You come to see us and we come to see you." And he
responded graciously, but I heard after
That he was a French-Canadian
and R. C., and they are not fond of England, but cling very much to
French ways and customs and are entirely in the hands of their priests.
They are a quiet, moral people, marry very young and have very large
families. It is quite common to hare ten children, and they live at what
we should call a starvation rate; yet they will not go to service,
contribute hardly anything to the revenue, and so the English, who are
the only active and money-making section of the population, are heavily
taxed; of course _I_ speak of the poor and working classes. The
province of Quebec is, therefore, not a favourite one with enterprising
spirits from our shores or from other parts of Canada.
After these visitors were gone, Mr. Price drove me and E - -, and the
rest walked, to the "Natural Steps." It was a beautiful spot, the clear
torrent of the river Montmerenci falling in cascades over a curious
formation of layers of stone and steps on either side, with the bright
green _arbor vitae_, which they call cedar, growing above and in
every niche it can find a bit of soil; wild raspberries and strawberries
too, which, alas, were over. We met several of our fellow-passengers,
and we greet one another like long-lost friends. On our return we found
Mrs. Price had cuddled her ailing boy to sleep and could give us some
attention. We had delicious tea and cake (our fourth meal). Mr. Price
comes from Boss, in Herefordshire, and has been twelve years away from
it. He is very nice and intelligent. Her brother owns the Falls and
lives in a pretty cottage near. Edison, the electric light inventor, has
bought the power of these falls for electric purposes. John was thinking
all the time how useful they might be made. We returned to the hotel in
time for John and E - - to dress for the Governor-General's dinner party.
We took a little baggage and Gibson and came here - a dark drive, and we
were shaken to bits in what is justly called a _rockaway_ carriage.
We were met at the door by Mr. Dobell, much to our surprise, for he and
his family had returned unexpectedly from camping out, as it proved a
failure, and rushed home to receive us. She is handsome, and quite
English in tone and manner, daughter of the Minister of the Interior,
Sir David Macpherson. Mr. Dobell is very bright and pleasant-looking,
the house pretty and comfortable, with large conservatory. We Had a
tremendous supper (our fifth meal) and so I could hardly do justice to
it. I went to bed very tired after this hard day's work and awoke this
morning to find it pouring, so I have been taking advantage of the quiet
to write to you.
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