as blackberries are at home.' For along the concession line
+many trees were festooned with ripening clusters; and deeper in the
+woods, beyond Linda's ken, and where only the birds and wild animals
+could enjoy the feast, whole hundredweights hung in gleams of sunshine.
+Well might the Northmen, lighting upon Canadian shores in one hot summer,
+many centuries before Cabot or Cartier, name the country Vine-land; and
+the earliest French explorers up the St. Lawrence call a grape-laden
+rock the Isle of Bacchus.
+
+'But is it not a wonder, papa,' pressed the young lady, 'when the cold
+is so terrible in winter? Do you remember all the endless trouble the
+gardener at Dunore had to save his vines from the frost? And Robert says
+that great river the Ottawa is frozen up for five months every year, yet
+here the grapes flourish in the open air.'
+
+'I suppose we are pretty much in the latitude of the Garonne,' answered
+Mr. Wynn, casting about for some cause. 'But, indeed, Linda, if your
+Canadian grape does not enlarge somewhat'--
+
+'You unreasonable papa, to expect as fine fruit as in a hothouse or
+sunny French vineyard. I really see no reason why we Canadians should
+not have regular vineyards some day, and you would see how our little
+grapes must improve under cultivation. Perhaps we might make wine. Now,
+you dear clever papa, just turn your attention to that, and earn for
+yourself the sobriquet of national benefactor.'
+
+Clinging to his arm as they walked, she chattered her best to amuse the
+sombre mind, so lately uprooted from old habits and ways of life into a
+mode of existence more or less distasteful. The birds aided her effort
+with a variety of foreign music. Woodpigeon, bobolink, bluebird, oriole,
+cooed and trilled and warbled from the bush all around. The black
+squirrel, fat, sleek, jolly with good living of summer fruits, scampered
+about the boughs with erect shaggy tail, looking a very caricature upon
+care, as he stowed away hazel-nuts for the frosty future. Already the
+trees had donned their autumn coats of many colours; and the beauteous
+maple-leaves, matchless in outline as in hue, began to turn crimson
+and gold. The moody man yielded to the sweet influences of nature in a
+degree, and acknowledged that even this exile land could be enjoyable.
+
+Arriving at the snake fences of Armytage's farm, he said he would go
+down to the post at the 'Corner' for letters, and call in an hour for
+Linda on his return. She found Edith and Jay working hard as usual.
+Their employment to-day was the very prosaic one of digging potatoes.
+'What horrid occupation for a lady!' exclaims somebody. Yes; Miss
+Armytage would have much preferred an afternoon spent in painting
+flowers, for which she had a talent. But there was no help for such
+manual labour in this case. Don't you imagine her pride suffered before
+she took part in field work? I think so, by the deep blush that suffused
+her face when she saw the visitor coming along, though it was only Linda
+Wynn, who made some not very complimentary reflections on the father and
+brother whose absence on an amusing expedition permitted this,--whose
+general indolence compelled severe labour from the girls. They were
+misplaced men, certainly, and had as much business in the bush, with
+their tastes and habits, and want of self-control, as Zack Bunting would
+have had in an English drawing-room.
+
+Linda had been thinking over a plan, which, when uttered, was proved to
+have also suggested itself to her friend. Could not something be done in
+the way of a Sunday-school class for the miserable ignorant children at
+the 'Corner'? Now the very rudiments of revealed religion were unknown
+to them; and to spend an hour or two on the vacant Sabbath in trying to
+teach them some of Heaven's lore, seemed as if it might be the germ of
+great good. Miss Armytage, naturally not of Linda's buoyant disposition,
+foresaw abundance of difficulties,--the indifference or opposition of
+parents, the total want of discipline or habits of thought among the
+young themselves. Still, it was worth trying; if only a single childish
+soul should be illuminated with the light of life to all eternity by
+this means, oh, how inestimably worth trying!
+
+Mr. Wynn was seen coming up the clearing. 'I know papa has had a
+letter,' exclaimed Linda, 'and that it is a pleasant one, by his
+pleasant face. Confess now, Edith, isn't he the handsomest man you ever
+saw?'
+
+Her friend laughed at the daughterly enthusiasm, but could have answered
+in the affirmative, as she looked at his stately grey-crowned figure
+and handsome features, lighted with a grave, kind smile, as Linda took
+possession of his left arm--to be nearer his heart, she said. She
+was not very long in coaxing from him the blue official letter which
+contained his appointment to the magistracy of the district, about which
+he pretended not to be a bit pleased.
+
+'And there's some other piece of nonsense in that,' said he, taking out
+a second blue envelope, and addressed to Arthur Wynn, Esquire.
+
+'"Adjutant-General's Office,"' read Linda, from the corner. 'His
+appointment to the militia, I am sure. That good, powerful Mr. Holt!'
+Even at the name she coloured a little. 'He said that he would try and
+have this done. And I am so glad you are taking your proper footing in
+the colony, papa. Of course they should make you a magistrate. I should
+like to know who has the dignified presence, or will uphold the majesty
+of the law, as well as you?'
+
+'Magistracy and militia--very different in this mushroom society from
+what they are in the old country,' said Mr. Wynn despairingly.
+
+'Well, papa, I have ambition enough to prefer being chief fungus among
+the mushrooms, instead of least among any other class. Don't you
+know how poverty is looked down upon at home? Here we are valued for
+ourselves, not for our money. See how all the neighbourhood looks up to
+Mr. Wynn of Cedar Creek. You are lord-lieutenant of the county, without
+his commission: these men feel the influence of superior education and
+abilities and knowledge.'
+
+'I verily believe, saucebox, that you think your father fit to be
+Governor-General; or, at least, a triton among the minnows.'
+
+'Papa, the fun is, you'll have to marry people now, whenever you're
+asked. It is part of a magistrate's duty in out-of-the-way places, Mr.
+Holt says.'
+
+'Then I am to consider my services bespoke by the young ladies present,
+eh?' said Mr. Wynn, making a courtly inclination to Edith and Jay. 'With
+the greatest pleasure.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE PINK MIST.
+
+
+Mr. Wynn became his magisterial functions well, though exercised after
+a primitive fashion, without court-house or bench whence to issue his
+decisions, without clerk to record them, or police force to back them,
+or any other customary paraphernalia of justice to render his office
+imposing. To be sure, his fine presence was worth a great deal, and his
+sonorous voice. As Linda predicted, he was obliged to perform clerical
+duty at times, in so far as to marry folk who lived beyond reach of a
+clergyman, and had thrice published their intention in the most public
+part of the township. The earliest of these transactions affianced
+one of Davidson's lads to a braw sonsie lass, daughter of Benson, the
+Shropshire settler beyond the 'Corner.' The bridegroom, a tall strapping
+young fellow of about twenty-three, had a nice cottage ready for his
+wife, and a partially cleared farm of a hundred acres, on which he had
+been working with this homestead in view for the last year and a half.
+The prudent Scotsman would portion off his other sons in similar
+respectability as they came of age.
+
+'And yer mither and I cam' here wi' an axe and a cradle,' he was wont to
+say, 'eh, Jeanie Davidson?'
+
+He had good cause for gratulation at the wedding that day. His own
+indomitable industry and energy had raised him from being a struggling
+weaver in Lanarkshire to be a prosperous landowner in Canada West. He
+looked upon a flourishing family of sons and daughters round the festive
+board in Benson's barn, every one of them a help to wealth instead of a
+diminution to it; strong, intelligent lads, healthy and handy lasses.
+With scarce a care or a doubt, he could calculate on their comfortable
+future.
+
+'I tell you what, neighbour,' cried stout John Benson, from the head of
+the table, 'throw by cold water for once, and pledge me in good whisky
+to the lucky day that brought us both to Canada.'
+
+'Na, na,' quoth Davidson, shaking his grizzled head, 'I'll drink the
+toast wi' all my heart, but it must be in gude water. These twenty year
+back I hae been a temperance man, and hae brought up thae lads to the
+same fashion; for, coming to Canada, I kenned what ruined mony a puir
+fallow might weel be the ruin o' me, an' I took a solemn vow that a drap
+o' drink suld never moisten my lips mair. Sandy Davidson wouldna be
+gettin' John Benson's daughter in marriage the day, if it werena for the
+cauld water.'
+
+Captain Armytage, who never missed a merrymaking of any description
+within a circle of miles, took on himself to reply to this teetotal
+oration.
+
+It was all very well for Mr. Davidson to talk thus, but few constitutions
+could bear up against the excessive labour of bush life without
+proportionate stimulants. For his own part, he would sink under it,
+but for judicious reinforcement of cordials, ordered him by the first
+medical man in Europe.
+
+'I daur say,' replied Davidson, whose keen hard eye had been fixed on
+the speaker; 'I daur say. Ye mak' nae faces at yer medicine, anyhow.
+It's weel that Zack's store is so handy to Daisy Burn, only I'm thinkin'
+the last will go to the first, in the long run.'
+
+'What do you mean, sir?' demanded the captain fierily.
+
+'Naething,' responded Davidson coolly,--'naething save what e'er the
+words mean.'
+
+'But we were a-goin' to drink to Canada, our adopted country,' put in
+Benson, willing to stifle the incipient quarrel--'the finest country on
+the face of the earth, after Old England.'
+
+His stentorian Shropshire lungs supplied a cheer of sufficient
+intensity, taken up by his guests.
+
+'The country whar we needna fear factor, nor laird, nor rent-day,'
+shouted Davidson. 'We're lairds an' factors here, an' our rent-day
+comes--never.'
+
+'Whirroo!' exclaimed an Irishman, Pat O'Brien, who, having been evicted
+in his own country, was particularly sensitive as to landlord and
+tenant-right. 'No more agints, nor gales o' rint, nor nothin', ever to
+pay!'
+
+'Not forgetting the tax-gatherer,' interposed portly Mr. Benson. 'None
+of us are partikler sorry to part with him.'
+
+Meanwhile the comely bride was sitting with her husband at one side of
+the table, thankful for the diversion from herself as a topic of
+enthusiasm and mirth.
+
+'Lads, you'd be a' at the loom, an' your sisters in the factories, only
+for Canada,' said Davidson, now on his legs. 'An' I suld be lookin'
+for'ard to the poor-house as soon as my workin' days were ower; an'
+Sandy couldna marry, except to live on porridge an' brose, wi' cauld
+kail o' Sabbath. How wad ye relish that prospect, bonnie Susan?'
+
+Bonnie Susan liked the prospect of the folds of her own silk dress best
+at that moment, to judge by the determinately downward glance of her
+eyes.
+
+By and by Davidson (for the subject was a favourite one with him) hit
+upon another of the Canadian advantages as a poor man's land--that the
+larger a man's family, the wealthier was he. No need to look on the
+little ones as superfluous mouths, which by dire necessity the labourer
+in mother country is often forced to do; for each child will become an
+additional worker, therefore an additional means of gain.
+
+'An' if the folk at hame kenned this mair, dinna ye think the emigration
+wad be thrice what it is, Mr. Robert? Dinna ye think they wad risk the
+sea an' the strangers, to make a safe future for their bairns? Ay,
+surely. An' when I think o' the people treading one anither down over
+the edges o' thae three little islands, while a country as big as Europe
+stands amaist empty here'--
+
+Mr. Davidson never stated the consequences of his thought; for just then
+came a universal call to clear the tables, stow away the boards and
+tressels, and make room for dancing and small plays. The hilarity may
+be imagined--the boisterous fun of general blindman's buff, ladies'
+toilet, and all varieties of forfeits. Robert Wynn stole away in the
+beginning; he had come for an hour, merely to gratify their good
+neighbour Davidson; but, pressing as was his own farm-work, he found
+time to spend another hour at Daisy Burn, doing up some garden beds
+under direction of Miss Edith. She had come to look on him as a very
+good friend; and he----well, there was some indefinable charm of manner
+about the young lady. Those peculiarly set grey eyes were so truthful
+and so gentle, that low musical voice so perfect in tone and inflection,
+that Robert was pleased to look or listen, as the case might be. But
+chiefest reason of all--was she not dear Linda's choicest friend and
+intimate? Did they not confide every secret of their hearts to each
+other? Ah, sunbeam, Linda knew well that there was a depth of her
+friend's nature into which she had never looked, and some reality of
+gloom there which she only guessed.
+
+Perhaps it was about Edith's father or brother. That these gentlemen
+neglected their farm business, and that therefore affairs could not
+prosper, was tolerably evident. Fertile as is Canadian soil, some
+measure of toil is requisite to evolve its hidden treasures of
+agricultural wealth. Except from a hired Irish labourer named Mickey
+Dunne, Daisy Burn farm did not get this requisite. The young man
+Reginald now openly proclaimed his abhorrence of bush life. No degree
+of self-control or arduous habits had prepared him for the hard work
+essential. Most of the autumn he had lounged about the 'Corner,' except
+when his father was in Zack's bar, which was pretty often; or he was at
+Cedar Creek on one pretext or other, whence he would go on fishing and
+shooting excursions with Arthur.
+
+Meanwhile, Robert's farming progressed well. His fall-wheat was all down
+by the proper period, fifteenth of September; for it is found that the
+earlier the seed is sown, the stronger is the plant by the critical
+time of its existence, and the better able to withstand frost and rust.
+Complacently he looked over the broad brown space, variegated with
+charred stumps, which occupied fully a twelfth of the cleared land;
+and stimulated by the pleasures of hope, he calculated on thirty-five
+bushels an acre next summer as the probable yield. Davidson had raised
+forty per acre in his first season at Daisy Burn, though he acknowledged
+that twenty-five was the present average.
+
+The garden stuff planted on Robert's spring-burn ground had flourished;
+more than two hundred bushels per acre of potatoes were lodged in the
+root-house, and a quantity of very fine turnips and carrots. Beans had
+not thriven: he learned that the climate is considered unfavourable for
+them. The pumpkins planted between his rows of Indian corn had swelled
+and swelled, till they lay huge golden balls on the ground, promising
+abundant dishes of 'squash' and sweet pie through the winter.
+
+'How is it that everything thrives with you, Wynn?' young Armytage said
+one afternoon that he found the brothers busy slitting rails for the
+fencing of the aforesaid fall-wheat. 'I should say the genius of good
+luck had a special care over Cedar Creek.'
+
+'Well, nature has done three-fourths of it,' answered Robert, driving
+in a fresh wedge with his beetle; 'for this soil reminds me of some
+poet's line--"Tickle the earth with a straw, and forth laughs a yellow
+harvest." The other quarter of our success is just owing to hard work,
+Armytage, as you may see.'
+
+'I can't stand that,' said the young man, laughing: 'give me something
+to do at once;' and he began to split rails also. Linda, coming from the
+house, found them thus employed--a highly industrial trio.
+
+'I recollect being promised wild plums to preserve,' said she, after
+looking on for a little. 'Suppose you get out the canoe, Bob, and we go
+over to that island where we saw such quantities of them unripe? Now
+don't look so awfully wise over your wedges, but just consider how I am
+to have fruit tarts for people, if the fruit is never gathered.'
+
+Whether the motive was this telling argument, or that his work was
+almost finished owing to the additional hand, Robert allowed the beetle
+to be taken from his fingers and laid aside. 'You imperious person! I
+suppose we must obey you.'
+
+The day was one of those which only Canada in the whole world can
+furnish--a day of the 'pink mist,' when the noon sun hangs central in a
+roseate cup of sky. The rich colour was deepest all round the horizon,
+and paled with infinite shades towards the zenith, like a great blush
+rose drooping over the earth. Twenty times that morning Linda went from
+the house to look at it: her eyes could not be satiated with the beauty
+of the landscape and of the heavens above.
+
+Then, what colours on the trees! As the canoe glided along through the
+enchanted repose of the lake, what painted vistas of forest opened to
+the voyagers' sight! what glowing gold islets against an azure background
+of distant waters and purple shores! what rainbows had fallen on the
+woods, and steeped them in hues more gorgeous than the imagination of
+even a Turner could conceive! Shades of lilac and violet deepening into
+indigo; scarlet flecked with gold and green; the darkest claret and
+richest crimson in opposition: no tropical forest was ever dyed in
+greater glory of blossom than this Canadian forest in glory of foliage.
+
+'What can it be, Robert?' asked Linda, after drinking in the delight of
+colour in a long silent gaze. 'Why have we never such magnificence upon
+our trees at home?'
+
+'People say it is the sudden frost striking the sap; or that there is
+some peculiar power in the sunbeams--actinic power, I believe 'tis
+called--to paint the leaves thus; but one thing seems fatal to this
+supposition, that after a very dry summer the colouring is not near so
+brilliant as it would be otherwise. I'm inclined to repose faith in the
+frost theory myself; for I have noticed that after a scorching hot day
+and sharp night in August, the maples come out in scarlet next morning.'
+
+'Now, at home there would be some bald patches on the trees,' observed
+Arthur. 'The leaves seem to fall wholesale here, after staying on till
+the last.'
+
+'I have heard much of the Indian summer,' said Linda, 'but it far
+exceeds my expectation. An artist would be thought mad who transferred
+such colouring to his canvas, as natural. Just look at the brilliant
+gleam in the water all along under that bank, from the golden leafage
+above it; and yonder the reflection is a vermilion stain. I never saw
+anything so lovely. I hope it will last a long time, Bob.'
+
+That was impossible to say; sometimes the Indian summer was for weeks,
+sometimes but for a few days; Canadians had various opinions as to
+its arrival and duration: September, October, or November might have
+portions of the dreamy hazy weather thus called. As to why the name was
+given, nobody could tell; except it bore reference to an exploded idea
+that the haze characteristic of the time of the year arose from the
+burning of the great grassy prairies far west by the red men.
+
+'What has become of your colony of Indians?' asked Armytage, 'those who
+lived near the cedar swamp?'
+
+'Oh, they left us in "the whortleberry moon," as they call August, and
+migrated to some region where that fruit abounds, to gather and store it
+for winter use. They smoke the berries over a slow fire, I am told, and
+when dry, pack them in the usual birch-bark makaks; and I've seen them
+mixed with the dough of bread, and boiled with venison or porcupine, or
+whatever other meat was going, as we would use whole pepper.'
+
+'After the whortleberries, they were to go to the rice-grounds,'
+observed Arthur. 'Bob, suppose we paddle over and try for ducks in
+the rice-beds, to the lee of that island.'
+
+Here were some hundred yards of shallow water, filled with the tall
+graceful plant, named by the Jesuits 'folle avoine,' and by the English
+'wild rice.' The long drooping ears filled with very large grains,
+black outside and white within, shook down their contents into the silt
+at bottom with every movement which waved their seven-feet stems. Arthur
+knew it as a noted haunt of wild duck, a cloud of which arose when he
+fired.
+
+'It was here we met all the pigeons the other day,' said he. 'Those
+trees were more like the inside of a feather-bed than anything else,
+so covered were they with fluttering masses of birds; you couldn't see
+a bit of the foliage; and 'twas quite amusing to watch some of them
+lighting on the rice, which wasn't strong enough to support them, and
+trying to pick out the grains. As they could neither swim nor stand,
+they must have been thoroughly tantalized. Don't you remember,
+Armytage?'
+
+But their main business, the plums, must be attended to; the islet was
+found which was bordered with festoons of them, hanging over the edge in
+the coves; and after due feasting on the delicious aromatic fruit, they
+gathered some basketsful. When that was done, it was high time to paddle
+homewards; the sun was gliding forth from the roseate vault over the
+western rim, and a silvery haze rose from the waters, softly veiling the
+brilliant landscape.
+
+'A great improvement to your charcoal forest, it must be owned,' said
+Robert, pointing Armytage to where the sharp black tops of rampikes
+projected over the mist. The young man did not relish allusions to that
+folly of his father's, and was silent.
+
+'Oh, Bob, what a pretty islet!' exclaimed Linda, as they passed a rock
+crested with a few trees, and almost carpeted by the brilliant red
+foliage of the pyrola, or winter green. 'The bushes make quite a
+crimson wreath round the yellow poplars.'
+
+'I think,' said Robert, with deliberation, 'it would be almost worth the
+voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to see this single day of "the pink
+mist."'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+BELOW ZERO.
+
+
+Indian summer was succeeded by the 'temps boucaneux,' when hoarfrost
+drooped noiselessly on the night its silver powder on all the dazzling
+colouring, presenting nature robed in a delicate white guise each
+morning, which the sun appropriated to himself as soon as he could get
+above the vapours. Now were the vast waters of Canada passing from a
+fluid to a solid form, giving out caloric in quantities, accompanied by
+these thin mists. Towards the close of November navigation ceases on the
+Ottawa; the beginning of December sees the mighty river frozen over. Yet
+it lies in the latitude of Bordeaux! All honour to the benevolent Gulf
+Stream which warms France and England comfortably.
+
+When Linda's fingers were particularly cold, she would puzzle Robert and
+her father with questions as to why this should be so. Mr. Holt once
+told her that the prevailing wind came from the north-west across a vast
+expanse of frozen continent and frozen ocean. Also that James's Bay, the
+southern tongue of Hudson's, was apt to get choked with masses of ice
+drifted in from the arctic seas, and which, being without a way of escape,
+just jammed together and radiated cold in company on the surrounding
+lands.
+
+This explanation was given and received within earshot of a splendid
+fire on one of those tremendous January mornings when the temperature
+is perhaps twenty-five degrees below zero, when the very smoke cannot
+disperse in the frozen atmosphere, and the breath of man and beast
+returns upon them in snowy particles. Nobody cares to be out of
+doors, for the air cuts like a knife, and one's garments stiffen like
+sheet-iron. Linda stands at the window of the little parlour--well she
+understands now why the hearth was made almost as wide as one side of
+the room--and looks out on the white world, and on the coppery sun
+struggling to enlighten the icy heavens, and on that strange phenomenon,
+the _ver glas_, gleaming from every tree.
+
+'Now, Mr. Holt, as you have been good enough to attempt an explanation
+of the cold, perhaps you could tell me the cause of the _ver glas_? What
+makes that thin incrustation of ice over the trunk and every twig which
+has been attracting my admiration these three days? It was as if each
+tree was dressed in a tight-fitting suit of crystal when the sun
+succeeded in shining a little yesterday.'
+
+'I imagine that the cause was the slight thaw on Monday, and the freezing
+of the moisture that then covered the bark and branches into a coat of
+ice. So I only _attempt_ explanations, Miss Linda.'
+
+'Oh, but it is not your fault if they are unsatisfactory, as I own that
+of the north-west winds and James's Bay was to me; it is the fault of
+science. I'm afraid you'll not answer another question which I have,
+since I am so ungrateful as not to accept everything you say with
+becoming reverence.'
+
+'Name your question.'
+
+'Why is every fourth day milder than the others? Why may we reckon with
+almost certainty on a degree of soft weather to-morrow?'
+
+'Those are the tertian intervals, and nobody understands them.'
+
+'Concise and candid, if it doesn't make me wiser; but I'm compensated
+for that in finding something of which you are equally ignorant with
+myself, Mr. Holt.'
+
+Remarks of a more superficial character were extorted by the severity of
+the weather from the inmates of the kitchen.
+
+'Arrah, Miss Libby asthore, wor ye able to sleep one wink last night wid
+the crakling of the threes? I niver heerd'--
+
+'Sartin sure I was,' replied the rubicund damsel, as she moved briskly
+about her work. She had a peculiarity of wearing very short skirts,
+lest they should impede her progress; but once that Andy ventured a
+complimentary joke on her ankles, he met with such scathing scorn that
+he kept aloof from the subject in future, though often sorely tempted.
+
+'Nothen ever kep me waking,' asseverated the Yankee girl with perfect
+truth. 'Now, young man, jest git out o' my way; warm yar hands in yar
+hair, if you've a mind teu--it's red enough, I guess.'
+
+'Throth an' I wish I could take your advice, Miss; or if you'd give me a
+few sparks of yer own hot timper, I needn't ever come up to the hearth
+at all at all.'
+
+'Thar, go 'long with you for a consaited sot-up chap, an' bring in a
+couple of armfuls of wood,' said the lady. 'I reckon you'd best take
+care of your hair settin' fire to the logs, Mister Handy,' she added
+with a chuckle.
+
+Linda entered the kitchen on some household business, and Mr. Callaghan
+was too respectful to retort in her presence. But this is a specimen of
+the odd sort of sparring which Arthur chose to consider courtship, and
+to rally both parties about.
+
+''Deed then I hope 'tisn't the likes of a crooked stick of her kind I'd
+be afther bringin' home at long last,' Andy would say, wielding his axe
+with redoubled vigour.
+
+'I guess I ain't agoin' jest to be sich a soft un as to take the care of
+_him_ for nothen',' the lady would say, flouncing about her kitchen and
+laying ineffable emphasis on the last word. Whence it would appear that
+the feud was irreconcilable.
+
+Next day was bright, and the mercury had climbed nearer to zero; so
+the sleigh was had out--Mr. Holt's sleigh, which had brought him from
+Mapleton to Cedar Creek, and was very much at everybody's service while
+he remained. Linda dressed in her warmest attire, and prepared for a
+run to the 'Corner' with her father. The sleigh was but a 'cutter' for
+carrying two, and had handsome robes of its equipment, a pair for each
+seat; one of wolf-skins garnished with a row of tails at the bottom
+and lined with scarlet; another a bear-skin, in which the beast's grim
+countenance had been preserved, and his claws affixed as a fringe. When
+Linda was comfortably wrapped up, Mr. Holt produced a third robe to
+throw over all.
+
+'What a curious texture! a platted material and yet fur!' she said,
+looking at it.
+
+''Tis of Indian manufacture, and I believe is made of rabbit skins cut
+in strips, twisted and netted together so as to keep the hair outside on
+both surfaces. You have a lovely day for your trip; I hope you will
+enjoy it.'
+
+Did she not? A large set-off against the severity of a Canadian winter
+should be the ecstatic pleasures of sleighing. Those who have not tasted
+it know not the highest bliss of movement. Gliding smoothly and rapidly
+over the solid snow to the tinkling music of bells, the motion alone has
+something in it most exhilarating, to say nothing of the accompaniments
+of the ride, the clear bracing air, the beauty of the frost-bound
+forests all around. Linda was determined that her friend Edith should
+have her share of the enjoyment this brilliant day: so, stopping the
+'steel-shod sleigh' at Daisy Burn, she persuaded Miss Armytage to don
+her cloak and muffetees and warm hood, and take her place beside Mr.
+Wynn for the rest of the way to the 'Corner' and back.
+
+Edith had been in the midst of ironing her father's and brother's linen,
+while Jay read aloud. As soon as she was gone, despite the protestations
+of the little girl, Linda took the smoothing iron herself, and continued
+the work merrily. While thus engaged, and Jay getting through her history
+lesson still, a scratching was heard at the outside door of the kitchen.
+
+'That's Ponto; what can have brought him home? he went with Reginald to
+chop at the edge of the clearing.'
+
+The dog was no sooner admitted than he jumped on them both, pulled their
+gowns, ran back whining, and repeated these movements many times.
+
+'He wants us to go with him, Jay--don't you think so?'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+A CUT, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
+
+
+What could be the matter? Ponto, at all events, seemed to think it of
+much importance, for he never ceased to pull their skirts and whine
+an entreaty, and go through the pantomime of running off in a great
+hurry--never farther than the threshold--until he saw the girls put on
+their cloaks and hoods. Gravely he sat on his tail, looking at them with
+patient eyes, and, when the door was opened, sprang off madly towards
+the pond.
+
+'Could Reginald have sent him for anything? Something might have
+happened to Reginald. Ponto never came home in that way before. Could a
+tree have fallen on Reginald?' and Jay's small hand shivered in Linda's
+at the thought. They hurried after the dog, over the spotless surface of
+snow, into the charred forest, where now every trunk and bough of ebony
+seemed set in silver. Thither Reginald had gone to chop at noon, in a
+little fit of industry. They were guided to the spot by the sad whinings
+of faithful Ponto, who could not comprehend why his master was lying on
+the ground, half against a tree, and what meant that large crimson
+stain deepening in the pure snow.
+
+A desperate axe-cut in his foot--this was the matter. Linda almost
+turned sick at the sight; but Jay, compressing her white lips very
+firmly, to shut in a scream, kneeled down by her brother.
+
+He had succeeded, with infinite effort, in drawing off his long leather
+boot, through which the axe had penetrated, and had been trying to bind
+his neckcloth tightly above the ankle. Jay helped him with all her
+little strength.
+
+'Give me a stick,' said he hoarsely--'a strong stick;' Linda flew to
+find one. 'Something to make a tourniquet;' and, not readily seeing any
+wood to answer the want, she used his axe, stained as it was, to chop
+a branch from the single tree he had felled. She had never tried her
+strength of arm in this way before; but now the axe felt quite light,
+from her excitement. Before the stick could be ready, in her unpractised
+fingers, Jay cried out, 'Oh, Linda, he is dying! he has fainted!'
+
+Still, she had common sense to know that the first necessity was to
+stop the bleeding; so, quieting the little sister by a word or two, she
+inserted the stick in the bandage above the ankle, and turned it more
+than once, so as to tighten the ligament materially. Looking at the
+pallid features, another thought struck her.
+
+'Let us heap up snow round the wounded foot and leg; I'm sure the cold
+must be good for it;' and, with the axe for their only shovel, the two
+girls gathered a pile of frozen snow, as a cushion and covering to the
+limb--'Oh, if Edith were here! if Edith were here!' being Jay's
+suppressed cry.
+
+'Where is the labourer whom I saw working on the farm?'
+
+'Gone away; discharged last week. Papa said he couldn't afford to pay
+him any longer. That's why Reginald went out to chop to-day. Oh, Linda,
+I wish somebody came. He is lying so white and still: are you sure he is
+not dead?'
+
+His head was on the little sister's lap, and Linda chafed the temples
+with snow. Would the sleigh-bells ever be heard? She longed for help of
+some sort. As to surgery, there was not a practitioner within thirty
+miles. What could be done with such a bad hurt as this without a
+surgeon?
+
+A universal slight shudder, and a tremor of the eyelids, showed that
+consciousness was returning to the wounded man. Almost at the same
+instant Ponto raised his head, and ran off through the trees, whining. A
+man's footsteps were presently heard coming rapidly over the crisp snow.
+It was Mr. Holt: and a mountain load of responsibility and dread was
+lifted from Linda's mind at the sight of him. This was not the first
+time that she had felt in his presence the soothing sense of confidence
+and restfulness.
+
+He could not help praising them a little for what they had done with
+the primitive tourniquet and the styptic agency of the snow. Beyond
+tightening the bandage by an additional twist or two of the inserted
+stick, he could do nothing more for the patient till he was removed to
+the house; but he began collateral help by cutting poles for a litter,
+and sent Jay and Linda for straps of basswood bark to fasten them
+together. When the sleigh at last came up the avenue, Mr. Wynn the elder
+helped him to carry young Armytage home, wherein Sam Holt's great
+physical strength carefully bore two-thirds of the dead weight.
+
+It seemed that he had been chopping up that fir for firewood, perhaps
+without giving much thought to his work, when the axe, newly sharpened
+before he came out, caught in a crooked branch, which diverted almost
+the whole force of the blow on his own foot. Well was it that Mr. Holt,
+in his erratic education, had chosen to pry into the mysteries of
+surgery for one session, and knew something of the art of putting
+together severed flesh and bone; although many a dreadful axe wound is
+cured in the backwoods by settlers who never heard of a diploma, but
+nevertheless heal with herbs and bandages, which would excite the
+scornful mirth of a clinical student.
+
+Thus began a long season of illness and weakness for the young man, so
+recently in the rudest health and strength. It was very new to his
+impetuous spirit, and very irksome, to lie all day in the house, not
+daring to move the injured limb, and under the shadow of Zack Bunting's
+cheerful prediction, that he guessed the young fellar might be a matter
+o' six or eight months a-lyin' thar, afore such a big cut healed, ef he
+warn't lamed for life.
+
+Reginald chafed and grumbled and sulked for many a day; but the fact
+could not be gainsaid; those divided veins and tendons and nerves must
+take long to unite again; Mr. Holt found him one morning in such an
+unquiet mood.
+
+'Armytage,' said he, after the usual attentions to the wound, 'I suppose
+you consider this axe-cut a great misfortune?'
+
+'"Misfortune!"' and he rose on his elbow in one of the fifty positions
+he was wont, for very restlessness, to assume. 'Misfortune! I should
+think I do: nothing much worse could have happened. Look at the farm,
+without a hand on it, going to rack and ruin'--
+
+Rather a highly coloured picture; and Reginald seemed to forget that,
+while his limbs were whole, he had devoted them almost entirely to
+amusement. Mr. Holt heard him out patiently.
+
+'I should not be surprised if it proved one of the best events of your
+life,' he observed; 'that is, if you will allow it to fulfil the object
+for which it was sent.'
+
+'Oh, that's your doctrine of a particular providence,' said the other
+peevishly, lying back again.
+
+'Yes; my doctrine of a particular providence, taught in every leaf of
+the Bible. Now, Armytage, look back calmly over your past life, and
+forward, whither you were drifting, and see if the very kindest thing
+that could be done for you by an all-wise and all-loving God was not to
+bring you up suddenly, and lay you aside, and _force_ you to think.
+Beware of trying to frustrate His purpose.'
+
+Mr. Holt went away immediately on saying that, for he had no desire to
+amuse Reginald with an unprofitable controversy which might ensue, but
+rather to lodge the one truth in his mind, if possible. Young Armytage
+thought him queer and methodistical; but he could not push out of his
+memory that short conversation. Twenty times he resolved to think of
+something else, and twenty times the dismissed idea came round again,
+and the calm forcible words visited him, 'Beware of trying to frustrate
+God's purpose.'
+
+At last he called to his sister Edith, who was busy at some housework
+in the kitchen, across a little passage.
+
+'Come here; I want to ask you a question. Do you think that I am crippled
+as a punishment for my misdeeds, idleness, etcetera?'
+
+'Indeed, I do not,' she answered with surprise. 'What put such a thought
+into your head?'
+
+'Holt said something like it. He thinks this axe-cut of mine is
+discipline--perhaps like the breaking-in which a wild colt requires; and
+as you and he are of the same opinion in religious matters, I was
+curious to know if you held this dogma also.'
+
+She looked down for a moment. 'Not quite as you have represented it,'
+she said. 'But I do think that when the Lord sends peculiar outward
+circumstances, He intends them to awake the soul from indifference, and
+bring it to see the intense reality of invisible things. Oh, Reginald,'
+she added, with a sudden impulse of earnestness, 'I wish you felt that
+your soul is the most precious thing on earth.'
+
+He was moved more than he would have cared to confess, by those tearful
+eyes and clasped hands; he knew that she went away to pray for him,
+while about her daily business. More serious thoughts than he had ever
+experienced were his that afternoon: Jay could not avoid remarking--in
+private--on his unusual quietude. Next morning he found a Bible beside
+his bed, laid there by Edith, he had no doubt; but for a long time she
+could not discover whether he ever looked into it.
+
+When Mr. Holt left the country, he gave Robert Wynn charge of the
+patient mentally as well as corporeally. He knew that Robert's own piety
+would grow more robust for giving a helping hand to another.
+
+Somehow, the Yankee storekeeper was very often hanging about Daisy Burn
+that winter. Captain Armytage and he were great friends. That gallant
+officer was, in Zack's parlance, 'the Colonel,' which brevet-rank I
+suppose was flattering, as it was never seriously disclaimed. He was
+king of his company in the tavern bar at the 'Corner;' and few days
+passed on which he did not enjoy that bad eminence, while compounding
+'brandy-smash,' 'rum-salad,' 'whisky-skin,' or some other of the various
+synonyms under which the demon of drink ruins people in Canada.
+
+But where did the captain find cash for this? The fact is, he never paid
+in ready money; for that was unknown to his pockets, and very rare in
+the district. He paid in sundry equivalents of produce; and a nice little
+mortgage might be effected on his nice little farm of Daisy Burn if
+needs be. Zack held his greedy grasping fingers over it; for the family
+were obliged to go a good deal in debt for sundry necessities. Slave and
+scrape as Miss Armytage might, she had no way of raising money for such
+things as tea and coffee. Once she attempted to make dandelion roots,
+roasted and ground, do duty for the latter; but it was stigmatized as
+a failure, except by loving little Jay. Then wages must be paid to the
+Irish labourer, whose services to chop wood, etc., were now absolutely
+necessary. Meat was another item of expense. A large store of potatoes
+was almost the sole provision upon which the household could reckon with
+certainty; mismanagement and neglect had produced the usual result of
+short crops in the foregoing season, and their wheat went chiefly to the
+store in barter.
+
+'An' ef Zack ain't shavin' the capting, I guess I'm a Dutchman,'
+remarked a neighbouring settler to Robert. 'I reckon a matter of two
+year'll shave him out o' Daisy Burn, clear and clean.'
+
+But its owner had some brilliant scheme in the future for lifting him
+free of every embarrassment. Rainbow tints illuminated all prospective
+pages of Captain Armytage's life.
+
+'Edith, my dear,' he would say, if that young lady deprecated any fresh
+expenditure, or ventured an advice concerning the farm,--'Edith, my
+dear, the main fault of your character is an extraordinary want of
+the sanguine element, for the excess of which I have always been so
+remarkable. You know I compare it to the life-buoy, which has held me up
+above the most tempestuous waves of the sea of existence, eh! But you,
+my poor dear girl, have got a sad way of looking at things--a gloomy
+temperament, I should call it perhaps, eh? which is totally opposite to
+my nature. Now, as to this beast, which Mr. Bunting will let me have for
+twenty-eight dollars, a note of hand at three months, he is kind enough
+to say, will do as well as cash. And then, Reginald, my boy, we need
+drink _café noir_ no longer, but can have the proper _café au lait_
+every morning.'
+
+'I don't know who is to milk the cow, sir,' said his son, rather bluntly.
+'Edith is overwhelmed with work already.'
+
+'Ah, poor dear! she is very indefatigable.' He looked at her patronizingly,
+while he wiped his well-kept moustache in a handkerchief which she had
+washed. 'Indeed, Edith, I have sometimes thought that such continual
+exertion as yours is unnecessary. You should think of us all, and spare
+yourself, my child.'
+
+'I do, papa,' she answered: whether that she thought of them all, or
+that she spared herself, she did not explain. Her brother knew which it
+was.
+
+'That is right, my child. It grieves me to see you condescending to
+menial offices, unsuitable to your rank and position.'
+
+She did not ask--as a less gentle nature would have asked--who else was
+to be the menial, if not she?
+
+'That is the worst of a bush life. If I had known how difficult it is to
+retain one's sphere as a gentleman, I think I should not have exposed
+myself to the alternative of pecuniary loss or debasing toil. Perhaps
+it would be well to walk down to the "Corner" now, and conclude that
+bargain with our good friend the storekeeper, eh? Is there anything I
+can do for either of you, eh? Don't hesitate to command me,' he added
+blandly. 'What! you want nothing? A very fortunate pair--very fortunate,
+indeed, eh?' And Captain Armytage kissed hands out of the room.
+
+'Edith,' said her brother, after a pause of some minutes, 'my father
+will be ruined by his confidence in that man. Bunting can twine him
+round his finger. I am ashamed of it.'
+
+She shook her head sadly. But there was no help for the fact that their
+father was in the toils already; unless, indeed, the debt could be paid
+off, and the acquaintanceship severed. Hopeless! for the tendencies of
+a life cannot be remodelled in a day, except by the power of divine
+grace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES.
+
+
+Sleighing was good that year, till the middle of March. Before the
+season was past, Captain Argent paid a flying visit on his way to the
+hunting grounds, as usual, and on his return found something so pleasant
+in the household at Cedar Creek, that he remained many days.
+
+They were all old acquaintances, to be sure, and had many subjects of
+interest in common. Mr. Wynn the elder, who, perhaps, was imbued with a
+little of the true Briton's reverence for aristocracy, was pleased to
+entertain his former neighbour, Lord Scutcheon's son, especially when
+that young officer himself was endowed with such a frank, genial bearing
+as rendered him almost a universal favourite.
+
+Had there ever been more than mere pleasant acquaintanceship between
+him and Miss Wynn? Rightly or wrongly, Sam Holt fancied it the case. He
+heard many allusions to former times and incidents, not knowing that
+as children they had been playmates. The gallant captain's present
+admiration was pretty plain; and the young lady was amused by it after
+the manner of her sex. Being very downright himself, Mr. Holt had no
+idea how much admiration is required to fill the measure of a proposal
+of marriage in a red-coat's resolve, or how much harmless coquetry lies
+dormant in the sweetest woman.
+
+The precipitate gentleman leaped to sundry conclusions, gathered himself
+and his fur robes into his cutter, and left on the third day of Captain
+Argent's visit. In her secret heart, I imagine that Linda knew why.
+
+But an engrossing affair to her at this period was the concealment from
+their visitor of the decidedly active part she took in household duties.
+Innocent Captain Argent was unaware that the faultless hot bread at
+breakfast was wrought by her hands; that the omelets and ragoûts at
+dinner owned her as cook; that the neatness of the little parlour was
+attributable to her as its sole housemaid. The mighty maiden called
+Liberia had enough to do in other departments, outdoor as well as
+indoor, besides being rather a ponderous person for a limited space.
+
+And so, when Captain Argent one morning pushed open the parlour door
+long before he ought to have left his apartment, he beheld a figure with
+short petticoats, wrapt in a grey blouse, and having a hood of the same
+closely covering her hair, dusting away at the chairs and tables and
+shelves, with right goodwill.
+
+'Now, Georgie, you know that you can't sit here till I have quite
+finished,' said the figure, without turning its head. 'Like a good boy,
+ask Libby to come and build up the fire: ask gently, remember, or she'll
+not mind you.'
+
+The noiseless manner of closing the door caused her first to doubt the
+identity of the person spoken to, and a very vivid crimson dyed her
+cheeks, when, Liberia coming in, her blacksmith arms laden with logs,
+she threw them down with resounding clatter, and said, 'Wal, ef that
+ain't the nicest, soft speakin'est gentleman I ever see! He asked me as
+perlite for the wood, as he couldn't be perliter ef I war Queen Victory
+herself.'
+
+'How fortunate that I didn't turn round my head!' thought Linda, her
+first confusion over; 'for of all horridly unbecoming things, showing no
+hair about one's face is the worst.'
+
+Whence it will be seen that Miss Wynn was not exempt from female vanity.
+
+To the cat thus let out of the bag, Captain Argent made no further
+allusion than was involved in a sudden fondness for the nursery tale of
+Cinderella. Every subject of conversation introduced for the morning
+was tinged by that fairy legend, which tinged Linda's countenance also,
+rose-colour. Mr. Wynn the elder was slightly mystified; for the topics
+of promotion by purchase in the army, and the emigration of half-pay
+officers, seemed to have no leading reference to the above world-famed
+story.
+
+The dear old gentleman! he did the honours of his small wooden cottage
+at Cedar Creek as finely as if it had been his own ancestral mansion of
+Dunore. Their delf cups might have been Dresden, the black ware teapot
+solid silver, the coarse table-cloth damask--for the very air which he
+spread around the breakfast arrangements. One might have fancied that he
+infused an orange-pekoe flavour into the rough muddy congou for which
+Bunting exacted the highest price. He did not know that the coffee,
+which he strongly recommended to his guest, was of native Canadian
+growth, being to all intents and purposes dandelion roots; for you see
+they were obliged to conceal many of their contrivances from this grand
+old father. I doubt if he was aware that candles were made on the
+premises: likewise soap, by Liberia's energetic hands. The dandelion
+expedient was suggested by thrifty Mrs. Davidson, who had never bought a
+pound of coffee since she emigrated; and exceedingly well the substitute
+answered, with its bitter aromatic flavour, and pleasant smell. If
+Captain Argent had looked into the little house closet, he would have
+seen a quantity of brownish roots cut up and stored on a shelf. Part of
+Linda's morning duty was to chop a certain quantity of these to the size
+of beans, roast them on a pan, and grind a cupful for breakfast. They
+cost nothing but the trouble of gathering from among the potato heaps,
+when the hills were turned up in autumn, and a subsequent washing and
+spreading in the sun to dry.
+
+Mrs. Davidson would also fain have introduced peppermint and sage tea;
+but even Zack's bad congou was declared more tolerable than those herb
+drinks, which many a settler imbibes from year to year.
+
+'Throth an' there's no distinction o' thrades at all in this counthry,'
+said Andy; 'but every man has to be a farmer, an' a carpinther, an'
+a cobbler, an' a tailor, an' a grocer itself! There's Misther Robert
+med an iligant shute o' canvas for the summer; an' Misther Arthur is
+powerful at boots; an' sorra bit but Miss Linda spins yarn first-rate,
+considherin' she never held a distaff before. An' the darlin' Missus
+knits stockins; oh mavrone, but she's the beautiful sweet lady intirely,
+that ought to be sitting in her carriage!'
+
+News arrived from Dunore this spring, which Linda fancied would sorely
+discompose Andy. The Wynns kept up a sort of correspondence with the old
+tenantry, who loved them much. In an April letter it was stated that the
+pretty blue-eyed Mary Collins, Andy's betrothed, had been base enough to
+marry another, last Shrovetide. But the detaching process had gone on
+at this side of the Atlantic also. Linda was amazed at the apathy with
+which the discarded lover received the intelligence. He scratched his
+red head, and looked somewhat bewildered; indulged in a few monosyllable
+ejaculations, and half an hour afterwards came back to the parlour to
+ask her 'if she was in airnest, to say that over agin.'
+
+'Poor fellow! he has not yet comprehended the full extent of his loss,'
+thought the young lady compassionately. She broke the news to him once
+more, and he went away without a remark.
+
+When Arthur came in, she would beg of him to look after the poor
+suffering fellow. The request was on her lips at his appearance, but
+he interrupted her with,--
+
+'What do you think of that scamp, Andy, proposing for Libby in my
+hearing? The fellow told her that his heart was in her keeping, and that
+she was the light of his life, and grew quite poetical, I assure you; in
+return for which, he was hunted round the wood-yard with a log!'
+
+And Linda's sympathy expired.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+SETTLER THE SECOND.
+
+
+Next summer brought a scourge of frequent visitation to the 'Corner.'
+Lake fever and ague broke out among the low-lying log-houses, and Zack's
+highly adulterated and heavily priced drugs came into great demand. He
+was the farthest west adventurer at that date who took upon him to
+supply apothecary's wares among the threescore and ten other vendibles
+of a backwoods store. So the ill wind which blew hot fits and cold fits
+to everybody else blew profit into Zack's pockets.
+
+The population had swelled somewhat since our first introduction to
+this little pioneer settlement. The number of wooden huts mottling
+the cleared space between the forest and the river edge, clustering,
+like bees round their queen, about the saw and grist mill, had
+increased during the last two years by some half-score--a slow rate of
+progression, as villages grow in Canada; but the 'Corner' had a position
+unfavourable to development. An aguish climate will make inhabitants
+sheer off speedily to healthier localities. No sensible emigrant will
+elect to live on a marshy site where he can help it. The value of the
+'Corner' was just now as a stage on the upper branch of that great
+western highway, whose proper terminus lies no nearer than the Pacific,
+and whose course is through the fertile country of future millions of
+men.
+
+This summer waggon-loads of emigrants and their chattels began to file
+each month into the bush beyond. Cedar Creek ceased to be farthest west
+by a great many outlying stations where the axe was gradually letting in
+light on the dusky forest soil. To these the 'Corner' must be the
+emporium, until some enterprising person set up a store and mills deeper
+in the wilderness.
+
+The shrewd Davidson saw the country opening about him, and resolved to
+gather to himself the profit which must accrue to somebody. His first
+measure was to walk down one evening to the Wynns' farm. A thoroughly
+good understanding had always existed between these neighbours. Even
+patrician Mr. Wynn relished the company of the hard-headed Lanark-weaver,
+whose energy and common sense had won him the position of a comfortable
+landholder in Canada West. Added to which qualifications for the best
+society, Davidson was totally devoid of vulgar assumption, but had
+sufficient ballast to retain just his own proper footing anywhere.
+
+He found the family assembled in their summer parlour, beneath the
+handsome butternut tree which Robert's axe had spared, and which repaid
+the indulgence by grateful shade and continual beauty of leafage. They
+were enjoying supper in the open air, the balmy evening air afloat with
+fragrant odours. I say advisedly supper, and not tea; the beverage was a
+lady's luxury out here, and ill suited hours of foregoing labour. Milk
+was the staple draught at Cedar Creek meals for all stout workers.
+
+'Gude even, leddies;' and Davidson doffed his bonnet with European
+courtesy. 'Fine weather for loggin' this.' Indeed, he bore evident
+grimy and smoky tokens on his clothes that such had been his day's work.
+Applepie order was a condition of dress which he rarely knew, though he
+possessed a faultless homespun suit, in which he would have been happy
+to gang to the kirk on Sabbath, were that enjoyment practicable.
+
+English papers had come to hand an hour before; among them a bundle of
+the provincial print nearest Dunore. Linda had learned not to love the
+arrival of these. It was a pebble thrown in to trouble their still
+forest life. The yearning of all hearts for home--why did they never
+dream of calling Canada home?--was intensified perhaps to painfulness.
+She could interpret the shadow on her father's brow for days after into
+what it truly signified; that, however the young natures might take root
+in foreign soil, he was too old an oak for transplantation. Back he
+looked on fifty-eight years of life, since he could remember being the
+petted and cherished heir of Dunore; and now--an exile! But he never
+spoke of the longing for the old land; it was only seen in his poring
+over every scrap of news from Britain, in his jealous care of things
+associated with the past, nay, in his very silence.
+
+Now, the dear old gentleman was letting his tea grow cool beyond all
+remedy, while, with gold double eyeglass in hand, he read aloud various
+paragraphs of Irish news. Diverging at last into some question of party
+politics uppermost at the time, though now, in 1861, extinct as the
+bones of the iguanodon, he tried to get Davidson interested in the
+subject, and found him so totally ignorant of even the names of public
+men as to be a most unsatisfactory listener.
+
+''Deed, then, Mr. Wynn, to tell you truth, I hae never fashed my head
+wi' politics sin' I cam' oot to Canada,' observed the Scotchman a little
+bluntly. ''Twas nae sae muckle gude I gained by't at hame; though I mind
+the time that a contested election was ane o' my gran' holidays, an' I
+thought mair o' what bigwig was to get into Parliament for the borough
+than I did o' my ain prospects in life, fule that I was; until I found
+the bairns comin', an' the loom going to the wall a'thegither before
+machinery and politics wouldna mak' the pot boil, nor gie salt to our
+parritch. So I came oot here, an' left politics to gentlefolk.'
+
+Mr. Wynn, rather scandalized at Davidson's want of public spirit, said
+something concerning a citizen's duty to the State.
+
+'Weel, sir, my thought is, that a man's first earthly duty is to himsel'
+and his bairns. When I mind the workin' men at hame, ruggin', an' rivin',
+an' roarin' themselves hoarse for Mr. This or Sir Somebody That, wha are
+scramblin' into Parliament on their shouthers, while the puir fallows
+haen't a pound in the warld beyond their weekly wage, an' wull never be
+a saxpence the better for a' their zeal, I'm thankfu' that mair light
+was given me to see my ain interest, an' to follow it.'
+
+'I hardly wonder at your indifference to the paltry politics of the
+Province,' observed the gentleman from the old country, sipping his tea
+loftily.
+
+'I wish Mr. Hiram Holt heard that speech, sir,' said Robert. 'To him
+Canada is more important than Great Britain by so much as it is larger.'
+
+'The citizen of Monaco has similar delusions as to the importance of his
+petty Principality,' rejoined Mr. Wynn. 'I should rather say there was
+no political principle among Canadians.'
+
+'No, sir, there's none in the backwoods,' replied Davidson, with perfect
+frankness. 'We vote for our freends. I'm tauld they hae gran' principles
+in the auld settlements, an' fecht ane anither first-rate every
+election. We hae too much to do in the new townships for that sort o'
+work. We tak' it a' easy.'
+
+Robert remembered a notable example of this political indifference in an
+election which had taken place since their settlement at Cedar Creek. On
+the day of polling he and his retainer Andy went down to the 'Corner,'
+the latter with very enlarged anticipations of fun, and perchance a
+'row.' His master noticed him trimming a sapling into a splendid
+'shillelagh,' with a slender handle and heavy head as ever did execution
+in a faction fight upon Emerald soil. The very word election had excited
+his bump of combativeness. But, alas! the little stumpy street was dull
+and empty as usual; not even the embryo of a mob; no flaring post-bills
+soliciting votes; the majesty of the people and of the law wholly
+unrepresented.
+
+'Arrah, Misther Robert, this can't be the day at all at all,' said Andy,
+after a prolonged stare in every direction. 'That villain Nim tould us
+wrong.'
+
+'Jacques!' called Robert into the cottage adorned with flowers in front,
+'is this polling day?'
+
+'Oh, oui,' said the little Canadian, running out briskly. 'Oui, c'est
+vat you call le jour de poll. Voilà, over dere de house.'
+
+A log-cabin, containing two clerks at two rude desks, was the booth; a
+few idlers lounged about, whittling sticks and smoking, or reading some
+soiled news-sheets. Andy looked upon them with vast disdain.
+
+'An' is this what ye call a 'lection in America?' said he. 'Where's
+the vothers, or the candidates, or the speeches, or the tratin,' or
+the colours, or the sojers, or anythink at all? An' ye can't rise a
+policeman itself to kape the pace! Arrah, let me out ov this home,
+Misther Robert. There's not as much as a single spark ov sperit in the
+whole counthry!'
+
+So he marched off in high dudgeon. His master stayed a short while
+behind, and saw a few sturdy yeomen arrive to exercise the franchise.
+Their air of agricultural prosperity, and supreme political apathy,
+contrasted curiously with young Wynn's memories of the noisy and ragged
+partisans in home elections. It was evident that personal character won
+the electoral suffrage here in the backwoods, and that party feeling had
+scarce an influence on the voters.
+
+The franchise is almost universal throughout Canada. In 1849 it was
+lowered to thirty dollars (six pounds sterling) for freeholders,
+proprietary, or tenantry in towns, and to twenty dollars (four pounds)
+in rural districts. This is with reference to the hundred and thirty
+representatives in the Lower House of the Provincial Legislature. The
+members of the indissoluble Upper House, or Legislative Council, are
+also returned at the rate of twelve every two years, by the forty-eight
+electoral divisions of the Province.
+
+But to come back to our family party under the butternut tree. Robert
+related the above anecdote of Andy's disappointment; and from it old Mr.
+Wynn and Davidson branched off to a variety of cognate topics.
+
+'Noo, I'll confess,' said the Scotchman, 'that the municipal elections
+hae an interest for me far aboon thae ithers. The council in my township
+can tax me for roads, an' bridges, an' schules: that's what I call a
+personal and practical concern. Sae I made nae manner of objection to
+bein' one of the five councillors mysel'; and they talk of electin' you
+too, Maister Robert.'
+
+Robert shook his head at the honour.
+
+'I hae a fancy mysel' for handlin' the purse strings wherever I can,'
+added Davidson. 'Benson will be the neist town-reeve, as he has time to
+be gaun' to the county council, which I couldna do. But noo, will ye
+tak' a turn round the farm?'
+
+Plucking a sprig from an ash-leaved sugar maple close by, according to
+a habit he had of twisting something in his lips during intervals of
+talk, Mr. Davidson walked down the slope with Robert. While they are
+discussing crops, with the keen interest which belongs not to amateurs,
+we may enlighten the reader somewhat concerning the municipal system of
+self-government in which the shrewd Mr. Davidson professed his interest.
+Nowhere is it so perfect as in Canada. Each district has thorough
+control over its own affairs. Taxation, for the purpose of local
+improvement or education, is levied by the town or county councils,
+elected by the dwellers in each township. No bye-law for raising money
+can be enforced, unless it has previously been submitted to the electors
+or people. The town council consists of five members, one of whom is
+town-reeve; the town-reeves form the county council; and the presiding
+officer elected by them is called the warden. From the completeness of
+the organization, no merely local question can be brought before the
+provincial legislature, and it would be well if Imperial Parliament
+could, by similar means, be relieved of an immense amount of business,
+inconsistent with its dignity.
+
+'Eh! what's this?' asked Davidson, stopping before the partially raised
+walls of a wooden cottage. 'Wha's gaun to live here?'
+
+'Don't you recollect my town plot?' asked Robert. 'My first tenant sets
+up here. Jackey Dubois is removing from the "Corner:" he was always
+getting the ague in that marshy spot, and isn't sorry to change.'
+
+'Then that brings me richt down on what I hae been wantin' to say,'
+quoth Davidson. 'If ye'll gie us the site, me an' my son Wat wull build
+a mill.'
+
+'With all my heart; a grist or a saw mill?'
+
+'Maybe baith, if we could raise the cash. Nae doot the sawmill's the
+proper to begin wi', seein' yer toun's to be builded o' wood'--
+
+'For the present,' observed Mr. Wynn; 'but there's plenty of limestone
+under that hardwood ridge.'
+
+'An' the finest water power in the township rinnin' a' to waste on top
+of it. Weel, noo, I'm glad that's settled; though 'twull be an awfu'
+expense first cost. I dinna exactly ken how to overtake it.'
+
+Robert imagined that he was magnifying matters, in order to lessen any
+possible demand of ground-rent. But it is probable that Davidson would
+have even paid something over and above his ideas of equitable, for the
+pleasure of Zack Bunting's anticipated mortification at finding a rival
+mill set up in the neighbourhood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+AN UNWELCOME SUITOR.
+
+
+When the affair of the mill was arranged, and Robert's mind's eye beheld
+it already built and noisily flourishing, they sauntered along the bend
+of the pond towards where the charcoal forest of last autumn had donned
+a thin veil of greenery. The sight set Davidson upon his favourite
+irritation--the decay of his farm Daisy Burn, under its present owner.
+
+'He's an a'thegither gude-for-naething,' was his conclusion respecting
+Captain Armytage. 'Such men as he hae nae mair business settlin' in
+the bush than he wad hae in tryin' the life o' a fish. A mon may come
+without land, or money, or freends, an I'll warrant him to get on; but
+there's ane thing he must hae, the willingness to work hard. That will
+bring him the lands, and money, and freends, as plenty as blackberries.
+Sae far as I can see, your gentlefolk dinna do weel in the bush; they're
+ower proud to tak' to the axe and the hoe as they ought, an' they hae
+maistly fine habits o' life that mak' them unhappy. I wad like to see
+the captain or his son cobblin' their ain shoon! Though I'm tauld the
+young fellow's greatly improved sin' his hurt; but that winna mak' him
+handier.'
+
+'He is much more industrious,' said Robert, 'and I hope will be able to
+pull up affairs on the farm, even yet.'
+
+'Na, sir, na! Zack Bunting's got his claw on it in the shape of a
+mortgage already. That farm o' his below the "Corner" he grasped in
+just the same way; put the owner in debt to the store, foreclosed the
+mortgage, and ruined the puir man. I ken he has his eye on Daisy Burn
+for Nim, ever sin' he saw the captain. And that Yankee cam' here,
+Maister Robert, without as much as a red cent aboon the pack on his
+back!'
+
+Just then Arthur and George came in sight round the lee of a small
+island, paddling swiftly along.
+
+'Trolling for black bass and maskelongé,' remarked Robert. 'There! he
+has a bite.'
+
+Arthur's line, some seventy or eighty feet long, was attached to his
+left arm as he paddled, which gave a most tempting tremulousness to the
+bait--a mock-mouse of squirrel fur; and a great pike-fish, lying deep in
+the clear water, beheld it and was captivated. Slowly he moved towards
+the charmer, which vibrated three or four feet beneath the surface;
+he saw not the treacherous line, the hook beneath the fur; his heavily
+under-jawed mouth (whence he obtained the name of masque-longue,
+misspelled continually in a variety of ways by his Canadian captors),
+his tremendous teeth, closed voraciously on the temptation. Arthur's
+arm received a sudden violent jerk from the whole force of a lively
+twenty-five pound maskelongé; a struggle began, to be ended successfully
+for the human party by the aid of the gaff-hook.
+
+This was the noblest prey of the pond. Pickerel of six or seven pounds
+were common; and a profusion of black bass-spotted trout in all the
+creeks; sheep-heads and suckers _ad libitum_, the last-named being the
+worst fish of Canada. George thought the success far too uniform for
+sport; Arthur hardly cared to call the killing of God's creatures
+'sport' during some time back.
+
+'Davidson, here's a contribution for your bee,' cried Arthur, holding
+up the prize by its formidable snout. 'For your good wife, with my
+compliments.'
+
+Mrs. Davidson was in the thick of preparations for a logging-bee, to be
+held two days subsequently, and whither all the Cedar Creek people were
+invited. Every settler's wife's housekeeping is brought to a severe
+test on such occasions, and the huge maskelongé was a most acceptable
+addition.
+
+The four gentlemen and Mr. Callaghan went with their team of oxen to
+help their good neighbour on the appointed morning.
+
+It might have been four hours afterwards that Linda was working in her
+garden, hoeing a strawberry bed, and singing to herself some low song,
+when, attracted by a slight movement at the fence, she raised her eyes.
+Mr. Nimrod Bunting was leaning against the rails.
+
+'I guess you may go on, Miss,' said he, showing all his yellow teeth.
+'I've been admirin' yar voice this quarter of an hour past. I've never
+happened to hear you sing afore; and I assure you, Miss, I'm saying the
+truth, that the pleasure is highly gratifyin'.'
+
+Linda felt greatly inclined to put down her hoe and run into the house;
+but that would be so ridiculous. She hoed on in silence, with a very
+displeased colour on her cheek.
+
+'I see all yar people at the bee: yar too high yarself to go to them
+kind'er meetings, I reckon, Miss? Wal, I like that. I like pride. Th'
+ole woman said always, so did Uncle Zack, "Nim, yar above yar means;
+yar only fit for a Britisher gentleman," they did, I guess!'
+
+'The sun is getting so hot,' quoth Miss Wynn, laying down her hoe.
+
+'I reckon I ain't agoin' to have come down from Davidson's to here to
+speak to you, Miss,' and Nim vaulted over the fence, 'an' let you slip
+through my fingers that way. Uncle Zack said he'd speak to the ole
+feller up at the bee, an' bade me make tracks an' speak to you, Miss.
+He's agoin' to foreclose the mortgage, he is.'
+
+'What, on Daisy Burn?' Linda was immensely relieved for the moment.
+
+''Tain't on nothen' else, I guess. 'Tis an elegant farm--ain't it?'
+
+'Cannot your father wait for his money--even a little time? Captain
+Armytage would surely pay in the long run; or his son would'--
+
+'But s'pose we don't want 'em to pay? S'pose we wants the farm, and
+house, and fixins, and all, for a new-married pair to set up, Miss?'
+
+'I don't think you should allow anything to interfere with what is just
+and merciful,' said Miss Wynn, with a strong effort. Her tormentor stood
+on the path between her and the house.
+
+'S'pose I said they wanted that new-married pair to be you an' me,
+Miss?'
+
+The audacity of the speech nearly took away her breath, and sent the
+blood in violent crimson over her face and throat. 'Let me pass, sir,'
+was her only answer, most haughtily spoken.
+
+'Uncle Zack's a rich man,' pleaded his son. 'He's always been an ole
+'coon, with a fine nest of cash at his back. It's in a New York bank,
+'vested in shares. He's promised me the best part of it, an' the store
+into the bargain. You'll be a fool if you say "No," I guess.'
+
+Here he was seized from behind by the throat, and hurled round heavily
+to the ground.
+
+'Why, then, you spalpeen of an owdacious vagabone, it's well but I smash
+every bone in yer skin. Of all the impudence I ever heerd in my whole
+life, you bate it out, clear and clane! O, murther, if I could only give
+you the batin' I'd like, only maybe the master 'ud be vexed!' And Mr.
+Callaghan danced round his victim, wielding a terrible shillelagh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+THE MILL-PRIVILEGE.
+
+
+Meanwhile the noonday dinner at Davidson's bee progressed merrily. The
+mighty maskelongé disappeared piecemeal, simultaneously with a profusion
+of veal and venison pies, legs and sides of pork, raspberry tarts,
+huge dishes of potatoes and hot buns, trays of strawberries, and other
+legitimate backwoods fare; served and eaten all at the same time,
+with an aboriginal disregard of courses. After much wriggling and
+scheming--for he could not do the smallest thing in a straightforward
+manner--Zack Bunting had edged himself beside Mr. Wynn the elder; who,
+to please his good friend Davidson, occupied what he magnificently
+termed the vice-chair, being a stout high stool of rough red pine;
+and Zack slouched beside him, his small cunning eyes glancing sidelong
+occasionally from his tin platter to the noble upright figure of the old
+gentleman.
+
+'What's in the wind now?' quoth Robert to himself, at the other end of
+the board, as he surveyed this contrast of personages. Looking down
+the lines of hungry labourers for Nim's duplicate face, it was absent,
+though he had seen it a-field. Andy's was 343 also wanting, and with
+it the hilarity which radiated from him upon surrounding company. Not
+having the key of the position, Robert failed to connect these absences,
+although just then they were being connected in a very marked manner at
+Cedar Creek.
+
+Zack wanted to speak on a particular subject to his lofty neighbour, but
+somehow it stuck in his throat. His usual audacity was at fault. Mr.
+Wynn had never seemed so inaccessible, though in reality he was making
+an effort to be unusually bland to a person he disliked. For the first
+time in his existence, cringing Zack feared the face of mortal man.
+
+'Spell o' warm weather, squire, ain't it, rayther? I wor jest a sayin'
+to Silas Duff here that I never want to see no better day for loggin', I
+don't.'
+
+'It is indeed beautifully fine,' answered Mr. Wynn, who was generally
+called in the neighbourhood 'the squire,' a sort of compliment to his
+patriarchal and magisterial position. 'I hope our friend Davidson will
+have his work cleared off satisfactorily before dark.'
+
+'Oh, no fear, squire, no fear, I guess. There's good teams a-field. Them
+cattle druv by my lad Nim are the finest in the township, I reckon.'
+
+'Indeed!' quoth Mr. Wynn, who just knew an ox from an ass.
+
+''Tain't a losin' game to keep a store in the bush, ef you be a smart
+man,' observed Zack, with a leer, after a few minutes' devotion to the
+contents of his tin plate. By this adjective 'smart' is to be understood
+'sharp, overreaching'--in fact, a cleverness verging upon safe dishonesty.
+'I guess it's the high road to bein' worth some punkins, ef a feller has
+sense to invest his money well.'
+
+'I daresay,' rejoined Mr. Wynn vaguely, looking down on the mean crooked
+face.
+
+'Fact, squire, downright fact. Now, I don't mind tellin' _you_, squire,'
+lowering his voice to a whisper, 'that I've cleared a hundred per cent.
+on some sales in my time; an' the money hain't been idle since, you may
+b'lieve. Thar! that's sharp tradin', I guess?'
+
+'Yes, sir, very sharp indeed.' Mr. Wynn's face by no means reflected the
+Yankee's smile. But Zack saw in his gravity only a closer attention to
+the important subject of gain.
+
+'I've shares in a big bank in New York, that returns me fifteen per
+cent.--every copper of it: an' I've two of the best farms in the
+township--that's countin' Daisy Burn, whar I'll foreclose some day soon,
+I guess.'
+
+'You are a prosperous man, as you calculate prosperity, Mr. Bunting.'
+
+'I guess I ain't nothin' else' answered the storekeeper, with
+satisfaction. 'But I kin tell you, squire, that my lad Nim is 'tarnal
+'cute too, an' he'll be worth lookin' arter as a husband, he will.'
+
+Still with an unsuspicious effort at cordiality, Mr. Wynn answered, 'I
+suppose so.'
+
+'He might get gals in plenty, but he has a genteel taste, has Nim: the
+gal to please Nim must be thorough genteel. Now, what would you say,
+squire'--an unaccountable faint-heartedness seized Uncle Zack at this
+juncture, and he coughed a hesitation.
+
+'Well, sir!' For the old gentleman began to suspect towards what he was
+drifting, but rejected the suspicion as too wild and improbable.
+
+'Wal, the fact is, squire, Nim will have the two farms, an' the store,
+an' the bank shares--of course not all that till I die, but Daisy Burn
+at once: an'--an'--he's in a 'tarnal everlastin' state about your
+daughter Linda, the purtiest gal in the township, I guess.'
+
+Mr. Wynn rose from his seat, his usually pale countenance deeply
+flushed. What! his moss-rose Linda--as often in a fond moment he named
+her--his pretty Linda, thought of in connection with this vulgar,
+cheating storekeeper's vulgar son? 'Sir, how dare you?' were all the
+words his lips framed, when Robert, beholding the scene from the other
+end of the board, came to the rescue.
+
+'The fellow has been drinking,' was the most charitable construction Mr.
+Wynn could put upon Zack's astounding proposition. His dignity was
+cruelly outraged. 'Baiting the trap with his hateful knavish gains!'
+cried Linda's father. 'This is the result of the democracy of bush-life;
+the indiscriminate association with all classes of people that's forced
+on one. Any low fellow that pleases may ask your daughter in marriage!'
+
+Robert walked up and down with him outside the building. Though
+sufficiently indignant himself, he tried to calm his father. 'Don't make
+the affair more public by immediate withdrawal,' he advised. 'Stay an
+hour or so longer at the bee, for appearance' sake. It's hardly likely
+the fellow will attempt to address you again, at least on that subject.'
+So the old gentleman very impatiently watched the log heaps piling, and
+the teams straining, and the 'grog-bos' going his rounds, for a while
+longer.
+
+We left Andy Callaghan over his victim, with a flourishing shillelagh.
+Having spun him round, he stirred him up again with a few sharp taps;
+and it must be confessed that Nim showed very little fight for a man of
+his magnitude, but sneaked over the fence after a minute's bravado.
+
+'Och, but it's myself that 'ud like to be batin' ye!' groaned Andy for
+the second time, most sincerely. 'Only I'm afeard if I began I wouldn't
+know how to lave off, 'twould be so pleasant, ye owdacious villain. Ha!
+ye'd throw the stick at me, would ye?' and Mr. Callaghan was across
+the fence in a twinkling. Whereupon Nim fairly turned tail, and fled
+ignominiously, after having ineffectually discharged a piece of timber,
+javelin-wise, at his enemy.
+
+A loud peal of laughter, in a very masculine key, broke upon Andy's ear.
+It proceeded from the usually undemonstrative maiden Liberia, who was
+bringing a pail of water from the creek when her path was crossed by
+the flying pair. From that hour the tides of her feminine heart set in
+favour of the conqueror.
+
+'Troth, an' I may as well let ye have the benefit of yer heels, ye
+mortal spalpeen,' said Andy, reining himself in. 'An' it's the father
+of a good thrashin' I could give ye for yer impidence. To think o' Miss
+Linda, that's one of the ould auncient Wynns of Dunore since Adam was a
+boy! I donno why I didn't pound him into smithereens when I had him so
+'andy on the flat of his back--only for Miss Linda, the darlin' crathur,
+telling me not. Sure there isn't a peeler in the whole counthry, nor a
+jail neither, for a thousand mile. Now I wondher, av it was a thing I
+did bate him black an' blue, whose business would it be to 'rest me;
+an' is it before the masther I'd be brought to coort?'
+
+Cogitating thus, and chewing the cud on the end of his sapling, Andy
+returned homewards leisurely. His young mistress was nowhere to be seen;
+so he picked up the hoe and finished her strawberry bed; and when he saw
+the elder Mr. Wynn approaching, he quietly walked off to Davidson's and
+took his place among the hive again, as if nothing had happened. Nor did
+the faithful fellow ever allude to the episode--with a rare delicacy
+judging that the young lady would prefer silence--except once that
+Robert asked him what had brought him to Cedar Creek so opportunely.
+
+'Why, thin, didn't I know what the vagabone wanted, lavin' the bee
+'athout his dinner, an' goin' down this road, afther me lookin' at him
+this twel'month dressing himself out in all the colours of neckties that
+ever was in the rainbow, an' saunterin' about the place every Sunday in
+particler, an' starin' at her purty face as impident as if he was her
+aqual. Often I'd ha' given me best shute of clothes to pluck the two
+tails off his coat; an' he struttin' up to Daisy Burn, when she and Miss
+Armytage tached the little childher there; an' Miss Linda thinkin' no
+more of him than if a snake was watchin' her out ov the bushes. But,
+moreover, I heerd him an' his old schemer of a father whispering at the
+bee: "Do you go down to herself," said Zack, "an' I'll spake to the
+squire." "Sure, my lad," thinks I, "if you do you'll have company along
+wid you;" so I dogged him every step of the way.'
+
+Which explains Andy's interposition.
+
+Robert Wynn, when his wrath at the Buntings' presumption subsided,
+had gloomy anticipations that this would prove the beginning of an
+irreconcilable feud, making the neighbourhood very disagreeable. But not
+so. A week afterwards, while he stood watching the workmen building the
+dam for the projected mill, he heard the well-known drawl at his elbow,
+and turning, beheld the unabashed Zack. He had duly weighed matters for
+and against, and found that the squire was too powerful for a pleasant
+quarrel, and too big to injure with impunity.
+
+'Wal, Robert, so yer raisin' a sawmill!' he had uttered in a tone of
+no agreeable surprise. Mr. Wynn pointed to Davidson, and left _him_ to
+settle that point of rivalry.
+
+'We wull divide the custom o' the country, neebor Zack,' quoth the other.
+
+'I don't deny that you have an elegant mill-privilege here; but I guess
+that's all you'll have. Whar's grist to come from, or lumber? D'ye think
+they'll pass the four roads at the "Corner," whar my mill stands handy?'
+
+'Room eneugh i' the warld for baith o' us,' nodded Davidson; 'a' room
+eneugh in Canada for a million ither mills, freend.' And he walked down
+the sloping bank to assist at the dam.
+
+This last--a blow at the pocket--seemed to affect Zack far more than
+that other blow at the intangible essence, his family honour. He could
+see his son Nim set off for the back settlements of Iowa without a pang;
+for it is in vulgar Yankee nature to fling abroad the sons and daughters
+of a house far and wide into the waters of the world, to make their own
+way, to sink or swim as happens. But the new sawmill came between him
+and his rest. Before winter the machinery had been noisily at work for
+many a day; with huge beams walking up to the saw, and getting perpetually
+sliced into clean fresh boards; with an intermittent shooting of slabs
+and sawdust into the creek. 'Most eloquent music' did it discourse to
+Robert's ears, whose dream of a settlement was thus fulfilling, in that
+the essential requisite, lumber for dwelling-houses, was being prepared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS.
+
+
+For some sufficient reason, the Yankee storekeeper did not at that time
+prosecute his avowed intention of foreclosing the mortgage on Daisy
+Burn. Perhaps there was something to be gained by dallying with the
+captain still--some further value to be sucked out of him in that
+villainous trap, the tavern bar, whither many a disappointed settler has
+resorted to drown his cares, and found the intoxicating glass indeed
+full of 'blue ruin.'
+
+One brilliant day in midwinter, when the sky was like a crystallized
+sapphire dome, and the earth spotless in snow, a single sleigh came
+bowling along the smooth road towards the 'Corner.' 'A heavy fall of
+snow is equivalent to the simultaneous construction of macadamized roads
+all through Canada,' saith that universally quoted personage, Good
+Authority. So it is found by thousands of sleighs, then liberated after
+a rusty summer rest. Then is the season for good fellowship and friendly
+intercourse: leisure has usurped the place of business, and the sternest
+utilitarian finds time for relaxation.
+
+The idlers in Bunting's bar heard the sleigh-bells long before they left
+the arches of the forest; and as the smallest atom of gravel strikes
+commotion into a still pool, so the lightest event was of consequence
+in this small stagnant community of the 'Corner.' The idlers speculated
+concerning those bells, and a dozen pair of eyes witnessed the emergence
+of the vehicle into the little stumpy street.
+
+Zack's sharp vision knew it for one that had been here last year, as he
+peered through the store-window, stuffed with goods of all sorts; but
+the occupant was not the same. Grizzled hair and beard escaped the
+bounds of the fur cap tied down over his ears, and the face was much
+older and harder. The mills seemed to attract his attention, frozen up
+tightly as they were; he slackened his sleigh to a pause, threw his
+reins on the horse's neck, and walked to the edge of the dam. After a
+few minutes, Bunting's curiosity stimulated him to follow, and see what
+attracted the stranger's regard.
+
+'Are you the proprietor of this mill, sir?' called out the tall
+grey-haired gentleman, in no mild tone. Zack hesitated, weighing
+the relative advantages of truth and falsehood. 'Wal, I guess'--
+
+'You need guess nothing, sir; but the construction of your dam is a
+disgrace to civilisation--a murderous construction, sir. Do you see that
+it is at least twelve feet, perpendicular, sir? and how do you ever
+expect that salmon can climb over that barrier? I suppose a specimen of
+the true "salmo salar" has never been caught in these waters since you
+blocked up the passage with your villainous dam, sir?'
+
+'I warn't ever a-thinkin' o' the salmon at all, I guess,' answered
+the millowner truly and humbly, because he conceived himself in the
+authoritative presence of some bigwig, senator, or M.P., capable of
+calling him, Zack Bunting, to a disagreeable account, perchance.
+
+'But you should have thought,' rejoined the stranger irately. 'Through
+such wrong-headedness as yours Canada is losing yearly one of her richest
+possessions in the way of food. What has exterminated the salmon in
+nearly all rivers west of Quebec? dams like this, which a fish could
+no more ascend than he could walk on dry land. But I hope to see
+parliamentary enactments which shall render this a felony, sir,--a
+felony, if I can. It is robbery and murder both together, sir.'
+
+Mr. Hiram Holt walked rapidly to his sleigh, wrapped himself again in
+the copious furs, and left the storekeeper staring after the swift
+gliding cutter, and wondering more than ever who he was.
+
+This matter of the dams had so much occupied his attention of late, that
+even after he reached Cedar Creek he reverted to it once and anon; for
+this fine old Canadian had iron opinions welded into his iron character.
+The capacity of entertaining a conviction, yet being lukewarm about it,
+was not possible to Hiram Holt. He believed, and practised suitably,
+with thorough intensity, in everything; even in such a remote subject as
+the Canadian fisheries.
+
+The squire, who knew what preservation of salmon meant in the rivers of
+Britain, and who in his time had been a skilful angler, could sympathize
+with him about the reckless system of extinction going on through the
+Province, and which, if it be not arrested by the hand of legislative
+interference, will probably empty the Canadian streams of this most
+delicious and nutritive of fish.
+
+'A gold-field discovered in Labrador would not be more remunerative than
+that single item of salmon, if properly worked,' remarked Hiram. 'When
+the fisheries of the tiny Tweed rent for fifteen thousand a-year, a
+hundred times that sum would not cover the value of the tributaries of
+the St. Lawrence. And yet they're systematically killed out, sir, by
+these abominable dams.'
+
+'Why, Mr. Holt,' said Linda, looking up from her work, 'I think the
+mills are of more consequence than the salmon.'
+
+'But they're not incompatible, my young lady,' he answered. 'Put steps
+to the dams--wooden boxes, each five feet high, for the salmon to get
+upstairs into the still water a-top.' Whereat Miss Linda, in her
+ignorance, was mightily amused at the idea of a fish ascending a
+staircase.
+
+'The quantity of salmon was almost infinite twenty years ago,' said
+Hiram, after condescending to enlighten her on the subject of its
+leaping powers. 'I remember reading that Ross purchased a ton weight
+of it from the Esquimaux for a sixpenny knife; and one haul of his own
+seine net took thirty-three hundred salmon.'
+
+George, manufacturing a sled in the corner, whistled softly, and
+expressed his incredulity in a low tone; not so low but that Mr. Holt's
+quick ears caught the doubt, and he became so overflowing with piscatory
+anecdotes, that Linda declared afterwards the very tea had tasted
+strongly of salmon on that particular evening.
+
+'It is only a few years since Sir John Macdonald and his party killed
+four hundred salmon in one week, from a part of l'Esquemain River,
+called the Lower Pools. Thirty-five such rivers, equally full, flow
+through Labrador into the St. Lawrence; am I not then right in saying
+that this source of wealth is prodigious?' asked Mr. Holt. 'But the
+abominable dams, and the barrier nets, and the Indians' spearing, have
+already lessened it one-fourth.' A relative comparing of experiences,
+with reference to fishy subjects, ensued between the squire and his
+guest; and both agreed that--quitting the major matter of the dams--an
+enforcement of 'close time,' from the 20th of August till May, would
+materially tend to preserve the fish.
+
+'Nature keeps them tolerably close most of that time,' remarked Arthur,
+'by building a couple of yards of ice over them. From November till
+April they're under lock and key.'
+
+'And han't you ever fished through holes in the ice?' asked Mr. Holt.
+'Capital sport, I can tell you, with a worm for bait.'
+
+'No; but I was going to say, how curiously thin and weak the trout are
+just when the ice melts. They've been on prison allowance, I presume,
+and are ready to devour anything.'
+
+During all the evening, though Linda took openly a considerable share in
+the conversation, her mind would beat back on one question, suggested
+repeatedly: 'Why did Mr. Sam Holt go to Europe?' for one item of news
+brought by to-day's arrival was, that his eldest son had suddenly been
+seized with a wish to visit England, and had gone in the last boat from
+Halifax.
+
+Glancing up at some remark, she encountered Mrs. Wynn's eyes, and
+coloured deeply. That sweetest supervision of earth, a mother's loving
+look, had read more deeply than the daughter imagined. Rising hurriedly,
+on some slight excuse, she went to the window and looked out.
+
+'Oh, papa! such glorious northern lights!'
+
+Ay, surely. Low arcs of dazzling light stretched from east to west across
+the whole breadth of the heavens; whence coruscated, in prolonged
+flashes, gorgeous streamers of every colour, chiefly of pale emerald
+green, pink, and amber.
+
+'A rich aurora for this season of the year,' remarked Hiram Holt. 'Those
+that are brightly coloured generally appear in autumn or spring.'
+
+'Oh, yes,' said George; 'do you recollect how magnificent was one we had
+while the fall-wheat was planting? the sky was all crimson, with yellow
+streamers.'
+
+'Do you know what the Indians think about auroras?' asked Mr. Holt.
+'They believe that these flashes are the spirits of the dead dancing
+before the throne of the Manitou, or Great Spirit.'
+
+'No wonder they should seek for some supernatural cause of such
+splendour,' observed Robert.
+
+The aurora borealis exhibited another phase of its wondrous beauty on
+the ensuing evening. The young people from Cedar Creek had gone to a
+corn-husking bee at Vernon's, an old gentleman settler, who lived some
+eight miles off on the concession line; and coming home in the sleighs,
+the whole magnificent panorama of the skies spread above them. Waves
+of light rolled slowly from shore to shore of the horizon in vast
+pulsations, noiselessly ascending to the zenith, and descending all
+across the stars, like tidal surges of the aerial ocean sweeping over
+a shallow silver strand.
+
+Three sleighs, a short distance from each other, were running along the
+canal-like road, through dark walls of forest, towards the 'Corner.'
+Now, it is a principle in all bringings home from these midwinter
+bees, that families scatter as much as may be, and no sisters shall
+be escorted by their own brothers, but by somebody else's brothers.
+Consequently, Robert Wynn had paired off with Miss Armytage for this
+drive; and Mr. Holt, greybeard though he was, would not resign Linda
+to any one, but left young Armytage, Arthur, and Jay to fill the third
+sleigh.
+
+Of course that sublime aurora overhead formed a main topic of
+conversation; but irrelevant matter worked in somehow. Blunt Hiram at
+last furnished a key to what had puzzled his fair companion by asking
+abruptly, when Captain Argent was expected at Cedar Creek?
+
+'Captain Argent?' she repeated, in surprise; 'he's not expected at all;
+I believe he has gone to Ireland on a year's leave.'
+
+'Then you are not about to be married to him?' said Mr. Holt, still more
+bluntly.
+
+'No indeed, sir,' she answered, feeling very red, and thankful for
+the comparative gloom. Whereupon Mr. Holt shook hands with her, and
+expressed his conviction that she was the best and prettiest girl in the
+county; afterwards fell into a brown study, lasting till they got home.
+
+The pair in the hindmost sleigh diverged equally far from the aurora;
+for heavy upon Edith's heart lay the fact that the mortgage was at last
+about to be foreclosed, and they should leave Daisy Burn. This very
+evening, her father coming late to Mrs. Vernon's corn-shelling bee, had
+told her that Zack would be propitiated no longer; he wanted to get the
+farm in time for spring operations, and vowed he would have it. They
+must all go to Montreal, where Captain Armytage had some friends, and
+where Edith hoped she might be able perhaps to turn her accomplishments
+to good account by opening a school.
+
+'Papa is not at all suited for a settler's life,' she said. 'He has
+always lived in cities, and town habits are strong upon him. It is the
+best we can do.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+A BUSH-FLITTING.
+
+
+Into Robert Wynn's mind, during that sleigh-drive under the northern
+lights, had entered one or two novel ideas. The first was a plan for
+frustrating the grasping storekeeper's design. He laid the whole
+circumstances before Mr. Holt, and asked for the means of redeeming the
+mortgage, by paying Captain Armytage's debt to Bunting, which was not
+half the value of the farm.
+
+The gallant officer was not obliged for his friend's officiousness. He
+had brought himself to anticipate the move to Montreal most pleasurably,
+notwithstanding the great pecuniary loss to himself. The element of
+practicality had little place in his mental composition. An atmosphere
+of vagueness surrounded all his schemes, and coloured them with a
+seductive halo.
+
+'You see, my dear fellow,' he said to Robert, when the proposition of
+redeeming the mortgage was made, 'you see, it does not suit my plans
+to bury myself any longer in these backwoods, eh? There are so few
+opportunities of relaxation--of intellectual converse, of--a--in
+short, of any of those refinements required by a man of education and
+knowledge of the world. You will understand this, my dear Mr. Robert.
+I--I wish for a more extended field, in fact. Nor is it common justice
+to the girls to keep them immured, I may say, in an atmosphere of
+perpetual labour. I am sure my poor dear Edith has lived a slave's
+life since she came to the bush. Only for your amiable family, I--I
+positively don't know what might have been the consequence, eh?'
+
+Robert felt himself getting angry, and wisely withdrew. On Mr. Holt's
+learning the reception of his offer, he briefly remarked that he guessed
+Sam wouldn't object to own a farm near Cedar Creek, and he should buy it
+altogether from the captain, which was accordingly done. We refrain from
+picturing Zack's feelings.
+
+The other idea which had visited Robert under the aurora--why should he
+not himself become the tenant of Daisy Burn? He took his fur cap and
+went down there for an answer.
+
+The captain had gone to the 'Corner,' this being post-day, and he
+expected some letters from the Montreal friends in whom he believed.
+Reginald was chopping wood; the two sisters were over their daily
+lessons. What to do with Jay, while the above question was being asked
+and answered, was a problem tasking Robert's ingenuity, and finally he
+assumed the office of writing-master, set her a sum in long division,
+which he assured her would require the deepest abstraction of thought,
+and advised a withdrawal to some other room for that purpose.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Jay fell into the snare, and went, boasting of her arithmetical powers,
+which would bring back the sum completed in a few minutes. The instant
+the door closed,--
+
+'I came down this morning,' said Robert, 'to tell you that I have
+concluded to take Daisy Burn as tenant to Mr. Holt, from the first of
+April next. That is,' he added, 'on one condition.'
+
+'What?' she asked, a faint colour rising to her cheek, for his eyes were
+fixed on her.
+
+'Arthur is much steadier than he was, since that visit to Argent last
+spring made him see that a penniless proud man has no business to
+endeavour to live among his equals in social rank, but his superiors in
+wealth. He is good enough farmer to manage Cedar Creek, with George's
+increasing help, and Dubois as a sort of steward. Edith, if I come here
+and settle on this farm, I cannot live alone; will you be my wife?'
+
+He leaned forward, and took her passive hand. The conscious crimson
+rose for one moment to her throat and averted face, crept even to the
+finger-tips, then left her of the usual marble paleness again.
+
+'No, Robert,' she answered firmly, withdrawing her hand; 'it cannot be;
+I cannot leave my father and Jay.'
+
+To this determination she held fast. For she had known that such an
+option might be offered her, as every woman in like circumstances must
+know; she had weighed the matter well in the balance of duty, and this
+was her resolve. Could she have counted the cost accurately, it might
+not have been; but she hid from her eyes the bright side of the possible
+future, and tried steadily to do what she deemed right.
+
+Great was Jay's surprise, when she came back with the long division sum
+triumphantly proved, to find her writing-master gone, and Edith with her
+eyes very tearful. That occurrence was a puzzle to her for some time
+afterwards. Crying was so rare with Edith--and what could Robert Wynn
+have to do with it? But Jay prudently asked no questions after the first
+astonished ejaculation.
+
+When Robert was walking back to the Creek, feeling his pleasant 'castle
+in the air' shattered about his ears, blind to the splendour of the
+sunlit winter world, and deaf to the merry twit of the snow-birds, young
+Armytage came out of the woods and joined him. He, poor fellow, was
+preoccupied with his own plans.
+
+'I think, and Edith agrees with me, that my best chance is to get a
+small lot of wild land, and begin at the beginning, as you did. I want
+the discipline of all the enforced hard work, Bob. My unfortunate
+bringing up in every species of self-indulgence was no good education
+for a settler; but, with God's help, I'll get over it.'
+
+Robert was lifted out of his own trouble for a time by seeing the manful
+struggle which this other heart had to make against the slavery of
+habit. He roused himself to speak cheeringly to the young man, and
+receive his confidence cordially, in an hour when selfishness would
+rather have been alone.
+
+'Perhaps an application for a Governmental free grant of land would be
+advisable,' said Reginald. 'I've been thinking of it. You see I would
+rather like to be bound down, and forced to stay in one spot, as I must
+if I undertake the hundred acres on Government terms.'
+
+'What are the terms?' asked Robert.
+
+'Well, in the first place, I must be more than eighteen years old; must
+take possession of the land in a month from the date of allotment; must
+put twelve acres at least into cultivation within four years, besides
+building a log-house, twenty feet by eighteen; and must guarantee
+residence on the lot till these conditions be fulfilled.'
+
+'Hard work, and no mistake,' said Robert. 'I've a mind to go with you.'
+
+'_You!_' exclaimed the other, with unfeigned surprise, looking in Wynn's
+face.
+
+'Yes, I feel as if I would be the better for a few months of the old
+difficulties. I'd like to get away from this for awhile.'
+
+'But perhaps you wouldn't like the "while" to extend over four years,'
+remarked Armytage. 'Of all people, I never expected to find you a rover,
+Wynn.'
+
+It was the passing fancy of a wounded spirit. Before the captain departed
+from Daisy Burn, Robert had become wiser. Duty called on him to remain
+in the home which his labour had created in the bush. After some
+deliberation, he asked Reginald to work Mr. Holt's newly acquired farm
+in shares with himself; and Reginald, though looking wistfully on his
+receding vision of solitary bush life, consented.
+
+'Farming upon shares' signifies that the owner furnishes the land,
+implements of husbandry, and seed; the other contracting party finds
+all the labour required; and the produce is divided between them. This
+agreement was slightly modified in the case of Daisy Burn, for Robert
+did many a hard day's work on it himself, and was general superintendent.
+The plan may answer well where ignorance and capital go together, and
+chance to secure the services of honest industry; but the temptations of
+the labourer to fraud are strong, and his opportunities unlimited. Many
+a new settler has been ruined by farming upon shares with dishonest
+people.
+
+The last sleighing week saw the departure of the Armytage family. Before
+a thaw imprisoned the back settlements in spring isolation, they had
+reached the city of Ottawa, where the captain showed a disposition to
+halt for some days to look about him, he said--a favourite occupation
+in his lotos-eating life: Edith protested in vain. No; he might fall
+in with some employment to suit him perchance: though what would suit
+Captain Armytage, except a handsome salary for keeping his hands in his
+pockets, he would himself have been puzzled to define.
+
+However, for the purpose of falling in with such employment, he
+frequented most of the hotel and tavern bars in the town, leaving the
+girls chiefly to their own devices. So, as the weather was fine, Miss
+Armytage and Jay walked about a great deal beside the broad brown river,
+just unchained from ice, and rushing, floe-laden, towards the Chaudière
+Falls; through the wide rectangular streets, lined with the splendid
+stores and massive houses of a busy population; through the village-like
+suburbs, where each cottage was fronted with a garden; and ascended the
+Major Hill, to behold the unrivalled view of forest, flood, and field
+from its summit. Far to the right and left stretched a panorama, such as
+only British North America could furnish; the great Ottawa river gliding
+by, a hundred and fifty feet below, the long line of cataracts flashing
+and dashing to the north, a framework of black forest closing into the
+edge of the streets, and bounded itself on the horizon by high blue
+mountains.
+
+Here they were overtaken by Mr. Hiram Holt. He had seen them pass as he
+sat in some lawyer's office near by, and followed them when his business
+was finished. His first proposition was that they should go with him to
+Mapleton, while their father chose to idle about Bytown. Miss Armytage
+declined, for she hoped they might leave for Montreal in a day or two at
+furthest; but if Mr. Holt commanded any influence there,--and she told
+him, poor girl, the little plan of teaching which she had formed.
+
+'Come, now,' quoth Hiram, after some conversation on that head, and a
+promise of writing to friends in Montreal, 'take my arm, young lady, and
+I'll show you some of our Ottawa lions. Biggest of all, to my fancy, is
+the town itself--only twenty-five years old, and as large as if it had
+been growing for centuries. The man is only in the prime of life who
+felled the first tree on this site, and now the town covers as much
+ground as Boston. Certainly the site is unrivalled.'
+
+Edith, thinking a good deal of other more personally important things,
+acquiesced in all he said.
+
+'You see, it's the centre of everything: three magnificent rivers flow
+together here, the Ottawa, Rideau, and Gatineau; water privilege is
+unlimited; Chaudière up yonder would turn all the mills in creation.
+Now, do you know the reason it is called Chaudière, my dear?'
+
+This to Jay, who had to confess her ignorance.
+
+'Because the vapour--do you see the cloud always ascending from the
+crest of the Falls?--reminded somebody of the steam from a boiling
+kettle. Hence these are the Kettle Falls, Miss Jay.'
+
+She thought the appellation very undignified.
+
+'The finest building sites are on this Barracks Hill,' observed Mr.
+Holt, relapsing into contemplation. 'But Government won't give them up:
+it is to be a sort of Acropolis, commanding the whole position at the
+fork of the three rivers, and the double mass of houses on both sides.
+Bytown hasn't seen its best days yet, by a long chalk, I guess.'
+
+'I thought it was called Ottawa,' said Jay inquiringly.
+
+'Well, madam, in this country, when cities arrive at the dignity of ten
+thousand inhabitants, they are permitted to change their names. So a
+town named York has very properly become Toronto, and the town founded
+by Colonel By has become Ottawa. But, as I was saying, its best days are
+in the future: it must be the capital of the Canadas yet.'
+
+Jay remembered that her geography book assigned that distinction to
+Quebec and Montreal. Mr. Holt affirmed that the pre-eminence of these
+must dwindle before this young city at their feet, which could be
+captured by no _coup-de-main_ in case of war, and was at the head of
+the natural land avenue to the great Lakes Huron and Superior.
+
+'The ancient Indian route,' said he--'the only safe one if there were
+war with the United States; and you may depend on it, if railways
+take in the country, one of the greatest termini will be here, at the
+headquarters of the lumber trade.'
+
+His vaticination has been fulfilled. Lines of telegraph, rail, and
+steamers radiate from Ottawa city as a centre, at this day. It has
+successfully contended for the honour of being acknowledged capital
+of the Canadas, and has been declared such by the decision of Queen
+Victoria.
+
+Lions in the way of antiquity it had none to show, being the veriest
+mushroom of a capital; but Mr. Holt took his friends to see the great
+sluice-works, the beautiful Suspension Bridge, the chain of locks
+forming a water staircase on the Rideau canal, and one of the huge
+sawmills turned by a rill from Chaudière Falls, where Jay admired
+immensely the glittering machinery of saws, chisels, and planes, and the
+gay painting of the iron-work. Since then, the vast tubular bridge of
+the Grand Trunk Railway spans the river, and is a larger lion than all
+the rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+SHOVING OF THE ICE.
+
+
+We must pass over a year; for so long did Sam Holt continue in Europe.
+Rambling over many countries, from the heather hills of Scotland and the
+deep fiords of Norway, to the Alhambra and the sunlit 'isles of Greece,'
+this grandson of a Suffolk peasant, elevated to the ranks of independence
+and intellectual culture by the wisdom and self-denial of his immediate
+ancestors, saw, and sketched, and intensely enjoyed the beauty with
+which God has clothed the Old World. And in that same sketch-book, his
+constant companion, there was one page which opened oftener than any
+other--fell open of itself, if you held the volume carelessly--containing
+a drawing, not of Alpine aiguille, nor Italian valley, nor Spanish
+posada, nor Greek temple, but of a comfortable old mansion, no way
+romantically situate among swelling hills, and partially swathed in ivy.
+The corner of the sketch bore the lightly pencilled letters, 'Dunore.'
+
+And now he fancied that twelve months' travel had completed the cure,
+and that he had quite conquered his affection for one who did not return
+it. He was prepared to settle down in common life again, with the
+second scar on his heart just healed.
+
+Coming home by Boston, he took rail thence to Burlington on Lake
+Champlain, and near the head of that noble sheet of water crossed the
+Canadian frontier into French scenery and manners. The line stopped
+short at the edge of the St. Lawrence, where passengers take boat for La
+Chine or the island of Montreal--that is, ice permitting. Now, on this
+occasion the ice did not permit, at least for some time. Sam Holt had
+hoped that its annual commotion would have been over; but it had only
+just begun.
+
+A vast sheet of ice, a mile in breadth and perhaps ten in length, was
+being torn from its holdfasts by the current beneath; was creaking,
+grinding, shoving along, crunching up against the shore in masses, block
+over block ten or fifteen feet high, yielding slowly and reluctantly to
+the pressure of the deep tide below, which sometimes with a tremendous
+noise forced the hummocks into long ridges. The French Canadians call
+these 'bourdigneaux.'
+
+The sights, the sounds, were little short of sublime. But when night
+came down with its added stillness, then the heaving, grating, tearing,
+wrenching noises were as of some prodigious hidden strength, riving the
+very foundations of solid earth itself. People along shore could hardly
+sleep. Mr. Holt, having a taste for strange scenery, spent much of
+that sharp spring night under 'the glimpses of the moon,' watching the
+struggle between the long-enchained water and its icy tyrant. Another
+passenger, like-minded, was companion of his ramble.
+
+'I fear it is but a utopian scheme to dream of bridging such a flood as
+this,' observed Holt. 'No piers of man's construction could withstand
+the force that is in motion on the river to-night. I fear the promoters
+of the Victoria Bridge are too sanguine.'
+
+'Well, I could pin my faith upon any engineering project sanctioned by
+Stephenson,' rejoined the other. 'We had him here to view the site, just
+a mile out of Montreal. He recommended the tubular plan--a modified copy
+of the English Britannia Bridge. And Ross, the resident engineer, has
+already begun preliminaries, with cofferdams and such like mysteries.'
+
+'It will be the eighth wonder of the world if completed,' said Mr. Holt,
+'and must add immensely to the commercial advantages of Canada.'
+
+'My dear sir,' quoth the other impressively (he was a corn merchant in
+Montreal), 'unless you are in trade you cannot duly estimate the vast
+benefits that bridging the St. Lawrence will confer on the colony. For
+six months of the year the river is closed to navigation, as you are
+aware, and the industry of Canada is consequently imprisoned. But this
+noble highway which the Grand Trunk Railway Company have commenced will
+render all seasons alike to our commerce. Consider the advantage of
+being able to transport the inexhaustible cereals of the Far West,
+"without break of bulk or gauge," from the great corn countries of the
+Upper Lakes to the very wharves on the Atlantic.'
+
+Mr. Holt was not surprised to hear, after this, that the speaker was a
+heavy shareholder in the Grand Trunk Railway, and placed unlimited faith
+in its projects. Whether, in subsequent years, its complete collapse
+(for a time) as a speculation lowered his enthusiasm, we cannot say;
+perhaps he was satisfied to suffer, in fulfilment of the superb ambition
+of opening up a continent to commerce.
+
+The corn merchant had got upon his hobby, and could have talked all
+night about the rail and its prospects in Canada. 'The progress of the
+Province outstrips all sober calculation,' said he. 'Population has
+increased twelve hundred per cent. within the last forty years; wherever
+the rail touches the ground, an agricultural peasantry springs up.
+Push it through the very wilderness, say I; there is no surer means of
+filling our waste places with industrial life; and the Pacific should be
+our terminus.'
+
+This design has ceased to be thought extravagant, since Professor Hind's
+explorations have proved the existence of a fertile belt across the
+continent, through British territory, from the Lake of the Woods to the
+Rocky Mountains; along which, if speedily and wisely opened up, must
+travel the commerce of China and Japan, as well as the gold of Columbia.
+The nation which constructs this line will, by its means, hold the
+sceptre of the commercial world. Brother Jonathan is well aware of the
+fact, and would long since have run a chain of locomotives from Atlantic
+to Pacific if he could; but thousands of miles of the great American
+desert intervene, and along the western seaboard there is no port fit
+for the vast trade, from Acapulco to Esquimalt on Vancouver's Island,
+except San Francisco, which, for other reasons, is incapacitated.
+
+Grinding, crushing, heaving, the broad current of the St. Lawrence bore
+its great burden all night along. The same might continue for many days;
+and Sam Holt was anxious to get home. He determined, in company with
+his new friend the corn merchant, to attempt the passage in a canoe.
+
+'Now, sir,' said the latter gentleman, while they waited on the bank,
+muffled to their eyes in furs, 'you will have some experience of what a
+complete barrier the frozen St. Lawrence is to Canadian commerce, or the
+commonest intercourse, and how much the Victoria Bridge is needed.'
+
+'Au large! au large!' called the boatmen--sturdy, muscular fellows,
+accustomed to river perils; and, laying themselves at the bottom of the
+canoe as directed, shoulders resting against the thwarts, the passengers
+began their 'traject.' Sometimes they had open water in lanes and
+patches; sometimes a field of jagged ice, whereupon the merry-hearted
+voyageurs jumped out and dragged the canoe across to water again,
+singing some French song the while. What perilous collisions of floes
+they dexterously avoided! What intricate navigation of narrow channels
+they wound through within half a boat's length of crushing destruction!
+Notwithstanding all their ability, the passengers were thankful to touch
+land again some miles below the usual crossing place, and some hours
+after embarkation.
+
+Here the banks were deeply excoriated with the pressure of the ice
+against them; for the edges of the vast field set in motion the previous
+day had ploughed into the earth, and piled itself in immense angular
+'jambs.' On the quay of Montreal it lay in block heaps also, crushed up
+even into the public thoroughfare; and men were at work to help the
+break in the harbour with pickaxes and crowbars on the grey plain.
+
+Mr. Holt had only a few minutes wherewith to visit a friend in one of
+the obscure streets of the city in a mean-looking house, made known to
+him by the coming out of children bearing school satchels. A gentleman
+with semi-military air, wearing his hat somewhat jauntily on top of a
+bloated face and figure, met them as he emerged from a side street, and,
+paternally patting their heads, called them 'little dears;' and, from
+his seedy dress and unoccupied manner, it was not hard to perceive that
+he must still be unsuccessful in his search after the employment to suit
+him.
+
+Whether Edith's suited her or not was a question her friend would fain
+have asked, when he saw the tired look and dull eye after her morning's
+work. Captain Armytage observed that he had frequently wished her to
+take holidays--in fact, had done everything short of exercising his
+paternal authority; which perhaps he ought to have used on the occasion.
+In fact, he had thoughts of removal to Toronto; the air of Montreal
+evidently did not agree with either of the girls, eh? It is to be
+noticed that Jay stood by, having suddenly shot into a slender shy
+girl, very efficient over the smallest pupils.
+
+Mr. Holt was cordially pleased when Captain Armytage made many apologies
+for not remaining longer; the fact was, he had a business appointment;
+and herewith he whispered to his daughter, who gave him something from
+her pocket. Mr. Holt fancied it was money.
+
+She knew of the approaching marriage of his sister Bell, to attend which
+he had hastened home; and knew, also, that some of the Cedar Creek
+household would be there. Sinewy athlete as Sam Holt was, he could not
+frame his lips to ask whether Linda might be one of them. But how often
+had he to put the question resolutely away during that and the next
+day's travelling? And what would have been his disappointment if, on
+entering the family at Mapleton, that pretty brown head and fair face
+had not met his glance? And you fancied that you were cured, Mr. Holt;
+you reckoned fifteen months' travel a specific.
+
+Yes; Linda was one of Bell's bridesmaids. And that same sketch-book,
+filled with glimpses of European scenery, brought about an enduring
+result on this wise.
+
+The girls were looking over it the day before the wedding--Miss Bell
+in a manner rather preoccupied, which, under the circumstances, was
+excusable. Having both a trousseau and a bridegroom on one's hands is
+quite sufficient for any young lady's capacity; so she presently left
+her brother Sam to explain his sketch-book to Linda alone.
+
+All went evenly until the page was opened, the bit of silver paper lifted
+off, and Dunore was before her. What a start--colour--exclamation! Her
+beloved Irish home, with its green low hills, and its purple sea-line
+afar. 'Oh, Mr. Holt, I am so glad that you went to see Dunore!' Her eyes
+were full of tears as she gazed.
+
+'Are you? I went there for your sake, Linda, to look at the place you
+loved so much.' And--and--what precise words he used then, or how he
+understood that she would prize the drawing a thousandfold for his sake,
+neither rightly remembered afterwards. But--
+
+'In April the ice always breaks up,' remarked old Hiram, with a huge
+laugh at his own joke.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Sam Holt, after their wedding trip to Niagara, settled
+down soberly at Daisy Burn as if they had been married a hundred years,
+Arthur said. They brought back with them a fugitive slave, who had made
+her escape from a Virginian planter. Dinah proved a faithful and useful
+nurse to the Daisy Burn children. Fugitive slaves are found all over
+Canada as servants, and generally prove trustworthy and valuable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+EXEUNT OMNES.
+
+
+Now, in the year 1857, came a retributive justice upon Zack Bunting, in
+the shape of a complete collapse of all his gains and their produce. He
+had placed them in a New York bank which paid enormous interest--thirty
+per cent., people said; and when that figure of returns is offered, wise
+men shake their heads at the security of the principal. Nevertheless,
+all went rightly till the commercial panic of the period above mentioned,
+when Zack's possessions were reduced to their primitive nonentity, and
+the old proverb abundantly illustrated, 'Ill got, ill gone.'
+
+'Libby,' quoth Andy one afternoon, soon subsequently to the above
+occurrence, 'they say that precious limb of an uncle of yours isn't
+goin' to come back here at all at all. I'm tould Mrs. Zack an' Ged is
+packing up, to be off to some wild place intirely.'
+
+He waited, gazing at her energetic movements in washing the dinner
+plates (for the luxury of ware had supplanted tin before now at Cedar
+Creek), to see what effect the news would produce. None. Miss Liberia
+merely uttered 'Wal!'
+
+'Won't you be very lonesome in the world all by yourself, Libby,
+asthore?' he rejoined, casting a melting tenderness into voice and
+manner; 'without a relation that ever was?'
+
+'Not a bit, I guess,' was the curt reply.
+
+'Och,' groaned the lover, 'av there ever was in the whole 'varsal world
+a woman so hard to manage! She hasn't no more feelin's than one of them
+chaneys, or she wouldn't be lookin' at me these four years a-pinin' away
+visibly before her eyes. My new shute o' clothes had to be took in
+twice, I'm got so thin; but little you cares.' Then, after a pause,
+'Libby, mavourneen, you'd be a grand hand at managin' a little store;
+now the one at the "Corner" 'll be shut. 'Spose we tried it togedder,
+eh, mabouchal?'
+
+Without hesitation, without change of countenance, without displacing
+one of her plates, the Yankee damsel answered, 'I guess 'twould be a
+spry thing, rayther; we'd keep house considerable well. And now that's
+settled, you can't be comin' arter me a tormentin' me no more; and the
+sooner we sot up the fixin's the better, I reckon.'
+
+Thus calmly and sensibly did the massive maiden Liberia prepare to glide
+from single into wedded life; and though she has never been able quite
+to restrain the humorous freaks of her husband, she has succeeded in
+transforming the pauper labourer Andy Callaghan into an independent
+shopkeeper and farmer.
+
+Not long after the happy accomplishment of this last alliance the
+post-office was transferred from the decaying knot of cabins at the
+'Corner' to the rising settlement of Cedar Creek. Andy's new store had a
+letter-box fixed in its window, and his wife added to her multifarious
+occupations that of postmistress.
+
+'Anything for me this evening, Mrs. Callaghan?' asked the silver-headed
+squire, in his stately way, coming up to the counter.
+
+'I guess thar's the newspaper,' answered Liberia, pushing it across,
+while the other hand held a yard measure upon some calico, whence she
+was serving a customer. A new face Mr. Wynn saw in a moment: probably
+one of the fresh emigrants who sometimes halted at the Creek proceeding
+up country.
+
+Mrs. Callaghan looked doubtfully at the piece of English silver produced
+by the woman, and turned it round between her finger and thumb. 'I say,
+squire, stop a minute: what sort o' money's this?'
+
+'A crown-piece sterling; you'll give six shillings and a penny currency
+for it,' answered Mr. Wynn.
+
+'Now I guess that's what I don't understand,' said Liberia. 'Why ain't
+five shillin's the same everywhar?'
+
+That Mr. Wynn could not answer. He had been indulging some thoughts of a
+pamphlet on currency reformation, and went out of the store revolving
+them again.
+
+For it is to be noted that the squire felt somewhat like Lycurgus, or
+Codrus, or some of those old law-givers and state-founders in this new
+settlement of the Creek. He knew himself for the greatest authority
+therein, the one whose word bore greatest weight, the referee and
+arbitrator in all eases. Plenty of interests had sprung up in his life
+such as he could not have dreamed of nine years before, when rooted at
+Dunore. His thoughts of the latter had changed since he learned that a
+railway had cut the lawn across and altered the avenue and entrance
+gate, and the new owner had constructed a piece of ornamental water
+where the trout-stream used to run; likewise built a wing to the mansion
+in the Tudor style, with a turret at the end. Which items of news, by
+completely changing the aspect of the dear old home, as they remembered
+Dunore, had done much towards curing the troublesome yearning after it.
+
+Now the squire walked through the broad sloping street of pretty and
+clean detached cottages (white, with bright green shutters outside),
+fronting fields whence the forest had been pushed back considerably.
+Orchards of young trees bloomed about them; the sawmill was noisily
+eating its way through planks on the edge of the stream; groups of
+'sugar-bush' maples stood about; over all the declining sun, hastening
+to immerse itself in the measureless woods westward. 'Pleasant places,'
+said Mr. Wynn to himself, quoting old words; 'my lot has fallen in
+pleasant places.'
+
+Sitting in the summer parlour of the butternut's shade, he read his
+newspaper--a weekly Greenock print, the advertisement side half-filled
+with quack medicines, after the manner of such journals in Canada.
+Presently an entry in the 'Deaths' arrested his attention.
+
+'Died, at his house in Montreal, on the 11th inst., Captain Reginald
+Armytage, late of H.M.'s 115th foot. Friends at a distance will please
+accept this intimation.'
+
+Robert sprang to his feet. 'Let me see it, father.'
+
+Now was the twentieth day of the month. 'I wonder she has not written
+to some of us--to Linda even,' said he, returning the paper. Then going
+over beside his mother, he whispered, 'I shall go to her, mother.'
+
+'Poor Edith! But what could you do, my son?'
+
+'Mother'--after a pause--'shall I not bring you another daughter to fill
+Linda's empty place?'
+
+Mrs. Wynn had long before this been trusted with the story of Robert's
+affection. Her gentleness won every secret of her son's heart.
+
+What could she say now but bless him through her tears?
+
+And so he went next day. He found the mean house in the obscure street
+where Edith had for years toiled, and not unhappily. Duty never brings
+unmixed pain in its performance.
+
+The schoolroom was full of the subdued hum of children's voices; the
+mistress stood at her desk, deep mourning on her figure and in her face.
+It was only the twelfth day since her bereavement; but she was glad of
+the return of regular work, though the white features and frail hands
+hardly seemed equal to much as yet. Presently the German girl who was
+her servant opened the door, and Miss Armytage went to hear her message.
+
+'Von gentleman's in parlour;' which suggested to Edith a careful father
+of fresh pupils. She gave her deputy, Jay, a few charges, and went to
+the visitor, who had thought her an interminable time in coming. He,
+blooming, strong, fresh from his healthy farm life in the backwoods, saw
+with compassion how wan and worn she looked. Nursing at night during her
+father's illness, and school-keeping in the day, might be blamed for
+this. Would she come to Cedar Creek and be restored?
+
+'Yes,' she answered, with perfect frankness, but not until the current
+six months of schooling had elapsed. At the end of June she would be
+free; and then, if Mrs. Wynn asked her and Jay--
+
+The other, the old question, was on Robert's lips at the instant. And to
+this also she said 'Yes.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now for the prospects of the settlement which we have traced from
+its first shanty to its first street. Its magnates looked forward
+confidently to its development as a town--nay, perchance as a city of
+ten thousand inhabitants, when it purposes to assume a new name, as
+risen from nonage. Future maps may exhibit it as Wynnsboro', in honour
+of the founder. A station on the line of rail to connect the Ottawa with
+Lake Huron is to stand beside that concession line (now a level plank
+road) where Robert Wynn halted eleven years ago, axe in hand, and gazed
+in dismay on the impenetrable bush.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+MORRISON AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,
+PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+The following changes were made to the text:
+
+In Chapter III, "fell" was changed to "felt" in the sentence
+"Who has not _felt_ this beside Lodore, or Foyers, or Torc?"
+
+In Chapter XVII, "hall" was changed to "hail" in the sentence
+"He turned round at the _hail_."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cedar Creek, by Elizabeth Hely Walshe
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