Roughing it in the Bush, Or, Life in Canada, Part 1R. Bentley, 1852 - Canada |
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acres asked baby beautiful better Betty boat borrow bread Brian brought called Canadian captain child cholera cold creature cried dark dear door emigration to Canada eyes face farm father fear feeling fellow fire forest gave girl give Grosse Isle guess hand hard alternative head heart hope Horsley Hill husband Joe H John labour lady Lake Ontario land land of Goshen laugh leave live look manner maple sugar milk mind Monaghan Montreal Moodie morning neighbours never night o'er old country old woman Pastor's Fireside poor possessed Quebec returned rude scene servant settlers shore Shure smile soul South Wales strange strangers SUSANNA MOODIE tarnation tavern tears tell thee thought told Tom Wilson took tree turned Uncle Joe vessel wife wild Wilson woods Yankee young
Popular passages
Page 36 - Te Deum. This service was soon after performed with still greater solemnity in the cathedral of St. Stephen ; the king joined with his face to the ground. It was there that the priest used the inspired words — ' There was a man sent from heaven, and his name was John.
Page 214 - I found that this insolence was more generally practised by the low, uneducated emigrants from Britain, who better understood your claims to their civility, than by the natives themselves. Then I discovered the secret. The unnatural restraint which society imposes upon these people at home forces them to treat their more fortunate brethren with a servile deference which is repugnant to their feelings, and is thrust upon them by the dependent circumstances in which they are placed. This homage to...
Page 122 - We were all sadly disappointed. The others submitted to my failure good-naturedly, and made it the subject of many droll, but not unkindly, witticisms. For myself, I could have borne the severest infliction from the pen of the most formidable critic with more fortitude than I bore the cutting up of my first loaf of bread. After breakfast, Moodie and Wilson rode into .the town ; and when they returned at night brought several long letters for me. Ah ! those first kind letters from home ! Never shall...
Page 13 - It was a scene over which the spirit of peace might brood in silent adoration; but how spoiled by the discordant yells of the filthy beings who were sullying the purity of the air and water with contaminating sights and sounds! We were now joined by the sergeant, who very kindly brought us his capful of ripe plums and hazelnuts, the growth of the island: a joyful present, but marred by a note from Captain , who had found that he had been mistaken in his supposed knowledge of us, and politely...
Page xiii - Their labour is wealth, not exhaustion; its produce independence and content, not home-sickness and despair. What the Backwoods of Canada are to the industrious and ever-to-be-honoured sons of honest poverty, and what they are to the refined and accomplished gentleman, these simple sketches will endeavour to portray. They are drawn principally from my own experience, during a sojourn of nineteen years in the colony. In order to diversify my subject, and make it as amusing as possible, I have between...
Page 11 - The confusion of Babel was among them. All talkers and no hearers — each shouting and yelling in his or her uncouth dialect, and all accompanying their vociferations with violent and extraordinary gestures, quite incomprehensible to the uninitiated. We were literally stunned by the strife of tongues. I shrank, with feelings almost akin to fear, from the hard-featured, sunburnt women as they elbowed rudely past me.
Page 92 - Excuse me but you have such an odd way of borrowing that I cannot help it. This bottle, it seems, was brought over for your own convenience, not for mine. I am sorry to disappoint you, but I have no whiskey." "I guess spirits will do as well; I know there is some in that keg, for I smells it." "It contains rum for the workmen.
Page 213 - I am now speaking, the titles of " sir" or " madam " were very rarely applied by inferiors. They entered your house without knocking; and while boasting of their freedom, violated one of its dearest laws, which considers even the cottage of the poorest labourer his castle, and his privacy sacred. " Is your man to hum?" — "Is the woman within?" were the general inquiries made to me by such guests, while my bare-legged, ragged Irish servants were always spoken to, as " sir" and " mem," as if to make...
Page 149 - I think my powers of endurance have been tried to the uttermost since my sojourn in this country — the rigour of the climate subdued my proud, independent English spirit, and I actually shamed my womanhood and cried with the cold.
Page 11 - Those who did not possess washing-tubs, pails, or iron pots, or could not obtain access to a hole in the rocks, were running to and fro, screaming and scolding in no measured terms. The confusion of Babel was among them. All talkers and no hearers — each shouting and yelling in his or her uncouth dialect, and all accompanying their vociferations with violent and extraordinary gestures, quite incomprehensible to the uninitiated.