Stones which choked its passage, were mournful
types of my own mental struggles against the destiny which hemmed me
in. Through the day the stream still moaned and travelled on, - but,
engaged in my novel and distasteful occupations, I heard it not;
but whenever my winged thoughts flew homeward, then the voice of
the brook spoke deeply and sadly to my heart, and my tears flowed
unchecked to its plaintive and harmonious music.
In a few hours I had my new abode more comfortably arranged than
the old, although its dimensions were much smaller. The location
was beautiful, and I was greatly consoled by this circumstance.
The aspect of Nature ever did, and I hope ever will continue -
"To shoot marvellous strength into my heart."
As long as we remain true to the Divine Mother, so long will she
remain faithful to her suffering children.
At that period my love for Canada was a feeling very nearly allied
to that which the condemned criminal entertains for his cell - his
only hope of escape being through the portals of the grave.
The fall rains had commenced. In a few days the cold wintry showers
swept all the gorgeous crimson from the trees; and a bleak and
desolate waste presented itself to the shuddering spectator. But, in
spite of wind and rain, my little tenement was never free from the
intrusion of Uncle Joe's wife and children. Their house stood about
a stone's-throw from the hut we occupied, in the same meadow, and
they seemed to look upon it still as their own, although we had
literally paid for it twice over. Fine strapping girls they were,
from five years old to fourteen, but rude and unnurtured as so many
bears. They would come in without the least ceremony, and, young as
they were, ask me a thousand impertinent questions; and when I
civilly requested them to leave the room, they would range
themselves upon the door-step, watching my motions, with their
black eyes gleaming upon me through their tangled, uncombed locks.
Their company was a great annoyance, for it obliged me to put a
painful restraint upon the thoughtfulness in which it was so
delightful to me to indulge. Their visits were not visits of love,
but of mere idle curiosity, not unmingled with malicious pleasure
at my awkward attempts at Canadian house-wifieries.
The simplicity, the fond, confiding faith of childhood is unknown
in Canada. There are no children here. The boy is a miniature
man - knowing, keen, and wide awake; as able to drive a bargain
and take an advantage of his juvenile companion as the grown-up,
world-hardened man. The girl, a gossipping flirt, full of vanity
and affectation, with a premature love of finery, and an acute
perception of the advantages to be derived from wealth, and from
keeping up a certain appearance in the world.
