Roughing It in the Bush

in early

n of a ste

Nature, fre

d brow and

she loved no

ow and name

l treatment of three or four old women, who all recommended different treatment and administered different nostrums. Seeing that the poor girl was dangerously ill, I took her mother aside, and begged her to lose no time in procuring proper medical advice.

light of fever painfully burned, and motioned me to come nea

on't believe me. I wish you would ta

o for you?-anything I can make for

very much to know." She grasped my hand tightly between her own. Her eyes look

involuntarily; "can you be

a futur

nsibility to God for the actions done in the flesh; its natural depravity and need of a Saviour; urging her, in

hese things were all new to her. She sat like one in a

ho never knew Him? How can

st pray

never said a prayer in my life. Mot

f about such things? Mrs. Moodie, I desire you not to put such thoughts into

rs. Moodie, tell me more about God and my sou

worse, seeing that the heathen worships in ignorance a false God, while this woman lived without acknowledging a God at all, and theref

ntrast to the rudeness and brutality of the rest of the

ully have sacrificed her own. But she never failed to make all the noise she could to disturb my reading and conversation with Phoebe. She could not be persuaded that her daughter wa

the south. I watched, from day to day, the snow disappearing from the earth, with indescribable pleasure, and at length it wholly

"Perhaps he never intends going at all. I will a

to light his pipe, and, with s

My missus expects to be confined the fore part of the

well, in keeping us ou

long as I choose to remain in it, and you may put up with it t

I consoled myself as well as I could by roaming about the fields and woods, and making acquaintance with every wild flower as it blossomed, and in writing long letters to home friends, in which I abused one of the finest cou

aters, how my

ison of thy bo

m poetic thou

murs in thy

features that co

l, the landscape'

argin of thy

orest girdlin

k pines sighing

ds, with rude h

ation unimp

arren chillnes

his gloomy picture! Let them wait a few years; the sun of hope will arise and beauti

e, I rightly concluded that another young one had been added to the tribe; and shortly after, Uncle Joe himself announced the important fact, by putting his jolly red face in at the door

that I paid very little heed to h

orn infant; and right joyfully I sent a Scotch girl (another Bell, whom I had hired in lieu of her I had lo

and let all the water into the house. "Oh, but if he comes here agin," he continued, grinding his teeth and doubling his fist, "I'll thrash him for it.

es, John; but never mind, it can't be helped, and we m

and in the evening they carried over the furn

nes of glass, until they actually admitted a glimpse of the clear air and the blue sky. Snow-white fringed curtains, and a bed, with furniture to correspond, a carpeted floor, a

deprived me of my breath as I entered the room. It was unlike anything I had ever smelt

is dreadful sm

arched the house from the loft to the cellar,

is impossible to remain here, or liv

shelf, and I told John to see if I was right. The lad mounted upon a chair, and pulled open a small

hn?" I cried fr

, and left the grizzled hair behind him. What a strong perfume it has!" he

ulder, and this wee bit baste in his hand. They were both laughing like sixty. 'Well, if this does not stink the Scotchman out of

ire to it, I placed it on the floor in the middle of the room, and closed all the doors for an hour, which greatly assisted in purifying the house from the skun

o room, feeling and admiring everything, and talking to it in her baby language. So fond was the dear child of flowers, that her father used to hold her up to the apple-trees, then rich in their full spring beauty, that she might kiss the blossoms. She would pat them with her soft white hands, murmuring like a be

weary lot. Was she not purely British? Did not her soft blue eyes, and sunny curls, and bright rosy cheeks for

tter. Moodie remembered that we had left a mouse-trap in the old house; he went and brought it over, baited it, and set it on the table near the bed. During the night no less than fourteen of the provoking vermin were captured; and for several succeeding nights the trap did equal execution. How Uncle Joe's family could have allowed such a nuisance to exist astonished me; to sleep with these creatures continual

arly after the showers, these tormenting insects annoyed us greatly. The farm, lying in a valley cut up with little streams in every direction, made us more

self, and we used to seat her in the middle of a fine bed, whilst we gathered farther on. Hearing her talking very lovingly to something in the grass, which she tried to clutch between her white hands, calling it "Pitty, pitty;" I ran to the spot, and found that it was a large gar

the warm air was filled with soft murmurs. Gorgeous butterflies floated about like winged flowers, and feelings allied to poetry and gladness once more pervaded my heart. In the evening we wandered through the woodland paths, beneath th

redit to my skill and care; and, when once the warm weather se

emed very reasonable; and had it been given disinterestedly, and had the persons recommended (a man and his wife) been worthy or honest people, we might have done v

had just left, and work the farm. Moodie was to find them the land, the use of his implements and cattle, and all the seed for the crops; and to share with them the returns. Be

we should have done pretty well; but the wife was a coarse-minded, bold woman, who instigated him to every m

t, for by their joint contrivances very little of the crops fell to our share; and when any division was made, it was always when Moodie was absent from home; and there was no person present to see fair play. They sold what apples and potatoes they pleased, and fed their hogs ad libitum. But even their roguery was more tolerable than the irksome restraint which their near vicinity, and constantly having to come in conta

r to the sill of the door to feed from her hand. Mrs. O-- had the same number as I had, and I often admired them when marshalled forth by her splendid black rooster. One morning I saw her eldest son chop off the head of the fine bird; and I asked his mother why she had allowed him to kill the beautiful creature. She lau

, my Cornish nurse, informed me that it was occasioned by the people who came to attend the funeral of Phoebe R--. She only survived the removal of the family

mn and imposing spectacle, that humble funeral. When the waggons reached the rude enclosure, the coffin was carefully lifted to the ground, the door i

of thy soul, and called thee out of the darkness of ignorance and sin to glory in His marvellous light. Sixteen years have passed away since I heard anything of the family, or what had become of them, when I was told by a neighbour of theirs, whom I accidentally met last winter, that the old woman, who now nearly numbers a hundred year

HEART THAT LO

ide the col

e, dearest,

e bless'd-and

with this

m out the s

ancy breat

heart withi

blessed pa

s present

whispering

t spake in d

checks the s

ss spirit w

heart that lo

day's bright

s roses blo

birds in twi

spring's del

wood and mo

us pageant

thy soul with

d up thy s

ul music o

each thy lo

ut sleep! I

t heart is

ark door has c

hee cold t

lame death co

ove survives

thin my brea

one shall b

eve, thou l

soul its soo

he city's

dwelling, co

sadness h

d tribute o'

gain of da

t converse he

air to fee

s and water

sign'd to Heav

l be to lov