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diff --git a/39924-8.txt b/39924-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b277cfb --- /dev/null +++ b/39924-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5663 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Down the River to the Sea, by Agnes Maule Machar + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: Down the River to the Sea + +Author: Agnes Maule Machar + +Release Date: June 5, 2012 [EBook #39924] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOWN THE RIVER TO THE SEA *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This +book was created from images of public domain material +made available by the University of Toronto Libraries) + + + + + + + + + +DOWN THE RIVER TO THE SEA + +BY + +MISS MACHAR + + +NEW YORK + +HOME BOOK COMPANY + +45 VESEY STREET + + + + +Copyrighted, 1894, + +by + +Home Book Company + + + + +DOWN THE RIVER TO THE SEA + +CHAPTER I + +NIAGARA. + + +The brilliant sunshine of a July day lighted up the great cataract and +the rich verdure of the surrounding landscape, bringing out all the +wonderful variety of hue in the surging mass of falling water, the +snowy clouds that perpetually veiled and unveiled it, the iridescence +that floated elusively amid their ever-shifting billows, and the deep +emerald of the islands that nestled so confidingly among the foaming, +seething rapids that swept down the slope above, in order to take the +fatal leap. The Clifton House veranda had its usual complement of +lounging groups of guests, most of them so absorbed in gossip, +flirting, or the last sensational novel, that they scarcely seemed to +notice the grandeur of the scene they had come so far to enjoy. Of a +very different class of visitors was May Thorburn, who sat silently in +a vacant corner of the wide veranda, gazing at the ceaseless rush of +the Horse-shoe Fall, in a speechless ecstasy of delight. The +brown-haired, brown-eyed, rather pale girl, who sat so absorbed in the +wonderful grandeur of the scene before her, was not quite sure whether +she was the same May Thorburn, who, only a few days before, had been +all engrossed in the usual endless round of home duties, sweeping, +dusting, or stitching away at the family mending (and how much mending +_that_ family needed!), and trying to squeeze in, between these homely +avocations, a little of the poetry and music in which her soul +delighted. And now, here she was, in the midst of Nature's grandest +poetry and music, realizing what had been the day-dream of years! And +all this wonderful happiness had come about through the thoughtful +kindness of her cousin, Kate Severne, in inviting her to share the +delights of a trip all the way from Niagara to the Saguenay--names that +had so long stood in her mind as equivalents for the greatest +enjoyment that any tourist could hope for--at least outside of Mont +Blanc. + +She had come by way of Hamilton, and as the train swept her rapidly +through the region of peach orchards, her mind was full of vague +anticipations of the delights of the prospective journey, with +occasional speculations as to Kate's two Scotch cousins, Hugh and +Flora Macnab, whose visit to Canada was the immediate occasion of this +present trip. Kate, who had repeatedly gone over the whole ground +before, and knew it well, wished to act the part of _cicerone_ +herself, while her kind, though somewhat peculiar aunt, Mrs. Sandford, +was the _chaperone_ of the little party. It had been the thoughtful +suggestion of this aunt that May, who so seldom had a holiday, should +be invited to join them, a suggestion which Kate had gladly carried +out, in the kind and welcome letter of invitation which had put May +into such a little flurry of delightful excitement and preparation. + +The rest of the party had arrived before May; and her cousin Kate had +met her at the Clifton House station with an enthusiastic welcome and +a torrent of information as to their future plans, scarcely half of +which May could take in, being quite happy enough in the sense of +being _really at the Falls_ at last, and of getting her first glimpse +of them. She only vaguely heard, in an unreal sort of way, Kate's +eager account of her cousins--how "nice" and amiable Flora was, and how +well she could sketch; and how Hugh, though very quiet, was very +clever, too,--had taken honors at college, had somewhat injured his +health by over-study, so that he was obliged to take a rest, and had +even written a little book of poems which was soon to be +published,--indeed, was now in the press. "And I shouldn't wonder if he +were to write another about his travels here, and put us all into it," +she added. + +May had no particular desire to "be put into a book," but, just then, +the interest of the scene before her, with the thunder of "many +waters" in her ears, was strong enough to exclude all other ideas. Her +eager, watching eye just caught a glimpse of what seemed a giant's +caldron of milky spray, and behind it a dazzling sheet of snow; but +her cousin hurried her on into the hotel and up to her room, which, to +her delight, commanded a splendid view of the Horse-shoe Fall, on +which she could feast her eyes at leisure to her heart's content. And +now, indeed, anticipation and faith were swallowed up in sight! She +had, of course, frequently seen photographs of the great cataract, so +that the outlines of the view were familiar enough; but the exquisite +coloring, the ceaseless motion, the sense of infinite power, no +picture could possibly supply. As she Lay dreamily back in a lounging +chair, on the veranda, scarcely conscious of anything but the grandeur +of the scene, a line or two from Wordsworth's "Yarrow Visited" flitted +across her mind: + + ----"this is the scene + Of which my fancy cherished + So faithfully a waking dream!" + +"No!" she mentally decided, "no 'waking dream' could picture Niagara." + +"Well, dreaming as usual?" May looked up with a start, as she felt +Mrs. Sandford's plump hand on her shoulder. "Kate wants you to make +haste and get ready for an expedition. Here are the Scotch cousins. +This is Flora, and this is her brother Hugh. You don't need any formal +introduction. Kate will be down in a moment, and you are all going for +a long stroll, she says, for which I don't feel quite equal yet after +my journey, though it _is_ a charming afternoon; so I shall stay here +and rest. Kate has promised me not to let you run into any sort of +danger, and I am sure you'll find her a capital _cicerone_." + +Kate, who appeared just then, renewed her promise to be most prudent, +and especially to look after her cousin Hugh--her aunt's chief object +of anxiety. "And, indeed, you _need_ taking care of," she said, in +answer to his attempted disclaimer. "You know you're under orders not +to overwalk yourself, or get heated or chilled, so mind, Kate, you +_don't let him_. I don't want to have to stop on the way to nurse an +invalid!" + +"I don't think you need be at all afraid, Aunt Bella," the young man +replied, with what May thought a pleasant touch of Scottish accent, +though his pale face had flushed a little at the allusion to his +semi-invalidism, which had been the immediate cause of his journey to +Canada. His sister Flora, however, with her abundant fair hair, which, +like her brother's, just missed being red, looked the picture of +health and youthful energy. + +May, with her straw hat beside her, needed no further preparation for +the expedition, on which she was, indeed, impatient to set out at +once, Kate, to her relief, leading the way with Mr. Hugh Macnab, who +was not _her_ cousin, and it did not seem to her that she could find +anything to say to any one so learned and clever as this quiet-looking +young man must be. It seemed much easier to talk to the frank and +merry Flora, who tripped on by her side, looking very fresh and trim +and tourist-like, in her plain gray traveling hat and gray tweed +dress, made as short as a sensible fashion would allow, and showing +off to perfection a lithe, well-rounded figure and a pair of shapely +and very capable feet. The party entered what is now called Victoria +Park, and walked leisurely along the brink of the precipitous cliff +that here formed the river bank, stopping at frequent intervals the +better to take in some particular aspect of the wonderful scene before +them. + +"That's the advantage of not taking a carriage, _here_," explained +Kate, who had relentlessly refused all the entreaties of the hackmen. +"It's ever so much nicer to go on your own feet, and stop just where +you please, and as long as you please! We don't want to hurry _here_. +It's a charming walk, now that all the old photographic saloons and +so-called museums have been cleared away! By and by, when we feel a +little tired, we can take a carriage for the rest of the way." + +May soon felt the dreamlike sensation come over her again, as they +wandered slowly along the steep cliffs of shade, and came from time to +time on some specially charming view of the white foaming sheet of the +American Falls, so dazzlingly pure in its virgin beauty, as it vaults +over the hollow cliff into the soft veil of mist that perpetually +rises about its feet--always dispersing and ever rising anew. Then, as +their eager gaze followed the line of the opposite bank, black, jagged +and shining with its perpetual shower-bath of spray, what a glorious +revelation of almost infinite grandeur was that curving, quivering +sheet of thundering surge, with its heart of purest green, and its +mighty masses of dazzling foam, and its ascending clouds of milky +spray,--sometimes entirely obscuring the fall itself, as they float +across the boiling caldron,--sometimes partially dispersed and spanned +by the soft-hued arc, which here, as at the close of the +thunder-storm, seems like the tender kiss of love, hushing the wild +tumult into peace. From many other points she could get better views +of individual details, but no nobler view of the mighty whole, than +from this silent, never-to-be-forgotten ramble. No one said much; even +the lively Kate lapsed from her office of _cicerone_, or, rather, best +fulfilled it, by her silence; for, when the infinite in Nature speaks, +the human voice may well be still. And how grand a voice was that +which the cataract was speaking,--even to the outward ear! The "voice +of many waters"--mighty as thunder, yet soft as a summer breeze--seemed +to leave the whole being immersed and absorbed in the ceaseless rush +and roar of the "Thunder of Waters"--the majesty of whose motion +appeared to be, itself, repose. + +This feeling deepened as they advanced nearer to the edge of the +Horse-shoe Falls. They paused on Table Rock, so much less prominent +than it used to be years ago. At every turn they paused, lost in the +grandeur of the present impression. It was Kate who first roused them +to a sense of the passage of time, and gave the order to proceed, for +the afternoon was swiftly gliding by. + +"Well!" said Hugh, "I never felt as if I had got so near the state of +self-annihilation, the '_Nirvana_' we read about. I don't wonder at +suicides here, under the fascinating influence of these rushing +waters!" + +"Really, Hugh," exclaimed his sister, "I should scarcely have expected +to hear _you_ rhapsodizing at such a rate! We shall have to look after +him, Kate." Hugh replied only by a half smile, but May noticed his +heightened color and the absorbed expression of his dark blue eyes, +and began to feel much less shy of him. She had much the same feeling +herself, though too reserved to say it out. + +Kate hurried them on, until they had reached the very edge of the +great Horse-shoe Fall. Here they stopped and sat down on a long black +beam of timber that lay on the side of the quivering torrent, there +seeming almost stationary, as if pausing in awe of the mighty leap +before it. Just inside the old beam lay a quiet pool, reflecting the +sky, in which a child might bathe its feet without the slightest +danger, while, on the outside, swept the great resistless flood of +white-breasted rapids, moving down the steep incline with a majesty +only less inspiring than that of the cataract itself. + +"Well! don't you think Niagara deserves its name, which means 'Thunder +of Waters'?" asked Kate, after a long silence. + +"It scarcely could have one that better describes the impression it +makes," said Hugh Macnab, in a low, meditative tone. + +"Are _you_ tired yet, Hugh?" asked Kate; "shall we walk on--it's a good +mile--or take a carriage?" + +"Walk, by all means," said Hugh, "if the rest of you are not tired." + +They walked leisurely on by the shore, washed by the swift hurrying +water, while, above them, to their right, Kate pointed out the railway +track along which they had come, and the point at which they had +stopped, in order to get the celebrated "Fall view." + +"I shall never forget it," said Flora. "I was a little disappointed at +first about the _height_. I couldn't see _that_ from there, nor +realize it at all! But the grandeur of the scale quite took my breath +away. It was like seeing Mont Blanc for the first time. It takes a +little while before you can feel yourself grow up to it!" + +"That's it exactly!" exclaimed Kate. "That just expresses my own +feelings when I saw them first. Well, May, you look sober enough over +it all." + +"Oh, Kate, it's too grand for words; I'm trying to 'grow up to it,'" +she added, smiling. + +They reached the bridge leading to the lovely Sister or Cynthia +Islands, nestling amid the tumult and foam as safely as in the embrace +of a calmly winding river where the constant shower-bath of the spray +keeps the foliage and the ferns at their greenest and freshest; and +the contrast between the tranquil beauty of the woodland ways and the +turmoil of the rapids beyond greatly heightened the charm of the +scene. + +"Now, we must take a carriage back," said Kate decidedly; and no one +objected now, for all were tolerably tired, between the physical +fatigue and the mental strain involved in the mere appreciation of so +much beauty. They stopped for a few minutes at the Burning Spring, to +look, as in duty bound, at that natural curiosity, and then settled +themselves comfortably in the carriage they had hailed, while Kate +gave the order to return by Prospect Drive, along the bluffs above, +whence they could take in the whole sweep of the grand river from Navy +Island, at the foot of Lake Erie, to the dark, narrow gorge below the +Falls, where the waters fret and toss their crests, like angry +coursers fretting at the curbing bit. + +"Now," said Kate, "if it were not so late already, I should have had +you driven to Lundy's Lane,--only about a mile and a half west of us; +but it's too late, for to-day." + +"What is remarkable about Lundy's Lane?" inquired Hugh Macnab. "I +confess my ignorance." + +"Oh, of course; one doesn't expect _you_ to be posted in Canadian +history," Kate replied. "Lundy's Lane is where the British troops and +Canadian volunteers beat the Americans eighty years ago, when they +tried to take Canada." + +"Oh! I see. Pardon my ignorance. I never happened to hear of such +things as battle-grounds in connection with Niagara. I shall have to +read up these historical associations." + +"May can tell you all about it," replied Kate. "She's great on +Canadian history. And there is something about it in my guide book; so +you can read up in the evenings all about Lundy's Lane and Queenston +Heights, and then you can see them both, if you care enough about it." + +The drive was charming, under the slanting rays of the August sun; the +sky and water taking on such exquisite ethereal tints, the iris on the +clouds of spray so delicately bright, that their gaze was constantly +turning backwards as they glided rapidly over the smooth high-road +back towards the "Clifton." + +"Now for a rest, then dinner--and then, you know, we shall have the +moon, and a lovely time for watching the Falls by moonlight." + +Kate's programme was fully enjoyed--not least the latter portion of it. +They were all tempted forth for another stroll along the river bank, +halting again at some of the points from whence they had so greatly +enjoyed the afternoon views, to compare the difference of the +moonlight effect--less distinct, but more romantic and suggestive. Kate +and Flora preferred, on the whole, the play of color and cheerful +light of day, while Hugh Macnab endorsed May's preference for the +moonlight, which is as effective at Niagara as at Melrose Abbey. They +sat long on the piazza that night, saying little, but silently +enjoying the marvelous scene--the glory of the white, shimmering water, +the solemn majesty of the ascending column of misty spray, and the +strong contrast of light and shade--until the picture seemed to have +become a part of their mental consciousness, never to be forgotten and +a "joy forever." + +Next morning the party met at breakfast in good time, as they had a +long day before them, and meant to make the best possible use of it. +It was a charming morning, and they all set off in the best possible +spirits, enjoying the Falls both in the present and the future. To +begin with, however, there was a difficulty to be got over. The +juniors were all eager to cross the river in the ferry-boat, so as to +have the glorious view of the great cataract from a point of view +which gives a different and grander impression than almost any other. +But Aunt Bella stoutly refused even to consider the suggestion of +trusting herself to the tender mercies of a cockle-shell of a boat +tossed on that "boiling flood." The difficulty was finally settled by +Kate, who put her aunt under the care of a hackman who promised to +take her across the suspension bridge and meet them at Prospect Point. +The rest of the party, in high glee, followed the winding road that +leads down to the ferry, and were soon packed into the large, heavy +skiff. Here, indeed, they had the full view of both of the magnificent +falls and of the boiling, white caldron below, and the dark, +malachite-green rapids that seem to press like a solid body down the +narrow river gorge, after leaving the turbulence of the boiling basin +behind them. The cool spray dashed in the faces of the happy party as +the boat danced lightly over the heaving waters, under the strong +strokes of the sturdy rowers; and, when they reached the other side, +after a short passage, they all felt as if the exciting pleasure had +been quite too brief. On landing they ascended in the elevator to the +bank above, and at once took their way to Prospect Point, where they +stood for some time lost in the fascination of the scene before +them--the majestic American Fall rushing down in snowy foam from the +slope of furious white-crested rapids just above the headlong torrent. +The thundering sheet filled their ears with its mighty music, and as +they could now see its outline curved inwards almost as much as that +of the "Horse-shoe" itself, for, of course, the action of falling +water is the same on both sides of the river. But the fact that the +rapids are here compressed by scattered islands seems to add to the +force and fury with which they dash themselves wildly over the stony +ledges with a resistless strength which makes us realize the power of +the one spiritual force which is described as stronger than "many +waters." After they had stood silently watching the ceaseless progress +of the waters, until all their senses had seemed to be filled with its +mighty rush and roar, they joined Mrs. Sandford in the carriage, and +were speedily driven across the bridge leading over the rapids to Goat +Island, which seemed to May like a little tranquil paradise nestling +amid the wild fury of the raging floods. Here, indeed, they could have +all varieties of scenery. The whole party left the carriage, so that +they might feel at liberty to enjoy all the charming nooks of the +island at their own sweet will; Aunt Bella, however, preferring to +make a leisurely circuit in the carriage, and take them up again at +the end of it. + +"Only see that Hugh doesn't tire himself out," she called out as they +left her behind, and Kate, who noticed the young man's rising color +and expression of repressed annoyance at the allusion to them, hurried +into a lively talk about the natural history of the island, explaining +that it was fast wearing away under the force of the torrent; that it +had been gradually growing smaller during the last hundred years, and +that probably, in the course of another century, it would have almost +entirely disappeared. + +"Now, come round this way," she said, "and soon you will almost forget +that you are on the edge of the biggest waterfall in the world." + +They followed her lead, taking the woodland path to the left, catching +charming glimpses of the fleecy rapids between the overhanging boughs +of the trees, on which birds sang sweetly and merry squirrels frisked +and chattered, as if in a solitary wilderness far from the busy haunts +of men. As they came out presently on the open ground at the head of +the island, they found themselves beside "still waters," the shoal +water rippling gently over the gravel, as if it were a quiet reach of +woodland stream; while, above them, lay a smooth stretch of Lake Erie, +with Grand Island in the distance, its apparent placidity concealing +the fierce undercurrent which no power of man could stem. + +"One might 'moralize the spectacle' to any extent," said Hugh Macnab, +as Kate told some stories of the deadly strength of that hidden +current--that delusively peaceful expanse of water. + +"But we haven't time for moralizing," retorted Kate. "Now for a change +of scene." + +A change of scene it was, when they came out on one of the light +rustic bridges which lead across the foaming rapids to the nearest +small island, and from one to another of these fairy islets, so tiny +that it only seems strange that they are not swept bodily over the +Falls, with their wave-worn rocks and trees, gnarled and twisted by +the prevailing winds. Under the bridges they saw pretty silver +cascades, and swift rushing streams, looking innocent enough, but all +charged with a portion of the same overpowering force. On the outer +verge of the farthest one they stood, gazing across the boiling sea of +rapids that extends unbroken from the Canada shore. Kate pointed out +the column of spray which rose at one point, produced by the collision +of cross-currents, driving the water forcibly upwards. Then, +recrossing the little bridges, they slowly walked along the road +leading by the edge of the island overlooking the rapids, till they +found themselves standing on the verge of the great Horse-shoe Fall. + +"Our Canadian Fall is the grandest, after all," said May. + +"Yes," replied Kate, "only it isn't all Canadian, you see, for the +boundary-line runs somewhere about the middle of the river. The +Americans have more than their own share--all their own, and nearly +half of ours." + +"I shouldn't think it mattered much," observed Hugh, "as they +certainly can't take it away, or fence it in, and forbid trespassers." + +Their eyes followed the long, irregular curve, more like the figure +_five_ than like a horse-shoe, and so deeply indented in the center +that they could scarcely mark the center of the abyss, whose almost +apple-green tint was every moment hidden by the perpetually ascending +clouds of milky spray, sometimes touched by the tinted bow, and always +descending into the cloudy veil that eternally conceals the seething +abyss below. + +"This is Terrapin Rock," said Kate, after they had looked in silence +for a time; "and there used to be a tower here from which you could +look down on all this wild raging commotion, feeling the strong stone +structure tremble beneath you. It came down at last--or was pulled +down, because it was thought dangerous, I forget which." + +"Well, _this_ is fearful enough for me," said Flora, turning away, at +last, with Kate, while May still stood lost in the fascination of the +scene, till roused by Kate's call, when she discovered that Hugh +Macnab had lingered also, absorbed in the same fascination, and was +now waiting to help her back across the little bridge which joined the +rocky point to the island. + +"It seems like waking up to one's own identity again, after having +lost it in a vague sense of 'the Immensities,'" remarked Hugh, as they +joined the others; and May felt that the words exactly expressed her +own feeling. + +"But we _must_ wake up in earnest," said Kate, "and hurry on, or Aunt +Bella will be certainly imagining that we have all gone over the +Falls." + +They hurried along the smooth, broad road till they at last came up +with Aunt Bella, seated on a rustic bench, with a large basket beside +her. + +"Oh, my dears! what have--" she began, but Kate playfully laid her +finger on her lips, saying: "We are all here, Auntie, quite safe, and +now we are going to look at the Fall from Luna Island." + +"My dear, not I! I never could go there since that dreadful thing +happened there, years ago. It makes me faint, just to think of it! If +you go, do be careful! Don't go and stand near the brink!" + +"No; we'll be careful, I assure you. Now don't worry about us! We'll +be back soon, and then we'll have our luncheon." And she led the way +down the stair that leads from Goat Island to the charming bit of +bosky green which cuts off the small "Central Fall" from the great +"American Fall." May and Flora both exclaimed with delight over its +wonderful combination of beauty and terror, its glancing, silvery +sheen and terrible velocity, as it rushed past them at headlong speed, +on to the misty depths below. And while they stood fascinated by the +sight, Kate told them the tale of the tragedy which had happened there +on one bright summer day like this, when a young man thoughtlessly +caught up a little child and sportingly held her over the brink,--when +the struggling little one somehow escaped from his grasp, and the +horror-stricken young man madly leaped after her, both being instantly +lost to sight in the wild rush of the torrent. + +Hugh Macnab turned away with a blanched face. "What a penalty for a +momentary thoughtlessness!" he said, in a scarcely audible tone. + +And a hush seemed to steal over the little party, as they turned +silently away from the fateful spot. + +"Yes," remarked Kate, as they reascended the stairway to Goat Island, +"the old Indian legend was not so far wrong--that the deity of the +Falls demanded a victim yearly. There is scarcely a year in which more +than one victim is not secured by these insatiable waters, though it +is not always a young maiden--as the legend has it." + +When they reached Mrs. Sandford, they found that she had spread the +contents of the basket on a white cloth on the grass, and they were +all hungry enough to enjoy their luncheon in the midst of such +romantic surroundings. After the lunch was finished, and they had all +rested for awhile, they made their way to the little staircase close +by, down which they were all to go in order to get the wonderful view +from below. Mrs. Sandford chose to descend in the elevator, and +insisted that Hugh should accompany her, while the three girls ran +merrily down the long stair, Flora counting the steps on the way. Hugh +was determined, in spite of all his aunt's persuasive eloquence, to +don a waterproof suit in order to go under the Falls and explore the +Cave of the Winds; and Kate agreed to be his companion, the rest +preferring to venture along the rocky pathway, only so far as they +could safely do, under cover of their umbrellas. Mrs. Sandford took +her seat on a mass of black rock, declaring that she would remain +there, in fear and trembling, until they all returned in safety from +their expedition. May and Flora strolled about the surrounding rocks, +looking up, with some dread, at the precipices towering above them, +and at the tremendous columns of falling water, which filled in the +view in every direction. Presently, three frightful figures in bulky +garments of yellow oilskin emerged from the building at the foot of +the stairs, from two of which they presently, to their great +amusement, recognized the voices of Hugh and Kate, accompanied by the +guide. Allowing these extraordinary figures to precede them, May and +Flora clung closely together, holding an umbrella between them, and +following, as closely as they could, along the narrow pathway, where +the spray rained down perpetually on the shining black rocks below. As +they left the American Fall farther behind them, skirting the rugged +brown cliffs that support Goat Island high overhead, the pathway +became comparatively dry, and they could see more clearly before them +the great Fall they were approaching from beneath--its tremendous wall +of fleecy foam rising high above them into the deep blue sky, and +losing itself below in the floating clouds of spray, which they soon +began to feel again in a renewal of the light shower. The two girls +had to stop, at last, and stood spellbound, watching the mighty +expanse of eternally falling water, its fleecy, flashing masses of +milk-white foam, and its gray impalpable billows of ever-ascending +spray--through the rifts in which they could ever and anon catch +glimpses of that seemingly solid gray wall of water behind. Strange +sensations of awe at its solemn grandeur alternating with the sense of +the exquisite beauty of the scene absorbed their consciousness, while +they mechanically observed, also, the yellow figures--so +infinitesimally small beside the mighty cataract--as they passed +onward, and were for a few moments, to their momentary terror, lost to +view among the clouds of spray that hid their farther progress. Very +soon, however, they emerged again, and soon regained the point where +the girls were standing, breathless and dripping, but in overflowing +spirits. + +"And what did you see, when you got in behind the Falls?" asked Flora. + +"We certainly did not _see_ much," replied her brother. "Everything +visible seemed swallowed up in a gray mist, but the whole experience +was a wonderful one! I wouldn't have missed it for anything." + +"Well, I'm quite contented with what I've had!" said Flora. + +May had for a moment a little wistful sense of having missed +something, but, after all, intense satisfaction preponderated. + +Returning again to the starting-point, they gave Mrs. Sandford +reassuring evidence of their safety, so far, and promising a quick +return, they pursued their way to the entrance of the "Cave of the +Winds," the name given to the hollow arched over by the concave rock +and the falling sheet of the lovely little Central Fall. May and Flora +again followed under their umbrella, as far as they dared, and there +waited, enjoying the wonder and novelty of the sight. May gazed into +the mysterious cavern before her, veiled by the clouds of milky spray, +as if it were indeed the veritable Cave of Æolus, in which were +confined the wailing winds which clamored to be let loose on their +mission of destruction, and also, it might be, of blessing; whose +hollow roar seemed blended with the full soft "thunder of waters." + +May had lost all count of time, absorbed in the scene before her, when +Flora's relieved exclamation, "Oh, here they are at last!" recalled +her absorbed senses, and she perceived the dripping figures of what +might have been disguised river-gods, scrambling back along the wet, +rocky pathway. + +"Oh, it was _grand_!" Kate declared. "I'll never forget it! To stand, +just between those two lovely falls, till you felt as if you were +actually a part of them! And then we went on a little way behind the +American sheet, too." + +"Well, Hugh, are you satisfied _now_?" asked Flora. Hugh's eyes were +shining through the dripping moisture, and his face, so far as it was +visible, was glowing with exercise and excitement. + +"Satisfied? No!--delighted? Yes. But when is the eye satisfied with +seeing? The grandest sights only seem to quicken our aspirations +towards the Infinite." + +But Aunt Bella was now beckoning to the party to hasten back, and, as +soon as they were within speaking distance, she hurried Hugh off to +change his clothes as speedily as possible. Kate and he were soon out +of their grotesque disguise, and in a few minutes they were all +ascending, in the elevator, to the upper bank. Here they found the +carriage awaiting them, which had been ordered to come back to meet +them, and discovered, to their surprise, that they would have to drive +home as rapidly as possible if they wished to be at the Clifton in +time for the hotel dinner. It was a quiet drive across the suspension +bridge, with the Falls to their left, and the deep green gorge of the +winding river to their right. Each felt the silent enjoyment of the +scenes they had just left, and of the fair evening view around +them--with the wonderful Falls always in the distance,--quite enough for +the present, without trying to talk about it. Even Mrs. Sandford, +usually discursive, was too much fatigued with the day's outing to do +her usual part in the matter of conversation. + +They made up for it later, however, when, too tired for further +roaming, they all sat on the balcony watching the sunset tints fade +into those of the brightening moonlight, whose whiteness seemed to +harmonize so well with the snowy sheen of the Falls. Kate got out her +guidebook, and, with occasional appeals to May to fill up her +outlines, gave the strangers a few particulars as to the historical +associations of the locality. "You see," she said, "all this frontier +was the natural scene of hostilities when the two countries were at +war. This is one of the points at which New York troops could most +easily make their entrance into Canada." And then Hugh Macnab, by dint +of cross-questioning, drew from the two girls, in turn, the main +outlines of the war of 1812, concluding with the battle of Lundy's +Lane. As they at last said good-night to each other, and to the beauty +of the moonlit Falls, they noticed regretfully that a yellowish halo +had formed round the moon. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Sandford, "it's quite likely we shall have a rainy +day to-morrow, and, when it once begins, I shouldn't wonder if we had +two or three days of it, after such a dry time!" + +"Well, we won't believe anything quite so dreadful just now," said +Kate. "We'll go to sleep now, and hope for the best." + +Mrs. Sandford was somewhat triumphant in the justification of her +weather wisdom, when they heard, next morning, the sound of the rain +pattering down on the veranda without. The morning _did_, indeed, look +gray, dull, unpromising, as even a July day can sometimes look. May +was rather mournful over the loss of the light and color, and the +general change that had come over the landscape. But Kate persisted in +her optimistic declaration that she believed it would soon clear up, +and then everything would be even more lovely than before. Meantime +they would have the chance of seeing how the Falls looked in bad +weather! + +And, indeed, they were by no means without beauty, even now. The +purity of the central green was gone, but the soft gray tones melting +away into gray mist, under a gray sky, gave the effect of a sketch +rather than a finished picture, with suggestions of sublimity far +beyond the visible. + +As they wistfully scanned the sky after breakfast, watching for a +promising gleam of blue, Kate proposed a programme to be carried out +as soon as it should clear. + +"You see it will be too wet for much walking and scrambling about, +which would never do for Hugh, at any rate. Now, let us order a +carriage and take a nice leisurely drive all about the country. We've +seen the Falls pretty well now, and we can do the +battle-grounds--Lundy's Lane and Queenston Heights, and take the +Whirlpool on the way." + +"Well, we'll see," said Mrs. Sandford resignedly, "if it _does_ +clear." So she settled down to her knitting. Hugh Macnab sat +scribbling in his note-book; Flora amused herself at the piano, and +May hovered about the veranda, still enthralled by the spell of the +"Thunder of Waters," even in a washed-out sketch, as Kate styled it. +But by and by, a warm, soft gleam stole through the mist-laden +atmosphere, small patches of blue sky appeared, and, in a very short +time, the color had, as if by magic, come back to the scene; the +foliage stood out greener than before, and the emerald once more +gemmed the center of the Horse-shoe Falls, though somewhat less than +it had previously appeared. + +The carriage was quickly summoned, and they were soon rolling smoothly +along the road that led away from the river, through the quiet little +village of Drummondville--back to Lundy's Lane. + +"You see we are really beginning at the end," said Kate. "Lundy's Lane +came at the close of the war, in 1814, and it began in October, 1812, +at Queenston Heights, which we are going to see this afternoon. For, +you see, the American troops kept harassing this border for a couple +of years." + +"Just as your English forefathers used to harass my Scotch ones long +ago," said Hugh. + +"Oh, and I suppose the Scotch never did likewise! Indeed, I rather +think they were a good deal the worst," laughed Kate. "But, at any +rate, this sort of thing had been going on for nearly two years, +keeping the poor people in a state of constant dread, and I think Sir +Gordon Drummond and his sixteen hundred men, part of them British +troops and part Canadian volunteers, must have been pretty tired of +it. He made up his mind, however, that, come what might, he wouldn't +retire before even five thousand Americans. That hill there was where +he stationed his troops, and, as the guidebook says, they _stayed_ +there, though the Americans did their best to drive them off. At last +they tired out the American general, who fell off with his defeated +army to their camp, away up there beyond Chippewa--in the direction we +walked the first afternoon--and I believe they never halted till they +got back to Fort Erie, from whence they had come." + +"Your Canadian volunteers must have been a plucky lot of fellows; no +disgrace to the British flag they bore," Hugh observed. + +"Yes, and it wasn't only the _men_ who were plucky," May remarked, +somewhat shyly. "The summer before Lundy's Lane, a woman did one of +the bravest deeds of the whole war. Her name was Laura Secord, and she +was the wife of a militiaman who had been crippled in the war. She +found out that the American troops were on the march from Fort George, +down at the mouth of the river, with the object of cutting off a +little garrison of volunteers entrenched at a place called Beaver Dam. +If the Americans could have managed this it would have been a great +blow to the Canadians; and, as there was no one to warn them, this +brave young woman determined to walk all the way--and a very lonely way +it was--through the woods, to warn Fitzgibbon, the British commander. +She succeeded in getting through the Yankee lines, and arrived safely +at the little Canadian garrison; and when the American troops arrived +they met so hot a reception from sharp-shooters concealed in the +woods, with a few British soldiers in front, that the commander +thought he was trapped into an encounter with the whole British force, +and precipitately surrendered his six hundred men, guns and all, to a +Canadian force of much less than half his own numbers." + +"Well," exclaimed Hugh, his eye lighting, and his cheek flushing, +"that _was_ a brave woman. Such an exploit as that, in our old border +wars would have been immortalized in a ballad." + +"It has been the subject of two or three Canadian poems," Kate +replied. "May knows all about them, and I have no doubt she could +recite some of the verses about Laura Secord." + +And May, on being pressed, recited a portion of a ballad rather shyly, +but still with a good deal of spirit, and seeming to feel more at home +with the formidable Hugh, through their fellow-feeling about such +traditionary tales. They looked at the little hill and tried to +imagine the scene, when, at sunset, the guns mingled their ominous +roar with the majestic thunder of the Falls, until recalled by Mrs. +Sandford to the recollection that it was nearly lunch-time. They drove +some distance further along the pretty shady lane, with its bordering +gardens and orchards on either side, and then rapidly returned to the +hotel. + +In the afternoon they set out again to drive down the river,--the +afternoon being a lovely one,--the air fragrant with wandering scents +from the woods, and the roads freed from dust by the recent rain. They +drove past the little town of Niagara Falls, or Clifton, as it is +still sometimes called, at the point where the railway crosses the +river on its great suspension bridge, and whose chief center of life +is the great railway station for the whole vicinity. Leaving that +behind, they followed the road along the river bank till they turned +in at the gate leading to the descent to the Whirlpool. A steep, +wooded incline descended the abrupt and densely wooded cliffs, down +which, at intervals, ran a car, drawn up and down by a chain that +passed over a wheel at the top. The fatigue of a descent in any other +way was not to be thought of; so, although this way looked rather +formidable, they all committed themselves to the car, except Mrs. +Sandford, who preferred to remain at the top until their +return--remarking that she had no fancy for tobogganing, especially on +dry land! And, indeed, the dizzy speed at which they descended was not +altogether unlike tobogganing--at least, according to Kate--which, Hugh +said, was some satisfaction, since he should not be able to enjoy the +thing itself. At the foot of the rapid descent they had only to follow +a woodland path for a short distance in order to get a full view of +the boiling and raging torrent; the waters, to a depth of more than +two hundred feet, being compressed into a narrow channel of about a +hundred yards between the high precipitous banks, till the confined +and chafing stream seemed to rise into a ridge of great seething, +foaming waves, tossing their heads up like small geysers, or +waterspouts, some twenty feet high, as they dashed furiously against +each other with all the force of the strong hidden currents. Just +here, where the river swerved suddenly to the right, the sweep of the +river round the American cliff made a sort of back-eddy in the bay +formed by the receding heights above them--where, under a surface of +apparently still water, its solemn depths, dark and somber, like a +mountain tarn set in the midst of dusky pines, lay concealed, save for +a few whirling eddies, a fierce vortex, which nothing that approached +it could resist. Looking only on the placid surface, it was difficult +to realize the hidden power beneath, until Hugh Macnab threw a large +piece of stick near the center, where they saw it continue to gyrate +with tremendous speed as long as they cared to watch it. Kate said +there were gruesome stories of bodies which had been carried over the +Falls, reappearing here for a horrible dance of death, which it made +them shudder to imagine. Hugh enthusiastically declared that the dark +and savage grandeur of this lonely gorge, with its steep overhanging +heights, rising in their dusky green against the sky, like prison +walls about the little Maëlstrom, was the finest bit of scenery he had +yet seen about the Falls, and seemed just the place in which to +imagine any tragedy. + +"Can't you invent one for it?" asked Flora. + +"Nothing worthy of the scene, I am afraid," he replied. "It recalls +Schiller's 'Diver,' though, which has been haunting me constantly +during the last few days. Do you remember it?" + +Kate did not, but May had read Lord Lytton's translation of it, and +remembered it, though not distinctly. + +"Couldn't you repeat a verse or two of your own translation?" said +Flora. + +"I should _have_ to repeat my own, if I did any," he said, smiling, +"for it's the only one I could manage to remember." + +"Well, give us a bit of it, do," commanded Kate. + +Hugh thought for a moment. "I'll give you the two stanzas that might +do for a description of the present scene," he said, and went on to +recite, with great spirit: + + "And it boils and it seethes, and it hisses and roars, + As if fire struggled fierce with the wave, + And a misty spray-cloud from its bosom outpours, + And the chasing floods endlessly rave; + And, like thunder remote, with its low distant rumbles, + The foam-crested stream from the dark cañon tumbles! + + But at last comes a lull in the turbulent war, + And black in the midst of white foam + A yawning rift gapes in the center, that far + Leads downwards to bottomless gloom; + And lo! all the surges, swift, rushing and roaring, + Down into the whirlpool are endlessly pouring!" + +"It has the merit of being pretty literal, at any rate," he added, as +they all thanked him, while Flora whispered to May that the whole +translation was in the new book that was nearly ready. "But it is so +strong and terse in the original that it is extremely difficult to +render with any justice in a translation." + +"It would do for a description of _this_ whirlpool, at any rate," said +Kate. And then she told them of a real tragedy, not unlike that of +"The Diver," which had been recently enacted there, the feat of a bold +swimmer, who had ventured to oppose his own strength and skill to that +resistless force of the flood, with a similar result. + +"Poor fellow!" said Hugh, "that's tragedy enough for the place without +inventing one. But why will man be so foolhardy?" + +"I can tell you of another daring feat, that _succeeded_ though," +replied Kate, "though _that_ might have seemed foolhardy, too." And +she went on to tell them how a little steamboat called the "Maid of +the Mist," which used to ply up and down, just below the Falls, in +order to give visitors the same view they now had from the ferry boat, +had finally been taken down the river to Niagara, at its mouth, +piloted through these fierce rapids and that greedy whirlpool; and +how, when at last the pilot had successfully accomplished his anxious +task, and left the boat at its dock, he looked at least ten years +older than he had done only an hour or two before. + +While they talked Flora was trying to make a rapid sketch of the view +had from where they sat on the bank--just as a help to remember it by, +she said, for there was far too much to attempt in a hasty sketch, and +the others were not sorry for an excuse to linger a little longer in +so striking and picturesque a spot; but at last they felt compelled to +bid it farewell, and tore themselves away, ascending in the same way +in which they had come down, not without some tremor on the part of +the girls, lest the stout chain should part while they were on the +way. Rejoining Mrs. Sandford, who had grown very impatient, they were +soon in the carriage again, but before pursuing their onward way they +made a little _détour_, driving through a charming glen which led +gradually downwards, under embowering trees and among mossy rocks and +ferny glades, to where a pretty little bay lay, cut off from the +raving stream by a beach of weather-worn pebbles. At the other +extremity of the picturesque glen lay a little placid pool formed by +an eddy of the river, at which Hugh declared he should like to stand +all day with his fishing-rod, taking in leisurely all the influences +of the tranquil scene. Flora, also, went into raptures over the place, +which she said reminded her so much of a Scottish glen, and she and +her brother eagerly discussed its points of similarity and contrast +with several glens well known to them at home. + +Returning once more to the high-road they continued their drive in the +slanting afternoon light, with rich farms and orchards on either side +of them and lovely glimpses of the river and the opposite bank, till +they found themselves among the picturesque dingles that lie round +Queenston Heights, ascending the noble eminence, crowned by a stately +shaft, which had been for some time looming before them in the +distance. This height, Kate declared, was a natural monument, marking +the Thermopylæ of Canada. But when they came out at last on its brow, +close to the base of the shaft, they all exclaimed with delight at the +exquisite beauty of the view that lay at their feet, which for the +time made them forget that such things as historical associations had +any existence. + +Just below them lay a fair, broad bay, into which the narrow, +precipitous gorge had suddenly expanded; while away to their left they +could trace, as on a map, the windings of the now placid river, round +point after point, between banks that in the nearer distance looked +like escarpments crowned with foliage, and, as they receded, gradually +fell away in height until they descended almost to the level of the +great Lake Ontario, which stretched--a blue, sea-like expanse--to the +horizon line. Across the river, before them, the eye traveled over +miles on miles of woodland and fertile farming country, dotted with +villages and homesteads; the pretty little town of Lewiston, close to +the river, just below. Immediately beneath them the rugged heights +fell away abruptly to the river beach, and they looked down on the +picturesque little village of Queenston, nestling among its graceful +weeping willows, while, from its dock, a small ferry steamer was just +leaving the quiet river, on its way to the nearly opposite dock at +Lewiston. One or two sailing vessels and skiffs added animation to the +charming foreground, and the whole seemed an embodiment of tranquil +beauty. + +"Who would ever dream," said Flora, "that this was the same river we +saw raging away up there?" though May, listening attentively, could +still hear the soft, distant murmur of the "Thunder of Waters." + +"War and Peace," said Hugh. "But are we not going to ascend the +monument?" + +"Of course," said Kate, when they had all read the commemorative +inscription, and duly admired the graceful shaft, crowned by the +figure of General Wolfe, with one hand resting on his sword and the +other extended as if to cheer on his men. They climbed the winding +stair within to the summit, from whence they could command still more +extensive and varied panorama on all sides of them. Kate eagerly +pointed out on the last headland at the mouth of the river the little +Canadian town of Niagara, which, she informed her Scotch cousins, was +almost the oldest town in Ontario, and had even enjoyed the dignity of +being its first constitutional capital. Close beside it they could +trace just through an opera glass the ramparts of old Fort George, +which had played an important part in stormy days gone by. On the +opposite point rose the white walls of the American Fort Niagara. +Landward, Kate pointed out the spires of St. Catherine's, fourteen +miles off, and the silver streak of the Welland Canal, winding its +devious way from Lake Erie to Port Dalhousie, on Lake Ontario. And, +"if they only had a good spy-glass," she added, "they could catch a +glimpse of Toronto, just across a blue stretch of lake." + +After feasting their eyes on the lovely landscape, lighted by the warm +afternoon sun, they were not sorry to descend from their lofty perch +and sit down a while in a shady spot on the verge of the height, +looking down over its dense foliage of oak and maple, birch and +sumach, to the blue-green river that flowed beneath, half concealed by +the rocky ledges. And as they sat there and Flora sketched, Kate +described--helped out by May--how, early in one October morning of 1812, +a line of boats filled with American troops had stolen silently across +the stream, until the gallant "forlorn hope" had made a landing on the +Canadian shore; and how the fire of the guns that greeted their +passage had roused General Wolfe at Fort George, and brought him +galloping up at the head of his suite to take command of the gallant +little British and Canadian force, of only about eight hundred men, +all told. But this little force had opposed the progress of the +invaders every inch of ground with such desperate valor as speedily to +change the attack into a rout, in which numbers of the brave American +soldiers, fighting gallantly, even after all was lost, fell victims to +the uncontrollable ferocity of the Indians, determined to avenge the +death of the brave Wolfe, who had fallen while fighting like one of +his own men, and cheering on the "York Volunteers." Many of the +invaders who escaped the pursuing Indians were killed in trying to +descend the rocky height or drowned in attempting to swim across the +river. + +"A well-fought fight it must have been," exclaimed Hugh, "worthy to +take its place beside any of our historical battlefields. Why don't we +know more about these affairs at home? Then we might feel more as if +Canada were indeed a 'Greater Britain!' And so these heights had +_their_ dead hero, too, as well as the 'Heights of Abraham'?" + +"Yes, indeed," said May; "General Brock was indeed a hero, just as +much as Wolfe, though he only helped to _keep_ Canada, instead of +conquering it." + +"But," said Kate, "to go back to ancient history, do you know that +this ridge here is said to have been once the shore of an ocean, and, +at a later time, the boundary of the lake; and that here the Falls are +supposed to have made their first plunge. The geologists have traced +it all the way--its gradually receding front all the way back to where +it is now." + +"I'm sure I'm much obliged to them," said Hugh, "but somehow these +vast blank periods of geological history don't touch me half so much +as a little bit of human interest. That battle you have been +describing is far more interesting than æons of conflict between water +and shale." + +"If it interests you so much," Kate rejoined, "you can read more about +it when we get home, in a Canadian story I have, called 'For King and +Country,' which ends with the battle of Queenston Heights." + +And now Flora had finished her little sketch, and Mrs. Sandford warned +the lingering party that the afternoon was waning fast, in which +undoubted fact they acquiesced with a general sigh of regret. They +descended by the steep winding road on the other side of the height, +through thickets of aromatic red cedar, down to the scattered little +village, embowered among its orchards below, and drove some distance +farther on along the road in order that they might enjoy, in +returning, the charming view of the Heights, approached from the +Niagara side. They followed, for a mile or two, the undulating road +which, after leaving the village behind, was skirted with white +villas, surrounded by wide stretches of soft green sward, flecked by +the shadows of fine old trees, looking like a bit of an English park; +and then, turning at last, enjoyed the charming view of the now +distant bay, with wooded point after point intervening, and the bold +eminence of Queenston Heights always fitly closing in the picturesque +vista. + +They all thought the drive such an enchanting one that there was not a +dissenting voice when Kate proposed that, since they were going to +take the daily steamer to Toronto from Niagara, on their onward route, +by far the pleasantest plan would be to _drive_ thither, when at last +they must leave the Falls. + +Leaving the Falls seemed a sad prospect to all of them, but more +especially so to May, over whom the Falls had thrown such a spell of +fascination that she would have liked nothing better than to stay +there all summer, feasting eyes and ears on their grandeur. But Hugh +Macnab, who owned to the same feeling, added the consoling reflection +that "a thing of beauty is a joy forever," and May felt convinced that +the memory of the Falls would indeed be "a joy forever" to _her_ as +long as she lived. + +They could only spare three days more to Niagara, and as they sat that +evening as usual on the piazza, regretting the lateness of the already +waning moon, they agreed that now, having taken a general survey of +the main points of view, they should not attempt any plans for the +remaining days, but should spend them in those leisurely, +unpremeditated loiterings, which are always the pleasantest way of +absorbing all the more subtile and indefinite influences of noble +scenery. + +So the remaining days turned out to be, perhaps, the most delightful +of the sojourn, spent in charming desultory strolls, as the fancy of +the moment dictated, revisiting all the points which had most +impressed them, taking in new beauties which they had not observed +before, while they talked or were silent, as the mood suggested, and +Flora filled her sketch-book with pretty "bits," and Hugh occasionally +withdrew to a little distance and scribbled in his note-book, and Mrs. +Sandford, sitting near while the others discursively rambled, +accomplished yards on yards of her endless knitting. + +Their last day was Sunday, when they walked down to the pretty little +church at Clifton, and enjoyed the quiet service, and sat most of the +afternoon on the piazza, of the view from whence they never tired. It +was a lovely sunset, and they walked as far as Table Rock to have a +last lingering look at the superb view from there in the rich evening +glow. As they watched the two magnificent Falls into which the stream +divides, to re-unite below, Kate told her cousin Hugh of a beautiful +simile which she had seen in a new Canadian book called "The New +Empire," in which the author suggests that though the stream of the +British race in America had divided like that sweeping river into two +magnificent sections, so, like it, they might re-unite in the future +citizenship of a world-wide Britain. + +"And then, perhaps, we shall go on to our laureate's dream of the +federation of the world! It is at all events a pleasant thought to +finish this glorious visit with; and I suppose this is our farewell +look?" + +"I am afraid so," said Kate. "We shall not have much time in the +morning for loitering. Let us be glad we have such a glorious sight of +it--for the last!" + +And they sat silently gazing, as if they would fain have prolonged the +sunset light. But at length its last vestige had vanished, and they +slowly walked back to the hotel in the starlight, while the grand +music of the "Thunder of Waters" still filled their ears, and sounded +even through their dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ON THE LAKE. + + +"Dreaming again, May! Are you saying a last fond good-bye to the +Falls? I'm afraid you've left your heart up there," said Mrs. +Sandford, as she smilingly laid her hand on the shoulder of her niece, +who stood alone at the stern of the steamboat, silently gazing in the +direction of the faint, distant cloud of spray that rose, just +traceable against the clear blue sky, with a wistful regret in her +soft gray eyes--regret at parting from that wonderful revelation of the +sublime which had so powerfully impressed her imagination, and which, +just at present, overpowered even the happy anticipations of the +further revelations of beauty and grandeur that still lay in the +future progress of this wonderful voyage down the glorious river to +the sea. + +They had a delightful morning drive through the long stretch of +charming rural scenery that lies between the Falls and Niagara, +studded with pretty bowery old homesteads, long green lawns flecked +with the long shadows of spreading walnut and tulip trees, and dark +stately pines, through which they could catch glimpses of +old-fashioned, pillared piazzas, or of old gray farm buildings, till +at last they reached the picturesque suburbs of the quiet little town +of "Niagara-on-the-Lake." As they drove through the grove of fine oaks +that skirts the edge of the town, and admired the pretty little church +of St. Mark's, making a charming picture in the foreground, Mrs. +Sandford, who in her youth had often sojourned in the vicinity, +pointed out the spot where she remembered having seen the "hollow +beech-tree,"--long since gone,--commemorated by Moore in his poem of +"The Woodpecker," though, it must be added, that this same beech-tree +has been also located in the neighborhood of Kingston. Beyond the oak +grove lay a broad green or "common" stretching away to the wide blue +lake, on which the Iroquois used to hold an annual encampment to +receive their yearly gifts and allowances. To the right of the road, +just above the river, Mrs. Sandford pointed out the grassy mound and +bit of massive masonry, which is all that is left of old Fort George, +with its eventful history, and a little further on the tower of Fort +Mississauga, built after the final retreat of the American troops in +1813, out of the ruins of the original town, burned by the American +soldiers on a dreary December day. No traces of these old conflicts +can now be seen, being long since smoothed over by the gentle yet +strong hand of time, and a beneficent Nature. Just opposite them, +across the broad blue-green river, which has now lost all traces of +its turbulent passion, and subsided into a most peaceful and +easy-going stream, they could see the white walls of the American Fort +Niagara, which had exchanged so many rounds of cannonade with its +opposite neighbor. May, fresh from reading Parkman, was eager to fix +the exact spot where her special hero, LaSalle, had built his +ill-fated "Griffin," the first sailing vessel that ever floated on +these waters; but here her aunt could give her no information. _Her_ +interest was entirely in later history, and she pointed out the place +where Governor Simcoe had opened the first Parliament of Upper Canada +and delivered his first speech, with all the usual formalities, to an +assembly of eight members and two Legislative Councilors; after which +the Governor, with his two Secretaries, departed in due pomp attended +by a guard of honor of fifty soldiers from the old fort; and also, +how, with less ceremonial, during the warm summer days, the Governor +and his Council met on the green sward, under the spreading trees, and +arranged the affairs of the Provinces, passing, among other useful +measures, the memorable one which put an end forever to all +possibilities of negro slavery in the young colony, thereby saving it +from much future difficulty and dishonor. + +The mention of this last subject had brought on a discussion of the +history of slavery in the American Republic, which much interested +Hugh Macnab, whose Celtic sympathies had been rather with the South in +the great struggle, while Kate was a warm partisan of the North, and +argued their cause so well that her cousin had at last to confess +himself mistaken on several important points. The argument lasted +until they found themselves on board the Cibola, getting up her steam +to carry them from Niagara and its glories. While Mrs. Sandford had +been dilating on the attractions of Niagara-on-the-Lake as a +delightful and quiet health resort, May, who had been very quiet +during the drive, had stolen off to a quiet corner in the stern, where +the others found her at last, sitting very still and trying to fix the +glorious Falls in her memory by calling up once again the picture of +them as she had seen them last. + +"So this is Lake Ontario!" said Hugh Macnab, looking around with keen +enjoyment. "How well I remember stumbling over the name at school in +my geography lessons, and reading with awe that line of Campbell's +about the tiger roaming along Ontario's shores!" + +"Oh, did he really say that?" said Kate. "Who would have thought a +great poet would have made such a mistake in his zoology?" + +"Oh, as for that," said Hugh, smiling, "poets, especially when they +are city-bred--are very apt to make mistakes about natural facts. And +Ruskin had not written then, you know. But what a magnificent lake!" +he exclaimed again, inhaling the fresh, bracing breeze, and surveying +with delight the turquoise-blue expanse of water, whose horizon-line +blended softly with a pale azure sky, banked here and there by +delicate violet clouds which might have passed for distant mountains. +"Over there," he added, "one could imagine it the ocean, at least on +one of the rare days when the ocean sleeps at peace!" + +"It can be stormy enough, too," remarked Mrs. Sandford, with a +grimace, called forth by some vivid remembrance of it in that aspect. +"I've been on it when even good sailors at sea have had to give in. +For, you see, the short, chopping waves are more trying than the big +ocean rollers." + +"And how long shall we be on it, after leaving Toronto?" asked Hugh, +with some anxiety, for he was by no means a good sailor in such +circumstances. + +"Oh, you can have fourteen or fifteen hours of it, if you wish," +replied Kate, mischievously, suspecting the reason for his question. +"But I've been planning a little variation that, because, of course, +you see nothing of the country in traveling by lake, and I want you to +see some of our really pretty places by the way; and besides, the +Armstrongs, our Port Hope cousins, want to have a glimpse of you, of +course, and would like us all to give them a day, at least, _en +route_. And my plan is, that we take the lake steamer to Port Hope, +which we reach in a lovely hour,--just in the gloaming, as Flora would +say. We can all stay with the Armstrongs, for they have a good large +house and some of the family are away; and we can have some very +pretty drives about Port Hope next day. And then, the following +morning, we can take the train, and go by the 'Grand Trunk' to a +pretty little town called Belleville, on a charming bay called the Bay +of Quinte, on which we can have a lovely sail down to Kingston. That +will be better than spending the night on the lake--seeing nothing of +the scenery and having to turn out of our berths at the unearthly hour +of four o'clock in the morning, which is about the time the steamboat +from Toronto arrives at that good old city." + +"That's a splendid plan, Cousin Kate," exclaimed both Hugh and Flora +at once. "What a schemer you are, to be sure," continued Hugh. "I +don't know how we should ever get on without you." + +May had been sitting by, silently watching the little group, as she +had rather a way of doing; Kate's bright face, Hugh's more reserved +and sensitive one,--yet seeming so much more animated and healthful +than when she had first met him, only a few days ago,--and Flora's +sweet, rosy, good-humored countenance,--they made a pleasant picture. +How much better Hugh seemed already, and how much he seemed to depend +on Kate! May was much addicted to weaving little romances for the +people about her,--often on very slender foundation,--and she had +already begun to weave one for her cousin. How well they would +supplement each other, she thought,--Kate's quick, practical sense and +Hugh's more contemplative tendencies. From which it will be seen that +May was somewhat given to theories, as well as to modern fiction. + +Meantime, they had been swiftly steaming across the azure surface of +the lake, and, even by straining her eyes, May could barely discern +the faint cloud of mist that represented so much to her inward eye. +Indeed they had all begun to look onward for Toronto, and could dimly +trace the long succession of buildings and spires that had begun to +separate itself from the blue line of distant shore towards which they +were approaching. + +"We shall be there very soon now," said Mrs. Sandford, rising to +collect her numerous satchels, wraps, etc., long before there was any +occasion for it. It was a sort of occupation, and she had +relinquished, for the time, the sedative of her knitting. While she +was thus busied, Kate pointed out, as they drew nearer, the principal +landmarks, and the strangers were surprised to find so extensive and +imposing a city. + +"That low bar of land, there," she said, somewhat slightingly, "is +what they call their Island, though it really is only a sandbar cut +through. I suppose it's better than nothing, for at least they get the +fresh lake breezes; but no one who has seen our beautiful 'Thousand +Islands' in the St. Lawrence could be content with that for an island. +But it is the Coney Island, the Nantasket Beach, the Saratoga, of +Toronto!" + +"Toronto is an Indian name, I suppose," said Hugh. "Do you know what +it means?" + +"I do," said May, when Kate had confessed her ignorance. "At least I +have read somewhere that it means 'The Place of Meeting,' from having +been the point where the roving bands of Indians and the French +traders used to meet in the old French time. At first it was only a +little stockaded fort, called Fort Kouilly, after a French Colonial +Minister, I think, and there the traders and Indians used to make +their bargains." + +"And after that," said Mrs. Sandford, "it was never known at all until +Governor Simcoe made it the first capital, instead of Niagara, which +was too near the frontier, and called it York, after the then Duke of +York." + +"What a pity!" exclaimed Hugh. "But they went back to the Indian name, +after all!" + +"Yes," replied Mrs. Sandford, "they got tired of hearing it called +'muddy little York,' and changed back to Toronto about fifty years +ago; and Toronto it has remained ever since. My father has often told +me about the first Parliament buildings here, and the Vice-Regal +residence, which the 'Queen City' would not think good enough now for +a school building. At the time when it was made the capital, the woods +clothed the shore down to the water's edge, and there were only two +wigwams here, in which lived two families of Mississauga Indians, from +whom the whole site of the city is said to have been bought for _ten +shillings sterling_, with some beads, blankets, and, I'm afraid, a +little fire-water thrown in." + +"Well," said Hugh, "everything is relative; I suppose that represented +a small fortune to them, and it has taken a good while to get the +'unearned increment' up to its present value." + +"I don't understand your new-fangled terms," said Mrs. Sandford. +"There weren't any of them in my day. Now, make haste and get your +traps together, for we'll be at the dock in two minutes. Look for the +Arlington carriage, Hugh, that's where we're going; I think you will +find it there." + +And in a few minutes they were all stowed into the carriage, and +driven rapidly away from the noisy dock to the quiet family hotel on +King Street, which seemed an inviting resting place in the very warm +afternoon. They felt the heat all the more after the cool lake breeze +they had been enjoying; and they were all tired enough with their +early start to enjoy a _siesta_ before their luncheon, which was also +much appreciated in its turn. The afternoon was to be devoted to +seeing Toronto, and a large double hack was soon at the door, in which +the whole party ensconced themselves for a leisurely drive about the +busy and beautiful city. Kate, as usual, directed the route, and Hugh +sat on the box beside the driver, where he could hear all the +information given behind, as well as secure some more on his own +account from the communicative charioteer. + +They drove first eastward, along the fine stretch of King Street, +admiring on their way the pretty, shady grounds of Government House, +and the massive Norman architecture of St. Andrew's Church opposite, +in which Hugh, as a Scotchman, took a special interest. Passing on, +along the favorite resort of Toronto promenaders, they admired the +stately rows of buildings, though Hugh and Flora protested against the +monotonous white brick, so new to their English eyes. They turned up +the busy thoroughfare of Yonge Street, and, after a few blocks, left +the region of shops and turned aside into the cool shadiness of Jarvis +and Sherbourne Streets, with their handsome residences, surrounded by +well-kept grounds; and so up to the rural quiet of Bloor Street. They +crossed the fine bridge over the ravine at Rosedale, and admired the +picturesque bits of scenery lying about that romantic spot. Then, +after following Bloor Street into the new section of the city that has +grown up so rapidly about Spadina Avenue, they turned into the +beautiful "Queen's Park," and drove through its shady precincts, the +Scottish strangers surveying with great interest the new academic +buildings that are springing up about the University as a center. At +the University, of course, they halted for a closer inspection of the +beautiful building, which, as Kate remarked, had just risen, +Ph[oe]nix-like, from the conflagration that had, a short time ago, left +it a mass of magnificent ruins. + +"You see they are building the library quite separate, over there, +now," Kate said, pointing to where the graceful library building was +beginning to show its beauty of design. "It is really wonderful," she +added, "how generous people everywhere have been in restoring the loss +of the books." + +"Yes," replied Hugh. "And I have no doubt the University will be the +gainer in the end, as the _trash_ will have been all disposed of, and +the scientific books will be all new and up to date. But I can imagine +what a catastrophe it must have been at the time. It made quite a +sensation, even among us students in Edinburgh. Though, apart from the +associations, I'm afraid some of us wouldn't have been sorry to have +had our old building and old books renewed in the same way! It's too +bad for a Scotch university to be eclipsed, architecturally, by a +Canadian one!" + +"Ah, well, you see, we had the improved taste of this age to guide +us," remarked Kate. + +"And the taste of a Scotchman, at that, if I am not mistaken," added +Hugh. + +"Oh, yes, we must grant you the credit of Sir Daniel Wilson and his +Edinburgh training. But look at this fine gateway. Fortunately it was +not injured by the fire, and is just as it was. I think it's the +finest bit of the building." + +Hugh admired it all so enthusiastically that May, who had of course +seen very little of fine architecture, was glad to have her own +admiration endorsed by one who had seen so much more. And, happily, +they encountered a stray professor, well known to Mrs. Sandford, who +insisted on looking up the janitor, and personally conducting them +through the interior of the building, which the tourists were very +anxious to see, and which Hugh inspected with the critical eye of a +student, approving of the various improvements everywhere introduced, +and only regretting the lost glories of the Convocation Hall, on which +the professor regretfully descanted. + +"But we must wait for some Canadian millionaire to give us a Canadian +Christ's Church," he said, smiling. + +"Indeed, I think it is wonderful, as it _is_, for a new country," said +Hugh, as they exchanged a cordial adieu, Hugh promising in return to +show him Edinburgh University if he would look him up over there. + +From the University they drove down the fine shady avenue, to show the +strangers, a little way from the University, on a little knoll in its +picturesque grounds, a monument to the young volunteers who fell at +Ridgeway. Hugh and Flora had already heard the story of the Fenian +_émeute_ that caused so much temporary excitement, and they looked +with respectful sympathy at the monument so justly raised to these +gallant young men, as true patriots as if the field on which they fell +had been one of the historic battle-grounds of the world. The monument +to George Brown also claimed their attention for a few moments, and +Hugh triumphantly declared to Kate, that, so far as he could see, all +the great leaders of Canada had been his fellow-countrymen. + +Then they continued their drive down the fine avenue, past the School +of Technology, and the great, new Parliament buildings, fast rising to +completion, and down the alley of chestnuts on to which, under the +spreading horse-chestnuts, leads down Queen Street, where they duly +admired the classic stateliness of Osgoode Hall,--the law center of +Ontario. Then they returned to King Street once more, and followed its +coarse westward for some miles, to see the former site of the Old Fort +near the Exhibition buildings, and the various great institutions of +Toronto along its line. The old red brick building of Upper Canada +College,--one of the oldest grammar schools in Canada; the handsome +front of Trinity College, farther on, in its beautiful park, the +grounds and buildings of which Hugh would fain have stopped to +explore; the great gloomy-looking, high-walled inclosure of the +Lunatic Asylum, with its saddening associations; and then, still +sadder sight, the grim Central Prison and the Mercer Reformatory for +women. A somewhat more cheerful object of contemplation was the large +pile of buildings that form the beautiful Home for Incurables, which +Kate declared was quite an ideal institution, at least so far as its +plan and appointments were concerned. "But it is a rather melancholy +place too," she admitted, "though, if people _are_ incurable, it is +nice to know that they will be comfortably provided for!" + +"I don't believe much in institutions," said Flora, in her soft voice +and pretty Scotch accent; "I would rather have one of the plainest +little rooms, in a wee, real home, than the most luxurious one in +these great institutions!" and May warmly endorsed the sentiment. + +"Still, if people can't have even that," said Hugh, "it's well there +_are_ institutions. I must say myself, that I don't care much for +doing things by wholesale, so I for one could never be a socialist. +Things were better planned originally. 'He setteth the solitary in +families.'" + +"That was long ago, my dear boy," remarked Mrs. Sandford. "It's +getting to be an old world, and a cold world, too, I fear." + +"Oh, I hope not, Aunt Bella. The old order faileth, giving place to +new, only the new hasn't got well worked out yet." + +On their way back they took a look at the Old Fort Barracks, and at +the site of the old French Fort, near which the exhibition buildings, +or "Fair grounds," yearly present such a striking contrast to what +must have been the silence and loneliness of the spot when it first +became a British settlement. And the cool lake breeze was most +refreshing after the heat of the July day, and sent them back to the +hotel, reinforced for dinner, after which they were not disposed to do +more than sit quietly on one of the balconies of the hotel, Mrs. +Sandford knitting with great satisfaction, and the others amusing +themselves with observing the ever-varying line of pedestrians +constantly passing to and fro on their way from places of evening +entertainment. + +Next morning all the junior members of the party started for a ramble +on foot, going first along King Street and looking in a more leisurely +fashion at the various handsome public buildings, the banks, the great +newspaper offices, a little off King Street, the fine post-office on +Adelaide Street, the attractive picture and bookstores, and then +turning up Church Street, pursued their way to the Normal School +buildings, where Kate exhibited to her companions with some pride, the +various educational appliances of that center of the public school +education of the province, the handsome, and even luxurious +lecture-rooms, class-rooms, library, and last, but not least, the +spacious and delightful Kindergarten, a paradise of infantine +education, which was Kate's especial delight, and which to Hugh and +Flora was a charming novelty in "school-keeping." After that they +continued their walk in a desultory fashion along the shady streets of +that quarter of the city, admiring the handsome churches and +villa-like residences which there abound. Then they crossed the Park +to take one more look at the beautiful University buildings, and came +back to the Arlington by the way of St. George Street with its fine +residences, and Spadina Avenue, just in time for an early luncheon +before preparing for their departure by the good steamer _Corsican_. + +The early afternoon found them all on the deck of the steamer, gliding +swiftly out of Toronto Bay, leaving in the distance the long mass of +fine buildings that extends along Front Street and gives the stranger +some idea of the wealth and business of Toronto; past the long +sandbar, which at once protects Toronto Harbor and serves as a "health +resort" and "_villegiature_" for so many Torontonians. Very soon, as +the steamer ploughed her way through the blue lake, calm as a +millpond, Toronto had become invisible, and the high land of Scarboro +Heights rose to the left, while to the right the blue horizon line +again reminded the travelers of the sea. Presently, there arose the +fresh, bracing afternoon breeze, most grateful to the strangers +especially, who had felt the heat at Toronto rather oppressive. It was +a delicious afternoon, and as the sparkling and quivering golden +pathway thrown on the waters by the westering sun showed them that it +was passing away all too soon, Hugh declared that if he lived in +Canada he should want to spend most of the summer on a yacht on such +halcyon waters. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Sandford, "yachting is very well in summer weather, +when it is calm like this, but it's dangerous at best on these great +lakes where sudden squalls are apt to rise at any moment. Don't you +remember, Kate----" + +"Oh, yes, Auntie," Kate interposed, hurriedly, "don't talk about it +now. It's too sad. But, Hugh, how would you like to 'paddle your own +canoe' all the way down from Toronto to the foot of the lake, as they +used to do in the brave days of old?" + +"I shouldn't fancy any one would try such an experiment in these days +of rapid locomotion," said Flora. + +"Indeed, some people _would_, and think it great fun," replied Kate. +"A friend of ours, with his wife and little girl, paddled down the +whole way to the St. Lawrence one summer, just for the pleasure of it. +And his wife--just as the squaws used to do--helped him with the +paddling." + +"And how long did it take them?" asked Hugh. + +"About ten or eleven days. And they kept a log, or at least a diary of +each day's events, for future edification. Of course, they stopped +over night at some place where they could sleep comfortably and have a +good breakfast to start with." + +"Oh, I should think _that_ might be very pleasant. But, in 'the brave +days of old,' they had not any of these conveniences, and I suppose +they did not take it so leisurely." + +"Poor LaSalle had many a hard paddle up and down the lakes in all +sorts of weather," said May. "It makes one shudder to think of some of +his voyages, and with so many hardships, too!" + +"Well," said Hugh, "I think I prefer the more expeditious way, where +there's no particular scenery to tempt one." + +"Oh, of course, there isn't _much_ of what you would call scenery +along this coast," said Kate. "Nothing like what there is along Lake +Superior or Lake Huron. But still, if you were to keep close along +shore, there are many pretty little 'bits' to enjoy; and just think +what a delicious lotus-eating life it would be." + +"Except for the paddler," interposed Hugh. + +"Oh, indeed, you don't know how the paddlers get to love it! There +seems a sort of fascination about it, and it gets to be a passion with +them. There is much more interest and variety about it than about +rowing. Do you know, there's a great American Canoe Association to +which many Canadians belong, which has its 'meets' every summer, at +some pleasant spot, with good boating. They have all sorts of +exercises, races, canoe-gymnastics, prize contests, and a splendid +time generally. And ladies belong to it as well as men. This year it +is to be held at one of the 'Thousand Islands'; and, by the way, I +shouldn't wonder if you might have a glimpse of it. You know we are +all invited to spend a few days at the summer cottage of a friend +there, with whom I have often stayed, and it isn't very far from where +they have the Canoe Camp; so we may just manage to have a look at it." + +"That would be charming! I should like that," exclaimed Hugh and Flora +both together; while May began to think that too many delights were +clustering about this wonderful expedition, and that she should +suddenly awake to find it all a dream; and Cinderella at home again, +amid her dusters and her stocking-mending--as if there were no Niagara +and no "Thousand Islands" in the world. + +Meantime, they were ploughing their way through the gleaming blue and +gold waves, with water and sky meeting at the horizon line, all around +them, save for a blue strip of shore to their left, while the steering +was done by compass, a new experience for the strangers, on an inland +lake. + +"I don't wonder," Hugh remarked, "now that I've seen this lake for +myself, I don't wonder that the British Foreign Office, long ago, +should have sent out water-casks for the frigates here, as you were +telling me. It is hard to realize that this great blue expanse is +really _fresh_ water." And May felt delighted that she now could the +better picture to herself what the _sea_ was actually like. + +But the soft shadows of evening were falling on the woods and hills +before them, as the steamer glided into the beautiful harbor of Port +Hope--a noted harbor even in the old Indian times, under the name of +Ganeraské. The placid water, afire with rich sunset tints, and smooth +as a mirror, was dotted with the skiffs of pleasure seekers, and the +pretty little town looked most attractive, as, half in shadow, it +nestled in its picturesque valley and straggled up the sides of its +protecting hills. The long railway viaduct seemed to lend it an +additional charm, and Flora McNab appealed to her brother whether it +were not more like one of their old-country towns, than any they had +yet seen. On the pier were a number of strollers, who had come out to +catch the evening breeze, or to see the arrival of the daily boat; +and, among them, Kate's quick eye easily recognized Nellie Armstrong +and her brother, who gave them all a warm welcome, and speedily packed +them into a dog-cart and a light-covered carriage, in which they were +driven through the shady, sloping streets to the pretty bowery home of +the Armstrongs, where another kind welcome awaited them from the host +and hostess, and where an inviting supper was laid out in a cool, +pleasant dining-room, opening on a velvety lawn overshadowed by a +great "bass-wood" or linden tree. To May it all seemed like a +delightful romance, nor did she mind a bit the soft rain, which, +during the night, she heard through her dreams, pattering on the great +leafy bough with that peculiarly tranquilizing effect which a soft +summer rain has on the sleepy listener at night. + +The morning was wet and misty, but their host declared the latter to +be a good sign. And so it proved, for by the time the carriages, +ordered for a long drive, were at the door, the mists were rolling +gently up the sides of the hills, giving to the charming landscape +just the touch of poetry that could best enhance its charm. It was a +delightful drive, taking in most of the hills around the town, and the +fine view from the one called "Fort Orton" was particularly enjoyed by +the travelers. + +"It's very like a pretty English or Scotch view," said Flora. "Not +what one is apt to imagine _Canadian_ scenery." + +"Well, you see, this is one of the oldest settled parts of Canada," +said Mr. Armstrong. "The whole vicinity is associated with the early +French Missions to the Indians, and with some of the early French and +Indian wars. There was an old Sulpician Mission at the Indian village +on the very site of Port Hope--a mission whose director was the Abbé +Fénelon, the first explorer of this lake shore, and no other than a +brother of the celebrated Fénelon, who was the distinguished +Archbishop of Cambray, and instructor of the Dauphin of France." + +"And who wrote 'Télémaque?'" said Kate. + +"Precisely. And while he was writing it for his royal pupil, his +brother, devoted to the spiritual good of the poor ignorant Indians, +was trying to teach the Catechism and the Lord's Prayer to the little +Indian children, and enduring among the fierce Senecas, hardships far +greater than those through which his brother was leading Télémaque. He +was a real hero, that Abbé Fénelon." + +"I must read up those old French Missions," said Hugh. "They seem to +be wonderfully rich in heroic deeds." + +"They are, indeed," said Mr. Armstrong, "but I wish you had time to go +back to the neighborhood of Rice Lake and Peterboro', with its lovely +little lakes. By the way, there is a pretty waterfall thereabout, +named after this Abbé Fénelon, and the whole country is full of +associations, not only with those old French explorers and +missionaries, but also with the almost equally gallant fight of the +old U. E. Loyalist settlers, with hardships and privation." + +"And what _is_ a 'U. E. Loyalist?'" asked Hugh. "I've seen the +expression before, but have no idea what it means." + +"We should not expect you to understand our Canadian terms, without +explanation," said Mr. Armstrong, laughingly. "Well, a U. E. Loyalist +means one of those first settlers of Canada who were driven to take +refuge here at the time of the American revolution, because they would +not give up their allegiance to the British Empire, and so they left +their farms and possessions behind, and came to settle in the +wilderness under the 'old flag.'" + +"Oh, I see," said Hugh. "I have heard that many did so, but did not +know that they were called by that particular name." + +"Well, they gave good proof of their loyalty," said Mrs. Sandford; +"for many of them had pretty hard times. Mrs. Moodie's experiences +which she records in her book, 'Roughing it in the Bush,' were endured +in this section of the country. I must try to get the book for you to +read. You know she was a sister of Miss Agnes Strickland, and she and +her sister, Mrs. Traill, may be called our pioneer authoresses, though +we can hardly call them Canadians." + +"Yes, and this is a neighborhood full of Indian legend, too," said Mr. +Armstrong; "we have a village called _Hiawatha_, not many miles from +here, and a 'Minnehaha,' 'laughing water,' in the same neighborhood; +and not far from either dwelt the magician Megissogwon, who, 'guarded +by the black pitch-water, sends fever from the marshes,' as, indeed, +many a pale-face victim of fever and ague has known to his cost. And +old Indian battlefields have been discovered hereabout, besides the +connection of this point with warlike expeditions between white men in +later times." + +"And so we can never get away from 'old unhappy things and battles +long ago,'" said Hugh, moralizingly. + +"Well, let us give them the go-by, just now," said Kate and Flora +together. "On such a lovely evening, we don't want to think of battles +and unhappy things,--old or new." + +"Only, somehow, they seem to add the touch of human interest, even if +it be a sad one," rejoined Hugh, who was so much interested in all he +could learn of the past history of the country that Kate laughingly +chaffed him about the book or magazine article he must be going to +write when he got home. However, the chaffing had no effect on his +thirst for knowledge, and when they returned in the lovely summer +twilight,--more than ready for the substantial repast which awaited +them, notwithstanding the luncheon they had enjoyed on the way,--Hugh +eagerly set to work thereafter, to devour, in addition, all the scraps +of information which Mr. Armstrong hunted up for him among the +historical works in his library. But his attention was somewhat +distracted by the songs which Nellie and Flora and May were singing, +sometimes in concert, sometimes separately, at the piano in the +adjoining drawing-room. Flora delighted them all with the sweetness +and pathos with which she sang some of the "Songs from the North," +which the others had not previously heard. They gave her an +enthusiastic _encore_ for the spirited song "Over the Hills to Skye," +and at last, after hearing it two or three times, they all joined in +the chorus. + + "Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing, + Onward! the sailors cry. + And carry the lad who was born to be King, + Over the hills to Skye." + +And they were almost as much fascinated by the chorus of the other, +"The Bonnie, Bonnie Banks of Loch-Lomond," and sang again and again +the mournful refrain:-- + + "Oh, ye'll tak' the high road, an' I'll tak' the low road, + An' I'll be in Scotland afore ye; + But I'll never, never see my true love again + On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch-Lomond!" + +"You see, you can't get away from the 'old unhappy things,'" said +Hugh, at last leaving his books and coming to join the group at the +piano. "It's always the same two minor chords we have in every +pathetic song or story--love and war--in some form!" + +"Yes," said Mr. Armstrong, "see how the American war struck into life +the latent possibilities of pathos and poetry in the practical +American people." + +"Oh, by the way, Kate," said Nellie, "don't you remember that Mr. +Winthrop we met at Old Orchard last summer, with whom you used to have +so many arguments about the North and South, and all the rest of it? I +think he made a convert of you." + +"Nonsense!" said Kate; "but what of him?" + +"Oh, he called here two or three weeks ago in the course of a tour he +was making, and he asked most particularly for you. I really believe +he was going to look you up; and you were away from home. What a +pity!" + +"Indeed, I think it very unlikely that he would do anything of the +kind. It would be quite out of his way," said Kate, nonchalantly. + +"Well, I do think he meant to do so," returned Nellie. "He made most +particular inquiries about just how to get there." + +"I shall certainly be very much surprised to hear that he took any +such trouble. Was he as argumentative as ever?" + +"No, for most of his time here was spent in making the inquiries I +referred to!" retorted Nellie, rather mischievously. "I only wonder +you have not stumbled across him in the course of your travels." + +Hugh had looked up with a sudden air of interest. "I noticed the name +of Winthrop in the register of the _Clifton_, only a few days before +we arrived." + +"Then we just missed him," said Kate, in an indifferent tone, though +with a somewhat heightened color. "You would have enjoyed meeting him, +Hugh. He would have given you the American side of everything at first +hand. What I have given you is only a very faint echo." + +"But haven't you any Canadian songs to give me?" asked Hugh, as the +girls were about leaving the piano. + +"There's the old 'Canadian Boat-song,'" said Nellie, doubtfully. + +"No, no," said Kate, "that's all very well for singing on the river. +We'll have it _there_, by and by. Give Hugh something that has more of +a native flavor about it. Sing him one or two of those French Canadian +songs you used to be so fond of--'_La Claire_ _Fontaine_,' you know, or +'_En Roulant Ma Boule_.'" + +"But they are so silly," objected Nellie. + +"Dear me! who expects songs to be sensible nowadays, especially songs +of that sort? And Hugh can enjoy a little nonsense to a pretty air, as +well as anybody, I'm quite sure. Remember how much Mr. Winthrop used +to like them," said Mrs. Sandford. + +"Well, I'll sing them," said Nellie; "only, as the air is so simple, +you must all of you join in the chorus, after the first time. You can +easily catch it up." + +And she proceeded to sing, with much spirit and expression, two or +three of the lively French-Canadian airs, which have come down from +the old times of _voyageurs_ and trappers--and the whole party caught +the fascination and were soon singing, all together, the rollicking +chorus of:-- + + "_En roulant ma boule roulant,--en roulant ma boule._" + +and the prettier, half-playful, half-serious love ditty, the refrain +to "_La Claire Fontaine_": + + "_Il y'a longtemps que je t'aime_, + _Jamais je ne t'oublierai_," + +till every one was surprised to find that it was eleven o'clock, and +time for the travelers to seek their rest in preparation for an early +start. + +It was with great regret that the good-byes were said next morning, +and the little party separated at the Grand Trunk station. May thought +she could see very well that Jack Armstrong had fallen a victim to the +fresh, rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed Flora, and, accordingly, was not +surprised when something was said about a possibility that he and +Nellie might meet them at Quebec, by and by, and go with them down the +Saguenay. + +"At all events we will live in _Hope_," said Jack, who was too fond of +puns. "You know this is a _hopeful_ atmosphere." + +And so they were off from old _Ganeraské_, as this Port of Good Hope +was first called, and on the road once more. + +The next stage was not very long, however. At Cobourg they utilized +the "twenty minutes for refreshments" by driving rapidly about the +principal streets of this old town, commemorating in its name the +marriage of the young Queen with the good Albert of Cobourg. They got +a distant glimpse of the tower of the Victoria University, soon to be +removed to Toronto, where its name will not have the historical +significance which it had here. Mrs. Sandford informed Hugh how many +factories the little town contained, cloth, cars, leather, and more +besides. Then they had a run of some two hours through a fertile +farming country, leaving the train at Belleville, where they were to +spend the remainder of the day. Taking an early luncheon, they devoted +the rest of the afternoon and evening to pleasant drives about the +picturesque vicinity of the pretty little city, which, Mrs. Sandford +said, was first named _Belleville_ in honor of Arabella, the wife of +an early governor. That it deserved the added "e" no one doubted, for +all admired its fine situation at the head of the noble Bay of Quinte, +with two rapid rivers, the Trent and the Moira, running through the +town. Everywhere that they drove in the neighborhood they came upon +charming glimpses of bay and river, or rich fields of waving grain, +thriving orchards and pleasant old homesteads surrounded by their +farm-buildings, making many delightful rural pictures to carry away. +And again Mrs. Sandford reminded them how all that comfort and +prosperity was the late fruit of the hard labors and patiently borne +privations of the loyal old settlers, who chose to begin life over +again in the wilderness, rather than sacrifice their political +principles and disown the flag they loved so well. + +"I'm afraid I'm not such a Tory as you are, Aunt Bella," said Hugh; +"few of us juniors are in these latter days. But, all the same, it was +a noble thing to do--to follow their principles to the bitter end, and +go out, like Abraham, into the wilderness." + +"But I'm not sure that they were _all_ noble," interposed Kate, who +always loved to take the other side for argument's sake. "You know +some of them, at any rate, never thought that the American 'rebels' +would succeed; and when they did, of course, with feeling running so +high, they couldn't expect much comfort among _them_, in any case; and +many of the Loyalists had their farms confiscated, so that they hadn't +much choice but to move out!" + +"Yes; and a burning shame it was for those who confiscated them!" +rejoined Mrs. Sandford, who had some traditions of the kind in her own +family. "And I know well enough you got these Yankee ideas from _that_ +Mr. Winthrop!" + +"Well," said Kate, calmly, "it was all for the best in the end, +though, of course, it was hard for the people who were driven from +their homes. But you see, if they had not _had_ to leave them, we +might never have had this glorious 'Canada of ours,' of which we are +so proud!" + +"Yes," remarked Hugh, "Mr. Armstrong told me that the narrow and +mistaken policy of the American leaders at that time was really the +foundation of British Canada." + +And then he went on give them some of the information he had got out +of Mr. Armstrong's books, the preceding evening, in regard to the +beautiful valley of the Trent, through which they were driving. He +told them how Champlain, three centuries ago, had sung its praises at +the Court of the _Grand Monarque_, as "a region very charming and +delightful," where the park-like aspect of the trees suggested the +previous occupancy of the country in bygone days by some superior +race. Then, putting aside this pre-historic period, it was here that +Champlain, on his way to his mistaken raid on the Iroquois, which was +the beginning of so much strife and trouble, had joined his savage +allies in an Indian "Chevy Chase"--in which, by mishap, he wounded one +of his dusky friends. But these old stories have long ago been +forgotten, in the interest of mines--gold and iron--which, found in the +vicinity, have, as usual, somewhat deteriorated the region to which +they have given an artificial stimulus. As they drove in from Trenton, +a small place at the confluence of the Trent with the bay, in the soft +falling dusk, Hugh entertained his companions by repeating some of his +favorite passages from "Hiawatha;" and May, who was poetical and +patriotic enough to be something of a student of Canadian poetry, +repeated a sonnet by one of Canada's earliest singers, Charles +Sangster, who, falling on evil days, has not achieved the fame which +his genius deserved:-- + + "My footsteps press, where, centuries ago, + The red man fought and conquered, lost and won; + Where tribes and races, gone like last year's snow, + Have found th' eternal hunting grounds, and run + The fiery gauntlet of their active days, + Till few are left to tell the mournful tale; + And these inspire us with such wild amaze, + They seem like spectres passing down a vale + Steeped in uncertain moonlight on their way + Towards some bourne where darkness blinds the day, + And night is wrapped in mystery profound. + We cannot lift the mantle of the past: + We seem to wander over hallowed ground, + We scan the trail of thought, but all is over-cast." + +"Thank you," said Hugh, "I should like to see more of that poet. I +like his vein very much." + +"Oh, May can give you screeds of any length from his 'St. Lawrence and +the Saguenay' as we go along. And I daresay you can get the book in +Kingston--he is a Kingstonian, I believe," said Kate, who was not +particularly poetical. + +And then as the shadows of night drew softly about them, the fireflies +flashed in and out of the woods with unusual brilliancy, affording the +Scotch cousins a new subject for observation and delight. + +"I declare," said Hugh, "one can scarcely get rid of the feeling that +they might set the woods on fire!" + +"They are not common so late in the season," said Kate. "Only now and +then, for some reason best known to themselves, they show themselves, +but only in the woods." + +"And there is the whip-poor-will!" exclaimed May, eagerly. + +"Oh, I'm so glad!" said Flora, after listening attentively. "That is +one thing I _did_ want to see or hear!" + +"You are much more likely to hear it than to see it," said May. "It is +very hard to get a good look at one, for it seldom appears in +daylight." + +But soon the fireflies and the whip-poor-will were left behind, and +they were once more rattling over city streets. And then, after a +substantial tea, they went to rest, for the steamer for Kingston was +to start at six in the morning. + +As the scenery of the Bay of Quinte depends very much on the weather, +the little party were fortunate in having a lovely changeful morning, +with soft mists and cloud-shadows that gave a charming variety of tint +and tone to the beautiful bay and its fair, gently sloping shores. The +little steamer "Hero" passed in rapid succession one picturesque point +after another--the bay sometimes expanding into a broad, wind-rippled +expanse; sometimes narrowing into calm reaches or inlets, mirroring +the foliage on either side. At the head of the largest reach or arm of +the bay, the steamer stopped at the pretty little town of Picton, +nestling beneath a noble wooded hill, with gentler slopes rising about +it in all directions. Whether Picton or Port Hope possessed the more +picturesque site was a question they found it hard to decide. +Returning down this long reach Hugh was seized with a desire to see +the "Lake of the Mountain," on the high table-land above the bay, of +which he had often heard. And Kate, who considered nothing impossible, +actually persuaded the obliging captain to keep the boat at the +landing below it for half an hour, in order to give them time for a +hurried visit. Mrs. Sandford, of course, graciously declined the +climb, but the others hastened up the steep ascent, where a mill-race +came rushing down the height, amid a lush growth of ferns that grew +luxuriously among the dark, wet rocks, between which they picked their +way. But, once at the top, what a glorious view! Right below their +feet stretched the lovely reach--widening out into the broad bay at the +end of a long promontory diversified with fields and farms and wooded +shores. Close beside them, on the other hand, lay the lovely little +lake they had come to see--calmly sleeping in the sunshine, with as +little apparent mystery about it as if its very existence were not an +unsolved problem; one supposition being, that, as it is at about the +same level as Lake Erie, it may be fed by a secret communication with +that distant sheet. But they had only a few minutes to stay beside the +beautiful mysterious little tarn, and to enjoy the lovely view spread +before their eyes, for the steamer just below was already whistling to +recall them, and they hurried down to rejoin her,--somewhat warm and +out of breath, but with all the satisfaction one feels in making the +best of one's opportunities. + +As they left the reach, a sun-shower rolled up, accompanied with +distant thunder; but it only seemed to add a bewitching variety to the +tones of the distance, and of the water, and, when the sunshine broke +out again, conjuring up an exquisite rainbow, and the light and shade +chased each other over the golden fields of waving barley--the beauty +of the bay with the perspective of the "Long Reach" in the distance, +seemed still greater than before. The travelers were content to sit +still, passively absorbing the charm of the hour, while they looked on +in a dreamy fashion at the various points of interest; at Point +Mississauga, named, of course, in honor of the former "lords of the +soil," whose "_totem_," a crane, seemed to be appropriately keeping +guard over the spot; then at the various villages and townships;--at +Deseronto, a busy little lumbering place, named after an Indian chief, +whose formidable name signifies "Thunder and Lightning;"--at a +forsaken-looking little "Bath," with its ambitious name, and at a long +succession of "towns," or rather townships, named, by the overflowing +enthusiasm of the U. E. Loyalists, after the numerous olive branches +of old George the Third. There is Ernestown and Adolphustown, and +Ameliasburg and Marysburgh; and there is Amherst Island, named, like +Picton, after an English general, and said to have been lost by a +noble owner at a game of cards! Hugh declared that the loyalty and +_Britishness_ of everything were rather monotonous, and could not +refrain from heartily wishing that these good people had not, in their +zeal, undertaken to change to the commonplace name of Kingston the +melodious Indian name of Cataraqui! For here they were now coming in +sight of this old "limestone city"--the oldest settlement in Ontario, +the cradle of British Canada--and, to May, surrounded with a halo of +romance from its close association with the history and fortune of her +brave but hapless hero, the dauntless explorer, LaSalle. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AMONG THE BEAUTIFUL ISLANDS. + + +And now they were rapidly approaching the gray, "limestone city," +which rises picturesquely on its slope behind its line of wharves, and +elevators, and masts of vessels, with a certain quiet dignity not +unbecoming its antiquity, and derived, partly from its harmonious gray +coloring, and partly from the graceful towers and spires that form so +prominent a feature in its aspect. And it was by no means easy for May +to call up in imagination--as she tried to do--the wild, savage +loneliness of the place, with its wooded slopes, as yet untouched by +the hand of the settler, as it presented itself to LaSalle, when he +first discovered the advantages of making Cataraqui his base of +operations; or even as it was seen by the first detachment of U. E. +Loyalists, when their _batteaux_, slowly making their way up the St. +Lawrence, rounded the long promontory now surmounted by the ramparts +of Fort Henry. One tall tower, seen long before any other evidence of +a city appeared, belonged, the captain told them, to the Roman +Catholic Cathedral. Presently, however, extensive piles of fine public +buildings attracted their attention, which they found were +unfortunately the shelter of lunacy and crime, Kingston being the seat +of the Provincial Penitentiary, as well as of a large asylum. In +welcome contrast, they were shown the Gothic tower of Queen's +University, rising above an _entourage_ of trees, though far from +being as imposing in its dimensions as these palaces of gloom. From +thence, the eye wandered over other towers and domes and spires, +relieved by masses of verdure, which led them easily to believe the +captain's report that Kingston is a very attractive city, especially +when summer had embowered it in shade. And there were great schooners, +under a full spread of canvas, and massive lake steamers and +propellers, and little active steam-launches, flitting about, in +striking contrast--May thought--to the stillness of the scene, broken +only by the Iroquois canoes, when Frontenac's flotilla came in state +up the lonely river to found old Fort Frontenac. + +"And what a glorious sheet of water around it!" exclaimed Hugh, taking +in with an admiring gaze the westward blue expanse of lake and the +great wide sweep of river studded with islands, stretching away to +eastward, which they told him was the St. Lawrence, at last. And then, +as they rounded the curve of the fine harbor, and saw before them, on +the one side, the fine cut-stone front of the City Hall and on the +other, on a long, green promontory, the Royal Military College, with +its smart Norman towers, they observed a long bridge behind which the +river Cataraqui winds its way down from the northeast, and forms this +beautiful harbor by its confluence with the St. Lawrence. Six miles up +its placid stream, they were told, the Rideau Canal had its beginning +at a picturesque gorge where are the first massive stone locks, which +form one of the finest pieces of masonry on the continent. This Rideau +Canal binds together a chain of lovely little lakes, and finally meets +the Rideau River, and so makes a convenient water-way to +Ottawa,--designed, it is said, by the Duke of Wellington, as a means of +intercommunication remote from the frontier. + +"And where are the old _Tête-du-pont_ barracks?" asked May, who had +got that name, by heart, out of Parkman, that she might be able to fix +for herself the site of the old French fort which Frontenac had +inaugurated and La Salle had commanded. She was shown some gray stone +buildings, enclosing a quadrangle, at the nearer end of the long, low +bridge crossing the Cataraqui to the opposite plateau with the green +slope beyond it, on which stood the main defences of Kingston,--Fort +Henry above, and, near the Military College, certain round stone +towers, which, scattered about the harbor, gave quite an air of +military distinction to the place. + +"I'm afraid none of them would be of much good, nowadays," remarked a +passenger, and Hugh laughingly assented, adding, "We may trust, I +hope, that they will never be needed." + +"Not much danger, I think," was the reply. "We may have a tiff with +the 'States' once in a while; but there are too many Canadians there +now! We can't afford to quarrel." + +They went, on landing, to a hotel bearing the appropriate name of +"Hotel Frontenac," where they did full justice to an early dinner. +And, after that, having a couple of hours or so to spare, before +starting for the island, they drove through the pleasant little city, +embowered in the shady avenues extending in every direction, its +streets striking off at all angles. Of course they went to look at the +two cathedrals, the Roman Catholic one being a massive Gothic building +with an equally massive tower, and at the graceful Gothic temple of +Queen's University, on its fine open _campus_, and then followed the +charming drive by the lake shore, till they passed the great, and as +they thought, gloomy masses of the Penitentiary and Asylum buildings, +and then came out on another unimpeded view of the blue lake. Then +returning, they drove back past quiet suburban residences, within +spacious and shady grounds, admiring the substantial and comfortable +look of the houses, and the tastefully kept surroundings;--and through +the pretty little park, stretching on one side, down to the breezy +lake shore, with its round stone tower, and, on the other, rising in a +gentle slope crowned by a stately Grecian court-house, with +picturesque church towers rising around it in the background. And at +one side of this park, they made a little _détour_ to look at the +Hospital, whose plain central building was the first local habitation +of the Parliament of Upper and Lower Canada, when Kingston for a few +years occupied the position of capital of the recently united +provinces. Then returning to their boat, they passed a handsome +post-office and custom-house, of which, with her spacious city hall, +Kingston is naturally somewhat vain. The houses they passed were +bright with window flowers and baskets of blooming plants, prettily +relieving the green sward in front; and they all agreed that Kingston +bore worthily enough its _prestige_ of being the oldest historical +city in Ontario--the present name of western Canada. + +But though it was nearly four o'clock, and the beautiful islands were +before them--they went to snatch, at May's desire--a peep at the old +_Tête-du-pont_ barracks, with weather-worn gateway and interior +square, in which, when the foundations of the barracks were laid, +there were some traces found of old Fort Frontenac, which had +therefore evidently stood on that very site. May, at least, looked at +it with a sincere reverence, as she thought of how many changing +phases of fortune in her hero's history that square had been the +scene. + +But now it was almost four o'clock, and they must hasten to the boat +that was to carry them to the beautiful islands which had been +beckoning them so long. As the Pierrepont glided out of the protected +harbor, the afternoon sun lighted up the grey mass of the city, and +the Norman towers of the Royal Military College, standing on its strip +of _campus_, to their left, as they entered the real St. Lawrence, +while beyond it rose above them the green hill-slope which forms the +_glacis_ of the low, long-stretching ramparts of Fort Henry, with its +fortified water-way, and the round grey towers at its base. And as +they rounded its long promontory, leaving the distant city behind it, +May once more tried to picture the solitude of the scene as La Salle +first knew it, broken only by his own canoe and those of the ferocious +Iroquois. Meantime Hugh, not less interested in the historical +associations of the place, drew from her, by cross-questioning, an +outline of some of the tragic events of which Fort Frontenac had been +the scene. But gradually the charm of the present hour asserted itself +and all else was forgotten in watching the changing beauty of the +scenery around them. A slight thunder-shower seemed to have purified +the air, and the brightly shining sun lighted up the rich green of the +woods, the golden tones of the harvest fields on the shores they were +passing, and the grey rocks and shaggy foliage of some scattered +islets on their course, one of which, Cedar island, was crowned by a +round tower,--islets which were, they were told, really the outrunners +of the great archipelago farther down the river. As they passed the +water-rampart of the fort, Hugh observed that it seemed to be falling +to pieces, and remarked that the government might look better after +its property. + +"It may just as well go to pieces," said a voice behind them. "It +would be of very little use if we did go in for conquest, and I hope +there is no likelihood of any serious hostilities between the two +countries." + +--"Well, Mrs. Sandford, have you forgotten me?" the voice continued. +"How do you do, Miss Severne? I am delighted to meet you again." + +Kate had looked up with a start as the first tones of the stranger's +voice caught her ear, and perhaps there was just a tinge of heightened +colour on her cheek as she greeted the speaker with her usual frank +ease. + +"Why, Mr. Winthrop! I never thought of encountering you in this quiet +corner of the world. What accident brings you this way?" + +"It was not quite an accident," he replied, smiling. "I met Jack +Armstrong yesterday on the train between Port Hope and Cobourg, and he +told me of your arrangements; and as I just got in an hour or two ago, +and found out that this was the speediest way of getting over to +Clayton, where I am bound for a few days' fishing, I thought I would +waylay you--and here I am, as you see." + +"As we are very glad to see," Kate replied, gracefully. "Let me +introduce my cousin, Miss Thorburn, and my Scotch cousins, Mr. and +Miss Macnab." + +May eyed the newcomer critically, and a little jealously, for in the +interests of the incipient romance that she had begun to weave for +Kate and Hugh, she did not relish his appearance--especially taken in +connection with the remarks she had heard from Nellie Armstrong. He +was, however, as she could not help admitting, a very pleasant-looking +man, not very young, in fact, a good deal older than Hugh Macnab, with +keen, scrutinizing gray eyes and mobile face, full of intelligence and +expression. To May, Hugh's was much the finer face, but she could not +help feeling that Mr. Winthrop's was decidedly attractive, and she +inwardly trembled for the prospects of the younger man. She felt that +Mr. Winthrop's quick glance took in the whole _personnel_ of the +little party, as the introductions were made. + +"Well, Mrs. Sandford," he resumed, when he had courteously greeted +each in turn, his eye resting for a moment, with evident admiration +upon the rosy, fresh-faced Scotch lassie,--"I hope you are prepared in +the goodness of your heart, to extend a little toleration to a +reprobate Republican like me. I'll try not to wound your sensibilities +quite so much, this time!" + +"Oh, you didn't hurt me at all!" said that lady, good-humoredly. "I +know you don't mean any harm; it's the way you were brought up. But +you must not put traitorous ideas into these young people's heads. +There's Kate, now----" + +But here that young woman hastily interposed: "Would you mind getting +us another seat, Mr. Winthrop?" said she, "Miss Macnab is quite in the +sun." + +Mr. Winthrop at once performed the suggested service, and then, the +previous topic having been shunted off, the whole party surrendered +themselves to the dreamy charm of the afternoon--of the golden sunshine +and dappling shade, that threw such a spell of beauty over the +undulating shore, with its yellow harvest-fields and deep, green +woods, country houses gleaming white through trees, and comfortable +farmhouses nestling amid bowery orchards, beginning to be weighed down +with their load of fruit. + +The real width of the river, here about eight miles, is at some points +narrowed down to apparently two or three miles and sometimes much +less, by the large islands that divide it and extend for some twenty +miles below Kingston. One of these--Howe Island, named after a British +general--cuts off a very picturesque channel down which lay the course +of their boat. At intervals of a few miles, the boat stopped at +primitive wharves, where the country folk, who had been to market, +landed with their innumerable parcels and baskets, of all shapes and +sizes, farming implements, perambulators, etcetera. At one landing +they put ashore a pile of dressed lumber--at another, a horse; at still +another, the heterogeneous mass of luggage belonging to a family +"going into _villegiatura_"--as Mrs. Sandford put it--including a great +box containing a parlor organ. For the farmer-folk their horses and +conveyances were patiently waiting, and very soon they might be seen +driving slowly homewards along the country roads that followed the +curve of the shore, or struck back among the fields and woods. A +beautiful, new, varnished boat that had excited Hugh's rather envious +admiration from the time he came on board, was at last unshipped and +rowed away by its happy owner, whose camping outfit proclaimed that he +was bound on a delightful holiday. Here and there they caught glimpses +of white tents and gay flags, where lived a little community of +campers, who waved their handkerchiefs as the boat went by; and +cheered as if a steamboat were a new and unheard-of triumph of +inventive skill. At one point, the shore of the island to their right, +rose picturesquely into high banks clothed with a rich growth of +light, fluttering birch and sombre cedar, the contrast of which +delighted the travelers. There was quite a romantic-looking landing +here, beside an old ruined lime-kiln, and the road wound picturesquely +up the wooded height, the two or three figures seen walking up the +winding path, as the boat receded, looking--May declared--"just like +people in the beginning of a story." + +"And so they are--or in the middle of it," said Mr. Winthrop. "Each of +us is living in a story of our own, after all, and I suppose each +would have its own interest if it could only be read just as it is." + +"Only some stories are more interesting than others," suggested Hugh. + +"And those people evidently think theirs is particularly interesting +just now," remarked Kate, for they were just passing a little cluster +of tiny cottages and tents, where a large and merry party were +summering, with much display of bright bunting and many skiffs; and +where young and old alike seemed to get into a state of wild +excitement as the boat passed, saluting her with horns and a white +flutter of handkerchiefs that might have passed for a flight of +pigeons. The captain of the steamboat courteously returned the salute +with his steam whistle, with the laconic remark: "Makes them feel +happy," which seemed true, for the demonstrations were renewed with +fresh vigor and continued till the little encampment was out of sight. + +But the dark thunder-clouds had been again stealing up behind them, +and now the lights on the shore and the foliage disappeared, the +cedars looking especially sombre in the growing gloom. + +"There's a squall coming down the river," said Hugh Macnab, who had +been watching from the stern the pretty grouping of the small islands +that here studded the channel. + +"Yes, indeed," said Kate. "They often come up here suddenly. Look how +one point after another is sponged out by the gray mist. See there, +how the rain is driving down over there already." + +"And it will be here in a minute," said Mr. Winthrop, rising hastily. +"Come, you must all get into the centre of the boat, well under the +awning, if you won't go down stairs." + +Mrs. Sandford thought it best to retreat to the cabin below, being +afraid of thunder, but all the others protested that it was much too +interesting to watch the arrival of the storm. At a suggestion from +Mr. Winthrop, however, he and Hugh made a dash down to the cabin for +wraps and umbrella, returning in a second or two with an armful of +waterproofs, in which the ladies were all carefully wrapped before the +first heavy rain-drops came pattering down on deck. And then, for a +minute, how they _did_ come down, lashing the deck till it was +flooded;--even where they sat the drops flew, into their faces, and, +but for the waterproofs, would have drenched their garments. Kate, who +loved a storm, was looking brilliantly handsome, and so--May was +sure--thought Mr. Winthrop, who kept his position near her, so as to +shelter a little from the onslaught of the rain. And how--she inwardly +wondered--would Hugh Macnab like the sudden invasion from this stranger +and foreigner, who seemed to make himself so very much at home? She +fancied that his somewhat sensitive face looked clouded, but perhaps +it was only the reflection of the clouds without, for, presently when +the rain-drops gradually ceased, and the sun shone out again, +brighter, as it seemed, than ever, his face brightened, too, and he +watched eagerly for the first appearance of what might properly be +called the real Thousand Island group. + +"There they are!" Kate exclaimed, at length, as some soft, cloud-like +forms loomed up against the distant horizon, still somewhat misty with +the receding rain. "See how they cluster there together! And do you +see those tiny white specks? Those are the lighthouses that mark the +channel. And there, if you can catch a glimpse of some white houses +beyond those islands--, those are part of the poetically named town of +Gananoque, '_Rocks in Deep Water_,' as the Indian name signifies. And +it is a good enough description, if only they would have added 'Rocks +in Shallow Water' as well; for there is certainly no lack of rocks in +either the depths or the shallows!" + +And now the little steamer began to wind in and out among the +clustered islets, some of them little more than rough granite crags, +bristling with wind-tossed pines, others masses of tangled foliage, +and others still, partially cleared, with fanciful little cottages +embowered in trees and clustering vines. At some of these cottages the +inhabitants, like the campers, amused themselves by blowing a horn as +a salute, to which the steamer amiably responded, after which there +would be another flutter of handkerchiefs from the loungers on the +verandas or by the shore. + +"Well," said Hugh, "though we know it really means nothing, it does +seem pleasant to be waved at, as if one were coming home!" + +"And yet the same people would only stare critically at you if they +met you in the street." + +"It's the air of these charming islands," laughed Kate. "It makes +every one so genial and overflowing with the milk of human kindness +that they can't help expressing it all round!" + +"Or so idle that even this mild excitement is entertaining," said Mr. +Winthrop. + +"Wait till you have tried it a little while!" said Kate. "Perhaps even +you may grow less cynical there. But where are you going now?" + +"I believe this little steamer will take me to Clayton to-night. My +friends are there fishing, and are expecting me to join them." + +"And that is how far from here?" asked Hugh. + +"About eight miles," Kate replied--"on the American side of the river." + +"Oh, then, we shall meet again, I hope, and improve our acquaintance," +said Hugh, as he rose in response to Mrs. Sandford's commands, for now +they had rounded the last island and were rapidly approaching the +pretty little town of Gananoque, while the slanting rays of the +westering sun threw out the foliage of the islands and the shore into +the richest green, and gave the whole scene its brightest aspect. + +Close by the wharf lay a tiny steam-yacht, on whose floating pennon +Kate speedily recognized the name "_Oneida_," and in a moment more the +waving of white handkerchiefs announced the presence of the friends +who were waiting them there. To May it seemed like a fairy tale to be +received into a private steam-yacht as an expected guest, instead of +the open skiff she had been looking for. It was more than ever like a +dream;--the little cabin, the dainty furnishings, the miniature engine +with its polished brass fittings--everything seemed new, beautiful, +delightful. Flora Macnab was equally delighted, declaring she had +"never seen such a dear wee vessel before;" and Hugh, though quiet as +usual, mentally noted everything with much satisfaction. Mr. Winthrop +accompanied them on board, carrying Kate's wraps, and was just +hurrying off back to the steamer when their host, Mr. Leslie, after a +brief introduction, urged that he should accompany the others as his +guest.--"For I can assure you we can always make room for one guest +more,"--he said with cheery hospitality. + +But Mr. Winthrop declined the invitation with many thanks, on the +ground that his friends were expecting him, adding that if he might be +allowed to come a little later, for a day or two, he should be +delighted to do so. + +"Any time you will," said Mr. Leslie, and he hurried off to catch his +boat, which was on the point of starting again, while the others were +duly introduced to the members of Mr. Leslie's family who had come to +meet them. The little steam-yacht only waited for a supply of baskets, +containing supplies, to be stowed away on board, and then it, too, +uttered its shrill little parting whistle, and darted off on its way +to the island, some miles distant, which was Mr. Leslie's summer home. +To May it seemed like fairyland--this little evening sail among these +lovely islands, in a yacht so low as to bring the eye on a level with +their base, and not going too fast to enable her to enjoy in detail +the beauty of lichen-crested rocks festooned with creepers and wild +roses, and of still, placid reaches, dyed crimson and purple by the +sunset hues, where clusters of snowy water-lilies were shining like +stars amid the dark leaves. In the subdued evening light, the nearer +islands were so soft a green--the distant ones looked softly purple in +the light haze that helped to idealize the scene,--that May, for one, +would have liked to wind in and out in this dreamy, leisurely fashion +for hours, and was almost sorry when she was startled from her dream +by the shrill whistle of the yacht, and found they were nearing a +little rustic pier flanked by dusky pines and cedars. + +The party were soon disembarked amid the lively little group that +stood awaiting them on the pier--young men in boating flannels, lively +children, young girls in cool, light blouses and dark blue skirts. +Ready hands seized packages and baskets, and then they all followed an +ascending, fragrant, sloping path that led between lichened rocks and +nodding ferns to an open glade higher up, where stood their pretty +summer cottage, with its wide verandas, looking capacious enough to +accommodate two or three city houses. Mr. and Mrs. Leslie were +excellent hosts; and, in a few minutes, every one was conducted to a +room, and May found herself installed in what she mentally styled the +dearest little nest, up under the eaves, commanding what seemed, in +the transfiguring evening light, the most enchanting view of the +island-studded channel. It reminded her of her room and window at the +_Clifton_;--both views so beautiful, and yet so altogether different. + +But she was not long left to her dreaming, for a peremptory horn +sounded, and Kate and Flora were calling to her to hasten down to tea. +Downstairs, in a simply-furnished room, with large French windows +opening on a wide piazza, they found a long tea-table spread for the +recent arrivals--the rest of the party having already finished their +evening meal, being, indeed, too hungry to wait for anybody. + +"For we're all as hungry as hawks here!" declared one of the merry +girls in a boating-dress. "Between boating and fishing and running +about, we're out all day long, and that gives one no end of an +appetite." + +After tea there was a delicious hour or two on the veranda, the only +alloy being the visits of a few mosquitoes. "Nothing like what we have +had, however," Mrs. Leslie observed. "We've often been obliged to +retreat within the shelter of our mosquito-blinds in the evening. But +to-morrow will be the first of August, and we are not likely to be +troubled with them much longer." + +"That is a comfort!" exclaimed Flora, who seemed to be a favorite +victim of the troublesome little insects. "But how startlingly bright +the fireflies are," she said presently, as it grew darker, and the +scintillating living sparks of fire--as they seemed--flashed in and out +of the trees, giving the impression--as Hugh remarked--that they might +really set fire to them. And presently she joyously descried, faintly +visible near the horizon, a silver thread of crescent moon, the +promiser of much additional enjoyment during the weeks of their stay. + +Next morning was as charming a morning as any one could have desired +to see. The river lay still and calm, and blue as a dream, sleeping, +as it seemed, in the embrace of the clustering green islands, which +looked so fresh and so cool in the early morning light. May was so +excited that she could not sleep a moment after the first rosy gleams +of sunshine stole into her casement, which she had left wide open, +that she might not lose a moment of the view which had so delighted +her the evening before. As she dressed, she feasted her eyes on the +delicious freshness of the early morning, on the exquisite tint of the +water here and there, just rippled by the faintest breeze, the soft, +distant, blue islands that seemed to float on the placid stream like +"purple isles of Eden," the rich contrast of dark evergreen and rich +deciduous foliage, on the nearer shores, till it all seemed too +exquisite for a reality, and in the stillness of the morning she felt +as if she were still in a dream. + +She was soon dressed, however, and hastened down, eager to explore, +all alone, the island where she was. She had only to go a few steps +from the piazza to find herself among the primitive rocks, crusted +with gray lichen and cushioned with soft, velvet moss, or overhung +with the glossy foliage of the bear-berry or the vines of the +whortle-berry, from which the dark blue fruit was dropping as she +raised them. She followed a winding pathway leading under a fragrant +archway of overhanging foliage, which wound its way in a rambling +fashion about the island, giving, now and then, lovely glimpses, +vistas between mossy banks of rock, or pretty little vignettes framed +in by an overhanging hemlock. At length, after making pretty nearly +the tour of the island, wending her way among thickets of feathery +sumach and broad-leaved rubus, bearing deep crimson flowers, with long +festoons of partridge-berry, and its white, star-like flowers amid the +pine-needles under her feet, and finding, to her great delight, some +specimens of the exquisite, snowy Indian-pipe, looking--in the early +morning light--more ghostly than ever--she found herself at the little +landing beside the boat-house, where they had disembarked on the +previous evening. There she sat down to rest on a rustic seat, placed +so as to command a charming vista, with a tiny island in the +foreground, which she was absorbed in contemplating, when the plash of +oars broke in upon her reverie, and she turned to see who might be the +early oars-man. It was Hugh Macnab, arrayed in white flannels, with a +lovely cluster of wild roses in his hand. He greeted her with a smile +and came up at once, holding out the roses as he approached. + +"I scarcely expected to find any one up yet," he said, laughing. "I +came out just about dawn, to have the full enjoyment of this exquisite +morning, and thought I would try a little cruise by myself to see +whether I had forgotten the rowing I learned in my Oxford summer. And +I found a little island out yonder, so inviting for a swim that I +couldn't resist it. I should like to show you that same little +island,'"--he added. "It's only a little way; won't you come? But what +is that you have got in your hand?" he said, looking at the waxen +flowers she held. + +May explained what the ghostly little plant was, and he eagerly took +it in order to examine it. "Oh, yes, I've read of this curious +plant,"--he said. "I am so glad to actually see one! Now, suppose we +exchange bouquets, if you will take my roses for your spectral +flowers. I brought them over from that island, intending to give them +to the first lady I met. Please take them;--it's a case of the early +bird getting the worm, you know." + +For May at first hesitated a little. She felt as if the roses ought by +right to go to Kate, but then she could not say so. So she ended by +thanking him as gracefully as her embarrassment would let her, and +putting the roses carefully in her belt. They were lovely roses, too, +of a peculiarly deep crimson, as the late wild roses are, and +glistening still with the early dew. Hugh placed his "Pipes" carefully +in his hat, for the present, and then led the way to the pretty cedar +skiff, with its luxurious cane east chair at the stern, in which she +took her seat, with a little inward wonder whether she were doing +quite right, and the skiff was soon rapidly cleaving its way through +the glassy water under the quick strokes of Hugh's oar. It was +wonderful, she thought, how much he seemed to have improved in health +and spirits during the fortnight which had passed since she had first +met him; and how much more color and animation he now had. Surely, she +thought, Kate would never be so blind as to prefer _that_ Mr. +Winthrop, who, to her eye, was so much less attractive-looking than +Hugh! She was too much preoccupied in thinking out this problem to say +much, though she could silently take in the loveliness of the scene. +Rounding a rocky point covered with wild roses, from which Hugh had +picked his bouquet, they found themselves in a tiny bay, where the +limpid wavelets lapped gently upon a beach of silver sand, while the +rocks of rosy granite which formed the bay were draped in part with a +tangle of luxuriant creepers and crested with sweeping pine-boughs. +Presently the boat grated on the sandy beach, and Hugh handed her out +of the boat and led the way to a granite ledge commanding an exquisite +view of sleeping river and clustering islets. The river lay almost +absolutely still, only barred here and there with long streaks of +ripple that betokened an incipient breeze. The heavy masses of verdure +on the opposite shore and the surrounding islands seemed also asleep; +only an occasional carol of a bird broke the charmed silence. May and +her companion were very silent also, for ordinary talk in such a spot, +at such an hour, seemed well-nigh profane, and both were too reserved +to express the deeper feelings the scene awakened. After a silent +interval, May turned to call Hugh's attention to a distant sail just +catching the still slanting rays of the sun, when she noticed that he +had taken a slip of paper which had been lying in the boat and was +writing rapidly. She refrained from disturbing him, for how could she +tell that he might not be writing _poetry_? But he had caught her +movement, and presently stopped writing and turned towards her, when +the slip of paper, which he was holding carelessly, was caught by the +freshening breeze and carried close to her feet. She naturally stooped +to pick it up, and involuntarily glancing at it, could see that it +_was_ poetry; but Hugh caught it from her, with so much apparent +discomposure, coloring vividly, that May felt sure he was annoyed by +her intervention, and felt a little uncomfortable; the more so because +she could not say anything about it. She wondered whether the verses +had any reference to Kate, since he seemed so much afraid of their +being seen. They rowed back as silently as they had come, and the +momentary annoyance soon cleared off the faces of both under the +potent charm of the exquisite beauty around them. They found only the +children astir; but Kate and Flora, when they came down soon after to +breakfast, were very curious to know what May had been doing with +herself--out all alone "almost before daylight," they declared--and +especially curious to know from whence she had got the lovely little +bouquet of wild roses that looked so charming in her belt. But May +laughingly declared that she did not intend to tell where she got it; +and Hugh, of course, said nothing about it. She did not, however, wear +it long. The roses were carefully put away before they withered, and +eventually some of them were pressed to serve as a memento of the +loveliest morning, May thought, that she had ever seen. She told Kate, +however, that Hugh had given her a row to a neighboring island, +feeling a little guilty as she did so. But Kate only remarked, as if +the thing were a matter of course: "Well, I'm glad Hugh has gained so +much in energy! Since he can row so well, I shall make him row me +about everywhere!" + +Both she and Flora, however, soon found that they had an _embarras des +richesses_ in the matter of rowing, for there were half a dozen +youthful oarsmen ready and eager to row or paddle them wherever they +desired to go, so that Hugh's services were not so much in demand, and +it happened, not infrequently, that May found herself his companion in +their boating expeditions, and as she had not had much opportunity for +rowing, he undertook to teach her to use the oars in a more artistic +manner than she had as yet attained, which proved a very interesting +occupation to both; though May sometimes regretted that Kate so often +declined to accompany them, fancying that it really hurt Hugh. + +That day and several others glided away only too swiftly. No one could +imagine where the hours had gone. There were evening rows, and sails +in a good-sized sailboat, always at the disposal of any of the party +who cared to use it, and aimless meanderings through the tangled paths +of the island, sometimes with the ostensible object of berry-picking, +for the wild raspberries were still found in great abundance, and were +in great request for breakfast and tea. In the forenoon there was +always a general bathing party, when the young men took themselves to +one end of the island, in order to practise their aquatic feats by +themselves, and the girls, in their loose, short bathing suits, +disported themselves to their hearts' content in the limpid tide, in a +pretty little sandy bay, lined to the water's edge with luxuriant +foliage, which almost concealed the little rustic bathing box. Then +there was the luxurious lounge, with a pleasant book, before the early +dinner, in a shady corner of the veranda, for these August days were +pretty warm. For a while after dinner there was a suspiciously quiet +air about Sumach Lodge, as it was called; but when the heat of the day +began to give place to the cool afternoon breeze, the little party +began to wake up from its _siesta_, and skiffs and canoes were hauled +out and filled, as little groups departed on various expeditions, some +simply to explore island nooks, some to fish, and some to gather the +water-lilies which grew in a secluded bay not far off, or, on a breezy +afternoon, to try a sailing cruise in a pretty "butterfly" sailboat +belonging to one of he young men, who was always glad to muster a +crew. In the cool of the evening the "boys" often tried their canoe +races, sometimes playfully wrestling as they passed each other, for +they never minded an upset, but were back in their canoes again almost +as soon as they were out of them. And now that the moon was rapidly +growing in size and light, no one wanted to do anything in the +evening, but sit on the veranda or the shore, and enjoy the charming +moonlight effects. May, of course, was never tired of watching the +tremulous path of silver stretching from island to island, or the +exquisite effect when some picturesque cluster of islets stood out in +dark relief on what seemed a silver sea, and--a very unusual +phenomenon--when the shadow of the island was thrown across its +reflection in the scarcely rippled river. Hugh Macnab, like herself, +seemed fascinated with the mysterious beauty of the moonlit scene, and +was frequently suspected of endeavoring to reproduce its charm in +verse. + +These seemed truly enchanted evenings, which no one wished to cut +short, so that May found that the late hours she kept at night came a +good deal in the way of the enjoyment of those early morning hours +which she had at first thought so delightful. But, with such moonlight +pictures spread around them for their delectation, it seemed a waste +of privileges to spend any of these wonderful hours in sleep; and as +the moon grew later and later so did the hours of the junior members +of the party. + +One of the favorite spots which May, for one, was never tired of +visiting, either under the idealizing influence of moonlight or in the +rich glow of sunset, was a charming little land-locked bay which wound +its way for some distance into one of the larger islands in the +vicinity. The entrance looked like any other curving recess of the +shore, but, once within, it was a surprise to find the bay continuing +its course like a tiny river, between banks of high jagged crags, +partially draped with nodding birch, shaggy hemlock, and spreading oak +and maple. And however rough the waves might be outside of this +charmed spot, the water within was always calm and glassy in its +stillness. In its innermost recess, where further progress was stayed +by the increasing shallowness of its bed, reeds and water-plants grew +and clustered, water-lily leaves lay floating as if asleep, and here +the little basin was walled in on one side by a sheer, bare granite +cliff, concave towards the basin, and evidently worn smooth, in the +long past, by the action of grinding ice, though its bareness was +relieved, here and there, by a drooping birch or a cluster of shaggy +ferns. At the top of the wall of scarred, lichen-crusted rock, were +some of the curious natural perforations known as "pot-holes," +apparently formed by the action of a stone revolving in a crevice +under glacial action. The opposite bank was more sloping and densely +wooded, and the effect in the moonlight, under a rich sunset sky, was +peculiarly striking and impressive. This secluded spot was sometimes +used by the summer residents of the neighborhood as a natural chapel, +where a little congregation assembled in their boats for a short +service, with a shorter address, in circumstances which might well +recall the divinest sermon ever preached; and made Hugh Macnab think +of secret services attended by his covenanting ancestors in the +secluded Highland glens which hid them from their persecutors. Very +different, however, were _these_ happy meetings. The songs of praise +seemed to gain a peculiar sweetness from the tranquil quietude of the +spot, while the vesper carol of a bird occasionally blended with the +human melody. Every part of the service was just as solemn as in any +church built with hands, and the very novelty of the surroundings +tended to carry some of the "winged words" into hearts which might +have heard them unheedingly under ordinary circumstances. + +On the cooler and more breezy afternoons the "butterfly sailboat" set +out with a merry crew for a more extended voyage, flying hither and +thither, as the wind suited and inclination prompted. Or the little +steam-yacht was called into service, and a large party would start for +a prolonged cruise, winding in and out of the many Channels, as the +fancy guided, steering down the broad, breezy reach that lay between +the main shore and the clustering islands, with the cool, sparkling +waves within touch of their hands, as the little screw turned them up +in showers of sparkling diamonds on the azure behind, while one lovely +channel after another spread itself before them in fascinating vista. +Now they were passing thickly wooded islands, cool with billowy +foliage--now a great granite fortress rising from a fringe of foliage, +with battlements and barbican, escarpment and buttress, festooned with +creepers and evergreens, like some hoary medieval ruin. Anon, they +were gliding through some glassy strait, with snowy water lilies +gleaming amid the dark green floating leaves that lined the sheltered +bays. Again their course lay under a line of frowning cliffs, crusted +with moss and lichen, and tufted with ferns; and presently another +broad channel opened before them, through which they could catch +distant glimpses of clustered tents, or summer hotels, or a pleasant +country house peeping out from embowering trees. And, ever and anon, +they passed graceful light varnished skiffs, laden with fishing +parties, or canoes paddled swiftly by skillful hands, with a fair +maiden reclining luxuriously among her cushions; and to each the +little yacht addressed a shrill cheery salutation, responded to by +waving handkerchiefs and hats, as each party desired to convey an +expression of what a pleasant time they were enjoying, combined with +good wishes for the enjoyment of every one else. + +As these delightful excursions were apt to be prolonged for some +hours, their hospitable hostess, knowing that people are apt to be +hungry under such circumstances, had "afternoon tea" set out on the +little table in the stern, and the guests thought that nowhere did +coffee and cake seem so delicious, while merry talk and travelers' +tales, and some of Flora's Scotch songs enhanced the enjoyment of the +happy hours. Hugh, who had a good tenor voice, would sometimes join +his sister in the old-fashioned Jacobite airs which had been familiar +to both from childhood, such as "A Wee Bird Came to Our Ha' Door," or +"Bonny Charlie's Now Awa'." May thought she had heard few songs so +sweet as the refrain "_Will ye no come back again?_" One verse in +particular, seemed to catch her and haunt her: + + "Sweet the lev'rock's note, and lang, + Lilting wildly down the glen, + Still to me he sings ae song, + _Will ye no come back again?_" + +And sometimes their talk would drift to graver subjects, as they +returned homewards through lovely vistas of "purple isles of Eden," +under a sky flushed with the rich glow of sunset, making the calm +river burn with crimson and gold, while the rich claret lines of +shadow made it seem as if the water were indeed turned into wine, and +the peace of the purple twilight gradually faded into the silvery +moonlight, and the whole lovely scene seemed hushed into a gentle +slumber. + +Sometimes, after such an excursion, when a few neighbors had joined +their party, at Sumach Lodge, the young folks would beg for a "camp +fire," and a pile of brushwood, set ready on the rocks, would be +lighted, and the party would sit round it, telling stories and +cracking jokes, and singing songs, till the red glare of the fire at +length gave way to the still pale moonlight, and at last they +reluctantly broke up, scarcely able to tear themselves away from the +fascinations of the hour. + +A still longer excursion they made one day, in the swift steamer +"Island Wanderer," which they took at Gananoque, and which carried +them by much the same route for a longer distance, down the turns and +twists of the "Lost Channel" to the little hamlet of Rockport; +then--crossing swiftly to the quiet shady resort of Westminster Park on +Well's Island--carried them around its bold wooded headland to the +villa-studded archipelago that teems with island-paradises, turrets, +pagodas, fairy bridges, till it almost reminds the visitor of a willow +pattern plate, and on to the little town of Alexandria Bay, with its +monster hotels. Here Kate showed them a spot most interesting to +May--the pretty mansion of "Bonniecastle," for years the summer home of +Dr. Holland, the first editor of the _Century_ magazine, and author of +"Arthur Bonniecastle," after which he named this pleasant home. Kate +told them how he had once landed in his steam-yacht at an island on +which she had been picnicking at the time, and how charmed she and her +friends had been with his genial personality and talk. Then they +steamed swiftly through the bewildering succession of castles and +cottages of every conceivable variety, which make the American channel +here seem like a long water-way or street, lined by suburban villas. +May did not much like the extent to which the islands had been trimmed +and smoothed out of the shaggy individuality of their primitive state; +and Hugh and Flora emphatically agreed with her, in preferring the +comparative wildness of the Canadian channel, where the islands still +retain their wild sylvan charm. + +They scanned with interest the great caravanserai of Thousand Island +Park, with its streets and avenues of tents and cottages and crowds of +tourists; and then, just as they were leaving the little cluster of +country houses at Round Island, a gentleman in a light-gray suit, +carrying a valise and overcoat, came briskly on board, speedily +recognized by May as Mr. Winthrop, who, coming up to greet the party, +declared himself bound for Sumach Lodge. It was curious, May thought, +how he seemed to have a faculty for joining them at the most opportune +moments, and she wondered much whether he had any private means of +tracing the movements of the party. On this occasion, Kate, at all +events, took his appearance with a coolness in keeping with the +nonchalance of his manner. In fact, Flora declared privately to May +that they were both "refreshingly cool for a warm day," a remark which +May thought a trifle heartless, considering that this addition to the +party must be a "thorn in the flesh" to her brother. However, he +betrayed no visible annoyance, but talked very pleasantly with Mr. +Winthrop, all the way home, discussing politics, British and American +and Canadian, including the "Behring Sea" difficulty, which last they +had not settled, even when they had arrived at Sumach Lodge, and the +discussion was finally terminated by the ringing of the tea-bell. + +After tea, such of the party as were not tired out by the long day's +outing, dispersed in various directions to enjoy the cool air and the +moonlight on the river. Mr. Winthrop and Kate had mysteriously +disappeared, and so had one of the skiffs. Hugh Macnab, who had become +quite expert at managing a canoe, asked his sister and May to let him +paddle them both as far as the favorite nook already referred to, and +both willingly agreed. But Flora, just at starting, was claimed by one +of the boys, who was her special slave, and not liking to disappoint +him, she good-naturedly consented to go in _his_ boat instead. Flora +and her cavalier followed in the wake of some of the other young +people, and her fresh Scotch voice was soon heard warbling her +favorite refrain:-- + + "And carry the lad that was born to be king + the hills to Skye!" + +"That sounds out of place _here_, somehow," said Hugh. "This new world +has nothing to do with our old Jacobite struggles. It ought to be one +of those pretty French Canadian airs, at least." And he hummed "_La +Claire Fontaine_," which had greatly taken his fancy, with its pretty +chorus,-- + + "_Il y'a longtemps que je t'aime_ + _Jamais je ne t'oublierai._" + +which certainly seemed much more in harmony with the exquisite summer +evening and the light, gliding motion of the little canoe, as it +bounded forward so noiselessly under the ashen paddle, over the purple +and crimson tide. + +Neither seemed disposed to talk. The beauty of the evening, for one +thing, was too absorbing to encourage much conversation. Moreover, May +was still worrying a little over the three-cornered problem of Kate +and Hugh and Mr. Winthrop, and thought that Hugh's meditations were +possibly wandering in a somewhat similar direction. They entered the +"Lonely Bay" very quietly, as was their wont. The spot seemed like a +church, in which loud tones or careless words were a desecration. As +the canoe glided noiselessly into the deep shadow of the high crags, +they both became aware that another boat had come in before them, and +was lying motionless in the inmost recess of the little basin. The +occupants were unconscious of any intrusion on their solitude, and, as +Hugh paused, irresolute whether to proceed or not, a few low spoken +words reached their ears in Mr. Winthrop's very distinct +enunciation--words that both thought were: "Then I need not altogether +despair!" + +May colored to the very roots of her hair, feeling by proxy the "pang" +which she believed Hugh must experience, as he silently but swiftly +rowed away, lest they should involuntarily hear any more of so very +confidential a conversation. Whether the other pair heard the sound of +the light dip of the retreating paddle they could not tell; and not a +word was exchanged between them concerning the unexpected _rencontre_, +both feeling the subject too delicate to touch. + +But as they were rowing slowly homeward, by a circuitous route, the +other boat overtook them, and they rowed side by side for the +remainder of the way, Mr. Winthrop evidently exerting himself to talk, +while Kate remained unusually silent. The moon--rather more than half +full, flooded the air and river with her silvery light; and on one +side of them lay a glittering expanse, studded with the dark +silhouettes of islands. Mr. Winthrop quoted some of the well-known +lines from the Merchant of Venice, "On such a night," etc., Hugh +helping him out when he halted for a line. And then Kate asked Hugh +whether he could not recite something appropriate to the scene. + +"Original, if possible; if not, then quoted. And we won't even ask you +whether it is original, or not," she added. "You know, we can't _hear_ +the quotation marks." + +"On that condition, I will," said Hugh, and, after a few moments' +thought, he began:-- + + "Never a ripple on all the river + As it lies like a mirror beneath the moon, + Only the shadows tremble and quiver, + With the balmy breath of a night in June; + All dark and silent, each shadowy island + Like a silhouette lies on the silver ground, + While, just above us, a rocky highland + Towers grim and dusk, with its pine trees crowned. + + Never a sound, save the oar's soft splashing, + As the boat drifts idly the shore along, + And the arrowy fireflies, silently flashing, + Gleam, living diamonds, the woods among! + And the night-hawk darts o'er the bay's broad bosom, + And the loon's laugh breaks on the midnight calm, + And the luscious breath of the wild vine's blossom, + Wafts from the rocks, like a tide of balm! + + Drifting, why cannot we drift forever + Let all the world and its worries go!-- + Let us float and float on the flowing river, + Whither,--we neither care nor know;-- + Dreaming a dream, might we ne'er awaken! + There's joy enough in this passive bliss; + The wrestling crowd and its cares forsaken + Was ever Nirvana more blest than this? + + Nay! but our hearts are forever lifting + The screen of the present,--however fair,-- + Not long, not long, may we go on drifting,-- + Not long enjoy surcease from care! + Ours is a nobler task and guerdon + Than aimless, drifting, however blest; + Only the heart that can bear the burden + Can share the joy of the victor's rest!" + +"Well, I appreciate the poetry, of course," said Mr. Winthrop, when +Kate had duly thanked the reciter, "but, I am glad _that_ did not come +from _me_! We Americans are always getting the credit of being too +restless for repose,--for enjoying anything in a leisurely manner. But +it seems there are other people who, like Faust, cannot say to the +present moment, 'Stay, thou art fair!'" + +"I'm afraid that's a trait of the age," replied Hugh. "But I rather +think it is nobler, on the whole, to be always 'pressing on to the +things that are before.'" + + "We look before and after + And pine for what is not!" + +quoted Mr. Winthrop--"even in the beauty of this exquisite night." + +And after that no words were spoken till the two canoes grated, almost +at the same moment, on the pebbly beach. + +The sojourn at Sumach Lodge was now nearly at an end, for our party +had still far to go, and much to see. The next day was to be devoted +to an excursion in the steam-yacht to a bit of very picturesque +scenery some few miles down the main shore of the river--"a miniature +Saguenay," as Mr. Leslie described it, and, at the same time, they +were to get a glimpse of the Canoe Camp which had been just opened, +and which was to have an illumination in the evening that they all +wanted to see. + +They started early next morning for Halstead Bay, where the +picturesque little "rift" or _cañon_ began. The _Oneida_ carried them +swiftly down the few miles of river, till within the curve of the bay +which was hemmed in by high wooded hills, where they disembarked from +the yacht, in which they could not proceed much further, and had +recourse to the skiffs which they had brought in tow. As they rowed +farther up, the hills drew nearer to the bay or creek until they +became almost sheer precipices, rising up, weather-worn and +splintered, from the narrowing channel, which was full of reeds and +water plants and fleets of water-lilies, from which they supplied +themselves to their hearts' content. Here and there the stern rugged +crags were festooned with trailing plants and delicate harebells, in +what May declared were natural hanging baskets. Cranes and water-hens +flew up from the tall sedges, and Kate pointed out to Mr. Winthrop a +fine loon diving for his food. "Very likely you will hear him laugh, +by and by,"--said Kate, for he had been expressing some curiosity as to +the loon's laugh in the verses Hugh had recited. "We often hear its +'laugh' at Sumach Lodge," she said, "and very weird it sounds at +night. I don't know whether its elfin 'laugh' or its cry seems the +most uncanny. It has interested Hugh so much, and so has the old +legend of Clote-scarp and the loon." + +And as Mr. Winthrop had never heard this legend, Hugh told the Indian +story, how Clote-scarp, or Glooscap--the Micmac Hiawatha, had at +length, wearied with the cruelty and wickedness of man and the savage +warfare of the brute creation, departed from the land until the reign +of peace should be re-established; and that the loon awaits his +return, and laments his absence in the melancholy cry which it utters +from time to time. "Curious," he added, "how that idea of the +Deliverer, temporarily departed, seems to have taken root in all +lands, from Arthur and Barbaroosa to Hiawatha and Clote-scarp. But +what a magnificent cliff that is!" for now they had nearly reached the +head of the little _cañon_, and the higher bluffs seemed to grow +grander and more picturesque as the channel narrowed. + +"It is really a very good reduction of the Saguenay," said Mr. +Winthrop, "and the scale of proportion is very well carried out. That, +for instance, would do very well for a miniature Cape Eternity. But it +is as well to see _this first_!" + +At the head of the _cañon_ the crags closed up, leaving only a narrow +channel, through which a tiny stream struggled through the great +rugged boulders in a miniature cascade. They all landed and amused +themselves for some time in scrambling about among the rocks, trying +to thread the course of the streamlet, or climbing the neighboring +hill, from which some of the young men, including Hugh and Mr. +Winthrop, reported a magnificent view. The less ambitious of the party +strolled about at the lower level, plucking raspberries which grew in +great abundance among the rocks, while Flora tried to sketch roughly +the charming view from the high ground above the little waterfall. Too +soon, as it seemed, the order was given to re-embark and descend the +_cañon_ to the bay, where the steam-yacht had been left, and where +their lunch was also awaiting them. Mrs. Leslie with Mrs. Sandford and +one or two ladies who had visited the place before, had remained near +the steam-yacht, and when the party in the skiffs returned,--a little +hot and very hungry,--they found a most attractive-looking luncheon, +with fresh fruit, iced milk and various other luxuries most tempting +to tired sight-seers on a warm day, spread on a charming point, with +glimpses of still waters and beds of snowy water lilies on both sides +of its wooded slope. + +After thoroughly enjoying their luncheon, they all had a long rest +under the softly waving trees, through which a light breeze was +whispering, cooling the noontide heat of the August day. Then they +re-embarked on the steam-yacht and directed their course across the +river towards the Canoe Camp, which was pitched on a picturesque +island most admirably adapted for its purposes. They soon encountered +token of its presence, in the light canoes which darted gracefully +hither and thither, some of them winged by the daintiest little snowy +sails, looking like white butterflies as they danced over the +sparkling blue waves rippled by the freshening afternoon breeze. The +steam launch soon glided up to the landing pier, in a sheltered bay +overlooked by charming wooded slopes, on which gleamed the white tents +which dotted the island. It abounded in pretty sheltered coves, each +of which formed the harbor for a little fleet of canoes belonging to +some particular club--all nearly uniform in pattern. Some of the clubs +used "Rob Roy" canoes, which were marvels of beauty, with their finely +polished wood, and paddles, and luxurious silver mountings. Each club +had its tents near its harbor, and a large marquee did duty as a +common dining-hall. The lady members of the association had their own +particular little settlement, which was called the "Squaw's Point." +Camp fires were lighted here and there, carrying out the primitive +Indian character of the whole. The party had just time for a hasty +stroll about the island before the beginning of the races, which they +had the best opportunity of witnessing from their steam-yacht, +carrying them from point to point, in order to extend their view at +will. + +Some of the races were so-called "hurdle races," in which the racer +went through a variety of performances, swimming a few hundred yards, +then getting into his canoe, paddling it for a certain distance, and +in returning, upsetting it, righting it again and paddling to shore. +These last man[oe]uvres caused great fun and excitement. The party in the +steam launch had a number of acquaintances at the camp, and Kate was +soon discovered by various youths in parti-colored flannels, who +gathered around her for a chat in the intervals of the races; Hugh +being eager to hear all he could concerning the art of paddling, which +he had been practising on every available opportunity during his stay +among the islands. The afternoon flew swiftly by, and, when tea-time +came, the yacht party had invitations to tea in several tents, and +distributed themselves accordingly. After tea, a visiting band +discoursed music as the evening shades grew on; and then came the +great sight of the evening. + +Suddenly the clusters of tents gleamed out like brilliant +constellations amid the dark foliage, while the canoes, which had been +formed into a long snake-like coil were decked from stem to stern with +flambeaux and Chinese lanterns, some of these being curiously arranged +so as to imitate the forms of animals. The swan was the favorite +design, and the most easily managed, but there were elephants, camels +and other still more curious imitations. At short intervals, rockets +and Roman candles went up with a rush and roar, and some Greek fire on +the beach threw a rich roseate light over the wonderful scene. The +steam-yacht darted about hither and thither, the better to command the +whole view. Hugh and Flora were enchanted, and declared that they +could almost imagine themselves in a gondola in Venice, so brilliant +was the effect of the procession of illuminated boats, and the +_cordon_ of lights which studded the sombre background of the island. +As the fiery serpent began to coil and uncoil itself on the dark +river, while the rockets sparkled against the sky, and the +moon--partially obscured--threw fitful gleams between slow-moving clouds +upon the distant islands, it seemed more like a transformation scene +on the stage than one of actual reality, the contrast of the blaze of +artificial light with the calm serenity of the moonbeams being +singularly striking. + +But our friends had had a long day of it, and were beginning to feel +its fatiguing effects, so that no one felt inclined to object when Mr. +Leslie gave the order for departing, and, in a few minutes, they found +themselves far away from the brilliant scene, steaming quietly through +lonely channels where the moonlit waves broke softly on pebbly shores, +under dark overhanging boughs of hemlock and pine. + +May awoke next morning with the regretful thought that it was her last +day at Sumach Lodge. It was mainly devoted to farewell visits to all +the favorite haunts which would remain graven on her mind--at least for +years to come. In the afternoon Mr. Winthrop announced that he must go +to Gananoque in order to telegraph to New York, for he had been +recently talking--to May's inward consternation--of joining their party +on the trip to the Saguenay. She felt sure it would spoil Hugh's +pleasure, at any rate. But Kate showed no desire to veto the plan; on +the contrary, May had misgivings that her cousin had no objection to +it. Their good-natured host at once ordered the steam-yacht for Mr. +Winthrop, and a few of the guests willingly accompanied them, +including Flora, who lost no opportunity of gliding about in that +delightful little vessel,--Kate and May preferring not to lose an hour +of their now short stay on the island. One of her youthful admirers, +however, the youth who owned the "butterfly sailboat," coaxed Kate to +take a last short sail with him in the invitingly freshening breeze. +No one noticed, however, that the sky had gradually clouded over and +become grey instead of blue, while, despite the breeze, the air had +grown very sultry. Hugh noticed it at last from the quiet nook where +he sat reading, and came slowly back towards the house, where he found +May reclining in a hammock on the veranda, professedly reading, but in +reality half asleep, while Mrs. Sandford, close by, was complacently +nodding over her knitting. + +"Where are all the rest of you?" he inquired; "the place seems +deserted!" + +May explained that Flora had gone with the party in the steam-yacht, +while most of the boys had gone off with their boats to the other end +of the island for a swim, and that Kate had gone out with Dick Morris +in his "butterfly sailboat." + +"I hope they haven't gone far," he said. "We are going to have a +tremendous storm. I'll go and signal them back." + +May sprang out of her hammock and looked about her, while Mrs. +Sandford got into a flurry of alarm at once. Certainly the sky had a +rather alarming appearance. A great black cloud had swept down from +the southwest, flanked by another that seemed to extend over the whole +river in two great curves or scollops of dark slate color, edged with +a strange light bluish gray that had a lurid and terrible effect. The +river, usually so softly blue, had darkened in the distance to an inky +blackness, while somewhat nearer it assumed an angry grey. As yet the +stretch of water in front of the island seemed comparatively calm, +but, two or three miles away, sails were flying at full speed before a +strong gale. The squall was evidently coming up fast, and the +"butterfly sailboat" was some distance out and would certainly feel it +very soon. The steam-yacht was swiftly approaching the pier from a +different direction. + +Hugh said not a word, but began to unmoor the lightest of the only two +skiffs that lay at the landing, to which they had hurried, while May +watched the sailboat through an opera-glass. + +"The squall has caught it now!" she said, as Hugh was busy with the +boat. "Oh, I'm afraid it is upsetting!" + +"_What!_" exclaimed Hugh, anxiously watching the little craft as the +sail dipped lower, and lower, and lower, and finally lay flat on the +waves. Hugh in the meantime had hastily pulled off his boots and +jumped into the skiff, and now threw his watch into May's hands, +seized the oars and pushed out in hot haste. Meantime the steam-yacht +had arrived at the pier, a little way off, and Mr. Winthrop, coming +up, took in the situation at a glance. He almost snatched the +opera-glass from May, looked through it, and then rushed out on the +landing-stage, from which Hugh's boat was swiftly receding. + +"Stop!" he shouted, "and let _me_ go, too!" The voice scarcely seemed +like Mr. Winthrop's usually suave and even tones. It had a ring not +only of anxiety, but of passion and command. But it had no effect on +Hugh. He only shook his head as he called out, "No time to delay!" and +rowed on, at a pace that frightened May, into the teeth of the waves, +which were now dashing themselves into snowy wreaths of foam, while +the trees were lashing their branches about, as if in agony. Meantime +she had caught up the opera-glass which Mr. Winthrop had thrown down, +and could see that the boat had partially righted itself, and that +Kate and her young cavalier were clinging to its side, helplessly +drifting before the wind. Mrs. Sandford, who had now reached the +landing, stood crying and wringing her hands in a way that intensified +May's own terror. + +Meantime Mr. Winthrop had hurriedly looked round for the only skiff +left, which was a heavy and awkward one, but seldom used. He did not +hesitate, however, but jumped in and made what speed he could towards +the craft in distress, towards which Hugh by this time was half-way +out. May breathlessly watched him as he rapidly covered the remaining +distance. Then she could see him help Kate from her perilous hold into +the skiff, and the young man into the sailboat, which the efforts of +the two men had soon righted, after which Hugh rapidly rowed back, +leaving to poor Mr. Winthrop, who was following, the comparatively +uninteresting task of picking up the floating oars and other traps +which had been cast adrift in the upset, and of towing the unlucky +mariner and his boat back to the island. + +As all the boys had by this time returned, half a dozen hands were +outstretched to draw the skiff ashore and help out the pale but +laughing Kate, with her dripping garments clinging about her feet. +Mrs. Leslie took possession of her at once, and she and Mrs. Sandford +hurried her up to the house to be put to bed and dosed with hot brandy +and every other restorative that her ingenuity could devise, while +Hugh also came in for a large share of her anxiety, as well as of her +pharmacopeia. + +Meantime poor Dick Morris had managed, with Mr. Winthrop's assistance, +to get his water-logged boat back to shore, somewhat crestfallen as +well as wet, under the heavy downpour of rain which followed the +squall. Dick came in for his share of the coddling, but Mr. Winthrop +became invisible for an hour or two, and it was only after all were +gathered round the tea-table that he reappeared, looking paler and +graver than they had ever yet seen him. Kate was, of course, still +under orders to remain in bed for the rest of the evening, but Hugh +disclaimed any need for such precautions, and had evidently by no +means lost _his_ appetite, at least. He greeted Mr. Winthrop +pleasantly, as usual, saying apologetically: "I was sorry I couldn't +wait for you, Winthrop, but I saw there was no time to be lost." + +"Oh, it was of no consequence; you were quite right," he replied +coolly, but very curtly, and May inwardly wondered why it was that +people always said things were "of no consequence," just when they +evidently cared most. + +The incident seemed to have cast a damper--figuratively as well as +literally--over the last evening among the islands. The squall had gone +down as rapidly as it had come up, and the rain cleared off by +degrees; but the sunset cast only a few golden gleams through the +parting clouds, and the moonlight was fitful and disappointing; and it +seemed to May that the sadness of the parting colored the external +scene as well as her own feelings. + +It had been arranged that the steam launch should take them all across +to Clayton, to catch the river steamboat there about seven A. M., thus +necessitating a very early start. It was an exquisite August morning, +very like the first one after their arrival, but there was little time +to enjoy its charming pictures. An early breakfast was hurried over by +the time the little yacht blew her whistle for departure, and, before +any one could realize that the moment for departure had come, the +travellers had passed through an avalanche of good-byes, and were +steaming swiftly away from the enchanted island, as May then thought +it, and will always continue to dream of it hereafter. + +Kate treated Mr. Winthrop very coolly during the sail across, as May +observed, and this inconsistent young woman began forthwith to feel +sorry for him, especially when he announced, with apparent +indifference, that he should have to say good-bye to them all at +Clayton, as he feared, from the news he had received the previous day, +that he should not be able to rejoin them at Quebec, as he had hoped +to do. May thought that Kate looked somewhat startled, but she said +little, and they parted with cool civility. And as they left him +behind, with a sense of something unsatisfactory about it, Mr. +Winthrop seemed to have left more of a blank in the little party than +might have been expected from his short stay among them. Hugh missed +his clear-cut criticism and incisive talk. May felt as if she ought to +be glad that this rival of Hugh's--as she regarded him--was out of the +way, and yet she was conscious of a feeling of regret that surprised +herself. For, after all, undoubtedly Mr. Winthrop had been very +pleasant and courteous, and it certainly was not _his_ fault that he +had not had the honor of rescuing Kate. And now they were fairly +embarked on the steamer, which turned out to be their old friend, the +_Corsican_, and were soon rapidly losing sight of the charming +"Admiralty Group,"--the fairyland amid which she had, for the past ten +days, enjoyed so delightful a resting-place. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE RIVER OF HOCHELAGA. + + +It was about three hours before the _Corsican_ emerged from the last +labyrinth of foliage-clad, pine-crested islands, and came in sight of +the little town of Brockville. The banks of the river, as they +approached, varying from a high table-land to a low, rocky shore, were +lined with summer cottages, where holiday makers were evidently +enjoying themselves with a prodigality of hunting and an ample supply +of skiffs. Here and there, they came upon a little flotilla of boats, +setting out for an all-day excursion, whose passengers waved their +hats and cheered, as if they had been the first Indians who beheld the +white man's "winged canoes." A ferry boat was busily plying up and +down, embarking and disembarking passengers at the little piers that +fringed the shore, and an air of holiday brightness seemed to pervade +the scene. There was a short stoppage at Brockville, and then the +_Corsican_ was off again, and the last of the "Thousand Islands" were +soon left far behind. + +It was a still, soft, dreamy August day, and the sail down the calm, +broad stretch succeeding was almost sleepy in its tranquillity. +Prescott and its neighboring windmill elicited some historic +reminiscences from Mrs. Sandford concerning the time when poor rash +Von Schultz held his extemporized fortress against an unequal force, +only to be overpowered at last, and to expiate his reckless credulity +on a scaffold at Fort Henry, which they had so recently seen. + +Then there were the _Galops_ Rapids, and a little later the small +Rapid Du Plat, and then the historic associations of Chrysler's Farm. +Afterwards the steamer began to heave and plunge as the snowy crests +of the great white coursers of the _Long Sault_ gleamed before them, +rising like ocean breakers to meet the gallant vessel, which plunged +in upon them with almost conscious pride, and rode triumphantly over +them with an exultant swaying movement, more like the bounding of a +spirited steed than of a piece of inanimate matter. Hugh was delighted +beyond expression, and so were May and Flora. It was even grander than +either had anticipated, and both breathed a deep sigh of regret when +the last buoyant leap was over, and the steamer floated, with her +ordinary motion, into the calm expanse in front of the town of +Cornwall. And now there were blue hills to be seen on the horizon to +their right, as they passed down the quiet sweep of river, with a few +green islands dotting the channel, on which they could catch, here and +there, glimpses of summer cottages and camping parties that reminded +them of the "Thousand Islands," though with a considerable difference, +for here was nothing like the same scope for boating or variety of +scenery as in that enchanted region. Then there was the long, sleepy +afternoon sail across the wide Lake St. Francis, during which Mrs. +Sandford retired to her state-room to make up for her lost morning +slumber, and the three girls drowsed over the books they were +professing to read. May had brought out her cherished copy of "The +Chance Acquaintance," which she had with her, but had kept in reserve +till now, that she might revive her recollections of its fascinating +pictures, and enjoy in advance the grey old city, which she had +already seen so often in imagination; and was now, at length, to +behold with her bodily eyes. As she dropped the book at last, overcome +by the sleepy influence of the afternoon, Hugh took it up, and had +become much interested in its fascinating pages, when the whistle of +the steamer, on arriving at Coteau Du Lac, startled the girls out of +their nap, and woke them up, laughing over the oblivion which had +swallowed up the last two hours. The little French village of "The +Coteau," with its long pier, and the little brown houses and big +church, gave the travellers a first glimpse into French Canada, quite +in keeping with the spirit of the little book; and the succeeding +scenery, growing every moment more picturesque, was to May idealized +with a touch of poetry reflected from Mr. Howells' charming little +romance. After leaving the Coteau village, they passed the short +Coteau Rapids, and then the drowsy old village of Beauharnois, with a +pastoral landscape of green uplands and bowery orchards behind +it,--after which they saw before them, beneath a richly wooded shore, a +glittering stretch of interwoven blue and silver. And soon the steamer +began to pitch herself forward, as she was swiftly hurried down the +rapid incline, past cedar-covered points and islets,--so swiftly that +it seemed as if they could scarcely take in the striking beauty of the +scene till it had been left behind and the rapid was past. And thus in +quick succession they passed "The Cascades" with its white breakers +glittering in the sun, and the "Split Rock" with its great black +jagged boulders, past which they flew like a flash; after which, as +the afternoon sunshine began to slant softly on the water, they glided +out on the great placid reach of Lake St. Louis. The distant blue +range of the Adirondacks had remained on their right for a +considerable portion of their way, but now, before them, rose the +soft, cloud-like vision,--apparently triple in its conformation, which +Kate announced was Cartier's "Mont Royal," at the feet of which lay +the city of Montreal. It held their eyes with a spell of fascination +as they crossed the lake, growing more and more distinct until they +could distinguish its various divisions and the masses of woodland +that clothed it, and even the large buildings which here and there +gleamed out from its darker mass. + +And now they were passing the Indian village of Caughnawaga, with its +long line of little French-looking houses fringing the shore, while on +their left lay Lachine, with the glorious green mountain--a mass of +verdure from top to bottom, rising behind the straggling white +village, flanked by its grey stone church and _Presbytère_, while the +western sun shed a flood of golden glory over the shining lake. Then +came the descent of the Lachine Rapids, the most exciting of all, and +the three travellers who saw it for the first time, held their breath +as the steamer rushed on, within a hair-breadth, as it seemed, of +striking the jagged rocks, that raised their rough black heads above +the white breakers. There was not the mass and the thunder of water of +the Long Sault, nor the silvery beauty and rush of the Cedars and +Cascades, but the black rocks and ledges that seemed lying in wait, +like black monsters, to crush the vessel between their cruel teeth, +recalled to Hugh the old fable of Scylla and Charybdis. It was grandly +exciting to see the steamer, like a living thing, dart shuddering by +them, and rush at headlong speed through the boiling surges, with the +long wooded stretch of Nun's Island nestling, as it seemed, amid the +tossing waves, while the long spans of the Lachine and Victoria +bridges loomed up in front of them, and the bold mountain summits of +Bel[oe]il and Boucherville assumed exquisite violet hues under the magic +touch of the rapidly setting sun, which also lighted up the massive +city before them. There was hardly time to take in the full beauty of +the _coup d'[oe]il_ before the steamer was under Victoria Bridge, the +height of which they could not realize till they saw that the tall +masts could pass under it without being lowered. Presently they were +in the Canal Basin, amid what seemed a forest of masts and shipping, +and May, to her delight, could distinguish the great black hulls of +some ocean steamers lying in port. The long lines of massive grey +store-houses and docks also much impressed her unaccustomed eye; but +these were soon left behind as they drove rapidly up to the Windsor +Hotel, where they were to spend the next day. They were all hungry +enough, after their long afternoon in the open air, to enjoy heartily +the late dinner in the spacious dining-room of the Windsor, with its +glittering lights, its long rows of tables and lively groups of +guests. After dinner, the girls wandered through the long corridors +and sumptuous drawing-rooms, till May, at least, who had never been in +so large a hotel in her life, was quite bewildered by all the +grandeur. Then they sat on a balcony looking out on the long twinkling +ranks of electric lights, contrasting with the silvery radiance of the +moonlight, while Kate described to them vividly the glories of a +winter carnival she had seen, and the pure white, translucent beauty +of the wondrous Ice Palace which had silently risen in the Square +before them, and had afterwards, as it seemed, dissolved like a dream, +under the gentle touch of approaching spring. + +Next morning they were all assembled at breakfast so early that they +had the dining-hall pretty much to themselves. A carriage had been +ordered for nine o'clock, as they did not wish to lose any of the +bright morning, and they drove for some hours--first, through the +old-fashioned French streets, past Notre Dame and the old Gray Nunnery +and the Bonsecours market, and the point where the first settlement of +Ville Marie was inaugurated, as Parkman has so graphically described +it. They looked at the old Bonsecours church, which recalled to Hugh +and Flora similar old churches in Normandy, then drove up St. Denis +street, past Our Lady of Lourdes and the other ecclesiastical +buildings which cluster around it, and finished their morning with a +glimpse at the pretty Art Gallery. + +After luncheon they again set off, and drove along Sherbrooke Street +and through McGill College grounds, inspecting its groups of fine +buildings, and through the bosky avenues that run upward to "the +mountain," and then up to "the mountain" itself, enjoying the +magnificent views, from the Mountain Park drive, of plain and river +and distant hills, quite as much as did Champlain, who could not see, +even in a vision, the stately city that now replaces the Indian +wigwams and maize-fields, which then bore the name of Hochelaga. They +ascended to the very brow of the noble hill, taking in, as they went, +the whole sweep of view, from the winding course towards Quebec on the +left, to the extreme right, where they could catch a glimpse of the +Lachine Rapids, flashing white in the sunshine. + +The day passed only too swiftly in this pleasant sight-seeing, and +they had to be at their hotel for a six o'clock dinner, in order to be +ready to leave for Quebec at seven. When at last they drove off, Kate +gave the order, "to the Quebec boat!" May heaved a deep sigh of +pleasure. It seemed as if her cup was now indeed full. + +They found the large double-decked steamer filling up rapidly with +parties of tourists, some of them evidently--from their piles of +luggage--_en route_ for Murray Bay, or Métis, or some other +watering-place on the Gulf. Quebec was to them an everyday affair, and +they talked of it in a careless and cursory fashion which to May, with +her enthusiastic veneration for its associations, seemed little less +than sacrilege. + +As they passed down the smooth winding river, while the twilight was +falling, silvered by the brightening moon, Flora began to talk of Mr. +Winthrop, and to express her regret at his inability to come on with +them. "It was too bad," she added, "that Hugh forestalled him, in +going to Kate's rescue, was it not? I'm afraid he will hardly forgive +Hugh in a hurry." + +"But Hugh couldn't have waited for him," said May. + +"What are you two talking about?" asked Kate, whose ear had been +caught by the words, while talking to her aunt and Hugh. + +"Oh, we were only talking about poor Mr. Winthrop," replied Flora, +"and his vexation with Hugh for getting before him in rescuing you." + +"Why should he have _let_ Hugh get before him, then?" she asked. + +Hugh looked up with a half-puzzled air; then it seemed as if something +had dawned upon him--previously unthought of--and, in a few explicit +words, he explained the whole situation, doing ample justice to Mr. +Winthrop. Kate listened attentively, and though she was very quiet all +the rest of the evening, May fancied that her face was cleared of a +shadow that had clouded it before. She took up May's "Chance +Acquaintance" and soon became absorbed in it,--not laying it down till +she had rushed through it to the last page. + +"Wasn't it too bad," said Flora, "that Kitty sent off Mr. Arbuton like +that?" + +"_I_ think it was too bad that Mr. Arbuton didn't _come back_," +retorted Kate. "If he only had done _that_, a few days after, Kitty +would have forgiven him and he could have made a fresh start." + +"I feel sure that he _did_, in the end," asserted May, dogmatically. +"I mean to write a sequel to it some day!" and then they all went off +to their berths. + +The three girls were up almost by daylight in the morning, watching +the brightening sunshine flush the red rock of Cap Rouge, and then the +gradual unfolding of the river panoramas as they passed headland after +headland, each opening a fair, new vista beyond. Soon a glittering +church steeple gleamed out from the southern shore, rising +protectingly over white villages nestling at their feet. Curving +recesses of the wooded bank, outlined by one long, picturesque French +village street, followed the bend of the shore to the left. "That is +Sillery," said Kate, in reply to May's eager enquiries. + +"Oh," said May, "that is the place where the old Jesuit residence +was,--that Kitty and Mr. Arbuton went to see." + +After the point of Sillery was rounded, there rose, at last, before +their delighted eyes, the historic grey rock of Quebec, with its +mural-crowned rampart and bastions, and the houses and convents and +great churches of the old city climbing up its sides or rambling along +the plateau at its foot. + +"Oh, that is the citadel!" exclaimed May, breathless with delight. + +"And that is Dufferin Terrace, with the straight line of railing and +the little pavilions," explained Kate, while the grim old grey houses +above them recalled to Hugh and Flora memories of the old French towns +they had seen abroad. As soon as they could disengage themselves from +the bustle and confusion of the crowded quay, Kate, who had declared +that a _calèche_ was as much "the thing" in Quebec as a gondola in +Venice, signalled to two _calèche_ drivers, and the junior members of +the party were soon perched on their high seats, while Mrs. Sandford +and the luggage went up more comfortably in a commonplace cab. As they +rattled over the rough pavements and through the tortuous narrow +streets, which--as Kate remarked to Flora--"are just like Europe, I'm +sure," they drove up Mountain Hill, passing the spot where Prescott +Gate used to be of old, and catching a glimpse of the Basilica, or +cathedral, _en route_. They clattered rapidly over the hard paved +streets of the upper town, and drove, to May's delight, through a +massive old gate with deep, round arches, which the smiling driver +announced as "Porte St. Jean." Just outside it they passed a little +French marketplace, and then, after passing one or two crowded +streets, they were finally set down in front of a tall, three-story +stone house with a red door. + +The travelers were, of course, expected, and received with kind +courtesy by their hostess, Mrs. Dale, who took them at once up two +flights of stairs. "If they _are_ high, they have the better view," +she said, smiling. And so they had. The girls broke out into +exclamations of delight, as they gazed from the old-fashioned open +windows. In front they looked across streets and houses to the +_glacis_ of the Citadel, crowned by its line of ramparts, and could +follow, for some distance, the city wall without. The back window +commanded a glorious picture. Across a dusky mass of brown, +steep-roofed houses, only half lighted up yet by the morning sun, they +looked out on a green, undulating champaign country, flecked with +patches of deep green woodland, and little white villages clustering +here and there round their great church spires; while, for background, +rose a grand range of hills, stretching far away in interminable blue +vista--all grey and violet in shadow and silvery blue in the sunlight, +as the morning mists drifted away, and a wandering sunbeam caught and +glorified a tiny white hamlet nestling in the folds of a wooded hill. +Just where the sunbeams straggled away into the green country a silver +stream wound glittering in the sun, making a bright loop round a +point, on which, amid some trees, stood a large stone building. + +"That is the St. Charles, you know," explained Kate, "and there, where +you see it twisted like a silver loop, is the place where stood the +first mission house of the Recollets, and the Jesuits afterwards." + +"Oh!" said May quickly, "I know! Notre Dame des Anges, was it not? So +_that_ was the place where they had their thatched log cabin and where +they used to be half frozen in winter, when they were trying to learn +the Indian language from their interpreter, while their biggest wood +fires could not keep them warm, or their ink from freezing!" + +"And, just a little farther down is the place where they suppose +Jacques Cartier laid up his ships, when he first came; as you were +reading to us the other day, Hugh." + +"Ah, and so that is the place where they went through so much +suffering, that terrible winter, when the ships and masts and rigging +were all cased in ice, like ghostly ships at the North Pole, and when +the cold and the scurvy were killing them off so fast, that it seemed +as if none of them would be left to see the spring. How they must have +welcomed its coming at last!" + +Then Kate pointed out the green, low-lying meadow beyond the St. +Charles, called _La Canardière_, because wild ducks used there to +abound, and their eyes followed the long white line of the village of +Beauport, running between the grand Laurentian hills and the green +slopes that edged the blue St. Lawrence, studded with white sails, and +winding away between the Island of Orleans and the northern shore; +while, far down the high river bank, they could just distinguish the +dark purple cleft of the Montmorency Falls. But they were presently +reminded that breakfast was waiting, and, after their early start they +were quite ready thoroughly to enjoy the fresh rolls and eggs and +delicious raspberries and cream, while they planned their day's +sight-seeing, so as to accomplish the utmost that could be done in the +hours before them. + +They determined first of all to scale the Citadel, taking Dufferin +Terrace on their way. They went round by the new Parliament buildings, +entering the city by the St. Louis gate, with its new Norman towers +and embrasures. Kate, to whom the place was familiar of old, grew +indignant over the ravages made in the solid old fortifications just +outside the walls, and thought the fine new Parliament buildings did +not by any means make up for it. "One could see new buildings any day, +but that wasn't what one came to Quebec for," she remarked. They +passed by the Esplanade and the winding ascent to the Citadel, and the +sedate old-fashioned houses of St. Louis Street, and the little +steep-roofed wooden cottage near the hotel, now a saloon, where once +lay the body of the brave Montcalm. Presently they came to the "Ring," +as the old _Place d'Armes_ is often called--the scene, as May reminded +them, of so many interesting events in the old French _régime_. + +"For there, you know," she said, "the gate of the old Chateau St. +Louis fronted the square, and here there used to be state receptions +of the Indians, when treaties were concluded; and here, too, they let +the poor Hurons build a fort when they had been almost exterminated by +the Iroquois." + +Hugh was much interested, as they passed on, in the sight of the old +Chateau near the shady walks of the Governor's Gardens, and in the +monument erected to the joint memory of the two brave heroes, Wolfe +and Montcalm. And then they came out on the long promenade, now known +as Dufferin Terrace, and stopped to take in the magnificent panorama, +the wide river, with the picturesque heights of Lévis immediately +opposite, and the crowded shipping below; and then, immediately +beneath them, they looked down into the depths of the Lower Town at +their feet, in which May was eager to discover the site of the old +"_Abitation_" of Champlain. + +"I think it was just about where the Champlain Market is now," Kate +replied--"that open space with all the market-carts of the _habitans_, +and all the people doing their marketing." + +Then they gazed down into the narrow alleys of Little Champlain +Street, with the tall, grimy houses that rose up just below them, +which, as Flora said, reminded her so much of some of the old "wynds" +of Edinburgh; and were shown the little old church, "_Notre Dame des +Victoires_," which played so important a part in the early history of +Quebec. May could have remained all day dreaming over these old +historic associations, nor did Hugh Macnab seem much inclined to tear +himself away from the fascinating scene. But Kate was determined to +keep them up to "schedule time," and she and her watch were +relentless, so they reluctantly tore themselves away, being promised a +still finer view from above, and mounted a long steep stair rising +from the end of the Terrace. They could not resist the temptation of +looking around from time to time as the view widened at every step, +till at last, drawing a deep breath, they stood at the top of the +_glacis_ and gazed at the superb view around them, the closely built +Lower Town, the forest of shipping, the steamboats darting to and fro, +the opposite heights, fringed with steep-roofed, balconied houses and +sprinkled with distant white villages creeping up their receding +sides, and large, stately convents peeping out of clustered and +embosoming trees; while just beneath their feet a black ocean steamer +was getting up her steam to sail away down the great river to the sea. + +Walking back along the _glacis_, they reached the winding ascent to +the Citadel, which they followed, between its high stone-faced banks, +till they reached the ancient, curiously-woven chain gates, said to be +impregnable, and leading into the wide green ditch. Then they passed +through the massive portals of Dalhousie Gate, with its guardrooms and +casemates built into the solid walls on either side, where the +warlike-looking sentries politely saluted the ladies and put them +under the charge of a soldier guide. He led them first across the wide +court-yard to the King's Bastion by the flagstaff, from whence they +could feast their eyes on such a view as May, at least, had never seen +before. All about them lay the city, mapped out with its walls and +ramparts, its church towers and steeples; at their feet, far below +them, the Terrace on which they had been recently standing; and below +that again, the grim old town, the docks and shipping and flitting +boats diminished to the size of playthings; then the green heights +opposite, and the bold blue outline of the Isle of Orleans, and the +calm broad river stealing silently away through the vista of distant +hills. It seemed like a dream that held them in its spell, till the +French soldier, to whom the view was an every-day affair, shrugged his +shoulders and said, "_allons_." + +They continued their walk past the Officers' Quarters, in one of which +was the Governor General's summer residence;--past the magazine and +stables, where many little dogs were playing about, and came out at +last on what they thought the most glorious view of all,--that from the +Prince's Bastion, so called, because a Prince's feather, carved in +stone on the wall, marks the spot where the Prince of Wales once laid +his hand when visiting Quebec. From it they could see, far away to the +south, rank after rank of distant blue hills, some of them in Maine +and Vermont. To westward they could follow the river till it was +hidden behind a green projecting point which shut in the Bay of +Sillery, while away to the west and north stretched a long succession +of blue hills, with white villages gleaming among their wooded sides, +amidst which, too, they could trace the silvery ribbon of the St. +Charles, winding its way down out of the shadowy recesses of the +distant mountains. + +The travellers found no words adequate to express the delight awakened +by the glorious picture, and gazed on in silence, while light mists +floated away from the summits of the hills, and sudden glints of +sunshine gave them an added touch of glorious beauty. + +But they could not stay there all day, and all too soon they turned +away from the beautiful picture, which they would often hereafter see +before the inner eye; and returned along the walls, past little piles +of cannon balls and gun-mounted embrasures, till they came down again +into the court-yard and the wide, green ditch, on the slope of which +sleek cows were peacefully grazing, close to the now harmless guns. + +Whither should they go next? They would just have time, Kate said, to +take in the Basilica and the Ursuline convent before luncheon. +Thither, accordingly, they went, meeting long-robed ecclesiastics and +bright-eyed academy boys in their trim gray uniforms;--pretty French +nurse-maids and British orderlies, hurrying along laden with packages +of official papers, all just as it had been described in "A Chance +Acquaintance." The Basilica, or great French Cathedral, they found +rather disappointing within, for the impression of massiveness made by +the exterior seemed incongruous with the gaudy white and gold of the +interior decorations. + +"It seems rather out of keeping," said Hugh, a little discontentedly, +"with what one reads of its history, in those stormy old times, when +the French colonists used to come here to pray for deliverance from +Iroquois raids, or to offer up thanksgiving for some timely succor." + +"But you know, it has been rebuilt more than once since those old +times," said Kate; and May tried to recall in imagination the great +bare-raftered building of those old days, and found much satisfaction +in the high porcelain stoves at the entrance, which gave a "foreign +look" to the building at once. + +To the Ursuline chapel they went next, and, after application made at +a grated window of the convent, a tranquil-faced nun opened the great +door, and they passed into the quiet little chapel, so dainty in all +its arrangements, and looked at the great picture, by Champlain, of +Christ at the house of Simon, the Pharisee,--at the tablet to the +memory of Montcalm, whose skull is still preserved there;--and then, +with still more interest at the tiny jet of flame in the glass +chandelier, kept alight, for a hundred and fifty years, in memory of a +young French girl who took the veil all those years ago, and whose +brothers made provision to preserve in perpetuity this touching +tribute to her memory. But the rosy-faced, contented looking s[oe]ur, who +acted as guide, would by no means let them pass out without special +attention to the elaborate flower painting on velvet which adorned the +altar, and testified at least to the skill and industry of the present +nuns. + +Just as they came out, Kate had an unexpected _rencontre_ with an old +school-mate visiting Quebec on her wedding tour. As they were about to +part,--after a hundred rapid questions and answers had been +exchanged,--Kate's friend exclaimed: + +"And where do you think I am boarding? At the very house where Kitty +in 'A Chance Acquaintance,' stayed; and if you will just come with me +you shall look from the very window of Kitty's room and see the view +of which the book gives such a lively description." + +May was enchanted, and the girls were soon looking into the garden of +the Ursuline convent from the window at which her favorite heroine was +supposed to have stood, looking down at the shady walks below. Kate +and Flora declared that it did not look quite so poetical as in Mr. +Howell's pages, but May would not entertain the idea of +disappointment, and tried to see all Kitty saw, though encroaching +buildings have a good deal spoiled the quaint old garden, amid whose +lilacs and tall hollyhocks that young lady used, on moonlight nights, +to evolve the shades of Madame de la Peltrie and the first heroic +tenants of the convent. + +After the morning's adventures the early dinner was very welcome, as +well as a little rest, with the view from their fascinating windows +before them; after which they strolled along the Grand Battery and +quiet Esplanade, and penetrated into the quaintly picturesque grounds +of the Artillery Barracks, and looked from the weather-beaten old +arsenal on the wall, at the beautiful glimpse, across docks and grimy +old suburbs, of the fair green valley of the St. Charles, with +Charlesbourg opposite, sitting royally on her hilltops. + +"And, beyond it, you know," said May, mixing up fact and fiction, "are +the ruins of the old Chateau Bigot, where the wicked Intendant had his +pleasure-parties and carousals, and where Kitty and Mr. Arbuton went +for a picnic,--don't you recollect?" + +They did not find time to go to see it, however, but explored the city +pretty thoroughly, finding in the name of every street a bit of +crystallized history, recalling some name or incident connected with +its past. There was Donnacona Street,--recalling the kidnapped Indian +chief, and Breboeuf Street, reminding them of the two heroic Jesuit +martyrs,--and Buade Street, associated with the haughty and energetic +Governor, Louis Buade de Frontenac, under whom the French _régime_ saw +its proudest days. They walked along the ramparts as far as the new +"improvements," then in progress, would let them and sighed over the +ruthless demolition of the old gates--Prescott Gate and Palace Gate, +and the picturesque old Hope Gate, so graphically described by Mr. +Howells, and even over the renovation of the others, which had lost +all their historic interest. They spent some hours in diving into the +recesses of the old town, its marketplace and churches and curious old +alleys, dignified by the name of streets, and walked along the Saulx +Aux Matelots, trying to fix the very place where Arnold fell, on that +miserable December morning of 1775; and looked long at the "Golden +Dog"--_Chien d'or_--above the Post Office, whereby hangs a tragic tale. +And they had a quiet Sunday for resting, with those lovely glimpses of +distant hills meeting their eyes wherever they turned; and attended a +service in the quaint old-fashioned English Cathedral, which, with the +equally old-fashioned Scottish church and Manse, have such a quaint +old-world air, like everything else in Quebec. + +But of course they drove to Montmorency Falls, devoting to it a whole +delightful afternoon. Their course lay across Dorchester Bridge, and +then between meadows of emerald green, stretching down to the river +and fringed with graceful elms and beeches, with pretty old-fashioned +country houses here and there, which the girls of course called +_chateaux_, and then down the long village street of Beauport,--the +steep-roofed little houses in bright variety of color succeeding each +other for several miles, with their long garden-like strips of farm +extending down to the river on one side, and upwards towards the hills +on the other. Bright flowers grew in front of the windows, and trim, +dark-eyed French girls sat at the doors and on the little balconies, +sewing or knitting away busily, while they chattered in their native +tongue. In the middle of the village stood the great stone church, +with its bright tin-covered steeples, seen ever so many miles off. + +After passing Beauport the scenery grew wilder, and soon they rattled +over a wooden bridge, below which the foaming Montmorency brawled over +the brown rocks, at this late season partially dry. A little farther +on stood the inn, where carriages wait, and they had only to pass +through a gate and walk along the high river bank to the dizzy stair +down the cliff, from whence they could see to the best advantage the +beautiful fall, plunging in one avalanche of foam from the giddy +height above, crowned by deep green woods that contrasted strongly +with the glittering sheet of foam and spray, while a few beautiful +little outlying cascades trickled over the dark brown rock in braided +threads of silver. + +"How delightful it would be," said May and Flora together, "to stay a +whole month at that little inn, and come every day to sit here; and +look and look, till one was satisfied!" And the others sighed +regretfully as the fast descending sun warned them that it was time to +return to the inn where they had left the carriage, and drive home +past the bright little gardens and picturesque cottages of +Beauport--brighter in the slanting rays of the evening sun,--and +rejoiced in the golden glory which the sunset threw over the tin roofs +of Quebec, glittering with an intense golden radiance out of the grey +setting of rock and misty distance. + +But May thought their morning at Sillery the climax of all the +delights of Quebec. They went by one of the steamboats which are +always darting up and down the river, so that from its deck, they had +another fine view of the quaint grey town rising, tier above tier, to +the Terrace above, where the people looked like Lilliputian figures +out of a doll's house. Then they steamed slowly past the crowded +docks, the great black steamships and stately sailing vessels, some of +them bearing strange Swedish or Norwegian names,--past the root of Cape +Diamond, crowned by the Citadel, on the rocky side of which they could +distinctly read the inscription: "Here Montgomery Fell;" past the long +street of French houses that lines the shore below the plains; past +fine wooded heights with stately white country houses gleaming through +the deep green foliage; till, on turning a point of the leafy cliff, +they saw before them the curve of Sillery Bay, with its fringe of many +colored cottages and yellow rafts and lumber piles; while opposite, +the great stone church with its gleaming steeple towered over the +flourishing village of New Liverpool. Stepping out upon the wooden +pier, the travellers walked on past the anchored rafts on which men +were busy squaring timber with practised strokes, and up to where the +gracefully curving village street began. And there May had a +delightful surprise. A dilapidated weather-worn old cottage stood +before them, and above it, from an overhanging elm, hung a board on +which they read the inscription: "_Emplacement du convent des +Religieuses Hospitalières_." + +"There!" exclaimed May, "that is the place where the nuns of the Hotel +Dieu lived when they first arrived with Madame de la Peltrie, before +they could make up their minds to build on the rough rocky site they +gave to them in Quebec." They all stood for a little while, looking at +the shabby old cottage, trying to imagine what that first Canadian +hospital looked like; and then they walked up the quaint old-fashioned +street, with its gambrel-roofed houses, each having its gay little +flower-garden in front, till they came to a gray stuccoed, two-story +house, standing a little way back from the street, with a square +enclosure just opposite, in which stood a plain white monument. + +"There it is!" May exclaimed, with breathless delight; "the old Jesuit +residence! And that square opposite is the place where their little +church stood, just as it was all described." + +They opened the stiff gate with some difficulty, and walked into the +little enclosure, where they read the inscription in French and +English,--one commemorating the rude little church where the Jesuits +and their Algonquin converts had worshipped, about two hundred and +fifty years ago; and the other dedicated to the memory of the first +missionary who died there--Père Enemond Massé--the Père utile, as he was +called, because he could do anything, from saying mass to +ship-building, or even tending the pigs of the establishment, thinking +nothing beneath him that needed to be done, and being such a favorite +with all that he was always chosen to accompany their expeditions as +Father Confessor. Most of this May was able to tell the rest of the +party, as they stood beneath the two maples that shaded the enclosure. + +Then they took a look at the outside of the old residence, which, +however, has been renewed more than once since the substantial inner +framework was built, and tried to imagine the strange solitary life +that its inmates must have lived, especially in bitter winter weather, +shut out from all society, except that of a few Algonquins and +trappers. + +That afternoon was their last in Quebec. They drove in from Sillery by +the pretty St. Louis road, fringed with shady country seats, and +commanding, at many points, glorious glimpses of the grand mountain +panorama on both sides of the city. As they passed the "Plains of +Abraham" they stopped once more to look at the rather forlorn-looking +monument which commemorates Wolfe's death, and the victory for Great +Britain, which secured half a continent; and tried to trace the lines +of advance up the rugged cliffs by which the hero had surprised the +unsuspecting French. This was, appropriately enough, their last +sight-seeing in Quebec, and the evening following was spent on +Dufferin Terrace watching the exquisite sunset tints melt away from +the river and the distant hills, with a pathetic touch which seemed to +them like the memories they would always cherish of the romantic old +town. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AMONG THE HILLS. + + +As the little party went on board the Saguenay boat next morning, a +surprise was in store for them, for who should come to meet them, with +the most smiling air, but Mr. Winthrop himself, looking very bright, +and meeting them all as if it had been the most matter-of-course thing +in the world! Kate met him with the same cordial, matter-of-course +air, but May observed that they exchanged a few words in a low tone, +which seemed to set them on their old footing at once. + +"Do you know," said Flora, to her, as they stood apart in the stern, +taking a last look at the great frowning rock and the tall, dark +houses looming above them,--"I believe some one wrote to him and +explained Kate's misconception, and I have my suspicions as to who it +was. I saw Hugh scribbling off a few lines in a great hurry, that +evening on the boat, and I shouldn't wonder in the least if it was to +Mr. Winthrop! But I'm glad it's all right, for I think he is a very +nice fellow, and Kate and he would suit each other very well." + +May was completely taken back. Had Flora no thought of Hugh, then? Or +did it not occur to her that _his_ happiness might be in some degree +involved in this matter? But if Hugh really did what she supposed, how +very noble it was of him! He was a real hero, a chivalrous knight! +However, she could not, of course, say anything of this to Flora, so +she silently determined to put Hugh and his fortunes quite out of her +thoughts for the present, as too perplexing a problem, and give +herself up entirely to the influence of the glorious scenery and the +lovely morning. + +They were, by this time, fast losing sight of the grey old fortress +about which had raged so many fierce conflicts in the days of old. The +Isle of Orleans, along whose southern shore the steamer took her +course, quickly hid from them the picturesque old town and its +beautiful setting, and even the rocky cleft in which Montmorency was +ceaselessly pouring down its masses of snowy foam, and raising its +great mist-cloud to the sky. As the Isle of Orleans was itself left +behind, the glorious river grew wider and grander, as point after +point opened before them in ever-receding vista. The blue, cloud-like +masses of Cap Tourmente and Ste. Anne gradually became great dark +hills, covered from head to foot with a dense growth of foliage, +chiefly birch and fir. One after another of this magnificent range of +superb hills rose on their left, wooded from base to summit, and +looking almost as lonely and untouched by civilization as when +Cartier's "white-winged canoes" first ascended the "great river of +Hochelaga." Here and there a white village or two gleamed out from the +encompassing verdure, or stood perched on a hill-top beside its +protecting church. To May, who had so often dreamed over the voyages +of these early explorers, it seemed like an enchanted land. The Isle +of Orleans was to her the old "_Ile de Bacchus_," purple with the +festoons of wild vines that offered their clusters of grapes to the +French adventurers, and the beautiful Ile aux Coudres, which the +Captain pointed out, she recalled as in like manner an old +acquaintance, surveying it with much interest, as she pictured to +herself the hardy explorers regaling themselves on its native +filberts. + +Then the noble bay of St. Paul's opened out its grand spreading curve, +with the pretty village of Les Eboulements nestling in its breast; and +by and by they had stopped at the massive light-house with its high +pier, intended to suit the variations of the tide. + +"What a lonely life it must be in these solitudes!" observed Mr. +Winthrop, as they watched the great lumbering ferry-boat carrying off +the passengers whose homes lay among these hills;--"just think of the +contrast between life here and life in the crowded bustle of New +York." + +"And yet," said Hugh, "I fancy life is, in the main, not so very +different here, if we could only see below the surface. I suppose the +main outlines of life are pretty much the same everywhere, after all!" + +May had been inwardly following out the same thought, and trying to +imagine the sort of life and surroundings to which the pale girl in +gray, who had specially excited her interest as a supposed bride, was +going in her future home. Then the voyagers dreamily watched for some +time in silence the long silent procession of wooded hills, dappled by +the shadow of the great fleecy white clouds that swept up across the +blue sky, while, ever and anon, snowy sea-gulls darted down to catch +from the tossing crests of the sparkling waves, the fragments of food +thrown to them by passengers, seeming to spy it unerringly from afar, +and now and then white whales or porpoises would toss up a miniature +geyser, as they disported themselves in the azure tide. + +At length they came in sight of the headland forming the upper end of +picturesque Murray Bay, where they were to spend some time on their +return from the Saguenay. They all admired the lovely vista opened up +by this long and narrow bay with its white church, marking the village +from afar, with its grand promontory of Cap à l'Aigle at its lower +extremity, and its green valley, hemmed in by rank after rank of +billowy blue hills. But they could not see much of the long straggling +village of Pointe-au-Pic, or the quaint foreign-looking French hamlet +in the centre of the curve of the bay. Indeed, their attention was +quickly diverted from examining its details, for, among the people who +stood on the high pier awaiting the steamboat, they speedily +recognized Jack and Nellie Armstrong, who greeted them with much +delight, and were soon beside them on the steamer's deck. + +"You see we got here in advance of you," said Jack Armstrong, and +Nellie exclaimed: "We've been wondering what could possibly have +become of you. We have been watching the last two boats, prepared to +join you if you were there, and were beginning to despair of you +altogether. You must have been bewitched, either by Quebec or the +Thousand Islands, to have been so long on the way." + +"And you have very nearly missed the moon," added Jack. "We've been +watching it for the last two or three evenings in fear and trembling +lest Miss Macnab and Miss Thorburn should miss their cherished desire +of seeing Cape Eternity by moonlight." + +"Oh, I think there is enough of it left yet," said Kate, while Mrs. +Sandford remarked that she thought she never should have been able to +tear those people away from the delights of the Thousand Islands. + +"Or from Quebec," said Flora and May together. "_That_ was almost the +loveliest of all." + +"Ah, I told you you would enjoy Quebec, Miss Macnab!" said Jack +Armstrong. And presently May observed that he had drawn Flora a little +aside, and engaged her in an animated description of what she had most +enjoyed since they had left Port Hope. And, indeed, she was looking +charming enough, in her Inverness cape and deerstalker cap, to draw +forth a good deal of admiration, May thought. As for Kate, in her +rough ulster and cap to match, with her color heightened by the sharp +sea breeze, she was looking brilliantly handsome, so evidently thought +Mr. Winthrop, who kept near her, displacing Hugh altogether, as May at +last believed. But now they were nearly opposite Les Pèlerins, the +strange parallel rocks that stand, silent, stately warders beside the +great river, widening into a broad sea-like expanse, with a line of +distant hills faintly breaking the horizon to the right, while on the +left, the great hills which had been accompanying them all day now +receded somewhat into the distance. Then the little red brick town of +Rivière-du-Loup gleamed out ruddy on its sloping hill, growing more +and more distinct until the steamer had drawn up beside the high pier, +on which were a number of summer tourists eager to see who were on the +boat, or to get a little fresh news from the outside world. Bidding +these farewell, they quickly passed the long, straggling line of white +cottages that marked the pleasant watering-place of Cacouna. Our +travelers meant to visit it, and also Rivière-du-Loup, with its grand, +romantic waterfall, on the homeward way, but at present their thoughts +were engrossed with the Saguenay, and May's dreaming imagination was +already busy with the blue ridge of rounded hills that, as she was +told, marked the entrance and the course of that mysterious river. +But, as they crossed over towards the south side of the sea-like +river, they had a specimen of the glorious sunsets which form one of +the chief charms of Cacouna, shedding over the calm expanse of water a +flood of golden glory, and touching the distant hills with the richest +amethystine hues, till they seemed to float in a dreamy haze, between +the amber sky and the shimmering golden tide below. The sight held the +little party fascinated with its entrancing spell, and they remained +on deck heedless of the summons of the clamorous tea-bell, until the +rich hues and the golden glory had faded at last, not into the "light +of common day," but into the soft vagueness of the long northern +twilight. Then at last, with a sigh for the brief duration of the +beautiful vision, they descended to the lamp-lit cabin to enjoy the +appetizing evening meal, which their long afternoon in the bracing air +had made them all ready to thoroughly enjoy. + +When they again came on deck they were just passing some straggling +islets, darkly green in the fast fading light, and rounding Pointe +Noire,--the fitly-named dark point of rock that guards the entrance to +the strange mysterious dark northern fiord about which have gathered +so many a marvelous story. And now May was eagerly looking out for +Tadousac, with her heroine Kitty, and the venerable old church and all +the little romance that followed, uppermost in her imagination. Then +those rounded sand-hills, skirted by rocks and fringed with a scanty +vegetation of stunted firs, were, Mr. Winthrop said, the +"Mamelons,"[1] about which cluster strange old Indian legends, of +fierce conflicts between the Algonquins and the Esquimaux--weird tales, +too, of a doom or curse on intermarriage of an Algonquin with an alien +race, which here overtook the offender with its inevitable Nemesis. In +the deepening gloaming, in the shadow of the dusky heights that +towered on high, casting long, dark, quivering reflections in the dark +mysterious stream, with scattered lights twinkling out here and there, +through the clustering foliage, is Tadousac. With its straggling brown +dwellings, and the massive timbers of the great pier storehouse +looming up in undefined vagueness above them, it was easy to imagine +any number of legendary tales of love and conflict; of + + "Old unhappy things + And battles long ago." + +as Hugh quoted once more. The steamer was made fast to the pier, with +much creaking and groaning, as if shuddering to begin the ascent of +the dark, fateful river, which, it is said, one of the earliest +explorers attempting with his men, found a fatal enterprise, none of +them ever returning to the light of day. + +As the steamer was to remain here half an hour, the whole party +landed, as did most of the other passengers, to inspect the little +rude ancient church, built nearly three hundred years ago for the +Indians and the trappers who traded with them--the oldest surviving +building north of Mexico. They took the route which May had so often +followed in imagination with her shadowy friends of the story, across +the ravine and through the village, with its lights twinkling all over +its little cove, till they reached the plain, bare old wooden church, +beside which they stood for some time almost in silence, reverently +regarding the little wilderness-temple which had so long alone met the +needs and witnessed the devotions of men rough and rude, but men still +with the felt need of Divine help in their strange wild lives. But the +visitors could not enter, nor were they indeed anxious to do so, for +they felt that this might have broken the spell thrown over them by +the bare sombre, weather-beaten exterior and venerable associations. +Moreover, the steamer was already whistling its summons, so they set +out on their return through the same shadowy, suggestive gloom of dark +pine-studded rocks and deep murmuring unseen waterfalls, till they +came out suddenly on the clustered lights of the landing and the +steamer streaming with light through every crevice, just as May had +seen it so often, already, through the eyes of Miss Kitty Ellison. + +Well, they had left Tadousac behind now, and had fairly entered into +the shadows of the dark and sullen Saguenay, which seems to lie like a +prisoner between its stern frowning warders and to have hewn out its +difficult passage to unite with the St. Lawrence, through the stern +rocks that would have shut it up in its lonely gloom forever. To Hugh, +the passage left behind seemed indeed a fortress-gate, strongly +flanked by tall overhanging rocks, crags with gnarled _savins_, and +white-stemmed birches gleaming even in the deepening dusk, clinging, +as if for life, to the jagged precipices. They had lost sight of the +twinkling lights of Tadousac, set in its little rocky niche of the +"_petite montagne qui est presque coupée par la mer_," as Champlain +had described it long ago, with its "little harbor," which would hold +only nine or ten ships in the _embouchure_ of the Saguenay, though +many more could find shelter in the bay that fronts the St. Lawrence. +The captain of the steamer told the young men about the little lake +close at hand, which guards the precious young salmon raised there for +the Government's fish-breeding establishment at Anse de l'eau. + +And now the dark, vague forms of Titans seemed to rise up on either +hand,--great massive hills and cliffs that seemed almost to shut out +the light of the stars; and most of the party, growing tired of the +somewhat awesome silent procession, took refuge in the lighted saloon, +from whence soon came strains of sweet music, and the tones of Flora's +fresh young voice, in "Over the Sea to Skye," which seemed not +inappropriate to the _genius loci_. Mr. Winthrop and Hugh remained +talking with the captain about the more striking features of the +scenery and its historical associations; and to May, half listening to +them, half dreaming out again the vivid sketches of Parkman, the +solitude seemed peopled once more with the old explorers who +established ties of commerce between far-away St. Malo and these +lonely wilds,--Cartier and Roberval, Pontgravé and Chauvin, and their +bands of trappers and _voyageurs_, for whom the Indians paddled their +canoes, laden with costly furs, down this dark, fathomless stream. She +could realize more vividly the fate of one unfortunate band, left at +so lonely a post to starve, through one miserable winter. For, first, +by reason of its fabled wealth of gold and silver and precious stones, +and afterwards for the sake of its real riches in furs, the Saguenay +was even better known to the early pioneers than was the river between +Quebec and Montreal. Then, too, May's thoughts went back to that very +different little band of missionaries,--Recollets first, Jesuits +afterwards,--who came bearing a Christian message of love to the +savages of this wild region. She remembered how the trio of Jesuits +who first reached the river Sagne, as it was then called, in their +delight at reaching their goal, described it as being "as beautiful as +the Seine, almost as rapid as the Rhone, and deeper than many parts of +the sea," and how Père Le Jeune, in particular, felt that they were +the forerunners of a host of brave soldiers of the Cross who should +subdue the land for the Lord. She remembered how the sight of some +poor Indian captives, cruelly tortured by their captors arrayed in all +their uncouth adornment of parti-colored paint, had so impressed the +good Fathers with pity, that they only longed for an opportunity of +preaching to them the gospel of love and peace, although, as Père Le +Jeune observed, the same fate might at any time befall themselves. +And, indeed, Père Le Jeune's, observation on that head is well worthy +of being recorded: + +"In truth, I was cut to the heart. I had thought of coming to Canada, +only because I was sent. I felt no particular regard for the savages, +but I would have rendered obedience, had they sent me a thousand times +further; but I can truly say, that, even if I should have detested +this country, I should have been touched by what I have seen, had my +heart been brass. Would to God, that those who can help these poor +souls, and do something for their salvation, could be here for three +days! I think the desire of saving them would seize their whole +souls." Then he proceeds to reflect that in England, in Spain, in +Germany, when the Gospel was first carried thither, the barbarism of +the people had been as great. (He says nothing about France, evidently +considering that the time of _its_ barbarism belonged to remote +antiquity.) And further, that the Indians do not lack sense, but +instruction; and then goes on to speak of his plans for founding +schools for the more docile children; thus anticipating the +common-sense missionary policy of our own day. And he takes refuge in +the end, as all souls yearning for the salvation of their fellows have +had to do, in the promise of the Eternal: "_Dabo tibi gentes +heridatatem tuam, et possessionem termios terræ_." + +In that same bay of Tadousac, too, May recollected, the good Fathers +had their first experience of what the St. Lawrence could do in the +way of a storm, and had reason to be thankful for the measure of +shelter which this bay could give them. As another sample of New World +experience, they were nearly eaten up by the mosquitoes and a host of +other insect persecutors, while the fireflies formed at least one +cheering exception as they glittered among the woods "like sparks of +fire, by which he could even see to read at night." + +But the captain went on to talk about some of the old floating legends +that still increase the romantic interest attaching to this strange +river of the North,--of the fierce battles between the rival tribes, in +the course of one of which is said to have taken place the terrible +earthquake which rent asunder these scarped and jagged cliffs, to form +this sublime channel of the Saguenay. And he spoke, also, of the +romantic story which has been woven out of the old legend that a mixed +marriage between the white man and the Indian was followed by the +impending doom; and the terrible forest fires which have at times +swept over the whole region, scorching and destroying all life, +vegetable and animal, that lay in their course, and leaving their +melancholy traces in the splintered, seamed crags that raise aloft +majestic forms once clothed in a graceful drapery of green, now only +crested here and there with a dreary skeleton of their departed +forests. It was not difficult to imagine the awfulness of the scene at +night, when the billows of red flame and ruddy smoke rolled in dread +majesty over those grand hills, uncontrolled and uncontrollable, till +they were suddenly checked by the dark, deep waters of the cold and +deep river. + +But the captain's talk ended, and Mr. Winthrop, who had gone up the +Saguenay before, was by and by attracted into the saloon, and only May +and Hugh Macnab were left on deck, with a few of the other passengers, +who, like themselves, were held by a sort of fascination in the savage +and sombre grandeur of the dark, cloud-like shapes that seemed to +unroll themselves before them in endless succession. It seemed strange +to sit there, as it were in the presence of the Infinities, in their +awful, everlasting silence, while lights were streaming from the +saloon and from it also were coming,--now snatches of the wild, wailing +melody of "Loch-Lomond," now of the gay little French love ditty; + + "Il y'a long temps que je t'aime, + Jamais je ne t'oublierai!" + +which Hugh absently hummed in concert with the singers within, setting +May again at work on her little romance, the ending of which was so +perplexing her at present. But this was only for a passing moment; for +the presence of these dark hills was too absorbing to admit other +thoughts. And now the faintly diffused light of the rising moon, +itself still hidden from view, made a pale background for the great +bold _silhouettes_, and showed, too, something more of their minor +features; and at last the bright silver disk, shorn of something of +its roundness, rose clear above the sharply defined edge of a jagged +crag, partially clothed with trees. And now the great grooves and +seams of the rocks could be distinctly discerned in unrelieved light +and shade,--and the dark lines of such vegetation as could here find a +foothold, with here and there a cluster of twinkling lights, marking a +little centre of human life in the midst of the wilderness. As they +advanced, the precipices grew bolder and bolder; one bold profile +after another became defined in the moonlight, then opened up new +vistas of the sea of hills and precipices which was continually +changing its relation to the spectator. And presently Hugh went in to +summon the rest of the party to come out, for, far away in the +distance, a practised eye could already discern, just touched by the +moonlight, the commanding peak and striking triple profile of Cape +Trinity. It seemed an impressive and solemn approach to the mighty +crag, growing every moment grander and more majestic in the pale +radiance of the moonlight. The triple effect, both vertically and +laterally, showed more effectively, though less distinctly, the +bare-browed cliff looking even more imposing than in daylight,--every +scarped crag and splintered pinnacle and barbicon standing out in the +sharpest contrast of light and shade. The travellers gazed up at the +giant, towering above them to such a height that it made one dizzy to +try to follow it with the eye; and so close did it seem impending over +the vessel, that they could scarcely realize their real distance from +it, till a copper coin, thrown by Mr. Winthrop with all his force, +came far short of the rocky wall, and fell into the dark stream below. + +Cape Trinity left behind, Cape Eternity began to loom up in lonely +majesty beyond--its mighty mass partially clothed with verdure, and, +like the other, idealized in the moonlight. The awesomeness of its +grandeur oppressed them with an overpowering effect of dread +sublimity, and it was almost a relief when the steamer at last glided +away from those tremendous embodiments of nature's savage grandeur, +and saw rising before them vistas of a somewhat gentler, though still +bold and picturesque type. + +But it was now long past midnight, and most of the party, despite +interest of the scene, were growing exceedingly sleepy. Mrs. Sandford, +indeed, had long ago retired to her state-room, declaring that neither +of the two famous cliffs were worth losing the best half of a night's +rest for! The rest of the party now followed her example, and as May +passed through the ladies' cabin to her state-room, she was startled +for a moment by seeing the dark forms of a number of sleeping nuns, +who occupied the sofas instead of berths. They were doubtless going +out from one of the great nunneries on a missionary expedition, and to +May it seemed delightfully in harmony with the spirit of the scene. +Nor would it have been at all difficult for her to imagine figures +called up from the old days when these dark uniforms were the only +civilized female dress in all the region of the Saguenay. She regarded +her own simple dark blue travelling dress with a sigh. It certainly +was not nearly so picturesque! + +May slept soundly enough, notwithstanding the motion of the boat and +the creaking of the chains and timbers during the occasional +stoppages. But about daybreak she was awakened by the rattling of +chains and the confused clatter of voices, and started up in haste, +that she might not lose an hour of the wonderful scenery about her. On +coming out of her state-room, she was again somewhat startled by the +cluster of dark-robed nuns, some of whom were already up, and absorbed +in their morning devotions. But she had no time to think much about +them just then, for through the cabin window she caught a glimpse of +some wonderful granite peaks, touched with the loveliest rose-color by +the light of the sun, which had not yet risen above the rugged hills +that close in about the crescent curve of Ha-Ha Bay. Calling Flora to +make haste to follow her, she stood for a little time at the stern, +feasting her eyes on the exquisite solemn beauty of those granite +hills thus glorified by the coming day. Then, joined by Flora, to whom +the scene recalled her own Highland hills, she hastened on deck to +enjoy the full extent of the lovely view around them. They were lying, +stranded by the receding tide, near one end of the long bay, which +takes its name, according to some, from the surprised laugh of some of +the first explorers at finding themselves _cul-de-sac_;--according to +others, from their expression of satisfaction at having at last found +soundings in this apparently fathomless river. Just above them, now +gilded by the level sunlight, rose a rugged height of richly-tinted +granite, sprinkled by birch and balsam, at the foot of which clustered +the little grey-peaked wooden houses of the tiny hamlet of St. +Alphonse. The piazzas of the summer hotel, and the steep-roofed stone +church looked down from the hill-slope beyond the pier, and, far along +the sweeping curve of the bay, the gleaming village of St. Alexis +shone white on the green shore behind it, long sloping uplands of +arable land, while near it a black-hulled ship lay at anchor, the +first anchorage for the mariner on this dark rock-bound stream. + +One by one the little party had collected on deck, with the exception +of Mrs. Sandford, keenly enjoying the loveliness of the hour and +scene; and already their fellow-passengers were beginning to leave the +steamer on various little expeditions, to fill up the hours which they +must wait for the turning of the tide--some to drive across the hills +or along the shore of the bay; others to stroll along the shining +sands and examine the long-stretching weir, composed of interlaced +boughs, jutting far out into the stream, which here presents the most +fascinating combination of sea-shore and inland river. A little party +of long-robed ecclesiastics, whom our travellers had noticed the +evening before, in a corner of the saloon, poring over their +breviaries, were seen slowly ascending the hill-slope, towards the +church, and Hugh suggested a stroll in the same direction, as the +hill-slope seemed a good point for observation of the surrounding +landscape. + +The morning air blew cool and bracing in their faces as they left the +pier, the view before them growing grander and wider at every step. +They skirted the hotel grounds, where a few early stirring guests on +the piazza watched them with great interest, and soon found themselves +at the door of the church, from whence they could command a noble +panorama of hills and river in their cool, pale northern coloring, +somewhat warmed by the slanting rays of the early August sun. But when +they presently entered the church, the solemn hush of the scene within +carried off their thoughts in an entirely different direction. It +seemed a large church for so small a settlement, and the fresh and new +look, the white and gold decoration, and the robes of the priests, +seemed curiously out of keeping with the primitive wildness of the +surroundings. The party of ecclesiastics, who, it now appeared, +numbered a bishop among them, were there in full force, and a small +congregation, including several officers of the steamboat, were +already gathered for early mass. Hugh sat down reverently in the +nearest seat, and the others followed his example, and remained there +until the short service was completed. It was singularly restful and +soothing, and to May and Flora, despite their staunch Protestant +preferences, it was a memorable experience. The deep tones of the +officiating priest and the solemn chant of the psalms, seemed laden +with memories of the days when these same chants first arose in these +savage solitudes, from the rude bark chapel or the simpler forest +sanctuary, before the wondering eyes of the half-hostile Indians. + +As the last chant died away on the ear, it was like awaking from a +dream of the remote past, to come out once more on the wide summer +landscape lying at their feet, the long line of level sands, the +stranded vessel, the still receding tide, the long stretch of gray +uplands and dark green hills. But breakfast began to seem a welcome +possibility, which quickened the steps of the travellers back to the +steamer, where they found Mrs. Sandford in a little flurry of concern +about their long absence, and more than ready, she declared, for her +breakfast. And after their early rising and their long stroll, it +scarcely needs be said how keenly they enjoyed the excellent breakfast +of porridge, smelts, salmon, fresh rolls, and excellent coffee--not +forgetting the blueberries for which the region is so famous. After +breakfast there was still some time before the steamer could move. +Flora hunted up her sketch-book, and went, accompanied by May and +Nellie, to make a sketch on shore, while Hugh Macnab and Jack +Armstrong, who insisted on coming, too, amused themselves by +clambering up the rocky height above them, to see what sorts of plants +might be growing among the crevices--for Hugh was something of a +naturalist as well as a poet. The others, including Mrs. Sandford, +preferred to remain on the deck of the steamer, watching the lumber +vessel take in her load, and the swift return of the tide, nearly as +remarkable for its speed as is the Scottish Solway, which has +furnished the comparison:-- + + "Love flows like the Solway + And ebbs like its tide." + +As the girls sat there, a young, pleasant-faced _habitante_ came up to +them, followed by two or three tiny children, glad to exchange a word +with the strangers, and to offer for sale tiny canoes, which the +inexperienced hands of the children had shaped, in imitation of the +pretty toy canoes offered for sale at all the booths of French and +Indian wares. They spoke no English, and May was too doubtful of _her_ +French to try it, but Nellie and Flora opened a conversation with her, +to her evident pleasure, for, in so secluded a spot, a talk with a +stranger is an event. "Yes," she said, after telling the names and +ages of the children; "yes, the summer _is_ very short, and the winter +long and cold." But then her husband stays at home, and in summer he +is away, working on boats, and that is evidently compensation--for he +is "_un bon garçon_." And indeed she seemed a happy wife and mother, +for the blessings of life, happily, generally counterbalance its +privations. The girls gladly bought the tiny canoes, the "'prentice +work" of the little childish hands, and, after an interested +inspection of Flora's sketch, and many admiring comments thereupon, +they parted--the travellers to return to the steamer, the children and +their mother to return to their _cabane_, happy in their little store +of silver coins. And now the tide has flowed in, up to the end of the +weirs, the scattered passengers are collected on board, and the +steamer, with screw revolving once more, glides swiftly out of Ha-Ha +Bay, leaving behind all its rugged beauty and its primitive, secluded +life; and turns up another bend of the fiord, towards the great hill +curves that bound the vista. Point after point, bend after bend, +succeed each other in bewildering succession, while the travellers +feel once more how distinct is the stern sublimity of the Saguenay +from the grand beauty of the St. Lawrence. The great, bare splintered +crags that rear their grey, furrowed brows to the sky, the endless +succession of pine-crested hills, craggy points, dark, deep gorges, +and weather-worn and lichen-scarred rocks, contorted by fire and water +into every conceivable form, seemed almost oppressive, at last, in +their almost unbroken savage wilderness. Here and there green uplands +and stretches of softer forest verdure, or sheltered valleys, with +little settlements nestling in their laps, or clinging to the +sheltering rocks, introduce a gentler tone; but the general impression +is one of savage sterility, scarred by the traces of devastation on +the fire-swept hills, bristling with dark tree skeletons, and by the +sullen darkness of the stream itself. And now and then the sky grew +grey, too, as a sudden squall swept down the gorge; and it was easy to +associate with the wild mountain fiord the strange tales told to the +early explorers, and to see in imagination the fur-laden canoes, with +their silent, dusky paddlers wending their way down the rocky _cañon_, +which the river seems to have hewn for itself with such difficulty, +from the inaccessible solitudes behind, through the sea of rocks +between these and the St. Lawrence. + +As they steamed onward towards Chicoutimi, however, which is the real +head of the bay, the scenery becomes softer in type, and, amid the +rolling uplands, cluster little white villages, each with its guardian +church. Chicoutimi, with its fine stone church on the hill, and its +sawmill and lumber-yard below, comes into view, as they round one of +the numberless points, a place of some consequence in this lumbering +country. The steamer stops at the pier, and the little band of +_religieuses_ disembark and wend their way to the convent on the hill, +while May and Flora watch their black-robed figures and vainly +speculate on their past and their future, wondering what routine of +duties awaits them here, and whether they are of the same heroic fibre +with those who, two hundred years ago, crossed the stormy ocean into +exile in this wilderness, in order to nurse sick Indians and teach +Indian children their _Pater-Noster_. + +As the steamer left Chicoutimi behind, Hugh Macnab and Mr. Winthrop +discovered two or three half-breed _voyageurs_, coming down with the +luggage, boats, etc., of a party of gentlemen who had been canoeing +among the rocks and rapids of the "Grand Discharge" of the Saguenay, +in the comparatively untrodden wilds into which no steamer can +penetrate, and tracing the dark waters up to their source in Lake St. +John. The swarthy good-humored boatmen were eagerly questioned and +cross-questioned by the three young men, till it became clear, to the +observant Kate, at least, that they were planning some private +excursion of their own, not in the original programme of their party, +though at present they all observed an obstinate silence as to any +such idea. + +Meantime, they all sat dreamily watching the long procession of +headland, rock, and hill,--a silver thread of cascade occasionally +trickling down the dark precipices, wondering at the variety and +effect produced with such apparent sameness of material. But, behold! +a great grey Titan looms up behind a distant headland, seeming to +pierce the sky; and the passengers, English, American and Canadian, +begin to crowd the forward deck, with eager outlook. A little farther, +and the vast breadth and height of Cape Eternity uprears its mighty +mass overhead,--its summit seeming lost in the sky, across which great +clouds are rapidly drifting. May thought it had looked even grander in +the moonlight, which seemed to expand it into infinity; but Hugh and +Mr. Winthrop declared that to them it was no less imposing in the +clear light of day, which gave it the strength and force of reality. +Scarcely had they ceased gazing in fascination at its mighty mass, +when Kate, pointing triumphantly before them, drew their attention to +the still grander headland, the mighty triple profile of Cape Trinity. +And now, just above their heads, as it seemed, that sublime rock was +unfolding its triple unity, both vertical and lateral, each way +divided into three distinct heads; a far more impressive +individuality, they all agreed, than the sister cape. Again came that +curious optical illusion of the great precipice towering immediately +overhead in close proximity to the boat,--a delusion only dispelled +with much difficulty after seeing that the pebbles which the +passengers amused themselves by throwing at it, fell invariably a long +way short of their aim. And a feeling of soul-subduing awe stole over +May, as she threw back her head, and tried to scan the entire face of +those lofty summits which seemed to rear their grey, weather-beaten +heads into the very empyrean! Here and there, a stray bit of +vegetation clung with difficulty to a cleft in the rock, seeming to +emphasize its ruggedness and stern majesty. But, as Hugh observed, and +all agreed, the white statue of the Virgin, placed, by Roman Catholic +piety, in a niche of the crag seemed an impertinence, even from the +broadest point of view, for surely they felt that grand Mount Horeb, +symbol of Divine Majesty, should have been profaned by no mortal +image. Nevertheless, when the steamer slackened speed, just under the +precipice, and the sailors in solemn cadence chanted an "Ave Maria," +there was a pathetic earnestness and an antique, old-world air about +the proceeding which was very impressive. What Hugh himself thought of +the grand, wonderful bit of nature's architecture, found its way to +paper in the course of the afternoon, the lines taking shape in his +mind as the too swiftly receding lines of Cape Trinity faded away into +dim remoteness, when it seemed to all the party that the central +figure, the chief interest of the Saguenay, had passed out of the +scene. And, after the long strain of attention,--the effort to lose +none of the ever-changing grandeur of the shifting panorama,--it was +almost a relief when the showery clouds that had gathered so grandly +about Cape Trinity, deepened into a leaden grey; and mist and rain +began to blot out all save the nearest hills. As they sat watching in +somewhat sombre mood the silent procession of mist-laden hills, with +here and there a white thread of waterfall trickling down their sides, +and the white whales and porpoises splashing in the dark stream +below,--the only sign of life in all the great solitude, while an +occasional gleam of sunshine, from an opening cloud, threw a golden +gleam to relieve the stern aspect of the scene, Hugh was called on for +a reading from a volume into which he had been dipping during the day. +It was the copy of Charles Sangster's poems, which he had procured in +Montreal, and he willingly gave them a few stanzas from the poet's +description of the Saguenay;--the following lines, in particular, +seeming to express the very spirit of the scenery about them:-- + + "In golden volumes rolls the blessed light + Along the sterile mountains. Pile on pile + The granite masses rise to left and right;-- + Bald, stately bluffs that never wear a smile; + Where vegetation fails to reconcile + The parched shrubbery and stunted trees + To the stern mercies of the flinty soil. + And we must pass a thousand bluffs like these, + Within whose breasts are locked a myriad mysteries. + + "Dreaming of the old years, before they rose, + Triumphant from the deep, whose waters rolled + Above their solemn and unknown repose; + Dreaming of that bright morning, when, of old, + Beyond the red man's memory, they told + The secrets of the Ages to the sun, + That smiled upon them from his throne of gold,-- + Dreaming of the bright stars and loving moon, + That first shone on them from the night's impressive noon; + + "--Dreaming of the long ages that have passed + Since then, and with them that diminished race + Whose birchen fleets those inky waters glassed, + As they swept o'er them with the wind's swift pace. + Of their wild legends scarce remains a trace; + Thou hold'st the myriad secrets in thy brain, + Oh stately bluffs! as well seek to efface + The light of the bless'd stars, as to obtain + From thy sealed, granite lips, tradition or refrain!" + +"That is striking poetry," said Mr. Winthrop. "The author deserves to +be better known! But the wild legends of the past have not entirely +passed away. Now and then, one comes across an old legend or story +among a set of fellows like our _voyageur_ friends there." + +"Yes," said Hugh, "that is one reason why I should like to explore the +wilds about Lake St. John! I think one might pick up from our guides +some old stories that would be interesting. But I was reading, this +morning, a pathetic little legend which is said to be still cherished +among the Montagnais Indians, concerning one of the pious Jesuit +Fathers, who was wont long ago to minister in that little grey church +at Tadousac." + +"Oh, do tell it to us!" said Kate and Nellie, in a breath; and Hugh +readily complied, telling the tale, in substance as follows: + +"One of the most benignant and beloved of these pioneer missionaries +was Père La Brosse, the last of the old Jesuit Fathers of Tadousac, +and the story of his 'Passing' reads almost like a French-Indian +version of the 'Passing of Arthur.' Strange, how that wistful, +pathetic interest, clustering round the death of the good and gentle +and strong, crops up everywhere, among all sorts and conditions of +men! + +"Well, the story runs, that, at the close of an April day, spent as +usual in fulfilling the duties of his pastoral office among his Indian +converts, the venerable Father had spent the evening in cheerful +converse with some of the French officers of the post. As he rose to +leave them, to their amazement he solemnly bade them a last adieu, +telling them that, at midnight, he would be a corpse, and at that hour +the chapel bell would toll for his passing soul. He charged them not +to touch his body, but to go at once to the lower end of the Ile aux +Coudres, which, you know, we passed yesterday, many miles up the St. +Lawrence, and bring thence Messire Compain, whom they would find +awaiting them, and who would wrap him in his shroud and lay him in his +grave. They were to carry out his bidding, regardless of what the +weather might be, and he would answer for their safety. The astonished +and awe-stricken party of rough traders and Indians kept anxious +vigil, till, at midnight, the chapel bell began to toll. Startled by +the solemn sound at dead of night, they all rushed tremblingly into +the church. There, as he had foretold, they found Père La Brosse, +lying prostrate before the altar, his hands joined in prayer, and the +seal of death on his tranquil face. With awe-struck sorrow, they +watched for dawn, that they might fulfil the father's last command. +With sunrise, arose an April gale, but trusting to the promise of one +who had won their unfaltering trust, four brave men set out on their +appointed errand, in a fragile canoe, breasting the big rolling waves, +which, however, seemed to open a passage for the frail bark, and, in a +marvellously short time, they had reached Ile aux Coudres; and there, +as Père La Brosse had said, sat Père Compain on the rocks, breviary in +hand, ready to accompany them back to do the last offices for the +dead. He, too, had received a mysterious warning. The night before, +his chapel bell had tolled at midnight for a passing soul, and a voice +had told him what had happened and what he was expected to do. And it +said, moreover, that in all the Missions where Père La Brosse had +served the chapel bells tolled at the moment of his death." + +"Well!" exclaimed Mr. Winthrop, "that is a story that _ought_ to be +true, _ben trovato_, at least, as the Italians say, if we only had +faith enough. One could almost find it in one's heart to believe it +here, in these wild solitudes, even in this degenerate, sceptical +age!" + +"Now, Hugh," observed Kate, "why shouldn't _you_ write a '_Mort de +Père La Brosse_' _à la_ Tennyson? I'm sure it would make a lovely +poem." + +"Perhaps he will, by and by," said Flora, a little mischievously. +"Meantime, I found in a book of his this sonnet on Cape Trinity. I was +sure he was composing something of the kind!" + +"Oh, that's not fair!" said Hugh. "That's not revised yet." + +But there was an unanimous demand for the reading of it, and under +protest, Hugh allowed Flora to read it. + + "Thou weather-beaten watchman, grim and grey, + Towering majestic, with thy regal brow, + O'er all the thronging hills that seem to bow + In humble homage, near and far away;-- + Even thy great consort seems to own thy sway, + In her calm grandeur, scarce less grand than thou + Rising, star-crowned, from the dark world below, + So lonely in thy might and majesty! + Thy rugged, storm-scarred forehead to the blast + Thou barest,--all unscreened thy Titan form, + Radiant in sunset, dark in winter storm, + So thou hast stood, through countless ages past, + What comes or goes, it matters not to thee, + Serene, self-poised in triple unity!" + +As she finished reading the lines, a rift in the breaking clouds let a +rich gleam of sunset through, and they caught a brief glimpse of a +distant lofty summit, probably Cape Trinity, glowing out in crimson +glory, like a great garnet, set amid the grey mountain curves. + +They all watched it silently, till it passed out of sight in the +windings of the stream. It was a sight to carry away as "a joy +forever,"--a fitting parting gleam of the grandeur of the Saguenay. + +And swiftly it all fades from sight as the veil of twilight falls once +more about them, softening the hard outlines of the iron hills into +cloud-like phantasms, while the twinkling lights of Tadousac again +gleam out from the shaggy cliffs, soon again to be left behind, as +they pass out of the rocky _embouchure_, under the starlight, into the +wide reach of the St. Lawrence and cross its wide expanse to the +distant shore, where they stop at length at the long-stretching pier +of Rivière-du-Loup. This time they disembark, and are soon driving +rapidly along the two mile sweep of curving road, with a late gibbous +moon rising above the trees, as they approach the straggling environs +of Fraserville. They are speedily installed in a comfortable little +French inn, with a plain but comfortable supper before them, and a +lively group of French Canadians chattering gayly around them in their +rapid patois. As it happens, these prove to be a party of musicians, +whose music, vocal and instrumental, and gay little French Canadian +songs serenade them till irresistible sleep closes eyes more weary +with sight-seeing than their owners had before realized. + +No one was up very early next morning, for human nature cannot stand +perpetual motion. But, as the day was fine, though cool, a carriage +was ordered immediately after breakfast and the whole party were once +more _en route_, driving over a straight smooth road to the old +Rivière-du-Loup, and thence to the noble waterfall, whose wild +picturesque beauty seems close to the little town. + +Leaving the carriages, they all walked on by a winding path, till they +came to a grassy spur of the slope, jutting out, as it seemed, rather +more than half down, close to one side of the fall. Here, though they +could not see the whole extent of the cascade, they could get an +impressive view of its volume and beauty, as it came thundering down +the dark grey height, clad with dusky pines; so that, looking up to +the crest of foliage above, it seemed to come thundering down in snowy +spray and foam, out of the very bosom of the primeval forest. To May +it seemed almost as grand as _Montmorency_, though far short of it in +height. And, like Montmorency, it vividly brought back the memory of +incomparable Niagara. The spell of the falling water,--"falling forever +and aye,"--had its usual influence on her, and she sat dreaming there, +scarcely conscious of herself or the flight of time, while the rest of +the party wandered about, surveying the waterfall from other points of +view. But at last she was aroused from her reverie by Hugh, who came, +despatched by Kate, in quest of her, to bring her down to the foot of +the Fall where the others were resting, and where she could see it, as +it were, _en masse_. + +She lingered a moment, however, reluctant to leave the charming little +nook. "See!" she said to Hugh, as she rose to accompany him +down,--"look at those exquisite little harebells, growing so peacefully +out of that green moss under the very spray of this rush of foaming +water." + +Hugh smiled as he looked down at the fragile flower, cradled, as it +were, in the midst of the turbulent commotion. He stooped over and +picked two of the drooping blossoms carefully, handing one to May, +while he studied the other, in its graceful, delicate beauty. "It is +an embodied poem!" he exclaimed, as they turned slowly away. + +"Then, won't you write out the poem it embodies, for the rest of us to +read?" said May, somewhat timidly, and surprised at her own temerity. + +"If I can, I will," he replied, frankly. "It doesn't always follow, +because one may _see_ an embodied poem, that one can translate it into +verse!" + +At the foot of the Falls, they all sat for an hour or two, enjoying +the comprehensive, though somewhat less impressive view of the whole +fall, as it came rushing down the dark gorge, in sheets of silvery +foam and clouds of snowy spray. And here, in a grassy nook, under some +trees, they sat for some time watching the Falls, Flora declaring that +it reminded her of some of their finest Scottish waterfalls and also +of one or two she had seen in Switzerland. Before they left their +quiet halting place, Hugh, who had been sitting very silent for some +time, handed quietly to May, a leaf from his note-book, on which, with +much satisfaction, she read the following lines:-- + + "Where the great, thundering cataract tosses high + Its crest of foam, 'mid thunders deep and dread, + A tiny harebell, from its mossy bed, + Smiles, softly blue, to the blue summer sky, + And the great roaring flood that rages by, + In sheets of foam on the grey rocks outspread + But sheds a tender dew upon its head. + --Emblem of hearts whose gentle purity, + Seeks only heaven in this rude earth of ours; + Dwelling in safety 'mid the roar and din + Of human passion, as in sheltered bowers; + Growing in beauty, 'mid turmoil and sin, + --Keeping the hue of heaven, like the flowers, + Because they keep the hue of heaven within!" + +"Oh," exclaimed May, looking up from its perusal, "_that_ is almost +just what I was thinking about it, myself, only I couldn't put it into +words like that!" + +"I'm glad I happened to catch your thought," he replied. "Keep the +lines for yourself, if you care for them, in memory of this pleasant +day." + +"We've had so many pleasant days!" said May,--wistfully,--for she felt +that they were fast drawing to a close. And if the young men really +took that canoe trip up the Saguenay, their party would be divided +during the sojourn at Murray Bay,--their last halting place. But she +felt that she could never lose the memory of that delightful journey, +and all its enjoyments. + +After going back to the hotel for an early dinner, they ordered the +carriages again and drove in the soft afternoon sunshine,--now +beginning to assume a slightly autumnal air, over the low, level +stretch of sandy road, leading through skirting spruce and cedar, to +the long straggling settlement of Cacouna, mainly composed of summer +cottages, with its hotels and little church. Most of the cottages are +scattered along a high sloping bank, just above the sea-like river, +where the bathing, albeit lacking the surf, is almost as good as in +the open sea. The Armstrongs had friends residing in Cacouna for the +summer, and the party drove directly to their cottage, where they met +with a most cordial welcome, were shown all the sights of the +vicinity, and finally regaled with "afternoon tea" on the veranda, +from whence they enjoyed one of the grand sunsets for which Cacouna is +famous, the bold hills on the north shore, here etherealized by +distance,--reflecting the glory of the rich sunset sky in the most +exquisite tones of purple and rose. + +Next morning, the little party took an early train from +Rivière-du-Loup, on the Intercolonial Railway, to see the remainder of +the river shore as far as Bic, where the Gulf may almost be said to +begin, and the river end. It was a charming ride along the high land a +little back from the river, yet still occasionally in sight of it, +with the grand hills of the north shore looking cloud-like and remote, +as they came into view of the beautiful bay of Bic, surrounded by its +noble hills, with its picturesque coves, its level beach, and its wide +flats, studded with black rocks. Away in the distance, beyond the tall +bluffs which guard the mouth of the bay, and the islands which also +protect its harbor, lay the deep blue wooded island of Bic, and beyond +that, again, the far distant north shore, looking like a cloud of mist +on the horizon. Here they had to stop, for, beyond that, the railway +leaves the river to wind its way through the ravines of Métis, and +then over the hills to the famous valley of the Matapedia, whose +charms, fascinating as they are, were not for the travelers--on this +journey at least. They spent a few hours pleasantly at Bic, strolling +through its village, set on a plateau high above the beach, or +wandering over the flats, where two rivers sluggishly find the end of +their journey, and gathering seaweeds among the little pools and +rocks, which reminded the Scotch cousins so strongly of their own +seaside home. They climbed up some of the gentler slopes of the high +rugged hills, to get a still wider view, and to feel the bracing salt +breath of the sea come sweeping up the river, while Kate described the +beauties of Gaspé, peninsula and basin, and the wonderful Percé rock, +which she had once visited on a voyage down the Gulf; and Mr. Winthrop +told them of a grim old tradition of the island of Bic,--of a sort of +Indian edition of the massacre of Glencoe, when a branch of the fierce +Iroquois had caught a comparatively helpless band of Micmacs with many +women and children, in a cave, and had smoked them out, to meet death +if they escaped it within. + +But they had now reached the eastern-most limit of their +progress--still leaving, as Hugh said, some "Yarrow unvisited." They +took the returning afternoon train back to Rivière-du-Loup, for their +course must now be "Westward-Ho!" At Rivière-du-Loup, they waited for +the Saguenay boat, and re-embarked for Murray Bay, which they reached +about midnight, landing at the high pier under the pale ghostly light +of the waning moon, which gave a strange unreal look to the houses on +the shore, and especially to the strangely shapen rock, which, rising +solitary near the point, gives it its name of "Point Au Pic" (or +Pique). There were an abundance of _calèches_ in waiting, and the +travellers distributed themselves among these, and were soon driven +along the straggling village street to their destination,--the "Central +Hotel," chosen by Kate on account of its delightful view. But the +"Central" was too full for so large a party, as the landlord declared +with many regrets,--so the ladies were accommodated very comfortably at +the "Warren House," next door, while the young men were put up +temporarily at the "Central" as they intended leaving on their canoe +trip very early in the week. + +May had been feeling that, since this trip began, she had had so many +delightful impressions, that she could scarcely find room for any +more. But the first sight of the grand vista of noble hills that +enfold Murray Bay, as it were, in their embrace, gleaming out under +snowy mists, in the fair breezy morning, made her feel that she had by +no means lost the receptive power, and that she had much to see and +admire yet. It was a peaceful Sunday morning, and a Sabbath rest +seemed to enwrap the blue hills that encompassed the long bay, +receding in lovely curves and peaks behind each other, till they were +lost in a soft vagueness of distance. Just about the middle of the +long curve of the bay, and showing whitely against a background of +deep green woods, a white church stood out as a sort of centre to the +little brown French village that clustered about it on both sides of +the Murray River. Below the bridge stretched long brown sands with a +strip of blue water in the middle, and a three-masted vessel lying +stranded by the receding tide;--while just across the bay, narrowed by +the low tide, rose the long bold headland of Cap à l'Aigle, jutting +far out into the wide blue expanse of the St. Lawrence, bounded on the +southern shore by a wavy line of soft blue and purple hills, +glistening with silvery specks, which were, in reality, distant French +villages. It was a feast to the eye, a refreshing to the whole being, +simply to sit there and take in the lovely vista. May, for one, was +glad that it was Sunday, and that, therefore, there could be no +excursions, but that she could sit quietly there as long as she +liked,--dreaming or thinking, or reading a little of the old Scripture +poetry about the "Everlasting hills;"--but ever and anon looking up to +see the realization of words which had formerly left on her mind a +rather vague impression of their meaning. Nothing which she had seen +seemed to her so satisfying to her ideal of beauty. Niagara had its +own solitary overpowering grandeur, but no surrounding scenery. The +Saguenay hills were too stern in their solemn splendor. At Quebec, the +view seemed almost too wide, too complex; but this charming valley, +with its brown-beached blue bay, nestling amongst these richly wooded +hills, with rank after rank of mountain tops,--as they seemed to her, +fading away into the distant blue, seemed to have all the unity and +beauty of a well-composed picture, and to satisfy her imagination +without her knowing why. Flora was in an ecstasy. The scene reminded +her strongly of some of her own Highland glens; and Hugh and she were +soon eagerly comparing it with one after another of their favorite +resorts,--tracing its points both of resemblance and of dissimilarity. + +The young men of the party had taken an early bath, and pronounced the +water very bracing indeed, but also decidedly cold--too cold, they +thought, for the girls to attempt; notwithstanding which, however, +Kate and Flora announced their intention of trying it next day. At +eleven they all went to church at a neat little chapel close by, built +for the use of the Protestant visitors, and used alternately for an +Episcopalian and a Presbyterian service, an instance of brotherly +unity which might be indefinitely extended. To Flora's great +satisfaction, (for she was a staunch little Scottish churchwoman,) the +service that day happened to be the Presbyterian one--the first time, +she observed, that she had had the pleasure of attending her own +service since she had left her native land. To Hugh it did not matter, +she observed, for he liked one just as well as another, to which he +replied that he was by no means so superior to the power of +association, which must, in most cases, after all, determine our +ecclesiastical preferences. + +As there was no evening service, an evening stroll in Nature's great +temple around them was proposed instead, for which the young people +were ready enough after the long, quiet day of rest. Mrs. Sandford, +who had not yet recovered from the fatigue of so incessant travelling, +preferring to sit on the veranda with her book,--the latter taking the +place of her knitting-needles, which lately had had an unusual +respite. Nellie Armstrong, however, who had a headache, elected to +stay with her, so the rest started, perhaps all the more satisfied, +pairing off naturally--Mr. Winthrop, of course, with Kate; Jack +Armstrong with Flora; while Hugh and May were left as inevitable +companions. May, as on some similar occasions, felt at first slightly +uncomfortable; but this feeling soon wore off, for Hugh and she had +become excellent comrades, and now found many subjects for +conversation; and she felt that he had by this time accepted Mr. +Winthrop as a permanent factor in the situation, and was determined to +make the best of it. And May in her heart esteemed him all the more +for the cheerfulness with which he had adapted himself to the +inevitable! + +They walked, by a rambling footpath, along the sandy, reedy shore of +the bay, until they had at length to betake themselves to the ordinary +road, striking it close to a picturesque old mill, with a little +waterfall plashing over the moss-grown old waterwheel, just as she had +so often seen it in pictures of English scenery. They reached the +French village of Murray Bay, and passed close to the white church +which had made the centre of the picture in the distance, and the +pretty little _Presbytère_, with its shady garden-walks overlooking +the river, on one of which May discerned a black-cassocked figure, in +whom she immediately conjured up a modern Père La Brosse. Then on, +past the little brown French houses, with their steep roofs and +balconies, and tidy, if bare, exteriors,--each one apparently +possessing its great wooden cupboard, and large box stove for the cold +winter days. Crossing the bridge over the Murray, from which there was +a lovely view up the valley, into the heart of the hills, they held on +their way up the wooded slope beyond, past a little memorial chapel +under the shadowing pines, which interested the girls so much that +they declared they must get the key and see the interior some day; and +then onward by an open, breezy bit of road, skirting on one side +undulating woods, gilded by slanting sunlight, and on the other +affording glimpses of pleasant manorial residences between them and +the river. And then they came out on the high table-land of the +"_Cap_," from whence they could see the wide river expanse, now taking +on soft hues of rose, and purple, and opal, and the far distant hills +beyond, also glorified by the sunset. + +But May's steps had begun to flag a little, and her cheek to grow +rather pale, and Hugh said that he was sure she was tired, and +proposed that they should go no farther, but take a rest until the +others returned. May looked rather wistfully at Kate and Flora, still +stepping on, evidently unwearied. But although much stronger than when +she had left home, May was not so strong, yet, as the other two, and +it was of no use to pretend that she was not very tired. + +"Let us walk back to that pine-crested bluff," said Hugh. "There we +can sit quite comfortably till the others come back." + +They strolled back very slowly, and it occurred to May, _à propos_ of +her own fatigue, how much more Hugh could stand than he could have +done a month ago; and how seldom even "Aunt Bella" now worried him +with well-meant exhortations to take extra care. The outdoor life of +the past weeks had certainly done wonders for this sunburnt, active +young man, with elastic step and firm tread, who seemed so different a +being from the pale and somewhat languid stranger to whom she had been +first introduced. But she soon forgot everything else in the fair +scene that lay at their feet, half screened by the pine boughs that +drooped above them; for no fairer view had greeted her during the +whole journey. Opposite, across the blue bay below them, lay Point au +Pic, with its pier and its monumental rock, its straggling cottages, +and the long, hilly, wooded ridge that swept round the corner of the +bay on the other side. To their left lay the broad, sunset-flushed +river, with the wavy line of delicate hues beyond it. The two watched +the lovely glow of color for some time in silence. At last, when the +scene was swiftly taking on the grayness of evening, Hugh remarked: + +"How many lovely evenings we have seen! And this seems almost the +loveliest of all." + +"Yes. It almost makes one sad to think that they are nearly all +past,"--she replied, with a little wistful sigh. + +"I don't know that it _should_, however," replied Hugh. "We can't lose +their memories and their influences. _That_ seems to become part of +our being, and we shall always be the richer for it. You know 'a thing +of beauty is a joy forever.' Do you know," he continued, after a +pause, as May did not reply, "this great river on which we have been +wandering so long, seems to me to present a very fair parable of human +life. It comes, like Wordsworth's version of our infancy, out of the +mysterious majesty of Niagara, and that great sea-like lake. Then it +has its tranquil sunny morning amid the lovely mazes of the Thousand +Islands, which, like ourselves, it seems reluctant to forsake, for the +more work-a-day rural stretch below. Then comes the strenuous time of +conflict,--the '_sturm und drang_' period of the rapids, and then the +calm strength, the gradual expansion, the growing dignity of a noble +life, till at last we have this exquisite sunset, glorifying a river +that is swiftly passing on, to lose itself in the great 'silent sea,' +symbolizing the beauty of the same rich and noble life, passing away +from its old familiar shores to lose itself in the boundlessness of +eternity." + +"I think you have got material for another poem there," May observed, +smiling, though touched by the emotion which seemed to have carried +him on unconsciously. She and Hugh had got into the way of talking +about his literary endeavors. There was another pause, and then Hugh +looked up from his note-book, into which he had been looking. + +"Do you recollect," he asked, "a lovely morning we had, just after +coming to Sumach Lodge?" + +"Yes," replied May, promptly, "the morning you rowed me over to that +pretty little island, when the river was so calm, and it all looked so +lovely." + +"And I wrote some verses there, which I should like to read to you, to +see how you like them. May I?" + +May looked a little perplexed, for she had not forgotten that he had +seemed anxious that she should _not_ see them, _then_, and with her +_idée fixé_ of his hopeless passion for Kate--she had connected those +verses in some way with that imaginary romance. However, she listened +with great interest to his low toned reading: + + In gleam of pale, translucent amber woke + The perfect August day, + Through rose-flushed bars of pearl and opal broke + The sunlight's golden way. + + Serenely the placid river seemed to flow + In tide of amethyst, + Save where it rippled o'er the sands below, + And granite boulders kissed; + + The heavy woodland masses hung unstirred + In languorous slumber deep, + While, from their green recesses, one small bird + Piped to her brood--asleep. + + The clustering lichens wore a tenderer tint, + The rocks a warmer glow; + The emerald dewdrops, in the sunbeam's glint, + Gemmed the rich moss below. + + Our fairy shallop idly stranded lay, + Half mirrored in the stream; + Wild roses drooped above the tiny bay, + Ethereal as a dream. + + You sat upon your rock, a woodland queen, + As on a granite throne; + All that still world of loveliness serene + Held but us twain alone. + + Nay! But there seemed another presence there + Beneath, around, above; + It breathed a poem through the crystal air, + Its name was _Love_!" + +May listened to the poem with a rather bewildered feeling: it was so +different from what she had expected. But gradually the images +suggested by it took possession of her mind to the exclusion of other +thoughts, and she scarcely noticed the closing lines, in the pleasure +which it gave her to have that lovely morning so vividly recalled. But +Hugh seemed to look for more than the pleasure she frankly expressed. +He was silent for a few moments, then said in a very low tone, looking +straight into her eyes, "I think that what brought the poem was my +finding out, then, _that I loved you_!" + +May was utterly taken by surprise, which indeed, overpowered every +other feeling. She had not a word to say. Hugh saw how unprepared she +had been for his avowal. Presently she managed to stammer out, "I +thought it was--Kate!" + +"I _know_ you did, at first," he replied, "but I thought you must have +known better, _now_! I haven't acted very much like a jealous lover, +have I, since Mr. Winthrop appeared on the scene? And any one could +see how that was going to turn out. No, May, I'm sure I've tried to +make you understand!" + +But May still sat silent, in a sort of dazed bewilderment. At last, +the ludicrous aspect of the mistake--all her sincere, misplaced +sympathy with Hugh in troubles which were entirely of her own +imagining, struck her so vividly that she laughed outright, though her +laugh had a rather hysterical note in it, and she felt that it was +most inappropriate to so serious a crisis. But the personal aspect of +the affair, she could not yet at all take in. Hugh laughed a little, +too, reading her thoughts; but presently he said gravely enough: +"Well, May, now that the mistake is cleared up, you're not going to +say you can't care for me! Why should we not travel down the river of +life together? I mean down the river to the sea,"--he added pleadingly. + +"Oh, Mr. Macnab," she replied, at last, "it is so strange to me! I +don't seem able to realize it. And I have never thought of you in that +way." + +"Well, dear," he said, gently, "I won't hurry you; but you and I are +very good friends, I think, which is an excellent beginning, and I +don't see why we couldn't be something _more_. But take plenty of time +to find out! I'll promise to be patient meantime. Only, as I am going +away to-morrow for a few days, I wanted to try my fate, at least, and +make sure that you knew my feelings before I left--for one never knows +_what_ may turn up." + +May's face changed when he spoke of the approaching parting, which was +only, of course, the prelude to one of much longer duration, since she +herself must return home as soon as the party reached Toronto, on its +homeward journey. And the thought gave her a sharp pang which she +could not ignore. Still, she was not sorry to hear the voices of the +others not far off, and to know that this rather embarrassing +_tête-à-tête_ was nearly over. Hugh detained her a moment, however. + +"I won't press you any farther now," he said; "only promise me that +you will think about it while I am gone, and perhaps you may be able +to answer me as I wish, when I come back." + +May readily promised this,--glad to have a little time to grow familiar +with an idea which had seemed so strange to her at first. The rest of +the walk was very quiet,--Hugh talking about indifferent things, while +she found it difficult to keep up conversation at all. + +Next morning it was decided that, as it was too fine a morning to +lose, where there was so much to see, the whole party should drive +down to the Falls of the Fraser, taking luncheon with them, that so +they might not have to hurry back until the time when the three young +men should have to tear themselves away from the society which, to say +the truth, they were all reluctant to leave,--in order to take the +steamer down again to Tadousac for the projected canoe trip on the +upper Saguenay, and so on to the wilds about Lake St. John. As they +were to go in _calèches_, however, Mrs. Sandford begged off, and +Nellie Armstrong was packed into a _calèche_ with her brother and +Flora Macnab--Jack, who was familiar with the vehicle, having +volunteered to act as charioteer. + +It was a charming drive on such a charming day,--the light +cloud-shadows chasing each other over the hills, and causing +bewitching effects of light and shade on the distant hills. Their +course lay along the Murray River for some distance, past the bridge +and village, then back among the hills beyond, up and down short +hills, so abrupt that the descent was often like to jerk the riders +off the little high seats; but Jack assured them all, in his cheery +voice, that the _calèche_ was at once the easiest and the safest +vehicle for these hills, and that every French-Canadian pony knew just +how to behave on such roads, if only his driver gave him fair play. +And the French drivers of the other _calèches_ smiled and declared +that it was "shoost as de shentleman said." Kate and Mr. Winthrop had +of course paired off, so that Hugh and May went together, as a matter +of course; but Hugh abstained from the slightest reference of any kind +to their conversation of the previous evening, for which May felt duly +grateful; for as yet his declaration seemed to her an unreal dream, +and she did not like to think about it, or what seemed to her, a +mortifying mistake. + +As they left the road altogether, and struck across fields with the +utmost recklessness about taking down fences, and driving over +trackless meadows, they could hear the distant murmur of a waterfall, +and soon they came in sight of a small river winding its way to the +gorge, into which it speedily disappeared. Then they dismounted from +their _calèches_, and sought a point of view from which they could +best see this lovely waterfall, which rushes down, not in one sheer +descent, but in several leaps, over the brown rocks; so that they +could stand, as it were, part of the way down, looking up to the +topmost fall, and also far down below them, where, at the foot of it, +there lay a pretty green, level point, on which cows were browsing +under some noble trees--as charming a pastoral picture as could be +found. + +Flora took out her sketch-book and color-box, and set to work +diligently to make a few rough sketches from the most favorable +points, Jack willingly offering his services in carrying her +appliances from place to place, and watching the progress of the +sketches with an intensity of interest which was slightly embarrassing +to the artist and somewhat amusing to Nellie, who declared, to Jack's +indignation, that she had never known before that he took so much +interest in artistic pursuits. Jack, however, was a most amiable +critic, ready to admire generously all the work of Flora's nimble +fingers, each sketch being, in his opinion, "awfully pretty;--you'd +know it anywhere!" Meantime the rest of the party strolled about, +finding out new points of view, and exploring pretty nooks, till it +was time to set out the simple luncheon of sandwiches, cold fowl, +coffee, and blueberry pie, after the due discussion of which it was +necessary to set out at once on the return trip--in the order in which +they had come. + +When they drove up to the hotel they were met by the intelligence that +the Quebec steamer was in sight, and that they must drive down to the +pier at once. The young men's valises were quickly thrown into the +_calèches_, and they all drove to the pier, to find the big white +steamboat just approaching the point. There was a hurried and, truth +to tell, a reluctant leave-taking on the part of the intending +_voyageurs_, who declared that they would be sure to be back in about +a week; and then the steamer gave her parting whistle and they were +off, their waving hats and handkerchiefs being soon lost in the +distance. Hugh had just said to May, in a low tone, at +parting,--keeping her hand for a few seconds closely pressed in his +own, "Don't forget your promise--or me--while I am gone," and May had +replied only by a smile, from which, perhaps, tears were not very far +away. At all events, there was a strange, inexplicable _ache_ in her +heart, as the four girls walked slowly back to the hotel, a trifle +less merrily than was their wont. + +It was curious indeed, what a blank there seemed to be, now that three +out of their number were gone, though no one except Mrs. Sandford and +Nellie were willing to admit it in words. As for May, she could not +help feeling that she missed Hugh, in particular, at every turn! His +low-toned voice and slightly Celtic accentuation seemed to be +perpetually in her ear, and every particular charm of the landscape +seemed to recall his always quick appreciation of such beauty. Some +occasion on which she wanted to appeal to him for sympathy or +appreciation was constantly turning up; and she found herself +perpetually laying up a stock of things about which she wanted to talk +to him, when he should return. She had no idea how much he had +gradually become a part of her life, and how important his ever-ready +sympathy had come to be, until the lack of that sympathy made itself +so strongly felt. If she had not been so simply and dreamily romantic, +so free from egoistic self-consciousness, she would never have made +the mistake she had done, and even now there was a constant struggle +between the instincts of her heart and the power of the firmly-rooted +impression. Kate, who had divined the real state of the case, but had +been afraid to enlighten her cousin too suddenly, now ventured on a +little good-humored chaffing; but with great and praiseworthy caution. +Seeing that May sensitively shrank from the subject, she soon +desisted. + +Whatever Kate's own sense of loss may have been in the absence of Mr. +Winthrop, she was not the sort of girl to let the absence of the three +young men take away all the zest of the pleasure of Murray Bay. She +constituted herself the leader of the little party, and the four girls +and Mrs. Sandford had what they all voted as a "very quiet, pleasant +time," in which they took things easily and enjoyed themselves just as +the fancy seized them. They strolled about the beach in the sunny +mornings, while Flora sketched the vista of distant hills, and a +gentle inquisitive French Canadian would come up to look respectfully +at the sketch of "Mademoiselle," and to express his admiration of "the +_facilité_" with which she accomplished the task of coloring, +evidently an inscrutable mystery to him, though he declared that he +could draw "in _crayons_." Kate and Flora occasionally tried a dip +into the cold waters of the bay, but their experience was not +sufficiently encouraging to tempt the other two, and Mrs. Sandford +shook her head, and declared that she considered it unsafe for any of +them. But they enjoyed watching the sturdy children who daily rushed +in for a few moments and then came out with skins as red as lobsters, +laughing, and rosy, and ready for any number of races on the beach +afterwards. They went to inspect the neighboring "Fresh Air" +establishment, originated by a benevolent lady of Montreal, and +maintained by private beneficence, where a number of convalescents, +old and young, received without cost, the benefit of the pure bracing +air and lovely scenery, a true and refreshing instance of Christian +charity. They explored over and over again, the road leading past the +long strips of farm and pasture land which ran up the hill that +overhung it, and the little French farmhouses, with the curious clay +ovens which stood near them, but quite detached, and sometimes on the +other side of the road, and which Flora was so delighted to see and +sketch; and the long straggling French village, and the little chapel +on the hill, which was so disappointing on a near acquaintance. They +scraped acquaintance with the simple French folk and talked to the +polite village children whom they met, so respectful in their address, +and whom Flora delighted by including some of them in a sketch from +the bridge. They wandered down the road to the pier, between the rows +of summer cottages, and roamed about the pretty grounds of the "Lorne +House," where some old friends of Kate's were staying, and lounged +away an hour or so, inspecting the little Indian huts and booths at +the pier, and the various wares therein displayed, and the dark +impassive faces of the Indian vendors, and purchased all manner of +little souvenirs, toy canoes, snowshoes, toboggans, birch-bark napkin +rings and other pretty trifles, as presents for the people at home; +while Flora sketched the curiously shaped rock which has so often +stood for its picture. Or they strolled up the hillside among the +fragrant spruce and cedar, and enjoyed the charming views from thence +of Cap-à-l'Aigle and the river and bay, and examined the primitive +little wooden aqueducts that led the water from springs on the hill, +to the houses down below. Everything was as quaint and primitive as +Normandy, Flora declared, except only the manners and dress of the +summer visitors! + +And sometimes they went on little canoe parties with those friends of +Kate's at the "Lorne House,"--up the winding Murray River under the +bridge, from which Flora took a pretty sketch, and on for some +distance farther, picking their way among the brown shallows and +stones which narrowed the navigable water of the stream. Or they would +drive up the solitary Quebec road, among its aromatic pine woods, and +past its little clearings, with their patches of tobacco and maize and +little log cabins, and the peculiar exhilarating aroma of the mountain +air;--or by another pretty road to the picturesque cascade of "Les +Trous" beside which they took their luncheon, and spent the best part +of an afternoon. And so the days went quickly by--happily enough, and +on Saturday, May found herself realizing that the travellers would +very soon be back. Half a dozen other expeditions were still reserved +for the last few days, after the party should be reunited, before they +should leave for the West. But these plans, like many other human +projects, were not destined to be realized. For Monday morning brought +May a letter, containing an unexpected summons to return home at once, +as her father and mother were called away by the illness of a +relative, and her presence as eldest daughter was needed at home. +Dearly as May loved her home and ready as she was to comply with and +obey the summons, this hastening of her departure from Murray Bay was +a great disappointment, in more ways than one. There was, however, no +boat before Tuesday night, and as Mrs. Sandford had begun to feel +anxious herself to return home, and would not hear of letting May go +back alone, it was finally decided in a cabinet council, that they +should arrange to take their departure by the Tuesday's boat, and +that, in case the young men had not returned by that time, they could +follow and overtake them somewhere on the way. May's heart had sunk +more than she could have believed, when she contemplated the +possibility that Hugh might return and find her gone! She had not in +the least made up her mind as to what she should say to him, when he +did return, and, even if she herself cared ever so much, she could not +see how she could possibly be ever separated from her home, nor +indeed, could she as yet bear to think of that aspect of the affair. +But she could not help feeling it no small trial to return without +seeing him again; apart from the disappointment that she knew it would +be to him should he return only after her departure. And as Mrs. +Sandford was always reminding them, so many things might happen to +detain the _voyageurs_, for they intended to find their way back +somehow, by land, through the wilds that lay between Murray Bay and +Lake St. John. + +That evening she could not settle down with the others on the veranda, +but wandered down alone to the beach and took her seat on one of their +favorite rocks. It had been a day of thunder showers with lovely +bursts of sunshine between, and some of the glorious rainbows so +frequent there; and now, after a golden sunset, breaking through +purple clouds, the bright tints were fading out of the sky and from +the great gray stretch of water, on whose breast some stately ships +were gradually disappearing from view. The scene vividly recalled to +her mind Hugh's parable of human life, and his unexpected application +of it. A sense of the evanescence of all beautiful things and all +human enjoyments had taken hold of her, and the tears welled up in her +soft gray eyes as she said in her heart a mute farewell to the lovely +scene around her, which had so fascinated her, and her mind went +wistfully back over all the fair scenes she had beheld since the day +on which she had set out, full of happy anticipation. How much better +it had all been than even her brightest anticipations! A vesper +sparrow--our Canadian nightingale--was carolling sweetly close at hand, +and its song seemed to bring back to her the sweet refrain of the old +song:-- + + "Sweet the lev'rock's note, an' lang,-- + Wildly liltin' doun the glen;-- + But, to me, he sings ae sang + Will ye no come back again?" + +The last line seemed to haunt her with an indescribable pathetic +intonation. She rose to go back in order to fight off thoughts that +were too much for her when lo! a familiar step sounded close to her, +and a well-known voice was in her ear, with a low-toned, "Well, May?" + +And May, startled and overjoyed, could scarcely exclaim,--"Oh, Hugh! is +it really you?" and then, for all answer to his question, she burst +into tears. Perhaps this was almost answer enough, but it encouraged +Hugh to go on, and to secure a still better and more satisfying one, +before they returned together to join the rest, and to exchange quiet +congratulations and a little teasing with Kate, whose engagement to +Mr. Winthrop was now definitely admitted. Jack Armstrong looked very +wistful and rather envious over the two engaged couples, but the merry +Flora is inscrutable, and whether his warm admiration will ever be +returned is still a matter of conjecture to both Kate and May. + +The three _voyageurs_ had many adventures to relate and much to say +about the wild beauty of the upper Saguenay, its _portages_, +waterfalls, tributary streams, and especially about the solitary +beauty of the lonely Lake St. John. Hugh declared that he would not +have missed it on any account, and _that_, as he remarked, _sotto +voce_, to May, was, in the circumstances, saying a good deal. Mr. +Winthrop was to write a description of it for an American periodical, +and Jack Armstrong declared it would give enough to talk about, and +excite other fellows with envy, for the next year, at all events. + +And the last day at Murray Bay was, after all, happier than May in her +lonely reverie of the preceding evening had thought possible. They +visited several of their favorite haunts during the morning, and it +was wonderful how much Hugh and May had to say to each other,--said +Kate, mischievously, careless of the retort that "People who lived in +glass houses needn't throw stones." In the afternoon they took a long +drive along the Cap-à-l'Aigle heights, watching another gorgeous +sunset bathe the hills and river in its exquisite dyes. And as these +once more faded into the greyness of twilight, and the stars gleamed +out, and the white sails of a large vessel that had caught the last +glow of day became dimly spectral in the distance, Hugh whispered to +May, as they turned downwards, and away from the beautiful scene they +had been contemplating: + +"And now, dearest, what can we desire better, than the hope of the +long voyage together down the great river to the silent sea?" + +THE END. + +Footnote 1: The Mamelons--rounded bluffs. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Down the River to the Sea, by Agnes Maule Machar + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOWN THE RIVER TO THE SEA *** + +***** This file should be named 39924-8.txt or 39924-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/9/2/39924/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This +book was created from images of public domain material +made available by the University of Toronto Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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