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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +Baddeck and That Sort of Thing + +By Charles Dudley Warner + + + + +NOTE: This work was previously published in [Etext #2671] +The Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Volume 1., +Project Gutenberg The Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner +1warn10.txt or 1warn10.zip + + + + +BADDECK AND THAT SORT OF THING + + +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 + + +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 +pilg-rimage 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 +ag-gravates 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 +pictur-esqueness. White paint always looks chilly under a gray sky +and on naked hills. Even in hot August the place seemed bleak. The +tour-ist, 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, how- +ever, 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 +inform-ation 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 walk- +ing, 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 expec- +tation 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 prox-imity 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 +proces-sion, 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 it- +self, 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 ser- +mons, 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 Thernistocles 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 Project Gutenberg's Baddeck and That Sort of Thing, by Warner + |