Richard Barnum - "Mappo, the Merry Monkey"

Arthur M. Winfield - "The Rover Boys In The Mountains"

George Barr McCutcheon - "Nedra"

Various - "Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, September 5, 1891"

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The Backwoods of Canada written by Catharine Parr Traill

C >> Catharine Parr Traill >> The Backwoods of Canada




The Yankees use a fermentation of salt, flour, and warm water or milk;
but though the _salt-rising_ makes beautiful bread to look at, being far
whiter and firmer than the hop-yeast bread, there is a peculiar flavour
imparted to the flour that does not please every one's taste, and it is
very difficult to get your salt-rising to work in very cold weather.

And now, having digressed while I gave you my recipes, I shall step back
to my party within the stoup, which, I can assure you, was very
pleasant, and most cordially disposed to enjoy the meeting. We had books
and drawings, and good store of pretty Indian toys, the collection of
many long voyages to distant shores, to look at and admire. Soon after
sun-set we walked down through the woods to the landing at the lake
shore, where we found our bark canoe ready to convey us home.

During our voyage, just at the head of the rapids, our attention was
drawn to some small object in the water, moving very swiftly along;
there were various opinions as to the swimmer, some thinking it to be a
water-snake, others a squirrel, or a musk-rat; a few swift strokes of
the paddles brought us up so as to intercept the passage of the little
voyager; it proved to be a fine red squirrel, bound on a voyage of
discovery from a neighbouring island. The little animal, with a courage
and address that astonished his pursuers, instead of seeking safety in a
different direction, sprung lightly on the point of the uplifted paddle,
and from thence with a bound to the head of my astonished baby, and
having gained my shoulder, leaped again into the water, and made direct
for the shore, never having deviated a single point from the line he was
swimming in when he first came in sight of our canoe. I was surprised
and amused by the agility and courage displayed by this innocent
creature; I could hardly have given credence to the circumstance, had I
not been an eye-witness of its conduct, and moreover been wetted
plentifully on my shoulder by the sprinkling of water from his coat.

Perhaps you may think my squirrel anecdote incredible; but I can vouch
for the truth of it on my own personal experience, as I not only saw but
also felt it: the black squirrels are most lovely and elegant animals,
considerably larger than the red, the grey, and the striped: the latter
are called by the Indians "chit-munks."

We were robbed greatly by these little depredators last summer; the red
squirrels used to carry off great quantities of our Indian corn not only
from the stalks, while the crop was ripening, but they even came into
the house through some chinks in the log-walls, and carried off vast
quantities of the grain, stripping it very adroitly from the cob, and
conveying the grain away to their storehouses in some hollow 1og or
subterranean granary.

These little animals are very fond of the seeds of the pumpkins, and you
will see the soft creatures whisking about among the cattle, carrying
away the seeds as they are scattered by the beasts in breaking the
pumpkins: they also delight in the seeds of the sunflowers, which grow
to a gigantic height in our gardens and clearings. The fowls are
remarkably fond of the sunflower-seeds, and I saved the plants with the
intention of laying up a good store of winter food for my poor chicks.
One day I went to cut the ripe heads, the largest of which was the size
of a large dessert-plate, but found two wicked red squirrels busily
employed gathering in the seeds, not for me, be sure, but themselves.
Not contented with picking out the seeds, these little thieves
dexterously sawed through the stalks, and conveyed away whole heads at
once: so bold were they that they would not desist when I approached
till they had secured their object, and, encumbered with a load twice
the weight of their own agile bodies, ran with a swiftness along the
rails, and over root, stump, and log, till they eluded my pursuit.

[Illustration: Red-squirrel]

Great was the indignation expressed by this thrifty little pair on
returning again for another load to find the plant divested of the
heads. I had cut what remained and put them in a basket in the sun, on a
small block in the garden, close to the open glass-door, on the steps of
which I was sitting shelling some seed-beans, when the squirrels drew my
attention to them by their sharp scolding notes, elevating their fine
feathery tails and expressing the most lively indignation at the
invasion: they were not long before they discovered the Indian basket
with the ravished treasure; a few rapid movements brought the little
pair to the rails within a few paces of me and the sunflower-heads;
here, then, they paused, and sitting up looked in my face with the most
imploring gestures. I was too much amused by their perplexity to help
them, but turning away my head to speak to the child, they darted
forward, and in another minute had taken possession of one of the
largest of the heads, which they conveyed away, first one carrying it a
few yards, then the other, it being too bulky for one alone to carry it
far at a time. In short, I was so well amused by watching their
manoeuvres that I suffered them to rob me of all my store. I saw a
little family of tiny squirrels at play in the spring on the top of a
hollow log, and really I think they were, without exception, the
liveliest, most graceful creatures I ever looked upon.

The flying squirrel is a native of our woods, and exceeds in beauty, to
my mind, any of the tribe. Its colour is the softest, most delicate tint
of grey; the fur thick and short, and as silken as velvet; the eyes like
all the squirrel kind, are large, full, and soft the whiskers and long
hair about the nose black; the membrane that assists this little animal
in its flight is white and delicately soft in texture, like the fur of
the chinchilla; it forms a ridge of fur between the fore and hind legs;
the tail is like an elegant broad grey feather. I was agreeably
surprised by the appearance of this exquisite little creature; the
pictures I had seen giving it a most inelegant and _batlike_ look,
almost disgusting. The young ones are easily tamed, and are very playful
and affectionate when under confinement.

[Illustration: Flying Squirrel]

How my little friend Emily would delight in such a pet! Tell her if ever
I should return to dear old England, I will try to procure one for her;
but at present she must be contented with the stuffed specimens of the
black, red, and striped squirrels which I enclose in my parcel. I wish I
could offer you any present more valuable, but our arts and manufactures
being entirely British, with the exception of the Indians' toys, I
should find it a difficult matter to send you any thing worth your
attention; therefore I am obliged to have recourse to the natural
productions of our woods as tokens of remembrance to our friends _at
home_, for it is ever thus we speak of the land of our birth.

You wish to know if I am happy and contented in my situation, or if my
heart pines after my native land. I will answer you candidly, and say
that, as far as regards matters of taste, early association, and all
those holy ties of kindred, and old affections that make "home" in all
countries, and among all nations in the world, a hallowed spot, I must
ever give the preference to Britain.

On the other hand, a sense of the duties I have chosen, and a feeling of
conformity to one's situation, lessen the regret I might be inclined to
indulge in. Besides, there are new and delightful ties that bind me to
Canada: I have enjoyed much domestic happiness since I came hither;--and
is it not the birthplace of my dear child? Have I not here first tasted
the rapturous delight arising from maternal feelings? When my eye rests
on my smiling darling, or I feel his warm breath upon my cheek, I would
not exchange the joy that fills my breast for any pleasure the world
could offer me. "But this feeling is not confined to the solitude of
your Canadian forests, my dear friend," you will say. I know it; but
here there is nothing to interfere with your little nursling. You are
not tempted by the pleasures of a gay world to forget your duties as a
mother; there is nothing to supplant him in your heart; his presence
endears every place; and you learn to love the spot that gave him birth,
and to think with complacency upon the country, because it is _his_
country; and in looking forward to his future welfare you naturally
become doubly interested in the place that is one day to be his.

Perhaps I rather estimate the country by my own feelings; and when I
find, by impartial survey of my present life, that I am to the full as
happy, if not really happier, than I was in the old country, I cannot
but value it.

Possibly, if I were to enter into a detail of the advantages I possess,
they would appear of a very negative character in the eyes of persons
revelling in all the splendour and luxury that wealth could procure, in
a country in which nature and art are so eminently favourable towards
what is usually termed the pleasures of life; but I never was a votary
at the shrine of luxury or fashion. A round of company, a routine of
pleasure, were to me sources of weariness, if not of disgust. "There's
nothing in all this to satisfy the heart," says Schiller; and I admit
the force of the sentiment.

I was too much inclined to spurn with impatience the fetters that
etiquette and fashion are wont to impose on society, till they rob its
followers of all freedom and independence of will; and they soon are
obliged to live for a world that in secret they despise and loathe, for
a world, too, that usually regards them with contempt, because they dare
not act with an independence, which would be crushed directly it was
displayed.

And I must freely confess to you that I do prize and enjoy my present
liberty in this country exceedingly: in this we possess an advantage
over you, and over those that inhabit the towns and villages in _this_
country, where I see a ridiculous attempt to keep up an appearance that
is quite foreign to the situation of those that practise it. Few, very
few, are the emigrants that come to the colonies, unless it is with the
view of realising an independence for themselves or their children.
Those that could afford to live in ease at home, believe me, would never
expose themselves to the privations and disagreeable consequences of a
settler's life in Canada: therefore, this is the natural inference we
draw, that the emigrant has come hither under the desire and natural
hope of bettering his condition, and benefiting a family that he has not
the means of settling in life in the home country. It is foolish, then,
to launch out in a style of life that every one knows cannot be
maintained; rather ought such persons to rejoice in the consciousness
that they can, if they please, live according to their circumstances,
without being the less regarded for the practice of prudence, economy,
and industry.

Now, we _bush-settlers_ are more independent: we do what we like; we
dress as we find most suitable and most convenient; we are totally
without the fear of any Mr. or Mrs. Grundy; and having shaken off the
trammels of Grundyism, we laugh at the absurdity of those who
voluntarily forge afresh and hug their chains.

If our friends come to visit us unexpectedly we make them welcome to our
humble homes, and give them the best we have; but if our fare be
indifferent, we offer it with good will, and no apologies are made or
expected: they would be out of place; as every one is aware of the
disadvantages of a new settlement; and any excuses for want of variety,
or the delicacies of the table, would be considered rather in the light
of a tacit reproof to your guest for having unseasonably put your
hospitality to the test.

Our society is mostly military or naval; so that we meet on equal
grounds, and are, of course, well acquainted with the rules of good
breeding and polite life; too much so to allow any deviation from those
laws that good taste, good sense, and good feeling have established
among persons of our class.

Yet here it is considered by no means derogatory to the wife of an
officer or gentleman to assist in the work of the house, or to perform
its entire duties if occasion requires it; to understand the mystery of
soap, candle, and sugar-making; to make bread, butter, and cheese, or
even to milk her own cows; to knit and spin, and prepare the wool for
the loom. In these matters we bush-ladies have a wholesome disregard of
what Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so thinks or says. We pride ourselves on
conforming to circumstances; and as a British officer must needs be a
gentleman and his wife a lady, perhaps we repose quietly on that
incontestable proof of our gentility, and can afford to be useful
without injuring it.

Our husbands adopt a similar line of conduct: the officer turns his
sword into a ploughshare, and his lance into a sickle; and if he be seen
ploughing among the stumps in his own field, or chopping trees on his
own land, no one thinks less of his dignity, or considers him less of a
gentleman, than when he appeared upon parade in all the pride of
military etiquette, with sash, sword and epaulette. Surely this is as it
should be in a country where independence is inseparable from industry;
and for this I prize it.

Among many advantages we in this township possess, it is certainly no
inconsiderable one that the lower or working class of settlers are well
disposed, and quite free from the annoying Yankee manners that
distinguish many of the earlier-settled townships. Our servants are as
respectful, or nearly so, as those at home; nor are they admitted to our
tables, or placed on an equality with us, excepting at "bees," and such
kinds of public meetings; when they usually conduct themselves with a
propriety that would afford an example to some that call themselves
gentlemen, viz., young men who voluntarily throw aside those restraints
that society expects from persons filling a respectable situation.

Intemperance is too prevailing a vice among all ranks of people in this
country; but I blush to say it belongs most decidedly to those that
consider themselves among the better class of emigrants. Let none such
complain of the airs of equality displayed towards them by the labouring
class, seeing that they degrade themselves below the honest, sober
settler, however poor. If the sons of gentlemen lower themselves, no
wonder if the sons of poor men endeavour to exalt themselves about him
in a country where they all meet on equal ground; and good conduct is
the distinguishing mark between the classes.

Some months ago, when visiting a friend in a distant part of the
country, I accompanied her to stay a few days in the house of a resident
clergyman, curate of a flourishing village in the township of ------. I
was struck by the primitive simplicity of the mansion and its
inhabitants. We were introduced into the little family sitting-room, the
floor of which was painted after the Yankee fashion; instead of being
carpeted, the walls were of unornamented deal, and the furniture of the
room of corresponding plainness. A large spinning-wheel, as big as a
cart-wheel, nearly occupied the centre of the room, at which a neatly-
dressed matron, of mild and lady-like appearance, was engaged spinning
yarn; her little daughters were knitting beside the fire, while their
father was engaged in the instruction of two of his sons; a third was
seated affectionately in a little straw chair between his feet, while a
fourth was plying his axe with nervous strokes in the court-yard,
casting from time to time wistful glances through the parlour-window at
the party within.

The dresses of the children were of a coarse sort of stuff, a mixture of
woollen and thread, the produce of the farm and their mother's
praiseworthy industry. The stockings, socks, muffatees, and warm
comforters were all of home manufacture. Both girls and boys wore
mocassins, of their own making: good sense, industry, and order presided
among the members of this little household.

Both girls and boys seemed to act upon the principle, that nothing is
disgraceful but that which is immoral and improper.

Hospitality without extravagance, kindness without insincerity of
speech, marked the manners of our worthy friends. Every thing in the
house was conducted with attention to prudence and comfort. The living
was but small (the income arising from it, I should have said), but
there was glebe land, and a small dwelling attached to it, and, by dint
of active exertion without-doors, and economy and good management
within, the family were maintained with respectability: in short, we
enjoyed during our sojourn many of the comforts of a cleared farm;
poultry of every kind, beef of their own killing, excellent mutton and
pork: we had a variety of preserves at our tea-table, with honey in the
comb, delicious butter, and good cheese, with divers sorts of cakes; a
kind of little pancake, made from the flour of buck-wheat, which are
made in a batter, and raised with barm, afterwards dropped into boiling
lard, and fried; also a preparation made of Indian corn-flour, called
supporne-cake, which is fried in slices, and eaten with maple-syrup,
were among the novelties of our breakfast-fare.

I was admiring a breed of very fine fowls in the poultry-yard one
morning, when my friend smiled and said, "I do not know if you will
think I came honestly by them."

"I am sure you did not acquire them by dishonest means," I replied,
laughing; "I will vouch for your principles in that respect."

"Well," replied my hostess, "they were neither given me, nor sold to me,
and I did not steal them. I found the original stock in the following
manner. An old black hen most unexpectedly made her appearance one
spring morning at our door; we hailed the stranger with surprise and
delight; for we could not muster a single domestic fowl among our little
colony at that time. We never rightly knew by what means the hen came
into our possession, but suppose some emigrant's family going up the
country must have lost or left her; she laid ten eggs, and hatched
chickens from them; from this little brood we raised a stock, and soon
supplied all our neighbours with fowls. We prize the breed, not only on
account of its fine size, but from the singular, and, as we thought,
providential, manner in which we obtained it."

I was much interested in the slight sketch given by the pastor one
evening, as we all assembled round the blazing log-fire, that was piled
half-way up the chimney, which reared its stone fabric so as to form
deep recesses at either side of its abutments.

Alluding to his first settlement, he observed, "it was a desolate
wilderness of gloomy and unbroken forest-trees when we first pitched our
tent here: at that time an axe had not been laid to the root of a tree,
nor a fire, save by the wandering Indians, kindled in these woods.

"I can now point out the identical spot where my wife and little ones
ate their first meal, and raised their feeble voices in thankfulness to
that Almighty and merciful Being who had preserved them through the
perils of the deep, and brought them in safety to this vast solitude.

"We were a little flock wandering in a great wilderness, under the
special protection of our mighty Shepherd.

"I have heard you, my dear young lady," he said, addressing the
companion of my visit, "talk of the hardships of the bush; but, let me
tell you, you know but little of its privations compared with those that
came hither some years ago.

"Ask these, my elder children and my wife, what were the hardships of a
bush-settler's life ten years ago, and they will tell you it was to
endure cold, hunger, and all its accompanying evils; to know at times
the want of every necessary article of food. As to the luxuries and
delicacies of life, we saw them not;--how could we? we were far removed
from the opportunity of obtaining these things: potatoes, pork, and
flour were our only stores, and often we failed of the two latter before
a fresh supply could be procured. We had not mills nearer than thirteen
miles, through roads marked only by blazed lines; nor were there at that
time any settlers near us. Now you see us in a cleared country,
surrounded with flourishing farms and rising villages; but at the time I
speak of it was not so: there were no stores of groceries or goods, no
butchers' shops, no cleared farms, dairies, nor orchards; for these
things we had to wait with patience till industry should raise them.

"Our fare knew no other variety than salt pork, potatoes, and sometimes
bread, for breakfast; pork and potatoes for dinner; pork and potatoes
for supper; with a porridge of Indian corn-flour for the children.
Sometimes we had the change of pork without potatoes, and potatoes
without pork; this was the first year's fare: by degrees we got a supply
of flour of our own growing, but bruised into a coarse meal with a hand-
mill; for we had no water or windmills within many miles of our colony,
and good bread was indeed a luxury we did not often have.

"We brought a cow with us, who gave us milk during the spring and
summer; but owing to the wild garlic (a wild herb, common to our woods),
on which she fed, her milk was scarcely palatable, and for want of
shelter and food, she died the following winter, greatly to our sorrow:
we learned experience in this and in many other matters at a hard cost;
but now we can profit by it."

"Did not the difficulties of your first settlement incline you to
despond, and regret that you had ever embarked on a life so different to
that you had been used to?" I asked.

"They might have had that effect had not a higher motive than mere
worldly advancement actuated me in leaving my native country to come
hither. Look you, it was thus: I had for many years been the pastor of a
small village in the mining districts of Cumberland. I was dear to the
hearts of my people, and they were my joy and crown in the Lord. A
number of my parishioners, pressed by poverty and the badness of the
times, resolved on emigrating to Canada.

"Urged by a natural and not unlawful desire of bettering their
condition, they determined on crossing the Atlantic, encouraged by the
offer of considerable grants of wild land, which at that period were
freely awarded by Government to persons desirous of becoming colonists.

"But previous to this undertaking, several of the most respectable came
to me, and stated their views and reasons for the momentous step they
were about to take; and at the same time besought me in the most moving
terms, in the name of the rest of their emigrant friends, to accompany
them into the Wilderness of the West, lest they should forget their Lord
and Saviour when abandoned to their own spiritual guidance.

"At first I was startled at the proposition; it seemed a wild and
visionary scheme: but by degrees I began to dwell with pleasure on the
subject. I had few ties beyond my native village; the income arising
from my curacy was too small to make it any great obstacle: like
Goldsmith's curate, I was.

'Passing rich with forty pounds a year.'

My heart yearned after my people; ten years I had been their guide and
adviser. I was the friend of the old, and the teacher of the young. My
Mary was chosen from among them; she had no foreign ties to make her
look back with regret upon the dwellers of the land in distant places;
her youth and maturity had been spent among these very people; so that
when I named to her the desire of my parishioners, and she also
perceived that my own wishes went with them, she stifled any regretful
feeling that might have arisen in her breast, and replied to me in the
words of Ruth:--

"'Thy country shall be my country; thy people shall be my people; where
thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me,
and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.'

"A tender and affectionate partner hast thou been to me, Mary," he
added, turning his eyes affectionately on the mild and dignified matron,
whose expressive countenance bespoke with more eloquence than words the
feelings passing in her mind. She replied not by words, but I saw the
big bright tears fall on the work she held in her hand. They sprang from
emotions too sacred to be profaned by intrusive eyes, and I hastily
averted my glance from her face; while the pastor proceeded to narrate
the particulars of their leaving England, their voyage, and finally,
their arrival in the land that had been granted to the little colony in
the then unbroken part of the township of ------.

"We had obtained a great deal of useful advice and assistance from the
Government agents previous to our coming up hither, and also hired some
choppers at high wages to initiate us in the art of felling, logging,
burning, and clearing the ground; as it was our main object to get in
crops of some kind, we turned to without any delay further than what was
necessary for providing a temporary shelter for our wives and children,
and prepared the ground for spring crops, helping each other as we could
with the loan of oxen and labour. And here I must observe, that I
experienced every attention and consideration from my friends. My means
were small, and my family all too young to render me any service;
however, I lacked not help, and had the satisfaction of seeing a little
spot cleared for the growth of potatoes and corn, which I could not have
effected by my single exertions.