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diff --git a/3133-0.txt b/3133-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f8bc1a --- /dev/null +++ b/3133-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3742 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Baddeck and That Sort of Thing, by Charles Dudley Warner + +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: Baddeck and That Sort of Thing + +Author: Charles Dudley Warner + +Release Date: August 20, 2016 [EBook #3133] +Last Updated: February 24, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BADDECK AND THAT SORT OF THING *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +BADDECK AND THAT SORT OF THING + +By Charles Dudley Warner + + + + +PREFACE + +TO JOSEPH H. TWICHELL + +It would be unfair to hold you responsible for these light sketches of a +summer trip, which are now gathered into this little volume in response +to the usual demand in such cases; yet you cannot escape altogether. For +it was you who first taught me to say the name Baddeck; it was you who +showed me its position on the map, and a seductive letter from a home +missionary on Cape Breton Island, in relation to the abundance of trout +and salmon in his field of labor. That missionary, you may remember, we +never found, nor did we see his tackle; but I have no reason to believe +that he does not enjoy good fishing in the right season. You understand +the duties of a home missionary much better than I do, and you know +whether he would be likely to let a couple of strangers into the best +part of his preserve. + +But I am free to admit that after our expedition was started you +speedily relieved yourself of all responsibility for it, and turned +it over to your comrade with a profound geographical indifference; you +would as readily have gone to Baddeck by Nova Zembla as by Nova Scotia. +The flight over the latter island was, you knew, however, no part of our +original plan, and you were not obliged to take any interest in it. +You know that our design was to slip rapidly down, by the back way of +Northumberland Sound, to the Bras d'Or, and spend a week fishing there; +and that the greater part of this journey here imperfectly described +is not really ours, but was put upon us by fate and by the peculiar +arrangement of provincial travel. + +It would have been easy after our return to have made up from libraries +a most engaging description of the Provinces, mixing it with historical, +legendary, botanical, geographical, and ethnological information, and +seasoning it with adventure from your glowing imagination. But it +seemed to me that it would be a more honest contribution if our account +contained only what we saw, in our rapid travel; for I have a theory +that any addition to the great body of print, however insignificant +it may be, has a value in proportion to its originality and +individuality,--however slight either is,--and very little value if it +is a compilation of the observations of others. In this case I know +how slight the value is; and I can only hope that as the trip was very +entertaining to us, the record of it may not be wholly unentertaining to +those of like tastes. + +Of one thing, my dear friend, I am certain: if the readers of this +little journey could have during its persual the companionship that the +writer had when it was made, they would think it altogether delightful. +There is no pleasure comparable to that of going about the world, in +pleasant weather, with a good comrade, if the mind is distracted neither +by care, nor ambition, nor the greed of gain. The delight there is +in seeing things, without any hope of pecuniary profit from them! We +certainly enjoyed that inward peace which the philosopher associates +with the absence of desire for money. For, as Plato says in the Phaedo, +“whence come wars and fightings and factions? whence but from the +body and the lusts of the body? For wars are occasioned by the love of +money.” So also are the majority of the anxieties of life. We left +these behind when we went into the Provinces with no design of acquiring +anything there. I hope it may be my fortune to travel further with you +in this fair world, under similar circumstances. + +NOOK FARM, HARTFORD, April 10, 1874. + +C. D. W. + + + + +BADDECK AND THAT SORT OF THING + + + + +I + + “Ay, now I am in Arden: the more fool I; when I was at home, + I was in a better place; but travellers must be content.” + --TOUCHSTONE. + +Two comrades and travelers, who sought a better country than the United +States in the month of August, found themselves one evening in apparent +possession of the ancient town of Boston. + +The shops were closed at early candle-light; the fashionable inhabitants +had retired into the country, or into the second-story-back, of their +princely residences, and even an air of tender gloom settled upon the +Common. The streets were almost empty, and one passed into the burnt +district, where the scarred ruins and the uplifting piles of new brick +and stone spread abroad under the flooding light of a full moon like +another Pompeii, without any increase in his feeling of tranquil +seclusion. Even the news-offices had put up their shutters, and a +confiding stranger could nowhere buy a guide-book to help his wandering +feet about the reposeful city, or to show him how to get out of it. +There was, to be sure, a cheerful tinkle of horse-car bells in the air, +and in the creeping vehicles which created this levity of sound were a +few lonesome passengers on their way to Scollay's Square; but the two +travelers, not having well-regulated minds, had no desire to go there. +What would have become of Boston if the great fire had reached this +sacred point of pilgrimage no merely human mind can imagine. Without +it, I suppose the horse-cars would go continually round and round, +never stopping, until the cars fell away piecemeal on the track, and +the horses collapsed into a mere mass of bones and harness, and the +brown-covered books from the Public Library, in the hands of the fading +virgins who carried them, had accumulated fines to an incalculable +amount. + +Boston, notwithstanding its partial destruction by fire, is still a good +place to start from. When one meditates an excursion into an unknown +and perhaps perilous land, where the flag will not protect him and +the greenback will only partially support him, he likes to steady and +tranquilize his mind by a peaceful halt and a serene start. So we--for +the intelligent reader has already identified us with the two travelers +resolved to spend the last night, before beginning our journey, in the +quiet of a Boston hotel. Some people go into the country for quiet: we +knew better. The country is no place for sleep. The general absence of +sound which prevails at night is only a sort of background which brings +out more vividly the special and unexpected disturbances which are +suddenly sprung upon the restless listener. There are a thousand +pokerish noises that no one can account for, which excite the nerves to +acute watchfulness. + +It is still early, and one is beginning to be lulled by the frogs and +the crickets, when the faint rattle of a drum is heard,--just a few +preliminary taps. But the soul takes alarm, and well it may, for a roll +follows, and then a rub-a-dub-dub, and the farmer's boy who is handling +the sticks and pounding the distended skin in a neighboring horse-shed +begins to pour out his patriotism in that unending repetition of +rub-a-dub-dub which is supposed to represent love of country in the +young. When the boy is tired out and quits the field, the faithful +watch-dog opens out upon the stilly night. He is the guardian of his +master's slumbers. The howls of the faithful creature are answered +by barks and yelps from all the farmhouses for a mile around, and +exceedingly poor barking it usually is, until all the serenity of the +night is torn to shreds. This is, however, only the opening of the +orchestra. The cocks wake up if there is the faintest moonshine and +begin an antiphonal service between responsive barn-yards. It is not +the clear clarion of chanticleer that is heard in the morn of English +poetry, but a harsh chorus of cracked voices, hoarse and abortive +attempts, squawks of young experimenters, and some indescribable thing +besides, for I believe even the hens crow in these days. Distracting +as all this is, however, happy is the man who does not hear a goat +lamenting in the night. The goat is the most exasperating of the animal +creation. He cries like a deserted baby, but he does it without any +regularity. One can accustom himself to any expression of suffering that +is regular. The annoyance of the goat is in the dreadful waiting for +the uncertain sound of the next wavering bleat. It is the fearful +expectation of that, mingled with the faint hope that the last was the +last, that aggravates the tossing listener until he has murder in his +heart. He longs for daylight, hoping that the voices of the night will +then cease, and that sleep will come with the blessed morning. But he +has forgotten the birds, who at the first streak of gray in the east +have assembled in the trees near his chamber-window, and keep up for an +hour the most rasping dissonance,--an orchestra in which each artist +is tuning his instrument, setting it in a different key and to play +a different tune: each bird recalls a different tune, and none sings +“Annie Laurie,”--to pervert Bayard Taylor's song. + +Give us the quiet of a city on the night before a journey. As we +mounted skyward in our hotel, and went to bed in a serene altitude, we +congratulated ourselves upon a reposeful night. It began well. But as we +sank into the first doze, we were startled by a sudden crash. Was it an +earthquake, or another fire? Were the neighboring buildings all tumbling +in upon us, or had a bomb fallen into the neighboring crockery-store? It +was the suddenness of the onset that startled us, for we soon perceived +that it began with the clash of cymbals, the pounding of drums, and the +blaring of dreadful brass. It was somebody's idea of music. It opened +without warning. The men composing the band of brass must have stolen +silently into the alley about the sleeping hotel, and burst into the +clamor of a rattling quickstep, on purpose. The horrible sound thus +suddenly let loose had no chance of escape; it bounded back from wall +to wall, like the clapping of boards in a tunnel, rattling windows and +stunning all cars, in a vain attempt to get out over the roofs. But such +music does not go up. What could have been the intention of this assault +we could not conjecture. It was a time of profound peace through the +country; we had ordered no spontaneous serenade, if it was a serenade. +Perhaps the Boston bands have that habit of going into an alley and +disciplining their nerves by letting out a tune too big for the alley, +and taking the shock of its reverberation. It may be well enough for the +band, but many a poor sinner in the hotel that night must have thought +the judgment day had sprung upon him. Perhaps the band had some remorse, +for by and by it leaked out of the alley, in humble, apologetic retreat, +as if somebody had thrown something at it from the sixth-story window, +softly breathing as it retired the notes of “Fair Harvard.” + +The band had scarcely departed for some other haunt of slumber and +weariness, when the notes of singing floated up that prolific alley, +like the sweet tenor voice of one bewailing the prohibitory movement; +and for an hour or more a succession of young bacchanals, who were +evidently wandering about in search of the Maine Law, lifted up their +voices in song. Boston seems to be full of good singers; but they will +ruin their voices by this night exercise, and so the city will cease +to be attractive to travelers who would like to sleep there. But this +entertainment did not last the night out. + +It stopped just before the hotel porter began to come around to rouse +the travelers who had said the night before that they wanted to be +awakened. In all well-regulated hotels this process begins at two +o'clock and keeps up till seven. If the porter is at all faithful, he +wakes up everybody in the house; if he is a shirk, he only rouses the +wrong people. We treated the pounding of the porter on our door with +silent contempt. At the next door he had better luck. Pound, pound. An +angry voice, “What do you want?” + +“Time to take the train, sir.” + +“Not going to take any train.” + +“Ain't your name Smith?” + +“Yes.” + +“Well, Smith”-- + +“I left no order to be called.” (Indistinct grumbling from Smith's +room.) + +Porter is heard shuffling slowly off down the passage. In a little while +he returns to Smith's door, evidently not satisfied in his mind. Rap, +rap, rap! + +“Well, what now?” + +“What's your initials? A. T.; clear out!” + +And the porter shambles away again in his slippers, grumbling something +about a mistake. The idea of waking a man up in the middle of the night +to ask him his “initials” was ridiculous enough to banish sleep for +another hour. A person named Smith, when he travels, should leave his +initials outside the door with his boots. + +Refreshed by this reposeful night, and eager to exchange the stagnation +of the shore for the tumult of the ocean, we departed next morning for +Baddeck by the most direct route. This we found, by diligent study +of fascinating prospectuses of travel, to be by the boats of the +International Steamship Company; and when, at eight o'clock in the +morning, we stepped aboard one of them from Commercial Wharf, we +felt that half our journey and the most perplexing part of it was +accomplished. We had put ourselves upon a great line of travel, and +had only to resign ourselves to its flow in order to reach the desired +haven. The agent at the wharf assured us that it was not necessary to +buy through tickets to Baddeck,--he spoke of it as if it were as easy a +place to find as Swampscott,--it was a conspicuous name on the cards of +the company, we should go right on from St. John without difficulty. +The easy familiarity of this official with Baddeck, in short, made +us ashamed to exhibit any anxiety about its situation or the means of +approach to it. Subsequent experience led us to believe that the only +man in the world, out of Baddeck, who knew anything about it lives in +Boston, and sells tickets to it, or rather towards it. + +There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning +of it, when the traveler is settled simply as to his destination, +and commits himself to his unknown fate and all the anticipations of +adventure before him. We experienced this pleasure as we ascended to the +deck of the steamboat and snuffed the fresh air of Boston Harbor. What +a beautiful harbor it is, everybody says, with its irregularly indented +shores and its islands. Being strangers, we want to know the names of +the islands, and to have Fort Warren, which has a national reputation, +pointed out. As usual on a steamboat, no one is certain about the +names, and the little geographical knowledge we have is soon hopelessly +confused. We make out South Boston very plainly: a tourist is looking +at its warehouses through his opera-glass, and telling his boy about a +recent fire there. We find out afterwards that it was East Boston. We +pass to the stern of the boat for a last look at Boston itself; and +while there we have the pleasure of showing inquirers the Monument and +the State House. We do this with easy familiarity; but where there +are so many tall factory chimneys, it is not so easy to point out the +Monument as one may think. + +The day is simply delicious, when we get away from the unozoned air of +the land. The sky is cloudless, and the water sparkles like the top of +a glass of champagne. We intend by and by to sit down and look at it +for half a day, basking in the sunshine and pleasing ourselves with the +shifting and dancing of the waves. Now we are busy running about from +side to side to see the islands, Governor's, Castle, Long, Deer, and the +others. When, at length, we find Fort Warren, it is not nearly so grim +and gloomy as we had expected, and is rather a pleasure-place than a +prison in appearance. We are conscious, however, of a patriotic emotion +as we pass its green turf and peeping guns. Leaving on our right +Lovell's Island and the Great and Outer Brewster, we stand away north +along the jagged Massachusetts shore. These outer islands look cold and +wind-swept even in summer, and have a hardness of outline which is very +far from the aspect of summer isles in summer seas. They are too low and +bare for beauty, and all the coast is of the most retiring and humble +description. Nature makes some compensation for this lowness by an +eccentricity of indentation which looks very picturesque on the map, +and sometimes striking, as where Lynn stretches out a slender arm with +knobby Nahant at the end, like a New Zealand war club. We sit and watch +this shore as we glide by with a placid delight. Its curves and low +promontories are getting to be speckled with villages and dwellings, +like the shores of the Bay of Naples; we see the white spires, the +summer cottages of wealth, the brown farmhouses with an occasional +orchard, the gleam of a white beach, and now and then the flag of some +many-piazzaed hotel. The sunlight is the glory of it all; it must have +quite another attraction--that of melancholy--under a gray sky and with +a lead-colored water foreground. + +There was not much on the steamboat to distract our attention from the +study of physical geography. All the fashionable travelers had gone on +the previous boat or were waiting for the next one. The passengers +were mostly people who belonged in the Provinces and had the listless +provincial air, with a Boston commercial traveler or two, and a few +gentlemen from the republic of Ireland, dressed in their uncomfortable +Sunday clothes. If any accident should happen to the boat, it was +doubtful if there were persons on board who could draw up and pass the +proper resolutions of thanks to the officers. I heard one of these Irish +gentlemen, whose satin vest was insufficient to repress the mountainous +protuberance of his shirt-bosom, enlightening an admiring friend as to +his idiosyncrasies. It appeared that he was that sort of a man that, if +a man wanted anything of him, he had only to speak for it “wunst;” and +that one of his peculiarities was an instant response of the deltoid +muscle to the brain, though he did not express it in that language. He +went on to explain to his auditor that he was so constituted physically +that whenever he saw a fight, no matter whose property it was, he lost +all control of himself. This sort of confidence poured out to a single +friend, in a retired place on the guard of the boat, in an unexcited +tone, was evidence of the man's simplicity and sincerity. The very act +of traveling, I have noticed, seems to open a man's heart, so that he +will impart to a chance acquaintance his losses, his diseases, his table +preferences, his disappointments in love or in politics, and his most +secret hopes. One sees everywhere this beautiful human trait, this +craving for sympathy. There was the old lady, in the antique bonnet and +plain cotton gloves, who got aboard the express train at a way-station +on the Connecticut River Road. She wanted to go, let us say, to Peak's +Four Corners. It seemed that the train did not usually stop there, but +it appeared afterwards that the obliging conductor had told her to get +aboard and he would let her off at Peak's. When she stepped into the +car, in a flustered condition, carrying her large bandbox, she began to +ask all the passengers, in turn, if this was the right train, and if +it stopped at Peak's. The information she received was various, but the +weight of it was discouraging, and some of the passengers urged her to +get off without delay, before the train should start. The poor woman +got off, and pretty soon came back again, sent by the conductor; but her +mind was not settled, for she repeated her questions to every person +who passed her seat, and their answers still more discomposed her. “Sit +perfectly still,” said the conductor, when he came by. “You must get +out and wait for a way train,” said the passengers, who knew. In this +confusion, the train moved off, just as the old lady had about made +up her mind to quit the car, when her distraction was completed by the +discovery that her hair trunk was not on board. She saw it standing on +the open platform, as we passed, and after one look of terror, and a +dash at the window, she subsided into her seat, grasping her bandbox, +with a vacant look of utter despair. Fate now seemed to have done its +worst, and she was resigned to it. I am sure it was no mere curiosity, +but a desire to be of service, that led me to approach her and say, +“Madam, where are you going?” + +“The Lord only knows,” was the utterly candid response; but then, +forgetting everything in her last misfortune and impelled to a burst of +confidence, she began to tell me her troubles. She informed me that +her youngest daughter was about to be married, and that all her +wedding-clothes and all her summer clothes were in that trunk; and as +she said this she gave a glance out of the window as if she hoped it +might be following her. What would become of them all now, all brand +new, she did n't know, nor what would become of her or her daughter. And +then she told me, article by article and piece by piece, all that that +trunk contained, the very names of which had an unfamiliar sound in a +railway-car, and how many sets and pairs there were of each. It seemed +to be a relief to the old lady to make public this catalogue which +filled all her mind; and there was a pathos in the revelation that +I cannot convey in words. And though I am compelled, by way of +illustration, to give this incident, no bribery or torture shall ever +extract from me a statement of the contents of that hair trunk. + +We were now passing Nahant, and we should have seen Longfellow's cottage +and the waves beating on the rocks before it, if we had been near +enough. As it was, we could only faintly distinguish the headland and +note the white beach of Lynn. The fact is, that in travel one is almost +as much dependent upon imagination and memory as he is at home. Somehow, +we seldom get near enough to anything. The interest of all this coast +which we had come to inspect was mainly literary and historical. And no +country is of much interest until legends and poetry have draped it +in hues that mere nature cannot produce. We looked at Nahant for +Longfellow's sake; we strained our eyes to make out Marblehead on +account of Whittier's ballad; we scrutinized the entrance to Salem +Harbor because a genius once sat in its decaying custom-house and made +of it a throne of the imagination. Upon this low shore line, which lies +blinking in the midday sun, the waves of history have beaten for two +centuries and a half, and romance has had time to grow there. Out of +any of these coves might have sailed Sir Patrick Spens “to Noroway, to +Noroway,” + + “They hadna sailed upon the sea + A day but barely three, + + Till loud and boisterous grew the wind, + And gurly grew the sea.” + +The sea was anything but gurly now; it lay idle and shining in an August +holiday. It seemed as if we could sit all day and watch the suggestive +shore and dream about it. But we could not. No man, and few women, can +sit all day on those little round penitential stools that the company +provide for the discomfort of their passengers. There is no scenery in +the world that can be enjoyed from one of those stools. And when the +traveler is at sea, with the land failing away in his horizon, and has +to create his own scenery by an effort of the imagination, these stools +are no assistance to him. The imagination, when one is sitting, will +not work unless the back is supported. Besides, it began to be cold; +notwithstanding the shiny, specious appearance of things, it was cold, +except in a sheltered nook or two where the sun beat. This was nothing +to be complained of by persons who had left the parching land in +order to get cool. They knew that there would be a wind and a draught +everywhere, and that they would be occupied nearly all the time in +moving the little stools about to get out of the wind, or out of the +sun, or out of something that is inherent in a steamboat. Most people +enjoy riding on a steamboat, shaking and trembling and chow-chowing +along in pleasant weather out of sight of land; and they do not feel any +ennui, as may be inferred from the intense excitement which seizes them +when a poor porpoise leaps from the water half a mile away. “Did you see +the porpoise?” makes conversation for an hour. On our steamboat there +was a man who said he saw a whale, saw him just as plain, off to the +east, come up to blow; appeared to be a young one. I wonder where all +these men come from who always see a whale. I never was on a sea-steamer +yet that there was not one of these men. + +We sailed from Boston Harbor straight for Cape Ann, and passed close by +the twin lighthouses of Thacher, so near that we could see the lanterns +and the stone gardens, and the young barbarians of Thacher all at play; +and then we bore away, straight over the trackless Atlantic, across that +part of the map where the title and the publisher's name are usually +printed, for the foreign city of St. John. It was after we passed these +lighthouses that we did n't see the whale, and began to regret the hard +fate that took us away from a view of the Isles of Shoals. I am not +tempted to introduce them into this sketch, much as its surface needs +their romantic color, for truth is stronger in me than the love of +giving a deceitful pleasure. There will be nothing in this record that +we did not see, or might not have seen. For instance, it might not be +wrong to describe a coast, a town, or an island that we passed while we +were performing our morning toilets in our staterooms. The traveler +owes a duty to his readers, and if he is now and then too weary or too +indifferent to go out from the cabin to survey a prosperous village +where a landing is made, he has no right to cause the reader to suffer +by his indolence. He should describe the village. + +I had intended to describe the Maine coast, which is as fascinating +on the map as that of Norway. We had all the feelings appropriate to +nearness to it, but we couldn't see it. Before we came abreast of +it night had settled down, and there was around us only a gray and +melancholy waste of salt water. To be sure it was a lovely night, with a +young moon in its sky, + + “I saw the new moon late yestreen + Wi' the auld moon in her arms,” + +and we kept an anxious lookout for the Maine hills that push so boldly +down into the sea. At length we saw them,--faint, dusky shadows in the +horizon, looming up in an ashy color and with a most poetical light. +We made out clearly Mt. Desert, and felt repaid for our journey by the +sight of this famous island, even at such a distance. I pointed out the +hills to the man at the wheel, and asked if we should go any nearer to +Mt. Desert. + +“Them!” said he, with the merited contempt which officials in this +country have for inquisitive travelers,--“them's Camden Hills. You won't +see Mt. Desert till midnight, and then you won't.” + +One always likes to weave in a little romance with summer travel on a +steamboat; and we came aboard this one with the purpose and the language +to do so. But there was an absolute want of material, that would hardly +be credited if we went into details. The first meeting of the passengers +at the dinner-table revealed it. There is a kind of female plainness +which is pathetic, and many persons can truly say that to them it is +homelike; and there are vulgarities of manner that are interesting; and +there are peculiarities, pleasant or the reverse, which attract one's +attention: but there was absolutely nothing of this sort on our boat. +The female passengers were all neutrals, incapable, I should say, +of making any impression whatever even under the most favorable +circumstances. They were probably women of the Provinces, and took +their neutral tint from the foggy land they inhabit, which is neither a +republic nor a monarchy, but merely a languid expectation of something +undefined. My comrade was disposed to resent the dearth of beauty, +not only on this vessel but throughout the Provinces generally,--a +resentment that could be shown to be unjust, for this was evidently not +the season for beauty in these lands, and it was probably a bad year for +it. Nor should an American of the United States be forward to set up +his standard of taste in such matters; neither in New Brunswick, Nova +Scotia, nor Cape Breton have I heard the inhabitants complain of the +plainness of the women. + +On such a night two lovers might have been seen, but not on our boat, +leaning over the taffrail,--if that is the name of the fence around the +cabin-deck, looking at the moon in the western sky and the long track of +light in the steamer's wake with unutterable tenderness. For the sea was +perfectly smooth, so smooth as not to interfere with the most perfect +tenderness of feeling; and the vessel forged ahead under the stars of +the soft night with an adventurous freedom that almost concealed the +commercial nature of her mission. It seemed--this voyaging through the +sparkling water, under the scintillating heavens, this resolute pushing +into the opening splendors of night--like a pleasure trip. “It is the +witching hour of half past ten,” said my comrade, “let us turn in.” (The +reader will notice the consideration for her feelings which has omitted +the usual description of “a sunset at sea.”) + +When we looked from our state-room window in the morning we saw land. +We were passing within a stone's throw of a pale-green and rather +cold-looking coast, with few trees or other evidences of fertile soil. +Upon going out I found that we were in the harbor of Eastport. I +found also the usual tourist who had been up, shivering in his winter +overcoat, since four o'clock. He described to me the magnificent +sunrise, and the lifting of the fog from islands and capes, in language +that made me rejoice that he had seen it. He knew all about the harbor. +That wooden town at the foot of it, with the white spire, was Lubec; +that wooden town we were approaching was Eastport. The long island +stretching clear across the harbor was Campobello. We had been obliged +to go round it, a dozen miles out of our way, to get in, because the +tide was in such a stage that we could not enter by the Lubec Channel. +We had been obliged to enter an American harbor by British waters. + +We approached Eastport with a great deal of curiosity and considerable +respect. It had been one of the cities of the imagination. Lying in the +far east of our great territory, a military and even a sort of naval +station, a conspicuous name on the map, prominent in boundary disputes +and in war operations, frequent in telegraphic dispatches,--we had +imagined it a solid city, with some Oriental, if decayed, peculiarity, a +port of trade and commerce. The tourist informed me that Eastport looked +very well at a distance, with the sun shining on its white houses. When +we landed at its wooden dock we saw that it consisted of a few piles of +lumber, a sprinkling of small cheap houses along a sidehill, a big hotel +with a flag-staff, and a very peaceful looking arsenal. It is doubtless +a very enterprising and deserving city, but its aspect that morning +was that of cheapness, newness, and stagnation, with no compensating +picturesqueness. White paint always looks chilly under a gray sky and on +naked hills. Even in hot August the place seemed bleak. The tourist, who +went ashore with a view to breakfast, said that it would be a good place +to stay in and go a-fishing and picnicking on Campobello Island. It has +another advantage for the wicked over other Maine towns. Owing to the +contiguity of British territory, the Maine Law is constantly evaded, in +spirit. The thirsty citizen or sailor has only to step into a boat +and give it a shove or two across the narrow stream that separates the +United States from Deer Island and land, when he can ruin his breath, +and return before he is missed. + +This might be a cause of war with, England, but it is not the most +serious grievance here. The possession by the British of the island of +Campobello is an insufferable menace and impertinence. I write with +the full knowledge of what war is. We ought to instantly dislodge the +British from Campobello. It entirely shuts up and commands our harbor, +one of our chief Eastern harbors and war stations, where we keep a flag +and cannon and some soldiers, and where the customs officers look out +for smuggling. There is no way to get into our own harbor, except in +favorable conditions of the tide, without begging the courtesy of a +passage through British waters. Why is England permitted to stretch +along down our coast in this straggling and inquisitive manner? She +might almost as well own Long Island. It was impossible to prevent our +cheeks mantling with shame as we thought of this, and saw ourselves, +free American citizens, land-locked by alien soil in our own harbor. + +We ought to have war, if war is necessary to possess Campobello and Deer +Islands; or else we ought to give the British Eastport. I am not sure +but the latter would be the better course. + +With this war spirit in our hearts, we sailed away into the British +waters of the Bay of Fundy, but keeping all the morning so close to the +New Brunswick shore that we could see there was nothing on it; that is, +nothing that would make one wish to land. And yet the best part of going +to sea is keeping close to the shore, however tame it may be, if the +weather is pleasant. A pretty bay now and then, a rocky cove with +scant foliage, a lighthouse, a rude cabin, a level land, monotonous and +without noble forests,--this was New Brunswick as we coasted along it +under the most favorable circumstances. But we were advancing into the +Bay of Fundy; and my comrade, who had been brought up on its high tides +in the district school, was on the lookout for this phenomenon. The very +name of Fundy is stimulating to the imagination, amid the geographical +wastes of youth, and the young fancy reaches out to its tides with +an enthusiasm that is given only to Fingal's Cave and other pictorial +wonders of the text-book. I am sure the district schools would become +what they are not now, if the geographers would make the other parts +of the globe as attractive as the sonorous Bay of Fundy. The recitation +about that is always an easy one; there is a lusty pleasure in the mere +shouting out of the name, as if the speaking it were an innocent sort of +swearing. From the Bay of Fundy the rivers run uphill half the time, +and the tides are from forty to ninety feet high. For myself, I confess +that, in my imagination, I used to see the tides of this bay go +stalking into the land like gigantic waterspouts; or, when I was better +instructed, I could see them advancing on the coast like a solid wall +of masonry eighty feet high. “Where,” we said, as we came easily, +and neither uphill nor downhill, into the pleasant harbor of St. +John,---“where are the tides of our youth?” + +They were probably out, for when we came to the land we walked out upon +the foot of a sloping platform that ran into the water by the side of +the piles of the dock, which stood up naked and blackened high in the +air. It is not the purpose of this paper to describe St. John, nor to +dwell upon its picturesque situation. As one approaches it from the +harbor it gives a promise which its rather shabby streets, decaying +houses, and steep plank sidewalks do not keep. A city set on a hill, +with flags flying from a roof here and there, and a few shining spires +and walls glistening in the sun, always looks well at a distance. St. +John is extravagant in the matter of flagstaffs; almost every well-to-do +citizen seems to have one on his premises, as a sort of vent for his +loyalty, I presume. It is a good fashion, at any rate, and its more +general adoption by us would add to the gayety of our cities when we +celebrate the birthday of the President. St. John is built on a steep +sidehill, from which it would be in danger of sliding off, if its houses +were not mortised into the solid rock. This makes the house-foundations +secure, but the labor of blasting out streets is considerable. We note +these things complacently as we toil in the sun up the hill to the +Victoria Hotel, which stands well up on the backbone of the ridge, and +from the upper windows of which we have a fine view of the harbor, +and of the hill opposite, above Carleton, where there is the brokenly +truncated ruin of a round stone tower. This tower was one of the first +things that caught our eyes as we entered the harbor. It gave an antique +picturesqueness to the landscape which it entirely wanted without this. +Round stone towers are not so common in this world that we can afford to +be indifferent to them. This is called a Martello tower, but I could +not learn who built it. I could not understand the indifference, almost +amounting to contempt, of the citizens of St. John in regard to this +their only piece of curious antiquity. “It is nothing but the ruins of +an old fort,” they said; “you can see it as well from here as by going +there.” It was, however, the one thing at St. John I was determined to +see. But we never got any nearer to it than the ferry-landing. Want of +time and the vis inertia of the place were against us. And now, as I +think of that tower and its perhaps mysterious origin, I have a longing +for it that the possession of nothing else in the Provinces could +satisfy. + +But it must not be forgotten that we were on our way to Baddeck; that +the whole purpose of the journey was to reach Baddeck; that St. John was +only an incident in the trip; that any information about St. John, which +is here thrown in or mercifully withheld, is entirely gratuitous, and is +not taken into account in the price the reader pays for this volume. But +if any one wants to know what sort of a place St. John is, we can tell +him: it is the sort of a place that if you get into it after eight +o'clock on Wednesday morning, you cannot get out of it in any direction +until Thursday morning at eight o'clock, unless you want to smuggle +goods on the night train to Bangor. It was eleven o'clock Wednesday +forenoon when we arrived at St. John. The Intercolonial railway train +had gone to Shediac; it had gone also on its roundabout Moncton, +Missaquat River, Truro, Stewiack, and Shubenacadie way to Halifax; the +boat had gone to Digby Gut and Annapolis to catch the train that way for +Halifax; the boat had gone up the river to Frederick, the capital. We +could go to none of these places till the next day. We had no desire to +go to Frederick, but we made the fact that we were cut off from it an +addition to our injury. The people of St. John have this peculiarity: +they never start to go anywhere except early in the morning. + +The reader to whom time is nothing does not yet appreciate the annoyance +of our situation. Our time was strictly limited. The active world is +so constituted that it could not spare us more than two weeks. We must +reach Baddeck Saturday night or never. To go home without seeing Baddeck +was simply intolerable. Had we not told everybody that we were going to +Baddeck? Now, if we had gone to Shediac in the train that left St. John +that morning, we should have taken the steamboat that would have carried +us to Port Hawkesbury, whence a stage connected with a steamboat on the +Bras d'Or, which (with all this profusion of relative pronouns) would +land us at Baddeck on Friday. How many times had we been over this route +on the map and the prospectus of travel! And now, what a delusion it +seemed! There would not another boat leave Shediac on this route till +the following Tuesday,--quite too late for our purpose. The reader sees +where we were, and will be prepared, if he has a map (and any feelings), +to appreciate the masterly strategy that followed. + + + + +II + + During the pilgrimage everything does not suit the tastes of + the pilgrim.--TURKISH PROVERB. + +One seeking Baddeck, as a possession, would not like to be detained a +prisoner even in Eden,--much less in St. John, which is unlike Eden in +several important respects. The tree of knowledge does not grow there, +for one thing; at least St. John's ignorance of Baddeck amounts to a +feature. This encountered us everywhere. So dense was this ignorance, +that we, whose only knowledge of the desired place was obtained from +the prospectus of travel, came to regard ourselves as missionaries of +geographical information in this dark provincial city. + +The clerk at the Victoria was not unwilling to help us on our journey, +but if he could have had his way, we would have gone to a place on +Prince Edward Island which used to be called Bedeque, but is now named +Summerside, in the hope of attracting summer visitors. As to Cape +Breton, he said the agent of the Intercolonial could tell us all about +that, and put us on the route. We repaired to the agent. The kindness of +this person dwells in our memory. He entered at once into our longings +and perplexities. He produced his maps and time-tables, and showed us +clearly what we already knew. The Port Hawkesbury steamboat from Shediac +for that week had gone, to be sure, but we could take one of another +line which would leave us at Pictou, whence we could take another across +to Port Hood, on Cape Breton. This looked fair, until we showed the +agent that there was no steamer to Port Hood. + +“Ah, then you can go another way. You can take the Intercolonial railway +round to Pictou, catch the steamer for Port Hawkesbury, connect with the +steamer on the Bras d'Or, and you are all right.” + +So it would seem. It was a most obliging agent; and it took us half an +hour to convince him that the train would reach Pictou half a day too +late for the steamer, that no other boat would leave Pictou for Cape +Breton that week, and that even if we could reach the Bras d'Or, we +should have no means of crossing it, except by swimming. The perplexed +agent thereupon referred us to Mr. Brown, a shipper on the wharf, who +knew all about Cape Breton, and could tell us exactly how to get there. +It is needless to say that a weight was taken off our minds. We pinned +our faith to Brown, and sought him in his warehouse. Brown was a prompt +business man, and a traveler, and would know every route and every +conveyance from Nova Scotia to Cape Breton. + +Mr. Brown was not in. He never is in. His store is a rusty warehouse, +low and musty, piled full of boxes of soap and candles and dried fish, +with a little glass cubby in one corner, where a thin clerk sits at a +high desk, like a spider in his web. Perhaps he is a spider, for the +cubby is swarming with flies, whose hum is the only noise of traffic; +the glass of the window-sash has not been washed since it was put in +apparently. The clerk is not writing, and has evidently no other use for +his steel pen than spearing flies. Brown is out, says this young votary +of commerce, and will not be in till half past five. We remark upon the +fact that nobody ever is “in” these dingy warehouses, wonder when the +business is done, and go out into the street to wait for Brown. + +In front of the store is a dray, its horse fast-asleep, and waiting +for the revival of commerce. The travelers note that the dray is of a +peculiar construction, the body being dropped down from the axles so +as nearly to touch the ground,--a great convenience in loading and +unloading; they propose to introduce it into their native land. The +dray is probably waiting for the tide to come in. In the deep slip lie a +dozen helpless vessels, coasting schooners mostly, tipped on their beam +ends in the mud, or propped up by side-pieces as if they were built for +land as well as for water. At the end of the wharf is a long English +steamboat unloading railroad iron, which will return to the Clyde full +of Nova Scotia coal. We sit down on the dock, where the fresh sea-breeze +comes up the harbor, watch the lazily swinging crane on the vessel, +and meditate upon the greatness of England and the peacefulness of the +drowsy after noon. One's feeling of rest is never complete--unless he +can see somebody else at work,--but the labor must be without haste, as +it is in the Provinces. + +While waiting for Brown, we had leisure to explore the shops of King's +Street, and to climb up to the grand triumphal arch which stands on top +of the hill and guards the entrance to King's Square. + +Of the shops for dry-goods I have nothing to say, for they tempt the +unwary American to violate the revenue laws of his country; but he may +safely go into the book-shops. The literature which is displayed in the +windows and on the counters has lost that freshness which it once may +have had, and is, in fact, if one must use the term, fly-specked, like +the cakes in the grocery windows on the side streets. There are old +illustrated newspapers from the States, cheap novels from the same, and +the flashy covers of the London and Edinburgh sixpenny editions. But +this is the dull season for literature, we reflect. + +It will always be matter of regret to us that we climbed up to the +triumphal arch, which appeared so noble in the distance, with the trees +behind it. For when we reached it, we found that it was built of wood, +painted and sanded, and in a shocking state of decay; and the grove to +which it admitted us was only a scant assemblage of sickly locust-trees, +which seemed to be tired of battling with the unfavorable climate, and +had, in fact, already retired from the business of ornamental shade +trees. Adjoining this square is an ancient cemetery, the surface of +which has decayed in sympathy with the mouldering remains it covers, and +is quite a model in this respect. I have called this cemetery ancient, +but it may not be so, for its air of decay is thoroughly modern, and +neglect, and not years, appears to have made it the melancholy place of +repose it is. Whether it is the fashionable and favorite resort of the +dead of the city we did not learn, but there were some old men sitting +in its damp shades, and the nurses appeared to make it a rendezvous for +their baby-carriages,--a cheerful place to bring up children in, and to +familiarize their infant minds with the fleeting nature of provincial +life. The park and burying-ground, it is scarcely necessary to say, +added greatly to the feeling of repose which stole over us on this sunny +day. And they made us long for Brown and his information about Baddeck. + +But Mr. Brown, when found, did not know as much as the agent. He had +been in Nova Scotia; he had never been in Cape Breton; but he presumed +we would find no difficulty in reaching Baddeck by so and so, and so and +so. We consumed valuable time in convincing Brown that his directions +to us were impracticable and valueless, and then he referred us to Mr. +Cope. An interview with Mr. Cope discouraged us; we found that we +were imparting everywhere more geographical information than we were +receiving, and as our own stock was small, we concluded that we should +be unable to enlighten all the inhabitants of St. John upon the subject +of Baddeck before we ran out. Returning to the hotel, and taking our +destiny into our own hands, we resolved upon a bold stroke. + +But to return for a moment to Brown. I feel that Brown has been let off +too easily in the above paragraph. His conduct, to say the truth, was +not such as we expected of a man in whom we had put our entire faith for +half a day,--a long while to trust anybody in these times,--a man whom +we had exalted as an encyclopedia of information, and idealized in +every way. A man of wealth and liberal views and courtly manners we had +decided Brown would be. Perhaps he had a suburban villa on the heights +over-looking Kennebeckasis Bay, and, recognizing us as brothers in a +common interest in Baddeck, not-withstanding our different nationality, +would insist upon taking us to his house, to sip provincial tea with +Mrs. Brown and Victoria Louise, his daughter. When, therefore, Mr. Brown +whisked into his dingy office, and, but for our importunity, would +have paid no more attention to us than to up-country customers without +credit, and when he proved to be willingly, it seemed to us, ignorant +of Baddeck, our feelings received a great shock. It is incomprehensible +that a man in the position of Brown with so many boxes of soap and +candles to dispose of--should be so ignorant of a neighboring province. +We had heard of the cordial unity of the Provinces in the New Dominion. +Heaven help it, if it depends upon such fellows as Brown! Of course, +his directing us to Cope was a mere fetch. For as we have intimated, it +would have taken us longer to have given Cope an idea of Baddeck, than +it did to enlighten Brown. But we had no bitter feelings about Cope, for +we never had reposed confidence in him. + +Our plan of campaign was briefly this: To take the steamboat at eight +o'clock, Thursday morning, for Digby Gut and Annapolis; thence to go by +rail through the poetical Acadia down to Halifax; to turn north and east +by rail from Halifax to New Glasgow, and from thence to push on by stage +to the Gut of Canso. This would carry us over the entire length of Nova +Scotia, and, with good luck, land us on Cape Breton Island Saturday +morning. When we should set foot on that island, we trusted that we +should be able to make our way to Baddeck, by walking, swimming, or +riding, whichever sort of locomotion should be most popular in that +province. Our imaginations were kindled by reading that the “most superb +line of stages on the continent” ran from New Glasgow to the Gut of +Canso. If the reader perfectly understands this programme, he has the +advantage of the two travelers at the time they made it. + +It was a gray morning when we embarked from St. John, and in fact a +little drizzle of rain veiled the Martello tower, and checked, like +the cross-strokes of a line engraving, the hill on which it stands. The +miscellaneous shining of such a harbor appears best in a golden haze, or +in the mist of a morning like this. We had expected days of fog in this +region; but the fog seemed to have gone out with the high tides of the +geography. And it is simple justice to these possessions of her Majesty, +to say that in our two weeks' acquaintance of them they enjoyed as +delicious weather as ever falls on sea and shore, with the exception of +this day when we crossed the Bay of Fundy. And this day was only one of +those cool interludes of low color, which an artist would be thankful +to introduce among a group of brilliant pictures. Such a day rests the +traveler, who is overstimulated by shifting scenes played upon by the +dazzling sun. So the cool gray clouds spread a grateful umbrella above +us as we ran across the Bay of Fundy, sighted the headlands of the Gut +of Digby, and entered into the Annapolis Basin, and into the region of +a romantic history. The white houses of Digby, scattered over the downs +like a flock of washed sheep, had a somewhat chilly aspect, it is true, +and made us long for the sun on them. But as I think of it now, I prefer +to have the town and the pretty hillsides that stand about the basin +in the light we saw them; and especially do I like to recall the high +wooden pier at Digby, deserted by the tide and so blown by the wind that +the passengers who came out on it, with their tossing drapery, brought +to mind the windy Dutch harbors that Backhuysen painted. We landed a +priest here, and it was a pleasure to see him as he walked along the +high pier, his broad hat flapping, and the wind blowing his long skirts +away from his ecclesiastical legs. + +It was one of the coincidences of life, for which no one can account, +that when we descended upon these coasts, the Governor-General of the +Dominion was abroad in his Provinces. There was an air of expectation of +him everywhere, and of preparation for his coming; his lordship was the +subject of conversation on the Digby boat, his movements were chronicled +in the newspapers, and the gracious bearing of the Governor and Lady +Dufferin at the civic receptions, balls, and picnics was recorded with +loyal satisfaction; even a literary flavor was given to the provincial +journals by quotations from his lordship's condescension to letters in +the “High Latitudes.” It was not without pain, however, that even in +this un-American region we discovered the old Adam of journalism in the +disposition of the newspapers of St. John toward sarcasm touching +the well-meant attempts to entertain the Governor and his lady in the +provincial town of Halifax,--a disposition to turn, in short, upon the +demonstrations of loyal worship the faint light of ridicule. There were +those upon the boat who were journeying to Halifax to take part in the +civic ball about to be given to their excellencies, and as we were going +in the same direction, we shared in the feeling of satisfaction which +proximity to the Great often excites. + +We had other if not deeper causes of satisfaction. We were sailing along +the gracefully moulded and tree-covered hills of the Annapolis Basin, +and up the mildly picturesque river of that name, and we were about to +enter what the provincials all enthusiastically call the Garden of Nova +Scotia. This favored vale, skirted by low ranges of hills on either +hand, and watered most of the way by the Annapolis River, extends from +the mouth of the latter to the town of Windsor on the river Avon. We +expected to see something like the fertile valleys of the Connecticut +or the Mohawk. We should also pass through those meadows on the Basin of +Minas which Mr. Longfellow has made more sadly poetical than any other +spot on the Western Continent. It is,--this valley of the Annapolis,--in +the belief of provincials, the most beautiful and blooming place in the +world, with a soil and climate kind to the husbandman; a land of fair +meadows, orchards, and vines. It was doubtless our own fault that this +land did not look to us like a garden, as it does to the inhabitants of +Nova Scotia; and it was not until we had traveled over the rest of +the country, that we saw the appropriateness of the designation. The +explanation is, that not so much is required of a garden here as in some +other parts of the world. Excellent apples, none finer, are exported +from this valley to England, and the quality of the potatoes is said to +ap-proach an ideal perfection here. I should think that oats would ripen +well also in a good year, and grass, for those who care for it, may be +satisfactory. I should judge that the other products of this garden are +fish and building-stone. But we anticipate. And have we forgotten the +“murmuring pines and the hemlocks”? Nobody, I suppose, ever travels +here without believing that he sees these trees of the imagination, so +forcibly has the poet projected them upon the uni-versal consciousness. +But we were unable to see them, on this route. + +It would be a brutal thing for us to take seats in the railway train +at Annapolis, and leave the ancient town, with its modern houses and +remains of old fortifications, without a thought of the romantic +history which saturates the region. There is not much in the smart, +new restaurant, where a tidy waiting-maid skillfully depreciates our +currency in exchange for bread and cheese and ale, to recall the early +drama of the French discovery and settlement. For it is to the French +that we owe the poetical interest that still invests, like a garment, +all these islands and bays, just as it is to the Spaniards that we owe +the romance of the Florida coast. Every spot on this continent that +either of these races has touched has a color that is wanting in the +prosaic settlements of the English. + +Without the historical light of French adventure upon this town and +basin of Annapolis, or Port Royal, as they were first named, I confess +that I should have no longing to stay here for a week; notwithstanding +the guide-book distinctly says that this harbor has “a striking +resemblance to the beautiful Bay of Naples.” I am not offended at this +remark, for it is the one always made about a harbor, and I am sure the +passing traveler can stand it, if the Bay of Naples can. And yet +this tranquil basin must have seemed a haven of peace to the first +discoverers. + +It was on a lovely summer day in 1604, that the Sieur de Monts and his +comrades, Champlain and the Baron de Poutrincourt, beating about the +shores of Nova Scotia, were invited by the rocky gateway of the Port +Royal Basin. They entered the small inlet, says Mr. Parkman, when +suddenly the narrow strait dilated into a broad and tranquil basin, +compassed with sunny hills, wrapped with woodland verdure and alive with +waterfalls. Poutrincourt was delighted with the scene, and would fain +remove thither from France with his family. Since Poutrincourt's day, +the hills have been somewhat denuded of trees, and the waterfalls are +not now in sight; at least, not under such a gray sky as we saw. + +The reader who once begins to look into the French occupancy of Acadia +is in danger of getting into a sentimental vein, and sentiment is the +one thing to be shunned in these days. Yet I cannot but stay, though the +train should leave us, to pay my respectful homage to one of the most +heroic of women, whose name recalls the most romantic incident in +the history of this region. Out of this past there rises no figure so +captivating to the imagination as that of Madame de la Tour. And it +is noticeable that woman has a curious habit of coming to the front in +critical moments of history, and performing some exploit that eclipses +in brilliancy all the deeds of contemporary men; and the exploit usually +ends in a pathetic tragedy, that fixes it forever in the sympathy of the +world. I need not copy out of the pages of De Charlevoix the well-known +story of Madame de la Tour; I only wish he had told us more about her. +It is here at Port Royal that we first see her with her husband. Charles +de St. Etienne, the Chevalier de la Tour,--there is a world of romance +in these mere names,--was a Huguenot nobleman who had a grant of Port +Royal and of La Hive, from Louis XIII. He ceded La Hive to Razilli, +the governor-in-chief of the provinces, who took a fancy to it, for +a residence. He was living peacefully at Port Royal in 1647, when the +Chevalier d'Aunay Charnise, having succeeded his brother Razilli at La +Hive, tired of that place and removed to Port Royal. De Charnise was +a Catholic; the difference in religion might not have produced any +unpleasantness, but the two noblemen could not agree in dividing the +profits of the peltry trade,--each being covetous, if we may so express +it, of the hide of the savage continent, and determined to take it off +for himself. At any rate, disagreement arose, and De la Tour moved over +to the St. John, of which region his father had enjoyed a grant from +Charles I. of England,--whose sad fate it is not necessary now to recall +to the reader's mind,--and built a fort at the mouth of the river. But +the differences of the two ambitious Frenchmen could not be composed. +De la Tour obtained aid from Governor Winthrop at Boston, thus verifying +the Catholic prediction that the Huguenots would side with the enemies +of France on occasion. De Charnise received orders from Louis to arrest +De la Tour; but a little preliminary to the arrest was the possession of +the fort of St. John, and this he could not obtain, although be sent all +his force against it. Taking advantage, however, of the absence of De +la Tour, who had a habit of roving about, he one day besieged St. John. +Madame de la Tour headed the little handful of men in the fort, and made +such a gallant resistance that De Charnise was obliged to draw off his +fleet with the loss of thirty-three men,--a very serious loss, when the +supply of men was as distant as France. But De Charnise would not +be balked by a woman; he attacked again; and this time, one of the +garrison, a Swiss, betrayed the fort, and let the invaders into +the walls by an unguarded entrance. It was Easter morning when this +misfortune occurred, but the peaceful influence of the day did not +avail. When Madame saw that she was betrayed, her spirits did not quail; +she took refuge with her little band in a detached part of the fort, and +there made such a bold show of defense, that De Charnise was obliged to +agree to the terms of her surrender, which she dictated. No sooner had +this unchivalrous fellow obtained possession of the fort and of this +Historic Woman, than, overcome with a false shame that he had made terms +with a woman, he violated his noble word, and condemned to death all +the men, except one, who was spared on condition that he should be the +executioner of the others. And the poltroon compelled the brave woman +to witness the execution, with the added indignity of a rope round her +neck,--or as De Charlevoix much more neatly expresses it, “obligea sa +prisonniere d'assister a l'execution, la corde au cou.” + +To the shock of this horror the womanly spirit of Madame de la Tour +succumbed; she fell into a decline and died soon after. De la Tour, +himself an exile from his province, wandered about the New World in his +customary pursuit of peltry. He was seen at Quebec for two years. While +there, he heard of the death of De Charnise, and straightway repaired +to St. John. The widow of his late enemy received him graciously, and +he entered into possession of the estate of the late occupant with the +consent of all the heirs. To remove all roots of bitterness, De la +Tour married Madame de Charnise, and history does not record any ill of +either of them. I trust they had the grace to plant a sweetbrier on +the grave of the noble woman to whose faithfulness and courage they owe +their rescue from obscurity. At least the parties to this singular +union must have agreed to ignore the lamented existence of the Chevalier +d'Aunay. + +With the Chevalier de la Tour, at any rate, it all went well thereafter. +When Cromwell drove the French from Acadia, he granted great territorial +rights to De la Tour, which that thrifty adventurer sold out to one +of his co-grantees for L16,000; and he no doubt invested the money in +peltry for the London market. + +As we leave the station at Annapolis, we are obliged to put Madame de la +Tour out of our minds to make room for another woman whose name, and we +might say presence, fills all the valley before us. So it is that woman +continues to reign, where she has once got a foothold, long after her +dear frame has become dust. Evangeline, who is as real a personage as +Queen Esther, must have been a different woman from Madame de la Tour. +If the latter had lived at Grand Pre, she would, I trust, have made +it hot for the brutal English who drove the Acadians out of their +salt-marsh paradise, and have died in her heroic shoes rather than float +off into poetry. But if it should come to the question of marrying the +De la Tour or the Evangeline, I think no man who was not engaged in the +peltry trade would hesitate which to choose. At any rate, the women who +love have more influence in the world than the women who fight, and so +it happens that the sentimental traveler who passes through Port Royal +without a tear for Madame de la Tour, begins to be in a glow of tender +longing and regret for Evangeline as soon as he enters the valley of the +Annapolis River. For myself, I expected to see written over the railway +crossings the legend, + +“Look out for Evangeline while the bell rings.” + +When one rides into a region of romance he does not much notice his +speed or his carriage; but I am obliged to say that we were not hurried +up the valley, and that the cars were not too luxurious for the plain +people, priests, clergymen, and belles of the region, who rode in them. +Evidently the latest fashions had not arrived in the Provinces, and we +had an opportunity of studying anew those that had long passed away in +the States, and of remarking how inappropriate a fashion is when it has +ceased to be the fashion. + +The river becomes small shortly after we leave Annapolis and before we +reach Paradise. At this station of happy appellation we looked for the +satirist who named it, but he has probably sold out and removed. If +the effect of wit is produced by the sudden recognition of a remote +resemblance, there was nothing witty in the naming of this station. +Indeed, we looked in vain for the “garden” appearance of the valley. +There was nothing generous in the small meadows or the thin orchards; +and if large trees ever grew on the bordering hills, they have given +place to rather stunted evergreens; the scraggy firs and balsams, in +fact, possess Nova Scotia generally as we saw it,--and there is nothing +more uninteresting and wearisome than large tracts of these woods. We +are bound to believe that Nova Scotia has somewhere, or had, great pines +and hemlocks that murmur, but we were not blessed with the sight of +them. Slightly picturesque this valley is with its winding river and +high hills guarding it, and perhaps a person would enjoy a foot-tramp +down it; but, I think he would find little peculiar or interesting after +he left the neighborhood of the Basin of Minas. + +Before we reached Wolfville we came in sight of this basin and some of +the estuaries and streams that run into it; that is, when the tide goes +out; but they are only muddy ditches half the time. The Acadia College +was pointed out to us at Wolfville by a person who said that it is a +feeble institution, a remark we were sorry to hear of a place described +as “one of the foremost seats of learning in the Province.” But our +regret was at once extinguished by the announcement that the next +station was Grand Pre! We were within three miles of the most poetic +place in North America. + +There was on the train a young man from Boston, who said that he was +born in Grand Pre. It seemed impossible that we should actually be near +a person so felicitously born. He had a justifiable pride in the fact, +as well as in the bride by his side, whom he was taking to see for +the first time his old home. His local information, imparted to her, +overflowed upon us; and when he found that we had read “Evangeline,” his +delight in making us acquainted with the scene of that poem was pleasant +to see. The village of Grand Pre is a mile from the station; and perhaps +the reader would like to know exactly what the traveler, hastening on to +Baddeck, can see of the famous locality. + +We looked over a well-grassed meadow, seamed here and there by beds of +streams left bare by the receding tide, to a gentle swell in the ground +upon which is a not heavy forest growth. The trees partly conceal the +street of Grand Pre, which is only a road bordered by common houses. +Beyond is the Basin of Minas, with its sedgy shore, its dreary flats; +and beyond that projects a bold headland, standing perpendicular against +the sky. This is the Cape Blomidon, and it gives a certain dignity to +the picture. + +The old Normandy picturesqueness has departed from the village of Grand +Pre. Yankee settlers, we were told, possess it now, and there are no +descendants of the French Acadians in this valley. I believe that Mr. +Cozzens found some of them in humble circumstances in a village on the +other coast, not far from Halifax, and it is there, probably, that the + +“Maidens still wear their Norman caps and their kirtles of homespun, +And by the evening fire repeat Evangeline's story, While from its +rocky caverns the deep-voiced, neighboring ocean Speaks, and in accents +disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.” + +At any rate, there is nothing here now except a faint tradition of the +French Acadians; and the sentimental traveler who laments that they were +driven out, and not left behind their dikes to rear their flocks, and +cultivate the rural virtues, and live in the simplicity of ignorance, +will temper his sadness by the reflection that it is to the expulsion he +owes “Evangeline” and the luxury of his romantic grief. So that if the +traveler is honest, and examines his own soul faithfully, he will not +know what state of mind to cherish as he passes through this region of +sorrow. + +Our eyes lingered as long as possible and with all eagerness upon these +meadows and marshes which the poet has made immortal, and we regretted +that inexorable Baddeck would not permit us to be pilgrims for a day in +this Acadian land. Just as I was losing sight of the skirt of trees at +Grand Pre, a gentleman in the dress of a rural clergyman left his seat, +and complimented me with this remark: “I perceive, sir, that you are +fond of reading.” + +I could not but feel flattered by this unexpected discovery of my +nature, which was no doubt due to the fact that I held in my hand one +of the works of Charles Reade on social science, called “Love me Little, +Love me Long,” and I said, “Of some kinds, I am.” + +“Did you ever see a work called 'Evangeline'?” + +“Oh, yes, I have frequently seen it.” + +“You may remember,” continued this Mass of Information, “that there is +an allusion in it to Grand Pre. That is the place, sir!” + +“Oh, indeed, is that the place? Thank you.” + +“And that mountain yonder is Cape Blomidon, blow me down, you know.” + +And under cover of this pun, the amiable clergyman retired, unconscious, +I presume, of his prosaic effect upon the atmosphere of the region. With +this intrusion of the commonplace, I suffered an eclipse of faith as to +Evangeline, and was not sorry to have my attention taken up by the river +Avon, along the banks of which we were running about this time. It is +really a broad arm of the basin, extending up to Windsor, and beyond in +a small stream, and would have been a charming river if there had been a +drop of water in it. I never knew before how much water adds to a river. +Its slimy bottom was quite a ghastly spectacle, an ugly gash in the land +that nothing could heal but the friendly returning tide. I should think +it would be confusing to dwell by a river that runs first one way and +then the other, and then vanishes altogether. + +All the streams about this basin are famous for their salmon and shad, +and the season for these fish was not yet passed. There seems to be an +untraced affinity between the shad and the strawberry; they appear and +disappear in a region simultaneously. When we reached Cape Breton, we +were a day or two late for both. It is impossible not to feel a little +contempt for people who do not have these luxuries till July and August; +but I suppose we are in turn despised by the Southerners because we do +not have them till May and June. So, a great part of the enjoyment of +life is in the knowledge that there are people living in a worse place +than that you inhabit. + +Windsor, a most respectable old town round which the railroad sweeps, +with its iron bridge, conspicuous King's College, and handsome church +spire, is a great place for plaster and limestone, and would be a good +location for a person interested in these substances. Indeed, if a man +can live on rocks, like a goat, he may settle anywhere between Windsor +and Halifax. It is one of the most sterile regions in the Province. +With the exception of a wild pond or two, we saw nothing but rocks +and stunted firs, for forty-five miles, a monotony unrelieved by one +picturesque feature. Then we longed for the “Garden of Nova Scotia,” and +understood what is meant by the name. + +A member of the Ottawa government, who was on his way to the +Governor-General's ball at Halifax, informed us that this country is +rich in minerals, in iron especially, and he pointed out spots where +gold had been washed out. But we do not covet it. And we were not sorry +to learn from this gentleman, that since the formation of the Dominion, +there is less and less desire in the Provinces for annexation to the +United States. One of the chief pleasures in traveling in Nova Scotia +now is in the constant reflection that you are in a foreign country; and +annexation would take that away. + +It is nearly dark when we reach the head of the Bedford Basin. The noble +harbor of Halifax narrows to a deep inlet for three miles along the +rocky slope on which the city stands, and then suddenly expands into +this beautiful sheet of water. We ran along its bank for five miles, +cheered occasionally by a twinkling light on the shore, and then came +to a stop at the shabby terminus, three miles out of town. This basin is +almost large enough to float the navy of Great Britain, and it could +lie here, with the narrows fortified, secure from the attacks of +the American navy, hovering outside in the fog. With these patriotic +thoughts we enter the town. It is not the fault of the railroad, but its +present inability to climb a rocky hill, that it does not run into the +city. The suburbs are not impressive in the night, but they look better +then than they do in the daytime; and the same might be said of the city +itself. Probably there is not anywhere a more rusty, forlorn town, and +this in spite of its magnificent situation. + +It is a gala-night when we rattle down the rough streets, and have +pointed out to us the somber government buildings. The Halifax Club +House is a blaze of light, for the Governor-General is being received +there, and workmen are still busy decorating the Provincial Building +for the great ball. The city is indeed pervaded by his lordship, and +we regret that we cannot see it in its normal condition of quiet; the +hotels are full, and it is impossible to escape the festive feeling that +is abroad. It ill accords with our desires, as tranquil travelers, to be +plunged into such a vortex of slow dissipation. These people take their +pleasures more gravely than we do, and probably will last the longer for +their moderation. Having ascertained that we can get no more information +about Baddeck here than in St. John, we go to bed early, for we are to +depart from this fascinating place at six o'clock. + +If any one objects that we are not competent to pass judgment on the +city of Halifax by sleeping there one night, I beg leave to plead the +usual custom of travelers,--where would be our books of travel, if more +was expected than a night in a place?--and to state a few facts. The +first is, that I saw the whole of Halifax. If I were inclined, I could +describe it building by building. Cannot one see it all from the citadel +hill, and by walking down by the horticultural garden and the Roman +Catholic cemetery? and did not I climb that hill through the most +dilapidated rows of brown houses, and stand on the greensward of the +fortress at five o'clock in the morning, and see the whole city, and the +British navy riding at anchor, and the fog coming in from the Atlantic +Ocean? Let the reader go to! and if he would know more of Halifax, go +there. We felt that if we remained there through the day, it would be a +day of idleness and sadness. I could draw a picture of Halifax. I could +relate its century of history; I could write about its free-school +system, and its many noble charities. But the reader always skips such +things. He hates information; and he himself would not stay in this dull +garrison town any longer than he was obliged to. + +There was to be a military display that day in honor of the Governor. + +“Why,” I asked the bright and light-minded colored boy who sold papers +on the morning train, “don't you stay in the city and see it?” + +“Pho,” said he, with contempt, “I'm sick of 'em. Halifax is played out, +and I'm going to quit it.” + +The withdrawal of this lively trader will be a blow to the enterprise of +the place. + +When I returned to the hotel for breakfast--which was exactly like the +supper, and consisted mainly of green tea and dry toast--there was a +commotion among the waiters and the hack-drivers over a nervous little +old man, who was in haste to depart for the morning train. He was a +specimen of provincial antiquity such as could not be seen elsewhere. +His costume was of the oddest: a long-waisted coat reaching nearly to +his heels, short trousers, a flowered silk vest, and a napless hat. He +carried his baggage tied up in mealbags, and his attention was divided +between that and two buxom daughters, who were evidently enjoying their +first taste of city life. The little old man, who was not unlike a +petrified Frenchman of the last century, had risen before daylight, +roused up his daughters, and had them down on the sidewalk by four +o'clock, waiting for hack, or horse-car, or something to take them +to the station. That he might be a man of some importance at home was +evident, but he had lost his head in the bustle of this great town, +and was at the mercy of all advisers, none of whom could understand +his mongrel language. As we came out to take the horse-car, he saw his +helpless daughters driven off in one hack, while he was raving among his +meal-bags on the sidewalk. Afterwards we saw him at the station, flying +about in the greatest excitement, asking everybody about the train; and +at last he found his way into the private office of the ticket-seller. +“Get out of here!” roared that official. The old man persisted that +he wanted a ticket. “Go round to the window; clear out!” In a very +flustered state he was hustled out of the room. When he came to the +window and made known his destination, he was refused tickets, because +his train did not start for two hours yet! + +This mercurial old gentleman only appears in these records because he +was the only person we saw in this Province who was in a hurry to do +anything, or to go anywhere. + +We cannot leave Halifax without remarking that it is a city of great +private virtue, and that its banks are sound. The appearance of its +paper-money is not, however, inviting. We of the United States lead the +world in beautiful paper-money; and when I exchanged my crisp, handsome +greenbacks for the dirty, flimsy, ill-executed notes of the Dominion, +at a dead loss of value, I could not be reconciled to the transaction. +I sarcastically called the stuff I received “Confederate money;” but +probably no one was wounded by the severity; for perhaps no one knew +what a resemblance in badness there is between the “Confederate” notes +of our civil war and the notes of the Dominion; and, besides, the +Confederacy was too popular in the Provinces for the name to be a +reproach to them. I wish I had thought of something more insulting to +say. + +By noon on Friday we came to New Glasgow, having passed through a +country where wealth is to be won by hard digging if it is won at all; +through Truro, at the head of the Cobequid Bay, a place exhibiting more +thrift than any we have seen. A pleasant enough country, on the whole, +is this which the road runs through up the Salmon and down the +East River. New Glasgow is not many miles from Pictou, on the great +Cumberland Strait; the inhabitants build vessels, and strangers drive +out from here to see the neighboring coal mines. Here we were to dine +and take the stage for a ride of eighty miles to the Gut of Canso. + +The hotel at New Glasgow we can commend as one of the most unwholesome +in the Province; but it is unnecessary to emphasize its condition, for +if the traveler is in search of dirty hotels, he will scarcely go amiss +anywhere in these regions. There seems to be a fashion in diet which +endures. The early travelers as well as the later in these Atlantic +provinces all note the prevalence of dry, limp toast and green tea; they +are the staples of all the meals; though authorities differ in regard +to the third element for discouraging hunger: it is sometimes boiled +salt-fish and sometimes it is ham. Toast was probably an inspiration of +the first woman of this part of the New World, who served it hot; but +it has become now a tradition blindly followed, without regard to +temperature; and the custom speaks volumes for the non-inventiveness +of woman. At the inn in New Glasgow those who choose dine in their +shirt-sleeves, and those skilled in the ways of this table get all they +want in seven minutes. A man who understands the use of edged tools +can get along twice as fast with a knife and fork as he can with a fork +alone. + +But the stage is at the door; the coach and four horses answer the +advertisement of being “second to none on the continent.” We mount +to the seat with the driver. The sun is bright; the wind is in the +southwest; the leaders are impatient to go; the start for the long ride +is propitious. + +But on the back seat in the coach is the inevitable woman, young and +sickly, with the baby in her arms. The woman has paid her fare through +to Guysborough, and holds her ticket. It turns out, however, that she +wants to go to the district of Guysborough, to St. Mary's Cross Roads, +somewhere in it, and not to the village of Guysborough, which is away +down on Chedabucto Bay. (The reader will notice this geographical +familiarity.) And this stage does not go in the direction of St. Mary's. +She will not get out, she will not surrender her ticket, nor pay her +fare again. Why should she? And the stage proprietor, the stage-driver, +and the hostler mull over the problem, and sit down on the woman's hair +trunk in front of the tavern to reason with her. The baby joins its +voice from the coach window in the clamor of the discussion. The baby +prevails. The stage company comes to a compromise, the woman dismounts, +and we are off, away from the white houses, over the sandy road, out +upon a hilly and not cheerful country. And the driver begins to tell us +stories of winter hardships, drifted highways, a land buried in snow, +and great peril to men and cattle. + + + + +III + + “It was then summer, and the weather very fine; so pleased + was I with the country, in which I had never travelled + before, that my delight proved equal to my wonder.” + -- BENVENUTO CELLINI. + +There are few pleasures in life equal to that of riding on the box-seat +of a stagecoach, through a country unknown to you and hearing the driver +talk about his horses. We made the intimate acquaintance of twelve +horses on that day's ride, and learned the peculiar disposition +and traits of each one of them, their ambition of display, their +sensitiveness to praise or blame, their faithfulness, their playfulness, +the readiness with which they yielded to kind treatment, their +daintiness about food and lodging. + +May I never forget the spirited little jade, the off-leader in the third +stage, the petted belle of the route, the nervous, coquettish, mincing +mare of Marshy Hope. A spoiled beauty she was; you could see that as +she took the road with dancing step, tossing her pretty head about, and +conscious of her shining black coat and her tail done up “in any simple +knot,”--like the back hair of Shelley's Beatrice Cenci. How she ambled +and sidled and plumed herself, and now and then let fly her little heels +high in air in mere excess of larkish feeling. + +“So! girl; so! Kitty,” murmurs the driver in the softest tones of +admiration; “she don't mean anything by it, she's just like a kitten.” + +But the heels keep flying above the traces, and by and by the driver +is obliged to “speak hash” to the beauty. The reproof of the displeased +tone is evidently felt, for she settles at once to her work, showing +perhaps a little impatience, jerking her head up and down, and +protesting by her nimble movements against the more deliberate trot +of her companion. I believe that a blow from the cruel lash would have +broken her heart; or else it would have made a little fiend of the +spirited creature. The lash is hardly ever good for the sex. + +For thirteen years, winter and summer, this coachman had driven this +monotonous, uninteresting route, with always the same sandy hills, +scrubby firs, occasional cabins, in sight. What a time to nurse his +thought and feed on his heart! How deliberately he can turn things over +in his brain! What a system of philosophy he might evolve out of his +consciousness! One would think so. But, in fact, the stagebox is no +place for thinking. To handle twelve horses every day, to keep each to +its proper work, stimulating the lazy and restraining the free, humoring +each disposition, so that the greatest amount of work shall be obtained +with the least friction, making each trip on time, and so as to leave +each horse in as good condition at the close as at the start, taking +advantage of the road, refreshing the team by an occasional spurt of +speed,--all these things require constant attention; and if the driver +was composing an epic, the coach might go into the ditch, or, if no +accident happened, the horses would be worn out in a month, except for +the driver's care. + +I conclude that the most delicate and important occupation in life is +stage-driving. It would be easier to “run” the Treasury Department +of the United States than a four-in-hand. I have a sense of the +unimportance of everything else in comparison with this business in +hand. And I think the driver shares that feeling. He is the autocrat of +the situation. He is lord of all the humble passengers, and they feel +their inferiority. They may have knowledge and skill in some things, but +they are of no use here. At all the stables the driver is king; all the +people on the route are deferential to him; they are happy if he will +crack a joke with them, and take it as a favor if he gives them better +than they send. And it is his joke that always raises the laugh, +regardless of its quality. + +We carry the royal mail, and as we go along drop little sealed canvas +bags at way offices. The bags would not hold more than three pints of +meal, and I can see that there is nothing in them. Yet somebody along +here must be expecting a letter, or they would not keep up the mail +facilities. At French River we change horses. There is a mill here, and +there are half a dozen houses, and a cranky bridge, which the driver +thinks will not tumble down this trip. The settlement may have seen +better days, and will probably see worse. + +I preferred to cross the long, shaky wooden bridge on foot, leaving the +inside passengers to take the risk, and get the worth of their money; +and while the horses were being put to, I walked on over the hill. And +here I encountered a veritable foot-pad, with a club in his hand and a +bundle on his shoulder, coming down the dusty road, with the wild-eyed +aspect of one who travels into a far country in search of adventure. He +seemed to be of a cheerful and sociable turn, and desired that I should +linger and converse with him. But he was more meagerly supplied with the +media of conversation than any person I ever met. His opening address +was in a tongue that failed to convey to me the least idea. I replied +in such language as I had with me, but it seemed to be equally lost upon +him. We then fell back upon gestures and ejaculations, and by these I +learned that he was a native of Cape Breton, but not an aborigine. By +signs he asked me where I came from, and where I was going; and he was +so much pleased with my destination, that he desired to know my name; +and this I told him with all the injunction of secrecy I could convey; +but he could no more pronounce it than I could speak his name. It +occurred to me that perhaps he spoke a French patois, and I asked him; +but he only shook his head. He would own neither to German nor Irish. +The happy thought came to me of inquiring if he knew English. But he +shook his head again, and said, + +“No English, plenty garlic.” + +This was entirely incomprehensible, for I knew that garlic is not a +language, but a smell. But when he had repeated the word several +times, I found that he meant Gaelic; and when we had come to this +understanding, we cordially shook hands and willingly parted. One seldom +encounters a wilder or more good-natured savage than this stalwart +wanderer. And meeting him raised my hopes of Cape Breton. + +We change horses again, for the last stage, at Marshy Hope. As we turn +down the hill into this place of the mournful name, we dash past a +procession of five country wagons, which makes way for us: everything +makes way for us; even death itself turns out for the stage with four +horses. The second wagon carries a long box, which reveals to us the +mournful errand of the caravan. We drive into the stable, and get down +while the fresh horses are put to. The company's stables are all alike, +and open at each end with great doors. The stable is the best house in +the place; there are three or four houses besides, and one of them is +white, and has vines growing over the front door, and hollyhocks by the +front gate. Three or four women, and as many barelegged girls, have come +out to look at the procession, and we lounge towards the group. + +“It had a winder in the top of it, and silver handles,” says one. + +“Well, I declare; and you could 'a looked right in?” + +“If I'd been a mind to.” + +“Who has died?” I ask. + +“It's old woman Larue; she lived on Gilead Hill, mostly alone. It's +better for her.” + +“Had she any friends?” + +“One darter. They're takin' her over Eden way, to bury her where she +come from.” + +“Was she a good woman?” The traveler is naturally curious to know what +sort of people die in Nova Scotia. + +“Well, good enough. Both her husbands is dead.” + +The gossips continued talking of the burying. Poor old woman Larue! It +was mournful enough to encounter you for the only time in this world in +this plight, and to have this glimpse of your wretched life on lonesome +Gilead Hill. What pleasure, I wonder, had she in her life, and what +pleasure have any of these hard-favored women in this doleful region? It +is pitiful to think of it. Doubtless, however, the region isn't doleful, +and the sentimental traveler would not have felt it so if he had not +encountered this funereal flitting. + +But the horses are in. We mount to our places; the big doors swing open. + +“Stand away,” cries the driver. + +The hostler lets go Kitty's bridle, the horses plunge forward, and we +are off at a gallop, taking the opposite direction from that pursued by +old woman Larue. + +This last stage is eleven miles, through a pleasanter country, and we +make it in a trifle over an hour, going at an exhilarating gait, that +raises our spirits out of the Marshy Hope level. The perfection of +travel is ten miles an hour, on top of a stagecoach; it is greater speed +than forty by rail. It nurses one's pride to sit aloft, and rattle past +the farmhouses, and give our dust to the cringing foot tramps. There is +something royal in the swaying of the coach body, and an excitement in +the patter of the horses' hoofs. And what an honor it must be to guide +such a machine through a region of rustic admiration! + +The sun has set when we come thundering down into the pretty Catholic +village of Antigonish,--the most home-like place we have seen on the +island. The twin stone towers of the unfinished cathedral loom up large +in the fading light, and the bishop's palace on the hill--the home of +the Bishop of Arichat--appears to be an imposing white barn with +many staring windows. At Antigonish--with the emphasis on the last +syllable--let the reader know there is a most comfortable inn, kept by a +cheery landlady, where the stranger is served by the comely handmaidens, +her daughters, and feels that he has reached a home at last. Here we +wished to stay. Here we wished to end this weary pilgrimage. Could +Baddeck be as attractive as this peaceful valley? Should we find any inn +on Cape Breton like this one? + +“Never was on Cape Breton,” our driver had said; “hope I never shall be. +Heard enough about it. Taverns? You'll find 'em occupied.” + +“Fleas? + +“Wus.” + +“But it is a lovely country?” + +“I don't think it.” + +Into what unknown dangers were we going? Why not stay here and be happy? +It was a soft summer night. People were loitering in the street; the +young beaux of the place going up and down with the belles, after the +leisurely manner in youth and summer; perhaps they were students from +St. Xavier College, or visiting gallants from Guysborough. They look +into the post-office and the fancy store. They stroll and take their +little provincial pleasure and make love, for all we can see, as if +Antigonish were a part of the world. How they must look down on Marshy +Hope and Addington Forks and Tracadie! What a charming place to live in +is this! + +But the stage goes on at eight o'clock. It will wait for no man. There +is no other stage till eight the next night, and we have no alternative +but a night ride. We put aside all else except duty and Baddeck. This is +strictly a pleasure-trip. + +The stage establishment for the rest of the journey could hardly be +called the finest on the continent. The wagon was drawn by two horses. +It was a square box, covered with painted cloth. Within were two narrow +seats, facing each other, affording no room for the legs of passengers, +and offering them no position but a strictly upright one. It was a most +ingeniously uncomfortable box in which to put sleepy travelers for the +night. The weather would be chilly before morning, and to sit upright +on a narrow board all night, and shiver, is not cheerful. Of course, the +reader says that this is no hardship to talk about. But the reader is +mistaken. Anything is a hardship when it is unpleasantly what one does +not desire or expect. These travelers had spent wakeful nights, in the +forests, in a cold rain, and never thought of complaining. It is +useless to talk about the Polar sufferings of Dr. Kane to a guest at a +metropolitan hotel, in the midst of luxury, when the mosquito sings all +night in his ear, and his mutton-chop is overdone at breakfast. One +does not like to be set up for a hero in trifles, in odd moments, and in +inconspicuous places. + +There were two passengers besides ourselves, inhabitants of Cape Breton +Island, who were returning from Halifax to Plaster Cove, where they were +engaged in the occupation of distributing alcoholic liquors at retail. +This fact we ascertained incidentally, as we learned the nationality +of our comrades by their brogue, and their religion by their lively +ejaculations during the night. We stowed ourselves into the rigid box, +bade a sorrowing good-night to the landlady and her daughters, who stood +at the inn door, and went jingling down the street towards the open +country. + +The moon rises at eight o'clock in Nova Scotia. It came above the +horizon exactly as we began our journey, a harvest-moon, round and red. +When I first saw it, it lay on the edge of the horizon as if too +heavy to lift itself, as big as a cart-wheel, and its disk cut by a +fence-rail. With what a flood of splendor it deluged farmhouses and +farms, and the broad sweep of level country! There could not be a more +magnificent night in which to ride towards that geographical mystery of +our boyhood, the Gut of Canso. + +A few miles out of town the stage stopped in the road before a +post-station. An old woman opened the door of the farmhouse to receive +the bag which the driver carried to her. A couple of sprightly little +girls rushed out to “interview” the passengers, climbing up to ask their +names and, with much giggling, to get a peep at their faces. And upon +the handsomeness or ugliness of the faces they saw in the moonlight they +pronounced with perfect candor. We are not obliged to say what their +verdict was. Girls here, no doubt, as elsewhere, lose this trustful +candor as they grow older. + +Just as we were starting, the old woman screamed out from the door, in +a shrill voice, addressing the driver, “Did you see ary a sick man 'bout +'Tigonish?” + +“Nary.” + +“There's one been round here for three or four days, pretty bad off; 's +got the St. Vitus's. He wanted me to get him some medicine for it up to +Antigonish. I've got it here in a vial, and I wished you could take it +to him.” + +“Where is he?” + +“I dunno. I heern he'd gone east by the Gut. Perhaps you'll hear of +him.” All this screamed out into the night. + +“Well, I'll take it.” + +We took the vial aboard and went on; but the incident powerfully +affected us. The weird voice of the old woman was exciting in itself, +and we could not escape the image of this unknown man, dancing about +this region without any medicine, fleeing perchance by night and alone, +and finally flitting away down the Gut of Canso. This fugitive mystery +almost immediately shaped itself into the following simple poem: + + “There was an old man of Canso, + Unable to sit or stan' so. + When I asked him why he ran so, + Says he, 'I've St. Vitus' dance so, + All down the Gut of Canso.'” + +This melancholy song is now, I doubt not, sung by the maidens of +Antigonish. + +In spite of the consolations of poetry, however, the night wore on +slowly, and soothing sleep tried in vain to get a lodgment in the +jolting wagon. One can sleep upright, but not when his head is every +moment knocked against the framework of a wagon-cover. Even a jolly +young Irishman of Plaster Cove, whose nature it is to sleep under +whatever discouragement, is beaten by these circumstances. He wishes he +had his fiddle along. We never know what men are on casual acquaintance. +This rather stupid-looking fellow is a devotee of music, and knows how +to coax the sweetness out of the unwilling violin. Sometimes he goes +miles and miles on winter nights to draw the seductive bow for the Cape +Breton dancers, and there is enthusiasm in his voice, as he relates +exploits of fiddling from sunset till the dawn of day. Other +information, however, the young man has not; and when this is exhausted, +he becomes sleepy again, and tries a dozen ways to twist himself into +a posture in which sleep will be possible. He doubles up his legs, he +slides them under the seat, he sits on the wagon bottom; but the +wagon swings and jolts and knocks him about. His patience under +this punishment is admirable, and there is something pathetic in his +restraint from profanity. + +It is enough to look out upon the magnificent night; the moon is now +high, and swinging clear and distant; the air has grown chilly; the +stars cannot be eclipsed by the greater light, but glow with a chastened +fervor. It is on the whole a splendid display for the sake of four +sleepy men, banging along in a coach,--an insignificant little vehicle +with two horses. No one is up at any of the farmhouses to see it; no one +appears to take any interest in it, except an occasional baying dog, or +a rooster that has mistaken the time of night. By midnight we come to +Tracadie, an orchard, a farmhouse, and a stable. We are not far from the +sea now, and can see a silver mist in the north. An inlet comes lapping +up by the old house with a salty smell and a suggestion of oyster-beds. +We knock up the sleeping hostlers, change horses, and go on again, dead +sleepy, but unable to get a wink. And all the night is blazing with +beauty. We think of the criminal who was sentenced to be kept awake till +he died. + +The fiddler makes another trial. Temperately remarking, “I am very +sleepy,” he kneels upon the floor and rests his head on the seat. This +position for a second promises repose; but almost immediately his head +begins to pound the seat, and beat a lively rat-a-plan on the board. The +head of a wooden idol couldn't stand this treatment more than a minute. +The fiddler twisted and turned, but his head went like a triphammer on +the seat. I have never seen a devotional attitude so deceptive, or one +that produced less favorable results. The young man rose from his knees, +and meekly said, + +“It's dam hard.” + +If the recording angel took down this observation, he doubtless made a +note of the injured tone in which it was uttered. + +How slowly the night passes to one tipping and swinging along in a +slowly moving stage! But the harbinger of the day came at last. When +the fiddler rose from his knees, I saw the morning-star burst out of the +east like a great diamond, and I knew that Venus was strong enough to +pull up even the sun, from whom she is never distant more than an eighth +of the heavenly circle. The moon could not put her out of countenance. +She blazed and scintillated with a dazzling brilliance, a throbbing +splendor, that made the moon seem a pale, sentimental invention. +Steadily she mounted, in her fresh beauty, with the confidence and vigor +of new love, driving her more domestic rival out of the sky. And this +sort of thing, I suppose, goes on frequently. These splendors burn and +this panorama passes night after night down at the end of Nova Scotia, +and all for the stage-driver, dozing along on his box, from Antigonish +to the strait. + +“Here you are,” cries the driver, at length, when we have become wearily +indifferent to where we are. We have reached the ferry. The dawn has not +come, but it is not far off. We step out and find a chilly morning, and +the dark waters of the Gut of Canso flowing before us lighted here and +there by a patch of white mist. The ferryman is asleep, and his door is +shut. We call him by all the names known among men. We pound upon his +house, but he makes no sign. Before he awakes and comes out, growling, +the sky in the east is lightened a shade, and the star of the dawn +sparkles less brilliantly. But the process is slow. The twilight is +long. There is a surprising deliberation about the preparation of the +sun for rising, as there is in the movements of the boatman. Both appear +to be reluctant to begin the day. + +The ferryman and his shaggy comrade get ready at last, and we step into +the clumsy yawl, and the slowly moving oars begin to pull us upstream. +The strait is here less than a mile wide; the tide is running strongly, +and the water is full of swirls,--the little whirlpools of the rip-tide. +The morning-star is now high in the sky; the moon, declining in the +west, is more than ever like a silver shield; along the east is a faint +flush of pink. In the increasing light we can see the bold shores of the +strait, and the square projection of Cape Porcupine below. + +On the rocks above the town of Plaster Cove, where there is a black +and white sign,--Telegraph Cable,--we set ashore our companions of +the night, and see them climb up to their station for retailing the +necessary means of intoxication in their district, with the mournful +thought that we may never behold them again. + +As we drop down along the shore, there is a white sea-gull asleep on +the rock, rolled up in a ball, with his head under his wing. The rock +is dripping with dew, and the bird is as wet as his hard bed. We pass +within an oar's length of him, but he does not heed us, and we do not +disturb his morning slumbers. For there is no such cruelty as the waking +of anybody out of a morning nap. + +When we land, and take up our bags to ascend the hill to the white +tavern of Port Hastings (as Plaster Cove now likes to be called), the +sun lifts himself slowly over the treetops, and the magic of the night +vanishes. + +And this is Cape Breton, reached after almost a week of travel. Here is +the Gut of Canso, but where is Baddeck? It is Saturday morning; if we +cannot make Baddeck by night, we might as well have remained in +Boston. And who knows what we shall find if we get there? A forlorn +fishing-station, a dreary hotel? Suppose we cannot get on, and are +forced to stay here? Asking ourselves these questions, we enter the +Plaster Cove tavern. No one is stirring, but the house is open, and we +take possession of the dirty public room, and almost immediately drop to +sleep in the fluffy rocking-chairs; but even sleep is not strong enough +to conquer our desire to push on, and we soon rouse up and go in pursuit +of information. + +No landlord is to be found, but there is an unkempt servant in the +kitchen, who probably does not see any use in making her toilet more +than once a week. To this fearful creature is intrusted the dainty +duty of preparing breakfast. Her indifference is equal to her lack of +information, and her ability to convey information is fettered by her +use of Gaelic as her native speech. But she directs us to the stable. +There we find a driver hitching his horses to a two-horse stage-wagon. + +“Is this stage for Baddeck?” + +“Not much.” + +“Is there any stage for Baddeck?” + +“Not to-day.” + +“Where does this go, and when?” + +“St. Peter's. Starts in fifteen minutes.” + +This seems like “business,” and we are inclined to try it, especially as +we have no notion where St. Peter's is. + +“Does any other stage go from here to-day anywhere else?” + +“Yes. Port Hood. Quarter of an hour.” + +Everything was about to happen in fifteen minutes. We inquire further. +St. Peter's is on the east coast, on the road to Sydney. Port Hood is +on the west coast. There is a stage from Port Hood to Baddeck. It would +land us there some time Sunday morning; distance, eighty miles. + +Heavens! what a pleasure-trip. To ride eighty miles more without sleep! +We should simply be delivered dead on the Bras d'Or; that is all. Tell +us, gentle driver, is there no other way? + +“Well, there's Jim Hughes, come over at midnight with a passenger from +Baddeck; he's in the hotel now; perhaps he'll take you.” + +Our hope hung on Jim Hughes. The frowzy servant piloted us up to his +sleeping-room. “Go right in,” said she; and we went in, according to the +simple custom of the country, though it was a bedroom that one would not +enter except on business. Mr. Hughes did not like to be disturbed, but +he proved himself to be a man who could wake up suddenly, shake his +head, and transact business,--a sort of Napoleon, in fact. Mr. Hughes +stared at the intruders for a moment, as if he meditated an assault. + +“Do you live in Baddeck?” we asked. + +“No; Hogamah,--half-way there.” + +“Will you take us to Baddeck to-day?” + +Mr. Hughes thought. He had intended to sleep--till noon. He had then +intended to go over the Judique Mountain and get a boy. But he was +disposed to accommodate. Yes, for money--sum named--he would give up his +plans, and start for Baddeck in an hour. Distance, sixty miles. Here +was a man worth having; he could come to a decision before he was out of +bed. The bargain was closed. + +We would have closed any bargain to escape a Sunday in the Plaster Cove +hotel. There are different sorts of hotel uncleanliness. There is +the musty old inn, where the dirt has accumulated for years, and slow +neglect has wrought a picturesque sort of dilapidation, the mouldiness +of time, which has something to recommend it. But there is nothing +attractive in new nastiness, in the vulgar union of smartness and filth. +A dirty modern house, just built, a house smelling of poor whiskey and +vile tobacco, its white paint grimy, its floors unclean, is ever so much +worse than an old inn that never pretended to be anything but a rookery. +I say nothing against the hotel at Plaster Cove. In fact, I recommend +it. There is a kind of harmony about it that I like. There is a harmony +between the breakfast and the frowzy Gaelic cook we saw “sozzling” about +in the kitchen. There is a harmony between the appearance of the house +and the appearance of the buxom young housekeeper who comes upon the +scene later, her hair saturated with the fatty matter of the bear. The +traveler will experience a pleasure in paying his bill and departing. + +Although Plaster Cove seems remote on the map, we found that we were +right in the track of the world's news there. It is the transfer station +of the Atlantic Cable Company, where it exchanges messages with +the Western Union. In a long wooden building, divided into two main +apartments, twenty to thirty operators are employed. At eight o'clock +the English force was at work receiving the noon messages from London. +The American operators had not yet come on, for New York business would +not begin for an hour. Into these rooms is poured daily the news of the +world, and these young fellows toss it about as lightly as if it were +household gossip. It is a marvelous exchange, however, and we had +intended to make some reflections here upon the en rapport feeling, so +to speak, with all the world, which we experienced while there; but +our conveyance was waiting. We telegraphed our coming to Baddeck, and +departed. For twenty-five cents one can send a dispatch to any part +of the Dominion, except the region where the Western Union has still a +foothold. + +Our conveyance was a one-horse wagon, with one seat. The horse was +well enough, but the seat was narrow for three people, and the entire +establishment had in it not much prophecy of Baddeck for that day. But +we knew little of the power of Cape Breton driving. It became evident +that we should reach Baddeck soon enough, if we could cling to that +wagon-seat. The morning sun was hot. The way was so uninteresting that +we almost wished ourselves back in Nova Scotia. The sandy road was +bordered with discouraged evergreens, through which we had glimpses of +sand-drifted farms. If Baddeck was to be like this, we had come on +a fool's errand. There were some savage, low hills, and the Judique +Mountain showed itself as we got away from the town. In this first +stage, the heat of the sun, the monotony of the road, and the scarcity +of sleep during the past thirty-six hours were all unfavorable to our +keeping on the wagon-seat. We nodded separately, we nodded and reeled in +unison. But asleep or awake, the driver drove like a son of Jehu. Such +driving is the fashion on Cape Breton Island. Especially downhill, +we made the most of it; if the horse was on a run, that was only an +inducement to apply the lash; speed gave the promise of greater possible +speed. The wagon rattled like a bark-mill; it swirled and leaped about, +and we finally got the exciting impression that if the whole thing +went to pieces, we should somehow go on,--such was our impetus. Round +corners, over ruts and stones, and uphill and down, we went jolting and +swinging, holding fast to the seat, and putting our trust in things in +general. At the end of fifteen miles, we stopped at a Scotch farmhouse, +where the driver kept a relay, and changed horse. + +The people were Highlanders, and spoke little English; we had struck +the beginning of the Gaelic settlement. From here to Hogamah we should +encounter only the Gaelic tongue; the inhabitants are all Catholics. +Very civil people, apparently, and living in a kind of niggardly thrift, +such as the cold land affords. We saw of this family the old man, who +had come from Scotland fifty years ago, his stalwart son, six feet and a +half high, maybe, and two buxom daughters, going to the hay-field,--good +solid Scotch lassies, who smiled in English, but spoke only Gaelic. +The old man could speak a little English, and was disposed to be +both communicative and inquisitive. He asked our business, names, and +residence. Of the United States he had only a dim conception, but his +mind rather rested upon the statement that we lived “near Boston.” He +complained of the degeneracy of the times. All the young men had gone +away from Cape Breton; might get rich if they would stay and work the +farms. But no one liked to work nowadays. From life, we diverted the +talk to literature. We inquired what books they had. + +“Of course you all have the poems of Burns?” + +“What's the name o' the mon?” + +“Burns, Robert Burns.” + +“Never heard tell of such a mon. Have heard of Robert Bruce. He was a +Scotchman.” + +This was nothing short of refreshing, to find a Scotchman who had never +heard of Robert Burns! It was worth the whole journey to take this +honest man by the hand. How far would I not travel to talk with an +American who had never heard of George Washington! + +The way was more varied during the next stage; we passed through some +pleasant valleys and picturesque neighborhoods, and at length, winding +around the base of a wooded range, and crossing its point, we came upon +a sight that took all the sleep out of us. This was the famous Bras +d'Or. + +The Bras d'Or is the most beautiful salt-water lake I have ever seen, +and more beautiful than we had imagined a body of salt water could be. +If the reader will take the map, he will see that two narrow estuaries, +the Great and the Little Bras d'Or, enter the island of Cape Breton, on +the ragged northeast coast, above the town of Sydney, and flow in, at +length widening out and occupying the heart of the island. The water +seeks out all the low places, and ramifies the interior, running away +into lovely bays and lagoons, leaving slender tongues of land and +picturesque islands, and bringing into the recesses of the land, to the +remote country farms and settlements, the flavor of salt, and the fish +and mollusks of the briny sea. There is very little tide at any time, so +that the shores are clean and sightly for the most part, like those of +fresh-water lakes. It has all the pleasantness of a fresh-water lake, +with all the advantages of a salt one. In the streams which run into it +are the speckled trout, the shad, and the salmon; out of its depths are +hooked the cod and the mackerel, and in its bays fattens the oyster. +This irregular lake is about a hundred miles long, if you measure it +skillfully, and in some places ten miles broad; but so indented is it, +that I am not sure but one would need, as we were informed, to ride a +thousand miles to go round it, following all its incursions into the +land. The hills about it are never more than five or six hundred +feet high, but they are high enough for reposeful beauty, and offer +everywhere pleasing lines. + +What we first saw was an inlet of the Bras d'Or, called, by the driver, +Hogamah Bay. At its entrance were long, wooded islands, beyond which +we saw the backs of graceful hills, like the capes of some poetic +sea-coast. The bay narrowed to a mile in width where we came upon it, +and ran several miles inland to a swamp, round the head of which we must +go. Opposite was the village of Hogamah. I had my suspicions from the +beginning about this name, and now asked the driver, who was liberally +educated for a driver, how he spelled “Hogamah.” + +“Why-ko-ko-magh. Hogamah.” + +Sometimes it is called Wykogamah. Thus the innocent traveler is misled. +Along the Whykokomagh Bay we come to a permanent encampment of the +Micmac Indians,--a dozen wigwams in the pine woods. Though lumber is +plenty, they refuse to live in houses. The wigwams, however, are +more picturesque than the square frame houses of the whites. Built up +conically of poles, with a hole in the top for the smoke to escape, and +often set up a little from the ground on a timber foundation, they are +as pleasing to the eye as a Chinese or Turkish dwelling. They may be +cold in winter, but blessed be the tenacity of barbarism, which retains +this agreeable architecture. The men live by hunting in the season, +and the women support the family by making moccasins and baskets. These +Indians are most of them good Catholics, and they try to go once a year +to mass and a sort of religious festival held at St. Peter's, where +their sins are forgiven in a yearly lump. + +At Whykokomagh, a neat fishing village of white houses, we stopped for +dinner at the Inverness House. The house was very clean, and the tidy +landlady gave us as good a dinner as she could of the inevitable green +tea, toast, and salt fish. She was Gaelic, but Protestant, as the +village is, and showed us with pride her Gaelic Bible and hymn-book. A +peaceful place, this Whykokomagh; the lapsing waters of Bras d'Or made +a summer music all along the quiet street; the bay lay smiling with its +islands in front, and an amphitheater of hills rose behind. But for the +line of telegraph poles one might have fancied he could have security +and repose here. + +We put a fresh pony into the shafts, a beast born with an everlasting +uneasiness in his legs, and an amount of “go” in him which suited his +reckless driver. We no longer stood upon the order of our going; we +went. As we left the village, we passed a rocky hay-field, where the +Gaelic farmer was gathering the scanty yield of grass. A comely Indian +girl was stowing the hay and treading it down on the wagon. The driver +hailed the farmer, and they exchanged Gaelic repartee which set all the +hay-makers in a roar, and caused the Indian maid to darkly and sweetly +beam upon us. We asked the driver what he had said. He had only inquired +what the man would take for the load--as it stood! A joke is a joke down +this way. + +I am not about to describe this drive at length, in order that the +reader may skip it; for I know the reader, being of like passion and +fashion with him. From the time we first struck the Bras d'Or for thirty +miles we rode in constant sight of its magnificent water. Now we were +two hundred feet above the water, on the hillside, skirting a point or +following an indentation; and now we were diving into a narrow valley, +crossing a stream, or turning a sharp corner, but always with the Bras +d'Or in view, the afternoon sun shining on it, softening the outlines of +its embracing hills, casting a shadow from its wooded islands. Sometimes +we opened on a broad water plain bounded by the Watchabaktchkt hills, +and again we looked over hill after hill receding into the soft and hazy +blue of the land beyond the great mass of the Bras d'Or. The reader can +compare the view and the ride to the Bay of Naples and the Cornice Road; +we did nothing of the sort; we held on to the seat, prayed that the +harness of the pony might not break, and gave constant expression to +our wonder and delight. For a week we had schooled ourselves to expect +nothing more from this wicked world, but here was an enchanting vision. + +The only phenomenon worthy the attention of any inquiring mind, in this +whole record, I will now describe. As we drove along the side of a +hill, and at least two hundred feet above the water, the road suddenly +diverged and took a circuit higher up. The driver said that was to avoid +a sink-hole in the old road,--a great curiosity, which it was worth +while to examine. Beside the old road was a circular hole, which nipped +out a part of the road-bed, some twenty-five feet in diameter, filled +with water almost to the brim, but not running over. The water was dark +in color, and I fancied had a brackish taste. The driver said that a few +weeks before, when he came this way, it was solid ground where this well +now opened, and that a large beech-tree stood there. When he returned +next day, he found this hole full of water, as we saw it, and the large +tree had sunk in it. The size of the hole seemed to be determined by the +reach of the roots of the tree. The tree had so entirely disappeared, +that he could not with a long pole touch its top. Since then the water +had neither subsided nor overflowed. The ground about was compact +gravel. We tried sounding the hole with poles, but could make nothing of +it. The water seemed to have no outlet nor inlet; at least, it did not +rise or fall. Why should the solid hill give way at this place, and +swallow up a tree? and if the water had any connection with the lake, +two hundred feet below and at some distance away, why didn't the water +run out? Why should the unscientific traveler have a thing of this kind +thrown in his way? The driver did not know. + +This phenomenon made us a little suspicious of the foundations of this +island which is already invaded by the jealous ocean, and is anchored to +the continent only by the cable. + +The drive became more charming as the sun went down, and we saw the +hills grow purple beyond the Bras d'Or. The road wound around lovely +coves and across low promontories, giving us new beauties at every turn. +Before dark we had crossed the Middle River and the Big Baddeck, on long +wooden bridges, which straggled over sluggish waters and long reaches +of marsh, upon which Mary might have been sent to call the cattle home. +These bridges were shaky and wanted a plank at intervals, but they +are in keeping with the enterprise of the country. As dusk came on, +we crossed the last hill, and were bowling along by the still gleaming +water. Lights began to appear in infrequent farmhouses, and under cover +of the gathering night the houses seemed to be stately mansions; and we +fancied we were on a noble highway, lined with elegant suburban seaside +residences, and about to drive into a town of wealth and a port of great +commerce. We were, nevertheless, anxious about Baddeck. What sort of +haven were we to reach after our heroic (with the reader's permission) +week of travel? Would the hotel be like that at Plaster Cove? Were our +thirty-six hours of sleepless staging to terminate in a night of misery +and a Sunday of discomfort? + +We came into a straggling village; that we could see by the starlight. +But we stopped at the door of a very unhotel-like appearing hotel. It +had in front a flower-garden; it was blazing with welcome lights; it +opened hospitable doors, and we were received by a family who expected +us. The house was a large one, for two guests; and we enjoyed the luxury +of spacious rooms, an abundant supper, and a friendly welcome; and, in +short, found ourselves at home. The proprietor of the Telegraph House +is the superintendent of the land lines of Cape Breton, a Scotchman, +of course; but his wife is a Newfoundland lady. We cannot violate the +sanctity of what seemed like private hospitality by speaking freely of +this lady and the lovely girls, her daughters, whose education has been +so admirably advanced in the excellent school at Baddeck; but we can +confidently advise any American who is going to Newfoundland, to get a +wife there, if he wants one at all. It is the only new article he can +bring from the Provinces that he will not have to pay duty on. And +here is a suggestion to our tariff-mongers for the “protection” of New +England women. + +The reader probably cannot appreciate the delicious sense of rest and +of achievement which we enjoyed in this tidy inn, nor share the +anticipations of undisturbed, luxurious sleep, in which we indulged as +we sat upon the upper balcony after supper, and saw the moon rise over +the glistening Bras d'Or and flood with light the islands and headlands +of the beautiful bay. Anchored at some distance from the shore was +a slender coasting vessel. The big red moon happened to come up just +behind it, and the masts and spars and ropes of the vessel came out, +distinctly traced on the golden background, making such a night picture +as I once saw painted of a ship in a fiord of Norway. The scene was +enchanting. And we respected then the heretofore seemingly insane +impulse that had driven us on to Baddeck. + + + + +IV + + “He had no ill-will to the Scotch; for, if he had been + conscious of that, he never would have thrown himself into + the bosom of their country, and trusted to the protection of + its remote inhabitants with a fearless confidence.” + --BOSWELL'S JOHNSON. + +Although it was an open and flagrant violation of the Sabbath day as it +is kept in Scotch Baddeck, our kind hosts let us sleep late on Sunday +morning, with no reminder that we were not sleeping the sleep of the +just. It was the charming Maud, a flitting sunbeam of a girl, who waited +to bring us our breakfast, and thereby lost the opportunity of going +to church with the rest of the family,--an act of gracious hospitality +which the tired travelers appreciated. + +The travelers were unable, indeed, to awaken into any feeling of +Sabbatical straitness. The morning was delicious,--such a morning as +never visits any place except an island; a bright, sparkling morning, +with the exhilaration of the air softened by the sea. What a day it was +for idleness, for voluptuous rest, after the flight by day and night +from St. John! It was enough, now that the morning was fully opened +and advancing to the splendor of noon, to sit upon the upper balcony, +looking upon the Bras d'Or and the peaceful hills beyond, reposeful and +yet sparkling with the air and color of summer, and inhale the balmy +air. (We greatly need another word to describe good air, properly +heated, besides this overworked “balmy.”) Perhaps it might in some +regions be considered Sabbath-keeping, simply to rest in such a soothing +situation,--rest, and not incessant activity, having been one of the +original designs of the day. + +But our travelers were from New England, and they were not willing to +be outdone in the matter of Sunday observances by such an out-of-the-way +and nameless place as Baddeck. They did not set themselves up as +missionaries to these benighted Gaelic people, to teach them by example +that the notion of Sunday which obtained two hundred years ago in +Scotland had been modified, and that the sacredness of it had pretty +much disappeared with the unpleasantness of it. They rather lent +themselves to the humor of the hour, and probably by their demeanor +encouraged the respect for the day on Cape Breton Island. Neither by +birth nor education were the travelers fishermen on Sunday, and they +were not moved to tempt the authorities to lock them up for dropping +here a line and there a line on the Lord's day. + +In fact, before I had finished my second cup of Maud-mixed coffee, my +companion, with a little show of haste, had gone in search of the kirk, +and I followed him, with more scrupulousness, as soon as I could without +breaking the day of rest. Although it was Sunday, I could not but notice +that Baddeck was a clean-looking village of white wooden houses, of +perhaps seven or eight hundred inhabitants; that it stretched along +the bay for a mile or more, straggling off into farmhouses at each end, +lying for the most part on the sloping curve of the bay. There were a +few country-looking stores and shops, and on the shore three or four +rather decayed and shaky wharves ran into the water, and a few schooners +lay at anchor near them; and the usual decaying warehouses leaned about +the docks. A peaceful and perhaps a thriving place, but not a bustling +place. As I walked down the road, a sailboat put out from the shore +and slowly disappeared round the island in the direction of the Grand +Narrows. It had a small pleasure party on board. None of them were +drowned that day, and I learned at night that they were Roman Catholics +from Whykokornagh. + +The kirk, which stands near the water, and at a distance shows a pretty +wooden spire, is after the pattern of a New England meeting-house. When +I reached it, the house was full and the service had begun. There was +something familiar in the bareness and uncompromising plainness +and ugliness of the interior. The pews had high backs, with narrow, +uncushioned seats. The pulpit was high,--a sort of theological +fortification,--approached by wide, curving flights of stairs on either +side. Those who occupied the near seats to the right and left of the +pulpit had in front of them a blank board partition, and could not +by any possibility see the minister, though they broke their necks +backwards over their high coat-collars. The congregation had a striking +resemblance to a country New England congregation of say twenty years +ago. The clothes they wore had been Sunday clothes for at least that +length of time. + +Such clothes have a look of I know not what devout and painful +respectability, that is in keeping with the worldly notion of rigid +Scotch Presbyterianism. One saw with pleasure the fresh and rosy-cheeked +children of this strict generation, but the women of the audience were +not in appearance different from newly arrived and respectable Irish +immigrants. They wore a white cap with long frills over the forehead, +and a black handkerchief thrown over it and hanging down the neck,--a +quaint and not unpleasing disguise. + +The house, as I said, was crowded. It is the custom in this region to +go to church,--for whole families to go, even the smallest children; +and they not unfrequently walk six or seven miles to attend the service. +There is a kind of merit in this act that makes up for the lack of +certain other Christian virtues that are practiced elsewhere. The +service was worth coming seven miles to participate in!--it was about +two hours long, and one might well feel as if he had performed a work +of long-suffering to sit through it. The singing was strictly +congregational. Congregational singing is good (for those who like it) +when the congregation can sing. This congregation could not sing, but it +could grind the Psalms of David powerfully. They sing nothing else but +the old Scotch version of the Psalms, in a patient and faithful long +meter. And this is regarded, and with considerable plausibility, as an +act of worship. It certainly has small element of pleasure in it. +Here is a stanza from Psalm xlv., which the congregation, without any +instrumental nonsense, went through in a dragging, drawling manner, and +with perfect individual independence as to time: + +“Thine arrows sharply pierce the heart of th' enemies of the king, And +under thy sub-jec-shi-on the people down do bring.” + +The sermon was extempore, and in English with Scotch pronunciation; and +it filled a solid hour of time. I am not a good judge of sermons, and +this one was mere chips to me; but my companion, who knows a sermon +when he hears it, said that this was strictly theological, and Scotch +theology at that, and not at all expository. It was doubtless my fault +that I got no idea whatever from it. But the adults of the congregation +appeared to be perfectly satisfied with it; at least they sat bolt +upright and nodded assent continually. The children all went to sleep +under it, without any hypocritical show of attention. To be sure, the +day was warm and the house was unventilated. If the windows had been +opened so as to admit the fresh air from the Bras d'Or, I presume +the hard-working farmers and their wives would have resented such an +interference with their ordained Sunday naps, and the preacher's sermon +would have seemed more musty than it appeared to be in that congenial +and drowsy air. Considering that only half of the congregation could +understand the preacher, its behavior was exemplary. + +After the sermon, a collection was taken up for the minister; and I +noticed that nothing but pennies rattled into the boxes,--a melancholy +sound for the pastor. This might appear niggardly on the part of these +Scotch Presbyterians, but it is on principle that they put only a penny +into the box; they say that they want a free gospel, and so far as they +are concerned they have it. Although the farmers about the Bras d'Or are +well-to-do they do not give their minister enough to keep his soul in +his Gaelic body, and his poor support is eked out by the contributions +of a missionary society. It was gratifying to learn that this was +not from stinginess on the part of the people, but was due to their +religious principle. It seemed to us that everybody ought to be good in +a country where it costs next to nothing. + +When the service was over, about half of the people departed; the +rest remained in their seats and prepared to enter upon their Sabbath +exercises. These latter were all Gaelic people, who had understood +little or nothing of the English service. The minister turned himself +at once into a Gaelic preacher and repeated in that language the long +exercises of the morning. The sermon and perhaps the prayers were +quite as enjoyable in Gaelic as in English, and the singing was a great +improvement. It was of the same Psalms, but the congregation chanted +them in a wild and weird tone and manner, as wailing and barbarous to +modern ears as any Highland devotional outburst of two centuries ago. +This service also lasted about two hours; and as soon as it was over +the faithful minister, without any rest or refreshment, organized the +Sunday-school, and it must have been half past three o'clock before that +was over. And this is considered a day of rest. + +These Gaelic Christians, we were informed, are of a very old pattern; +and some of them cling more closely to religious observances than to +morality. Sunday is nowhere observed with more strictness. The community +seems to be a very orderly and thrifty one, except upon solemn and +stated occasions. One of these occasions is the celebration of +the Lord's Supper; and in this the ancient Highland traditions are +preserved. The rite is celebrated not oftener than once a year by +any church. It then invites the neighboring churches to partake with +it,--the celebration being usually in the summer and early fall months. +It has some of the characteristics of a “camp-meeting.” People come from +long distances, and as many as two thousand and three thousand assemble +together. They quarter themselves without special invitation upon the +members of the inviting church. Sometimes fifty people will pounce upon +one farmer, overflowing his house and his barn and swarming all about +his premises, consuming all the provisions he has laid up for his +family, and all he can raise money to buy, and literally eating him out +of house and home. Not seldom a man is almost ruined by one of these +religious raids,--at least he is left with a debt of hundreds of +dollars. The multitude assembles on Thursday and remains over Sunday. +There is preaching every day, but there is something besides. Whatever +may be the devotion of a part of the assembly, the four days are, +in general, days of license, of carousing, of drinking, and of other +excesses, which our informant said he would not particularize; we +could understand what they were by reading St. Paul's rebuke of the +Corinthians for similar offenses. The evil has become so great and +burdensome that the celebration of this sacred rite will have to be +reformed altogether. + +Such a Sabbath quiet pervaded the street of Baddeck, that the fast +driving of the Gaels in their rattling, one-horse wagons, crowded +full of men, women, and children,--released from their long sanctuary +privileges, and going home,--was a sort of profanation of the day; and +we gladly turned aside to visit the rural jail of the town. + +Upon the principal street or road of Baddeck stands the dreadful +prison-house. It is a story and a quarter edifice, built of stone and +substantially whitewashed; retired a little from the road, with a square +of green turf in front of it, I should have taken it for the residence +of the Dairyman's Daughter, but for the iron gratings at the lower +windows. A more inviting place to spend the summer in, a vicious person +could not have. The Scotch keeper of it is an old, garrulous, obliging +man, and keeps codfish tackle to loan. I think that if he had a prisoner +who was fond of fishing, he would take him with him on the bay in +pursuit of the mackerel and the cod. If the prisoner were to take +advantage of his freedom and attempt to escape, the jailer's feelings +would be hurt, and public opinion would hardly approve the prisoner's +conduct. + +The jail door was hospitably open, and the keeper invited us to enter. +Having seen the inside of a good many prisons in our own country +(officially), we were interested in inspecting this. It was a favorable +time for doing so, for there happened to be a man confined there, +a circumstance which seemed to increase the keeper's feeling of +responsibility in his office. The edifice had four rooms on the +ground-floor, and an attic sleeping-room above. Three of these rooms, +which were perhaps twelve feet by fifteen feet, were cells; the third +was occupied by the jailer's family. The family were now also occupying +the front cell,--a cheerful room commanding a view of the village +street and of the bay. A prisoner of a philosophic turn of mind, who +had committed some crime of sufficient magnitude to make him willing to +retire from the world for a season and rest, might enjoy himself here +very well. + +The jailer exhibited his premises with an air of modesty. In the rear +was a small yard, surrounded by a board fence, in which the prisoner +took his exercise. An active boy could climb over it, and an +enterprising pig could go through it almost anywhere. The keeper said +that he intended at the next court to ask the commissioners to build +the fence higher and stop up the holes. Otherwise the jail was in good +condition. Its inmates were few; in fact, it was rather apt to be empty: +its occupants were usually prisoners for debt, or for some trifling +breach of the peace, committed under the influence of the liquor that +makes one “unco happy.” Whether or not the people of the region have +a high moral standard, crime is almost unknown; the jail itself is an +evidence of primeval simplicity. The great incident in the old jailer's +life had been the rescue of a well-known citizen who was confined on a +charge of misuse of public money. The keeper showed me a place in the +outer wall of the front cell, where an attempt had been made to batter +a hole through. The Highland clan and kinsfolk of the alleged defaulter +came one night and threatened to knock the jail in pieces if he was not +given up. They bruised the wall, broke the windows, and finally smashed +in the door and took their man away. The jailer was greatly excited at +this rudeness, and went almost immediately and purchased a pistol. He +said that for a time he did n't feel safe in the jail without it. The +mob had thrown stones at the upper windows, in order to awaken him, and +had insulted him with cursing and offensive language. + +Having finished inspecting the building, I was unfortunately moved by I +know not what national pride and knowledge of institutions superior to +this at home, to say, + +“This is a pleasant jail, but it doesn't look much like our great +prisons; we have as many as a thousand to twelve hundred men in some of +our institutions.” + +“Ay, ay, I have heard tell,” said the jailer, shaking his head in pity, +“it's an awfu' place, an awfu' place,--the United States. I suppose it's +the wickedest country that ever was in the world. I don't know,--I don't +know what is to become of it. It's worse than Sodom. There was that +dreadful war on the South; and I hear now it's very unsafe, full of +murders and robberies and corruption.” + +I did not attempt to correct this impression concerning my native land, +for I saw it was a comfort to the simple jailer, but I tried to put a +thorn into him by saying, + +“Yes, we have a good many criminals, but the majority of them, the +majority of those in jails, are foreigners; they come from Ireland, +England, and the Provinces.” + +But the old man only shook his head more solemnly, and persisted, “It's +an awfu' wicked country.” + +Before I came away I was permitted to have an interview with the +sole prisoner, a very pleasant and talkative man, who was glad to see +company, especially intelligent company who understood about things, he +was pleased to say. I have seldom met a more agreeable rogue, or one so +philosophical, a man of travel and varied experiences. He was a lively, +robust Provincial of middle age, bullet-headed, with a mass of curly +black hair, and small, round black eyes, that danced and sparkled with +good humor. He was by trade a carpenter, and had a work-bench in his +cell, at which he worked on week-days. He had been put in jail on +suspicion of stealing a buffalo-robe, and he lay in jail eight months, +waiting for the judge to come to Baddeck on his yearly circuit. He did +not steal the robe, as he assured me, but it was found in his house, and +the judge gave him four months in jail, making a year in all,--a month +of which was still to serve. But he was not at all anxious for the end +of his term; for his wife was outside. + +Jock, for he was familiarly so called, asked me where I was from. As I +had not found it very profitable to hail from the United States, and had +found, in fact, that the name United States did not convey any definite +impression to the average Cape Breton mind, I ventured upon the bold +assertion, for which I hope Bostonians will forgive me, that I was from +Boston. For Boston is known in the eastern Provinces. + +“Are you?” cried the man, delighted. “I've lived in Boston, myself. +There's just been an awful fire near there.” + +“Indeed!” I said; “I heard nothing of it.' And I was startled with the +possibility that Boston had burned up again while we were crawling along +through Nova Scotia. + +“Yes, here it is, in the last paper.” The man bustled away and found his +late paper, and thrust it through the grating, with the inquiry, “Can +you read?” + +Though the question was unexpected, and I had never thought before +whether I could read or not, I confessed that I could probably make +out the meaning, and took the newspaper. The report of the fire “near +Boston” turned out to be the old news of the conflagration in Portland, +Oregon! + +Disposed to devote a portion of this Sunday to the reformation of this +lively criminal, I continued the conversation with him. It seemed that +he had been in jail before, and was not unaccustomed to the life. He was +not often lonesome; he had his workbench and newspapers, and it was a +quiet place; on the whole, he enjoyed it, and should rather regret it +when his time was up, a month from then. + +Had he any family? + +“Oh, yes. When the census was round, I contributed more to it than +anybody in town. Got a wife and eleven children.” + +“Well, don't you think it would pay best to be honest, and live with +your family, out of jail? You surely never had anything but trouble from +dishonesty.” + +“That's about so, boss. I mean to go on the square after this. But, you +see,” and here he began to speak confidentially, “things are fixed about +so in this world, and a man's got to live his life. I tell you how +it was. It all came about from a woman. I was a carpenter, had a good +trade, and went down to St. Peter's to work. There I got acquainted with +a Frenchwoman,--you know what Frenchwomen are,--and I had to marry her. +The fact is, she was rather low family; not so very low, you know, but +not so good as mine. Well, I wanted to go to Boston to work at my trade, +but she wouldn't go; and I went, but she would n't come to me, so in two +or three years I came back. A man can't help himself, you know, when he +gets in with a woman, especially a Frenchwoman. Things did n't go very +well, and never have. I can't make much out of it, but I reckon a man 's +got to live his life. Ain't that about so?” + +“Perhaps so. But you'd better try to mend matters when you get out. +Won't it seem rather good to get out and see your wife and family +again?” + +“I don't know. I have peace here.” + +The question of his liberty seemed rather to depress this cheerful and +vivacious philosopher, and I wondered what the woman could be from whose +companionship the man chose to be protected by jail-bolts. I asked the +landlord about her, and his reply was descriptive and sufficient. He +only said, + +“She's a yelper.” + +Besides the church and the jail there are no public institutions in +Baddeck to see on Sunday, or on any other day; but it has very good +schools, and the examination-papers of Maud and her elder sister would +do credit to Boston scholars even. You would not say that the place +was stuffed with books, or overrun by lecturers, but it is an orderly, +Sabbath-keeping, fairly intelligent town. Book-agents visit it with +other commercial travelers, but the flood of knowledge, which is said +to be the beginning of sorrow, is hardly turned in that direction yet. +I heard of a feeble lecture-course in Halifax, supplied by local +celebrities, some of them from St. John; but so far as I can see, this +is a virgin field for the platform philosophers under whose instructions +we have become the well-informed people we are. + +The peaceful jail and the somewhat tiresome church exhaust one's +opportunities for doing good in Baddeck on Sunday. There seemed to be no +idlers about, to reprove; the occasional lounger on the skeleton wharves +was in his Sunday clothes, and therefore within the statute. No one, +probably, would have thought of rowing out beyond the island to fish for +cod,--although, as that fish is ready to bite, and his associations +are more or less sacred, there might be excuses for angling for him +on Sunday, when it would be wicked to throw a line for another sort of +fish. My earliest recollections are of the codfish on the meeting-house +spires in New England,--his sacred tail pointing the way the wind went. +I did not know then why this emblem should be placed upon a house of +worship, any more than I knew why codfish-balls appeared always upon the +Sunday breakfast-table. But these associations invested this plebeian +fish with something of a religious character, which he has never quite +lost, in my mind. + +Having attributed the quiet of Baddeck on Sunday to religion, we did not +know to what to lay the quiet on Monday. But its peacefulness continued. +I have no doubt that the farmers began to farm, and the traders to +trade, and the sailors to sail; but the tourist felt that he had come +into a place of rest. The promise of the red sky the evening before was +fulfilled in another royal day. There was an inspiration in the air that +one looks for rather in the mountains than on the sea-coast; it seemed +like some new and gentle compound of sea-air and land-air, which was the +perfection of breathing material. In this atmosphere, which seemed to +flow over all these Atlantic isles at this season, one endures a great +deal of exertion with little fatigue; or he is content to sit still, and +has no feeling of sluggishness. Mere living is a kind of happiness, and +the easy-going traveler is satisfied with little to do and less to see, +Let the reader not understand that we are recommending him to go to +Baddeck. Far from it. The reader was never yet advised to go to any +place, which he did not growl about if he took the advice and went +there. If he discovers it himself, the case is different. We know too +well what would happen. A shoal of travelers would pour down upon Cape +Breton, taking with them their dyspepsia, their liver-complaints, their +“lights” derangements, their discontent, their guns and fishing-tackle, +their big trunks, their desire for rapid travel, their enthusiasm about +the Gaelic language, their love for nature; and they would very likely +declare that there was nothing in it. And the traveler would probably be +right, so far as he is concerned. There are few whom it would pay to go +a thousand miles for the sake of sitting on the dock at Baddeck when +the sun goes down, and watching the purple lights on the islands and +the distant hills, the red flush in the horizon and on the lake, and the +creeping on of gray twilight. You can see all that as well elsewhere? +I am not so sure. There is a harmony of beauty about the Bras d'Or +at Baddeck which is lacking in many scenes of more pretension. No. We +advise no person to go to Cape Breton. But if any one does go, he need +not lack occupation. If he is there late in the fall or early in the +winter, he may hunt, with good luck, if he is able to hit anything with +a rifle, the moose and the caribou on that long wilderness peninsula +between Baddeck and Aspy Bay, where the old cable landed. He may also +have his fill of salmon fishing in June and July, especially on the +Matjorie River. As late as August, at the time, of our visit, a hundred +people were camped in tents on the Marjorie, wiling the salmon with +the delusive fly, and leading him to death with a hook in his nose. The +speckled trout lives in all the streams, and can be caught whenever he +will bite. The day we went for him appeared to be an off-day, a sort of +holiday with him. + +There is one place, however, which the traveler must not fail to visit. +That is St. Ann's Bay. He will go light of baggage, for he must hire +a farmer to carry him from the Bras d'Or to the branch of St. Ann's +harbor, and a part of his journey will be in a row-boat. There is no +ride on the continent, of the kind, so full of picturesque beauty and +constant surprises as this around the indentations of St. Ann's harbor. +From the high promontory where rests the fishing village of St. Ann, the +traveler will cross to English Town. High bluffs, bold shores, exquisite +sea-views, mountainous ranges, delicious air, the society of a member of +the Dominion Parliament, these are some of the things to be enjoyed at +this place. In point of grandeur and beauty it surpasses Mt. Desert, and +is really the most attractive place on the whole line of the Atlantic +Cable. If the traveler has any sentiment in him, he will visit here, not +without emotion, the grave of the Nova Scotia Giant, who recently laid +his huge frame along this, his native shore. A man of gigantic height +and awful breadth of shoulders, with a hand as big as a shovel, there +was nothing mean or little in his soul. While the visitor is gazing at +his vast shoes, which now can be used only as sledges, he will be +told that the Giant was greatly respected by his neighbors as a man of +ability and simple integrity. He was not spoiled by his metropolitan +successes, bringing home from his foreign triumphs the same quiet and +friendly demeanor he took away; he is almost the only example of a +successful public man, who did not feel bigger than he was. He performed +his duty in life without ostentation, and returned to the home he loved +unspoiled by the flattery of constant public curiosity. He knew, having +tried both, how much better it is to be good than to be great. I should +like to have known him. I should like to know how the world looked to +him from his altitude. I should like to know how much food it took at +one time to make an impression on him; I should like to know what effect +an idea of ordinary size had in his capacious head. I should like to +feel that thrill of physical delight he must have experienced in merely +closing his hand over something. It is a pity that he could not have +been educated all through, beginning at a high school, and ending in a +university. There was a field for the multifarious new education! If we +could have annexed him with his island, I should like to have seen him +in the Senate of the United States. He would have made foreign nations +respect that body, and fear his lightest remark like a declaration of +war. And he would have been at home in that body of great men. Alas! +he has passed away, leaving little influence except a good example of +growth, and a grave which is a new promontory on that ragged coast swept +by the winds of the untamed Atlantic. + +I could describe the Bay of St. Ann more minutely and graphically, if it +were desirable to do so; but I trust that enough has been said to make +the traveler wish to go there. I more unreservedly urge him to go there, +because we did not go, and we should feel no responsibility for his +liking or disliking. He will go upon the recommendation of two gentlemen +of taste and travel whom we met at Baddeck, residents of Maine and +familiar with most of the odd and striking combinations of land and +water in coast scenery. When a Maine man admits that there is any place +finer than Mt. Desert, it is worth making a note of. + +On Monday we went a-fishing. Davie hitched to a rattling wagon something +that he called a horse, a small, rough animal with a great deal of “go” + in him, if he could be coaxed to show it. For the first half-hour +he went mostly in a circle in front of the inn, moving indifferently +backwards or forwards, perfectly willing to go down the road, but +refusing to start along the bay in the direction of Middle River. Of +course a crowd collected to give advice and make remarks, and women +appeared at the doors and windows of adjacent houses. Davie said he did +n't care anything about the conduct of the horse,--he could start him +after a while,--but he did n't like to have all the town looking at +him, especially the girls; and besides, such an exhibition affected the +market value of the horse. We sat in the wagon circling round and round, +sometimes in the ditch and sometimes out of it, and Davie “whaled” the +horse with his whip and abused him with his tongue. It was a pleasant +day, and the spectators increased. + +There are two ways of managing a balky horse. My companion knew one of +them and I the other. His method is to sit quietly in the wagon, and at +short intervals throw a small pebble at the horse. The theory is that +these repeated sudden annoyances will operate on a horse's mind, and he +will try to escape them by going on. The spectators supplied my friend +with stones, and he pelted the horse with measured gentleness. Probably +the horse understood this method, for he did not notice the attack at +all. My plan was to speak gently to the horse, requesting him to go, and +then to follow the refusal by one sudden, sharp cut of the lash; to wait +a moment, and then repeat the operation. The dread of the coming lash +after the gentle word will start any horse. I tried this, and with a +certain success. The horse backed us into the ditch, and would probably +have backed himself into the wagon, if I had continued. When the animal +was at length ready to go, Davie took him by the bridle, ran by his +side, coaxed him into a gallop, and then, leaping in behind, lashed +him into a run, which had little respite for ten miles, uphill or down. +Remonstrance on behalf of the horse was in vain, and it was only on the +return home that this specimen Cape Breton driver began to reflect how +he could erase the welts from the horse's back before his father saw +them. + +Our way lay along the charming bay of the Bras d'Or, over the sprawling +bridge of the Big Baddeck, a black, sedgy, lonesome stream, to Middle +River, which debouches out of a scraggy country into a bayou with ragged +shores, about which the Indians have encampments, and in which are the +skeleton stakes of fish-weirs. Saturday night we had seen trout jumping +in the still water above the bridge. We followed the stream up two or +three miles to a Gaelic settlement of farmers. The river here flows +through lovely meadows, sandy, fertile, and sheltered by hills,--a green +Eden, one of the few peaceful inhabited spots in the world. I could +conceive of no news coming to these Highlanders later than the defeat +of the Pretender. Turning from the road, through a lane and crossing a +shallow brook, we reached the dwelling of one of the original McGregors, +or at least as good as an original. Mr. McGregor is a fiery-haired +Scotchman and brother, cordial and hospitable, who entertained our +wayward horse, and freely advised us where the trout on his farm were +most likely to be found at this season of the year. + +It would be a great pleasure to speak well of Mr. McGregor's residence, +but truth is older than Scotchmen, and the reader looks to us for truth +and not flattery. Though the McGregor seems to have a good farm, his +house is little better than a shanty, a rather cheerless place for the +“woman” to slave away her uneventful life in, and bring up her scantily +clothed and semi-wild flock of children. And yet I suppose there must +be happiness in it,--there always is where there are plenty of children, +and milk enough for them. A white-haired boy who lacked adequate +trousers, small though he was, was brought forward by his mother to +describe a trout he had recently caught, which was nearly as long as +the boy himself. The young Gael's invention was rewarded by a present of +real fish-hooks. We found here in this rude cabin the hospitality that +exists in all remote regions where travelers are few. Mrs. McGregor +had none of that reluctance, which women feel in all more civilized +agricultural regions, to “break a pan of milk,” and Mr. McGregor even +pressed us to partake freely of that simple drink. And he refused to +take any pay for it, in a sort of surprise that such a simple act of +hospitality should have any commercial value. But travelers themselves +destroy one of their chief pleasures. No doubt we planted the notion +in the McGregor mind that the small kindnesses of life may be made +profitable, by offering to pay for the milk; and probably the next +travelers in that Eden will succeed in leaving some small change there, +if they use a little tact. + +It was late in the season for trout. Perhaps the McGregor was aware of +that when he freely gave us the run of the stream in his meadows, and +pointed out the pools where we should be sure of good luck. It was a +charming August day, just the day that trout enjoy lying in cool, deep +places, and moving their fins in quiet content, indifferent to the +skimming fly or to the proffered sport of rod and reel. The Middle +River gracefully winds through this Vale of Tempe, over a sandy bottom, +sometimes sparkling in shallows, and then gently reposing in the broad +bends of the grassy banks. It was in one of these bends, where the +stream swirled around in seductive eddies, that we tried our skill. We +heroically waded the stream and threw our flies from the highest bank; +but neither in the black water nor in the sandy shallows could any trout +be coaxed to spring to the deceitful leaders. We enjoyed the distinction +of being the only persons who had ever failed to strike trout in that +pool, and this was something. The meadows were sweet with the newly cut +grass, the wind softly blew down the river, large white clouds sailed +high overhead and cast shadows on the changing water; but to all these +gentle influences the fish were insensible, and sulked in their cool +retreats. At length in a small brook flowing into the Middle River we +found the trout more sociable; and it is lucky that we did so, for I +should with reluctance stain these pages with a fiction; and yet the +public would have just reason to resent a fish-story without any fish +in it. Under a bank, in a pool crossed by a log and shaded by a tree, +we found a drove of the speckled beauties at home, dozens of them a foot +long, each moving lazily a little, their black backs relieved by their +colored fins. They must have seen us, but at first they showed no desire +for a closer acquaintance. To the red ibis and the white miller and the +brown hackle and the gray fly they were alike indifferent. Perhaps the +love for made flies is an artificial taste and has to be cultivated. +These at any rate were uncivilized-trout, and it was only when we +took the advice of the young McGregor and baited our hooks with the +angleworm, that the fish joined in our day's sport. They could not +resist the lively wiggle of the worm before their very noses, and we +lifted them out one after an other, gently, and very much as if we were +hooking them out of a barrel, until we had a handsome string. It may +have been fun for them but it was not much sport for us. All the small +ones the young McGregor contemptuously threw back into the water. The +sportsman will perhaps learn from this incident that there are plenty +of trout in Cape Breton in August, but that the fishing is not +exhilarating. + +The next morning the semi-weekly steamboat from Sydney came into the +bay, and drew all the male inhabitants of Baddeck down to the wharf; +and the two travelers, reluctant to leave the hospitable inn, and the +peaceful jail, and the double-barreled church, and all the loveliness of +this reposeful place, prepared to depart. The most conspicuous person on +the steamboat was a thin man, whose extraordinary height was made +more striking by his very long-waisted black coat and his very short +pantaloons. He was so tall that he had a little difficulty in keeping +his balance, and his hat was set upon the back of his head to preserve +his equilibrium. He had arrived at that stage when people affected as +he was are oratorical, and overflowing with information and good-nature. +With what might in strict art be called an excess of expletives, he +explained that he was a civil engineer, that he had lost his rubber +coat, that he was a great traveler in the Provinces, and he seemed to +find a humorous satisfaction in reiterating the fact of his familiarity +with Painsec junction. It evidently hovered in the misty horizon of his +mind as a joke, and he contrived to present it to his audience in that +light. From the deck of the steamboat he addressed the town, and then, +to the relief of the passengers, he decided to go ashore. When the boat +drew away on her voyage we left him swaying perilously near the edge +of the wharf, good-naturedly resenting the grasp of his coat-tail by +a friend, addressing us upon the topics of the day, and wishing us +prosperity and the Fourth of July. His was the only effort in the nature +of a public lecture that we heard in the Provinces, and we could not +judge of his ability without hearing a “course.” + +Perhaps it needed this slight disturbance, and the contrast of this +hazy mind with the serene clarity of the day, to put us into the most +complete enjoyment of our voyage. Certainly, as we glided out upon the +summer waters and began to get the graceful outlines of the widening +shores, it seemed as if we had taken passage to the Fortunate Islands. + + + + +V + + “One town, one country, is very like another;... there are + indeed minute discriminations both of places and manners, + which, perhaps, are not wanting of curiosity, but which a + traveller seldom stays long enough to investigate and + compare.”--DR. JOHNSON. + +There was no prospect of any excitement or of any adventure on the +steamboat from Baddeck to West Bay, the southern point of the Bras d'Or. +Judging from the appearance of the boat, the dinner might have been an +experiment, but we ran no risks. It was enough to sit on deck forward of +the wheel-house, and absorb, by all the senses, the delicious day. With +such weather perpetual and such scenery always present, sin in this +world would soon become an impossibility. Even towards the passengers +from Sydney, with their imitation English ways and little insular +gossip, one could have only charity and the most kindly feeling. + +The most electric American, heir of all the nervous diseases of all the +ages, could not but find peace in this scene of tranquil beauty, and +sail on into a great and deepening contentment. Would the voyage could +last for an age, with the same sparkling but tranquil sea, and the same +environment of hills, near and remote! The hills approached and fell +away in lines of undulating grace, draped with a tender color which +helped to carry the imagination beyond the earth. At this point the +narrative needs to flow into verse, but my comrade did not feel like +another attempt at poetry so soon after that on the Gut of Canso. A +man cannot always be keyed up to the pitch of production, though his +emotions may be highly creditable to him. But poetry-making in these +days is a good deal like the use of profane language,--often without the +least provocation. + +Twelve miles from Baddeck we passed through the Barra Strait, or the +Grand Narrows, a picturesque feature in the Bras d'Or, and came into its +widest expanse. At the Narrows is a small settlement with a flag-staff +and a hotel, and roads leading to farmhouses on the hills. Here is a +Catholic chapel; and on shore a fat padre was waiting in his wagon +for the inevitable priest we always set ashore at such a place. +The missionary we landed was the young father from Arichat, and in +appearance the pleasing historical Jesuit. Slender is too corpulent a +word to describe his thinness, and his stature was primeval. Enveloped +in a black coat, the skirts of which reached his heels, and surmounted +by a black hat with an enormous brim, he had the form of an elegant +toadstool. The traveler is always grateful for such figures, and is not +disposed to quarrel with the faith which preserves so much of the ugly +picturesque. A peaceful farming country this, but an unremunerative +field, one would say, for the colporteur and the book-agent; and winter +must inclose it in a lonesome seclusion. + +The only other thing of note the Bras d'Or offered us before we reached +West Bay was the finest show of medusm or jelly-fish that could be +produced. At first there were dozens of these disk-shaped, transparent +creatures, and then hundreds, starring the water like marguerites +sprinkled on a meadow, and of sizes from that of a teacup to a +dinner-plate. We soon ran into a school of them, a convention, a herd +as extensive as the vast buffalo droves on the plains, a collection as +thick as clover-blossoms in a field in June, miles of them, apparently; +and at length the boat had to push its way through a mass of them which +covered the water like the leaves of the pondlily, and filled the deeps +far down with their beautiful contracting and expanding forms. I did not +suppose there were so many jelly-fishes in all the world. What a repast +they would have made for the Atlantic whale we did not see, and what +inward comfort it would have given him to have swum through them once +or twice with open mouth! Our delight in this wondrous spectacle did +not prevent this generous wish for the gratification of the whale. It +is probably a natural human desire to see big corporations swallow up +little ones. + +At the West Bay landing, where there is nothing whatever attractive, +we found a great concourse of country wagons and clamorous drivers, to +transport the passengers over the rough and uninteresting nine miles to +Port Hawkesbury. Competition makes the fare low, but nothing makes the +ride entertaining. The only settlement passed through has the promising +name of River Inhabitants, but we could see little river and less +inhabitants; country and people seem to belong to that commonplace order +out of which the traveler can extract nothing amusing, instructive, or +disagreeable; and it was a great relief when we came over the last hill +and looked down upon the straggling village of Port Hawkesbury and the +winding Gut of Canso. + +One cannot but feel a respect for this historical strait, on account +of the protection it once gave our British ancestors. Smollett makes +a certain Captain C----tell this anecdote of George II. and his +enlightened minister, the Duke of Newcastle: “In the beginning of the +war this poor, half-witted creature told me, in a great fright, that +thirty thousand French had marched from Acadie to Cape Breton. 'Where +did they find transports?' said I. 'Transports!' cried he; 'I tell you, +they marched by land.' By land to the island of Cape Breton?' 'What! is +Cape Breton an island?' 'Certainly.' 'Ha! are you sure of that?' When I +pointed it out on the map, he examined it earnestly with his spectacles; +then taking me in his arms, 'My dear C----!' cried he, you always bring +us good news. I'll go directly and tell the king that Cape Breton is an +island.'” + +Port Hawkesbury is not a modern settlement, and its public house is +one of the irregular, old-fashioned, stuffy taverns, with low rooms, +chintz-covered lounges, and fat-cushioned rocking-chairs, the decay and +untidiness of which are not offensive to the traveler. It has a low +back porch looking towards the water and over a mouldy garden, damp and +unseemly. Time was, no doubt, before the rush of travel rubbed off the +bloom of its ancient hospitality and set a vigilant man at the door +of the dining-room to collect pay for meals, that this was an abode of +comfort and the resort of merry-making and frolicsome provincials. On +this now decaying porch no doubt lovers sat in the moonlight, and vowed +by the Gut of Canso to be fond of each other forever. The traveler +cannot help it if he comes upon the traces of such sentiment. There +lingered yet in the house an air of the hospitable old time; the swift +willingness of the waiting-maids at table, who were eager that we should +miss none of the home-made dishes, spoke of it; and as we were not +obliged to stay in the hotel and lodge in its six-by-four bedrooms, we +could afford to make a little romance about its history. + +While we were at supper the steamboat arrived from Pictou. We hastened +on board, impatient for progress on our homeward journey. But haste was +not called for. The steamboat would not sail on her return till morning. +No one could tell why. It was not on account of freight to take in or +discharge; it was not in hope of more passengers, for they were all on +board. But if the boat had returned that night to Pictou, some of the +passengers might have left her and gone west by rail, instead of wasting +two, or three days lounging through Northumberland Sound and idling in +the harbors of Prince Edward Island. If the steamboat would leave at +midnight, we could catch the railway train at Pictou. Probably the +officials were aware of this, and they preferred to have our company +to Shediac. We mention this so that the tourist who comes this way may +learn to possess his soul in patience, and know that steamboats are not +run for his accommodation, but to give him repose and to familiarize +him with the country. It is almost impossible to give the unscientific +reader an idea of the slowness of travel by steamboat in these regions. +Let him first fix his mind on the fact that the earth moves through +space at a speed of more than sixty-six thousand miles an hour. This is +a speed eleven hundred times greater than that of the most rapid +express trains. If the distance traversed by a locomotive in an hour is +represented by one tenth of an inch, it would need a line nine feet long +to indicate the corresponding advance of the earth in the same time. +But a tortoise, pursuing his ordinary gait without a wager, moves eleven +hundred times slower than an express train. We have here a basis of +comparison with the provincial steamboats. If we had seen a tortoise +start that night from Port Hawkesbury for the west, we should have +desired to send letters by him. + +In the early morning we stole out of the romantic strait, and by +breakfast-time we were over St. George's Bay and round his cape, and +making for the harbor of Pictou. During the forenoon something in the +nature of an excursion developed itself on the steamboat, but it had so +few of the bustling features of an American excursion that I thought +it might be a pilgrimage. Yet it doubtless was a highly developed +provincial lark. For a certain portion of the passengers had the +unmistakable excursion air: the half-jocular manner towards each +other, the local facetiousness which is so offensive to uninterested +fellow-travelers, that male obsequiousness about ladies' shawls and +reticules, the clumsy pretense of gallantry with each other's wives, +the anxiety about the company luggage and the company health. It became +painfully evident presently that it was an excursion, for we heard +singing of that concerted and determined kind that depresses the spirits +of all except those who join in it. The excursion had assembled on the +lee guards out of the wind, and was enjoying itself in an abandon of +serious musical enthusiasm. We feared at first that there might be some +levity in this performance, and that the unrestrained spirit of the +excursion was working itself off in social and convivial songs. But it +was not so. The singers were provided with hymn-and-tune books, and +what they sang they rendered in long meter and with a most doleful +earnestness. It is agreeable to the traveler to see that the provincials +disport themselves within bounds, and that an hilarious spree here does +not differ much in its exercises from a prayer-meeting elsewhere. But +the excursion enjoyed its staid dissipation amazingly. + +It is pleasant to sail into the long and broad harbor of Pictou on a +sunny day. On the left is the Halifax railway terminus, and three rivers +flow into the harbor from the south. On the right the town of Pictou, +with its four thousand inhabitants, lies upon the side of the ridge that +runs out towards the Sound. The most conspicuous building in it as we +approach is the Roman Catholic church; advanced to the edge of the town +and occupying the highest ground, it appears large, and its gilt cross +is a beacon miles away. Its builders understood the value of a striking +situation, a dominant position; it is a part of the universal policy of +this church to secure the commanding places for its houses of worship. +We may have had no prejudices in favor of the Papal temporality when we +landed at Pictou, but this church was the only one which impressed us, +and the only one we took the trouble to visit. We had ample time, for +the steamboat after its arduous trip needed rest, and remained some +hours in the harbor. Pictou is said to be a thriving place, and its +streets have a cindery appearance, betokening the nearness of coal mines +and the presence of furnaces. But the town has rather a cheap and rusty +look. Its streets rise one above another on the hillside, and, except +a few comfortable cottages, we saw no evidences of wealth in the +dwellings. The church, when we reached it, was a commonplace brick +structure, with a raw, unfinished interior, and weedy and untidy +surroundings, so that our expectation of sitting on the inviting hill +and enjoying the view was not realized; and we were obliged to descend +to the hot wharf and wait for the ferry-boat to take us to the steamboat +which lay at the railway terminus opposite. It is the most unfair thing +in the world for the traveler, without an object or any interest in the +development of the country, on a sleepy day in August, to express any +opinion whatever about such a town as Pictou. But we may say of it, +without offence, that it occupies a charming situation, and may have an +interesting future; and that a person on a short acquaintance can leave +it without regret. + +By stopping here we had the misfortune to lose our excursion, a loss +that was soothed by no know ledge of its destination or hope of seeing +it again, and a loss without a hope is nearly always painful. Going out +of the harbor we encounter Pictou Island and Light, and presently see +the low coast of Prince Edward Island,--a coast indented and agreeable +to those idly sailing along it, in weather that seemed let down out of +heaven and over a sea that sparkled but still slept in a summer +quiet. When fate puts a man in such a position and relieves him of all +responsibility, with a book and a good comrade, and liberty to make +sarcastic remarks upon his fellow-travelers, or to doze, or to look +over the tranquil sea, he may be pronounced happy. And I believe that my +companion, except in the matter of the comrade, was happy. But I could +not resist a worrying anxiety about the future of the British Provinces, +which not even the remembrance of their hostility to us during our +mortal strife with the Rebellion could render agreeable. For I could +not but feel that the ostentatious and unconcealable prosperity of “the +States” over-shadows this part of the continent. And it was for once in +vain that I said, “Have we not a common land and a common literature, +and no copyright, and a common pride in Shakespeare and Hannah More +and Colonel Newcome and Pepys's Diary?” I never knew this sort of +consolation to fail before; it does not seem to answer in the Provinces +as well as it does in England. + +New passengers had come on board at Pictou, new and hungry, and not +all could get seats for dinner at the first table. Notwithstanding the +supposed traditionary advantage of our birthplace, we were unable +to dispatch this meal with the celerity of our fellow-voyagers, and +consequently, while we lingered over our tea, we found ourselves at the +second table. And we were rewarded by one of those pleasing sights that +go to make up the entertainment of travel. There sat down opposite to +us a fat man whose noble proportions occupied at the board the space +of three ordinary men. His great face beamed delight the moment he came +near the table. He had a low forehead and a wide mouth and small +eyes, and an internal capacity that was a prophecy of famine to his +fellow-men. But a more good-natured, pleased animal you may never see. +Seating himself with unrepressed joy, he looked at us, and a great smile +of satisfaction came over his face, that plainly said, “Now my time has +come.” Every part of his vast bulk said this. Most generously, by his +friendly glances, he made us partners in his pleasure. With a Napoleonic +grasp of his situation, he reached far and near, hauling this and that +dish of fragments towards his plate, giving orders at the same time, and +throwing into his cheerful mouth odd pieces of bread and pickles in an +unstudied and preliminary manner. When he had secured everything within +his reach, he heaped his plate and began an attack upon the contents, +using both knife and fork with wonderful proficiency. The man's +good-humor was contagious, and he did not regard our amusement as +different in kind from his enjoyment. The spectacle was worth a journey +to see. Indeed, its aspect of comicality almost overcame its grossness, +and even when the hero loaded in faster than he could swallow, and was +obliged to drop his knife for an instant to arrange matters in his mouth +with his finger, it was done with such a beaming smile that a pig would +not take offense at it. The performance was not the merely vulgar thing +it seems on paper, but an achievement unique and perfect, which one is +not likely to see more than once in a lifetime. It was only when the +man left the table that his face became serious. We had seen him at his +best. + +Prince Edward Island, as we approached it, had a pleasing aspect, and +nothing of that remote friendlessness which its appearance on the map +conveys to one; a warm and sandy land, in a genial climate, without +fogs, we are informed. In the winter it has ice communication with +Nova Scotia, from Cape Traverse to Cape Tormentine,--the route of the +submarine cable. The island is as flat from end to end as a floor. When +it surrendered its independent government and joined the Dominion, one +of the conditions of the union was that the government should build a +railway the whole length of it. This is in process of construction, and +the portion that is built affords great satisfaction to the islanders, +a railway being one of the necessary adjuncts of civilization; but that +there was great need of it, or that it would pay, we were unable to +learn. + +We sailed through Hillsborough Bay and a narrow strait to Charlottetown, +the capital, which lies on a sandy spit of land between two rivers. Our +leisurely steamboat tied up here in the afternoon and spent the night, +giving the passengers an opportunity to make thorough acquaintance with +the town. It has the appearance of a place from which something has +departed; a wooden town, with wide and vacant streets, and the air of +waiting for something. Almost melancholy is the aspect of its freestone +colonial building, where once the colonial legislature held its +momentous sessions, and the colonial governor shed the delightful aroma +of royalty. The mansion of the governor--now vacant of pomp, because +that official does not exist--is a little withdrawn from the town, +secluded among trees by the water-side. It is dignified with a winding +approach, but is itself only a cheap and decaying house. On our way to +it we passed the drill-shed of the local cavalry, which we mistook for a +skating-rink, and thereby excited the contempt of an old lady of whom +we inquired. Tasteful residences we did not find, nor that attention +to flowers and gardens which the mild climate would suggest. Indeed, +we should describe Charlottetown as a place where the hollyhock in the +dooryard is considered an ornament. A conspicuous building is a large +market-house shingled all over (as many of the public buildings are), +and this and other cheap public edifices stand in the midst of a large +square, which is surrounded by shabby shops for the most part. The town +is laid out on a generous scale, and it is to be regretted that we could +not have seen it when it enjoyed the glory of a governor and court and +ministers of state, and all the paraphernalia of a royal parliament. +That the productive island, with its system of free schools, is about to +enter upon a prosperous career, and that Charlottetown is soon to become +a place of great activity, no one who converses with the natives can +doubt; and I think that even now no traveler will regret spending an +hour or two there; but it is necessary to say that the rosy inducements +to tourists to spend the summer there exist only in the guide-books. + +We congratulated ourselves that we should at least have a night of +delightful sleep on the steamboat in the quiet of this secluded harbor. +But it was wisely ordered otherwise, to the end that we should improve +our time by an interesting study of human nature. Towards midnight, when +the occupants of all the state-rooms were supposed to be in profound +slumber, there was an invasion of the small cabin by a large and +loquacious family, who had been making an excursion on the island +railway. This family might remind an antiquated novel-reader of the +delightful Brangtons in “Evelina;” they had all the vivacity of the +pleasant cousins of the heroine of that story, and the same generosity +towards the public in regard to their family affairs. Before they had +been in the cabin an hour, we felt as if we knew every one of them. +There was a great squabble as to where and how they should sleep; and +when this was over, the revelations of the nature of their beds and +their peculiar habits of sleep continued to pierce the thin deal +partitions of the adjoining state-rooms. When all the possible +trivialities of vacant minds seemed to have been exhausted, there +followed a half-hour of “Goodnight, pa; good-night, ma;” “Goodnight, +pet;” and “Are you asleep, ma?” “No.” “Are you asleep, pa?” “No; go to +sleep, pet.” “I'm going. Good-night, pa; good-night, ma.” “Goodnight, +pet.” “This bed is too short.” “Why don't you take the other?” “I'm all +fixed now.” “Well, go to sleep; good-night.” “Good-night, ma; goodnight, +pa,”--no answer. “Good-night,pa.” “Goodnight, pet.” “Ma, are you +asleep?” “Most.” “This bed is all lumps; I wish I'd gone downstairs.” + “Well, pa will get up.” “Pa, are you asleep?” “Yes.” “It's better now; +good-night, pa.” “Goodnight, pet.” “Good-night, ma.” “Good-night, pet.” + And so on in an exasperating repetition, until every passenger on the +boat must have been thoroughly informed of the manner in which this +interesting family habitually settled itself to repose. + +Half an hour passes with only a languid exchange of family feeling, and +then: “Pa?” “Well, pet.” “Don't call us in the morning; we don't want +any breakfast; we want to sleep.” “I won't.” “Goodnight, pa; goodnight, +ma. Ma?” “What is it, dear?” “Good-night, ma.” “Good-night, pet.” + Alas for youthful expectations! Pet shared her stateroom with a young +companion, and the two were carrying on a private dialogue during +this public performance. Did these young ladies, after keeping all the +passengers of the boat awake till near the summer dawn, imagine that +it was in the power of pa and ma to insure them the coveted forenoon +slumber, or even the morning snooze? The travelers, tossing in their +state-room under this domestic infliction, anticipated the morning +with grim satisfaction; for they had a presentiment that it would be +impossible for them to arise and make their toilet without waking up +every one in their part of the boat, and aggravating them to such an +extent that they would stay awake. And so it turned out. The family +grumbling at the unexpected disturbance was sweeter to the travelers +than all the exchange of family affection during the night. + +No one, indeed, ought to sleep beyond breakfast-time while sailing along +the southern coast of Prince Edward Island. It was a sparkling morning. +When we went on deck we were abreast Cape Traverse; the faint outline of +Nova Scotia was marked on the horizon, and New Brunswick thrust out Cape +Tomentine to greet us. On the still, sunny coasts and the placid sea, +and in the serene, smiling sky, there was no sign of the coming tempest +which was then raging from Hatteras to Cape Cod; nor could one imagine +that this peaceful scene would, a few days later, be swept by a fearful +tornado, which should raze to the ground trees and dwelling-houses, +and strew all these now inviting shores with wrecked ships and drowning +sailors,--a storm which has passed into literature in “The Lord's-Day +Gale” of Mr Stedman. + +Through this delicious weather why should the steamboat hasten, in order +to discharge its passengers into the sweeping unrest of continental +travel? Our eagerness to get on, indeed, almost melted away, and we were +scarcely impatient at all when the boat lounged into Halifax Bay, past +Salutation Point and stopped at Summerside. This little seaport is +intended to be attractive, and it would give these travelers great +pleasure to describe it, if they could at all remember how it looks. But +it is a place that, like some faces, makes no sort of impression on +the memory. We went ashore there, and tried to take an interest in the +ship-building, and in the little oysters which the harbor yields; but +whether we did take an interest or not has passed out of memory. A +small, unpicturesque, wooden town, in the languor of a provincial +summer; why should we pretend an interest in it which we did not feel? +It did not disturb our reposeful frame of mind, nor much interfere with +our enjoyment of the day. + +On the forward deck, when we were under way again, amid a group reading +and nodding in the sunshine, we found a pretty girl with a companion and +a gentleman, whom we knew by intuition as the “pa” of the pretty girl +and of our night of anguish. The pa might have been a clergyman in a +small way, or the proprietor of a female boarding-school; at any rate, +an excellent and improving person to travel with, whose willingness to +impart information made even the travelers long for a pa. It was no +part of his plan of this family summer excursion, upon which he had come +against his wish, to have any hour of it wasted in idleness. He held +an open volume in his hand, and was questioning his daughter on its +contents. He spoke in a loud voice, and without heeding the timidity of +the young lady, who shrank from this public examination, and begged her +father not to continue it. The parent was, however, either proud of his +daughter's acquirements, or he thought it a good opportunity to shame +her out of her ignorance. Doubtless, we said, he is instructing her +upon the geography of the region we are passing through, its early +settlement, the romantic incidents of its history when French and +English fought over it, and so is making this a tour of profit as well +as pleasure. But the excellent and pottering father proved to be no +disciple of the new education. Greece was his theme and he got his +questions, and his answers too, from the ancient school history in his +hand. The lesson went on: + +“Who was Alcibiades? + +“A Greek.” + +“Yes. When did he flourish?” + +“I can't think.” + +“Can't think? What was he noted for?” + +“I don't remember.” + +“Don't remember? I don't believe you studied this.” + +“Yes, I did.” + +“Well, take it now, and study it hard, and then I'll hear you again.” + +The young girl, who is put to shame by this open persecution, begins to +study, while the peevish and small tyrant, her pa, is nagging her with +such soothing remarks as, “I thought you'd have more respect for your +pride;” “Why don't you try to come up to the expectations of your +teacher?” By and by the student thinks she has “got it,” and the public +exposition begins again. The date at which Alcibiades “flourished” was +ascertained, but what he was “noted for” got hopelessly mixed with what +Themistocles was “noted for.” The momentary impression that the battle +of Marathon was fought by Salamis was soon dissipated, and the questions +continued. + +“What did Pericles do to the Greeks?” + +“I don't know.” + +“Elevated 'em, did n't he? Did n't he elevate Pem?” + +“Yes, sir.” + +“Always remember that; you want to fix your mind on leading things. +Remember that Pericles elevated the Greeks. Who was Pericles? + +“He was a”-- + +“Was he a philosopher?” + +“Yes, sir.” + +“No, he was n't. Socrates was a philosopher. When did he flourish?” + +And so on, and so on. + +O my charming young countrywomen, let us never forget that Pericles +elevated the Greeks; and that he did it by cultivating the national +genius, the national spirit, by stimulating art and oratory and the +pursuit of learning, and infusing into all society a higher intellectual +and social life! Pa was this day sailing through seas and by shores that +had witnessed some of the most stirring and romantic events in the early +history of our continent. He might have had the eager attention of his +bright daughter if he had unfolded these things to her in the midst of +this most living landscape, and given her an “object lesson” that she +would not have forgotten all her days, instead of this pottering over +names and dates that were as dry and meaningless to him as they were +uninteresting to his daughter. At least, O Pa, Educator of Youth, if you +are insensible to the beauty of these summer isles and indifferent to +their history, and your soul is wedded to ancient learning, why do you +not teach your family to go to sleep when they go to bed, as the classic +Greeks used to? + +Before the travelers reached Shediac, they had leisure to ruminate upon +the education of American girls in the schools set apart for them, and +to conjecture how much they are taught of the geography and history of +America, or of its social and literary growth; and whether, when they +travel on a summer tour like this, these coasts have any historical +light upon them, or gain any interest from the daring and chivalric +adventurers who played their parts here so long ago. We did not hear +pa ask when Madame de la Tour “flourished,” though “flourish” that +determined woman did, in Boston as well as in the French provinces. In +the present woman revival, may we not hope that the heroic women of our +colonial history will have the prominence that is their right, and that +woman's achievements will assume their proper place in affairs? When +women write history, some of our popular men heroes will, we trust, +be made to acknowledge the female sources of their wisdom and their +courage. But at present women do not much affect history, and they are +more indifferent to the careers of the noted of their own sex than men +are. + +We expected to approach Shediac with a great deal of interest. It had +been, when we started, one of the most prominent points in our projected +tour. It was the pivot upon which, so to speak, we expected to swing +around the Provinces. Upon the map it was so attractive, that we once +resolved to go no farther than there. It once seemed to us that, if we +ever reached it, we should be contented to abide there, in a place so +remote, in a port so picturesque and foreign. But returning from the +real east, our late interest in Shediac seemed unaccountable to us. +Firmly resolved as I was to note our entrance into the harbor, I could +not keep the place in mind; and while we were in our state-room and +before we knew it, the steamboat Jay at the wharf. Shediac appeared +to be nothing but a wharf with a railway train on it, and a few shanty +buildings, a part of them devoted to the sale of whiskey and to cheap +lodgings. This landing, however, is called Point du Chene, and the +village of Shediac is two or three miles distant from it; we had a +pleasant glimpse of it from the car windows, and saw nothing in its +situation to hinder its growth. The country about it is perfectly level, +and stripped of its forests. At Painsec Junction we waited for the +train from Halifax, and immediately found ourselves in the whirl of +intercolonial travel. Why people should travel here, or why they should +be excited about it, we could not see; we could not overcome a feeling +of the unreality of the whole thing; but yet we humbly knew that we had +no right to be otherwise than awed by the extraordinary intercolonial +railway enterprise and by the new life which it is infusing into +the Provinces. We are free to say, however, that nothing can be +less interesting than the line of this road until it strikes the +Kennebeckasis River, when the traveler will be called upon to admire +the Sussex Valley and a very fair farming region, which he would like to +praise if it were not for exciting the jealousy of the “Garden of Nova +Scotia.” The whole land is in fact a garden, but differing somewhat from +the Isle of Wight. + +In all travel, however, people are more interesting than land, and so +it was at this time. As twilight shut down upon the valley of the +Kennebeckasis, we heard the strident voice of pa going on with the +Grecian catechism. Pa was unmoved by the beauties of Sussex or by the +colors of the sunset, which for the moment made picturesque the scraggy +evergreens on the horizon. His eyes were with his heart, and that was in +Sparta. Above the roar of the car-wheels we heard his nagging inquiries. + +“What did Lycurgus do then?” + +Answer not audible. + +“No. He made laws. Who did he make laws for?” + +“For the Greeks.” + +“He made laws for the Lacedemonians. Who was another great lawgiver?” + +“It was--it was--Pericles.” + +“No, it was n't. It was Solon. Who was Solon?” + +“Solon was one of the wise men of Greece.” + +“That's right. When did he flourish?” + +When the train stops at a station the classics continue, and the +studious group attracts the attention of the passengers. Pa is well +pleased, but not so the young lady, who beseechingly says, + +“Pa, everybody can hear us.” + +“You would n't care how much they heard, if you knew it,” replies this +accomplished devotee of learning. + +In another lull of the car-wheels we find that pa has skipped over to +Marathon; and this time it is the daughter who is asking a question. + +“Pa, what is a phalanx?” + +“Well, a phalanx--it's a--it's difficult to define a phalanx. It's a +stretch of men in one line,--a stretch of anything in a line. When did +Alexander flourish?” + +This domestic tyrant had this in common with the rest of us, that he was +much better at asking questions than at answering them. It certainly was +not our fault that we were listeners to his instructive struggles with +ancient history, nor that we heard his petulant complaining to his cowed +family, whom he accused of dragging him away on this summer trip. We are +only grateful to him, for a more entertaining person the traveler does +not often see. It was with regret that we lost sight of him at St. John. + +Night has settled upon New Brunswick and upon ancient Greece before we +reach the Kennebeckasis Bay, and we only see from the car windows +dimly a pleasant and fertile country, and the peaceful homes of thrifty +people. While we are running along the valley and coming under the +shadow of the hill whereon St. John sits, with a regal outlook upon a +most variegated coast and upon the rising and falling of the great tides +of Fundy, we feel a twinge of conscience at the injustice the passing +traveler must perforce do any land he hurries over and does not study. +Here is picturesque St. John, with its couple of centuries of history +and tradition, its commerce, its enterprise felt all along the coast and +through the settlements of the territory to the northeast, with its +no doubt charming society and solid English culture; and the summer +tourist, in an idle mood regarding it for a day, says it is naught! +Behold what “travels” amount to! Are they not for the most part the +records of the misapprehensions of the misinformed? Let us congratulate +ourselves that in this flight through the Provinces we have not +attempted to do any justice to them, geologically, economically, or +historically, only trying to catch some of the salient points of the +panorama as it unrolled itself. Will Halifax rise up in judgment against +us? We look back upon it with softened memory, and already see it again +in the light of history. It stands, indeed, overlooking a gate of the +ocean, in a beautiful morning light; and we can hear now the +repetition of that profane phrase, used for the misdirection of wayward +mortals,---“Go to Halifax!” without a shudder. + +We confess to some regret that our journey is so near its end. Perhaps +it is the sentimental regret with which one always leaves the east, for +we have been a thousand miles nearer Ireland than Boston is. Collecting +in the mind the detached pictures given to our eyes in all these +brilliant and inspiring days, we realize afresh the variety, the extent, +the richness of these northeastern lands which the Gulf Stream pets and +tempers. If it were not for attracting speculators, we should delight +to speak of the beds of coal, the quarries of marble, the mines of gold. +Look on the map and follow the shores of these peninsulas and islands, +the bays, the penetrating arms of the sea, the harbors filled with +islands, the protected straits and sounds. All this is favorable to +the highest commercial activity and enterprise. Greece itself and its +islands are not more indented and inviting. Fish swarm about the shores +and in all the streams. There are, I have no doubt, great forests which +we did not see from the car windows, the inhabitants of which do +not show themselves to the travelers at the railway-stations. In the +dining-room of a friend, who goes away every autumn into the wilds of +Nova Scotia at the season when the snow falls, hang trophies--enormous +branching antlers of the caribou, and heads of the mighty moose--which I +am assured came from there; and I have no reason to doubt that the noble +creatures who once carried these superb horns were murdered by my friend +at long range. Many people have an insatiate longing to kill, once in +their life, a moose, and would travel far and endure great hardships +to gratify this ambition. In the present state of the world it is more +difficult to do it than it is to be written down as one who loves his +fellow-men. + +We received everywhere in the Provinces courtesy and kindness, which +were not based upon any expectation that we would invest in mines or +railways, for the people are honest, kindly, and hearty by nature. What +they will become when the railways are completed that are to bind St. +John to Quebec, and make Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Newfoundland only +stepping-stones to Europe, we cannot say. Probably they will become like +the rest of the world, and furnish no material for the kindly persiflage +of the traveler. + +Regretting that we could see no more of St. John, that we could scarcely +see our way through its dimly lighted streets, we found the ferry to +Carleton, and a sleeping-car for Bangor. It was in the heart of the +negro porter to cause us alarm by the intelligence that the customs +officer would, search our baggage during the night. A search is a blow +to one's self-respect, especially if one has anything dutiable. But as +the porter might be an agent of our government in disguise, we preserved +an appearance of philosophical indifference in his presence. It takes +a sharp observer to tell innocence from assurance. During the night, +awaking, I saw a great light. A man, crawling along the aisle of the +car, and poking under the seats, had found my traveling-bag and was +“going through” it. + +I felt a thrill of pride as I recognized in this crouching figure an +officer of our government, and knew that I was in my native land. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Baddeck and That Sort of Thing +by Charles Dudley Warner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BADDECK AND THAT SORT OF THING *** + +***** This file should be named 3133-0.txt or 3133-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/3/3133/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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