Roughing It in the Bush

glass I see h

gathered to

. A strange an

ompanionship,

ert of the da

s, hid in their

ep waters never

ar, or echoed

e, contained

piness. With

he track'd t

tangled mazes

nd now and then stirring the cradle with my foot, when a tall, thin, mi

who had not given the strangers a very courteous reception, sat down on the hearth-stone on either side of their taciturn master, eyeing him from time to time, as if long habit had made them understand all his motions. There was a great con

our, greatly resembled the eyes of a hawk. The face itself was sorrowful and taciturn; and his thin, compressed lips looked as if they were not much accustomed to smile, or often to unclose to hold social communion with any o

in order to attract his attenti

baby, who just then awoke, sat down on a low stool by the table, and began feeding her. During this operation, I once or twice caught the strang

ld them what a strange visitor I had had; and Moodi

" I said; "I must find

nd whom all feared. He was a deep drinker, a great swearer, in short, a perfect reprobate; who never cultivated his land, but went jobbing about from farm to farm, trading horses and cattle, and cheating in a pettifogging way. Uncle Joe had employe

is; and a better farmer, while he stuck to his business, never went into the bush, for it was all bush here then. He was a dashing, handsome fellow, too, and did not hoard the money, either; he loved his pipe and his pot too well; and at last he left off farming, and gave himself to them altogether. Many a jolly booze he and I have had, I can tell you. Brian was an awful passionate man, and, when the liquor was in, and the wit was out, as savage and as quarrelsome as a bear. At such times there was no one but Ned Layton dared go near him. We

, with me,' said he; 'I am weary

rime season, and F-- will lend us the old canoe. He's got some capita

fish I'm goi

I've bought Rock

shoot, Ned: it's a new game I'

corching plains, for eight long miles. I thought I should have dropped by the way; but during our long wa

tomed to a warmer place, or he must feel this. H

see another day arter this-I've

convenience of strangers who came to visit the place. Here we got our dinner, and a glass of rum to wash it down. But Brian was moody, and to all my jok

all does not seem right with him, Ned. You h

so glum nowadays that I will cut his acqu

got a fit of the delirium-tremulous. There is

, lying wallowing in his blood with his throat cut. 'Is that you, Brian?' says I, giving him a kick with my foot, to see if he was alive or dead. 'What on earth tempted you to pl

ith groans and a horrid gurgling in his throat. 'It's a choking you are,' said I, 'but you shan't have your own way, and die so easily, either, if I can punis

of his surgical practice which it is

pts to throw himself in the water. 'This will not do,' says I; 'you've done mischief enough already by cutting your weasand! If you dare to try that again, I will kill you with the oar.' I held it up to threaten him; he was

wn himself, was afraid that I should knock him on the head and kill him. Ha! ha! I sh

e him, for he thought the devil would surely have him for cutting his own throat; and when he got about again, which is now twelve years ago, he left off drinking entirely, and wanders about the woods with his dogs, hunting. He seldom spea

d jesting manner. It was evident from the account he had given of Brian's attempt at suicide,

ther thong. Without saying a word, but with a truly benevolent smile, that flitted slowly over his stern features, and lighted them up, like a sunbeam breaking from beneath a stormy

s of pure new milk out into a deep pan. I had not asked him-had never said that the poor wea

ith another replenished with milk. The baby knew his step, and would hold out her hands to him

ny children

; but none

reatly indebted to y

are strangers; but I like you all. You look k

a frequent guest. He would sit and listen with delight to Moodie while he described to him elephant-hunting at the Cape; grasping hi

l them. Sometimes the sight of their dying agonies recalls painful feelings; and then I lay aside the gun, and do not hunt for days. But 'tis fine to be alone with God in the great woods-to wa

tinued, with much solemn f

ignorant, we learn to become even worse than they are. I felt deeply my degradation-felt that I had become the slave to low vice; and in order to emancipate myself from the hateful tyranny of evil passions, I did a very rash and foolish thing. I need not mention the manner in which I transgressed God's holy laws; all the neighbours know it, and must hav

g of a pack of hounds in full cry. Presently a noble deer rushed past me, and fast upon his trail-I see them now, like so many black devils-swept by a pack of ten or fifteen large, fierce wolves, with fiery eyes and bristling hair, and paws that seemed hardly to touch the ground in their eager haste. I thought not of danger, for, with their prey in view, I was safe; but I felt every nerve within me tremble for the fate of the poor deer. The wolves gained upon him at every bound. A close thicket intercepted his path, and, rendered desperate, he turned at bay. His nostrils were dilated, and his eyes seemed to send forth long streams of light. It was wonderf

ps, he started abruptly from

d in watching the progress I made in the group. Late in the afternoon of

been all the way to the -- la

ne by one, with infantile joy

e no eyes but the birds of the air, and the wild beasts of the wood, and the insects that live upon them, ever see them? Does God provide, for the pleasure of such creatures, these flowers? Is

the slumbering fires of his fatal malady, I turned the conve

nd called him to me. He came slowly, stopping and wagging his tail at every step, and looking me wistfully in the face. I offered him a bit of dried venison, and he soon bec

no less than eight sheep that belonged to Mr. D--, on the front road; the culprit, who had been long suspected, was caught

ourfold," he said, "if he would bu

alone, for the first time since my arrival in Canada. I cannot now imagine how I could have been such a fool as to give way f

ear; the term is perfectly correct when applied to the Canadian spring, which, until the middle of May, is the most dismal season of the year)-he and John Monaghan took a rope, and the dog, and sallied forth to fetch the cow home. Moodie said that they should be back by

husband's return, and to think of the supper that I was to prepare for his reception. The red heifer that we had bought of Layton, came lowing to the door to be milked; but I did not know how to milk in those days, and, besides this, I was terribly

, "it's high time you should learn

but as a great favour

ss the woman! A farmer's

refusal of my first and last request, when they had all borrowed

y an author of the best thing he ever wrote, whether in verse or prose; and it was doubly sweet when I considered that I had procured it without being

pan, ready to cook the moment I saw the men enter the meadow, and arranged the little room with scrupulous care and neatness. A glo

fallen in with wolves (one of my early bugbears)? Could any fatal accident have befallen them? I started up, opened the door, held my breath, and listened. The little brook lifted up its voice in loud, hoarse wailing, or mocked, in its babbling to the stones, the sound of human voices. As it became later, my fears increased in proportion. I grew too superstitious and nervous to keep the door open. I not only closed it, but dragged a heavy box in fro

nd procure another before it went finally out. Cold, heart-weary, and faint, I sat and cried. Every now and then the furious barking of the dogs at the neighbouring farms, and the loud cackling of the geese upon our own, made me hope that they were coming; and t

, with hearing the howls of these formidable wild beasts; but I had never before heard them alone, and when one dear to me was abroad amid their haunts. They were directly in the track that Moodie and Monaghan must have taken; and I now made no doubt that they had been attacked and killed on their return through the woods with the cow, and I wept and sobbed until the cold gre

round me. The sight of the table spread, and the uneaten supper, renewed my grief, for I could not divest myself of the idea that Moodie was dead. I opened the door, and stepped forth into the pure air of the early day. A solemn and beautiful repose still hung like a veil over the face of Nature. The mists of night still rested upon the majestic woods, and not a sound but the flowing of the waters

rly abroad this morning, and look dreadful ill. Is any

into tears, "I fear he i

idea had taken such strong possession of my mind that I could admit no other. I then told him, as

Mollineux, to one unacquainted with a blazed path in a bush road. They have s

ead and cont

l saddle my mare, and ride over to the nig

omewhat better spirits, to the house. At ten o'clock my good

ad broken away through the woods, and returned to her old master; and when they again reached his place, night had set in, an

atural." He could feed and assist himself, had been taught imperfectly to read and write, and could go to and from the town on errands, and carry

by the severity of the weather, he would sit for days together moping in the chimney-corner, without taking the least notice of what was passing around him. Brian never mentioned this boy-wh

ich several bushels of fine apples had been thrown; and, while Moodie was writing an answer to the note, the eyes of the idiot were fastened, as if by some magnetic influence, upon the apples. Knowing th

to your f

l, were concentrated in the apples. Ten minutes elapse

boy, yo

d not

anything

his intense desire, and speaking in a slow, pointed manner, which

s all, take w

right and left, in order to secure the finest specimens of the coveted fruit, scarcely allowing himself time to breathe until he had filled his old straw hat, and all his pockets, with apples.

on of the property. This he positively refused to do; and when we remonstrated with him on the apparent imbecility of this resolution, he declared that he would not risk his life, in crossi

uaint way, of an excursion he went upon with a botanist, to

n a little, fat, punchy man, with a broad, red, good-natured face, and carrying a small black leathern wallet acr

r acquainted with the woods than any person in these parts; and I wil

you want to

want to go here and there, in all dire

thought I. 'To-day I must drag in my oats

said he. 'I like to

bour upon my farm, at this busy

ive you what you ask. At what t

eak, if yo

French pony. 'What are you going to do with that beast?' said I. 'Horses are of no u

s,' said he; 'it may be some

very good-naturedly complied. Off we set, and soon climbed the steep ridge at the back of your farm, and got upon -- lake plains. The woods were flush with flowers; and the little man grew into such an ecstacy, that

among the moss and long grass. He sat upon a decayed trunk, which lay in our path, I do believe for a long hour, making an oration over some greyish things, spotted with red, that grew upon it, which looked more like mould than plants, declaring himself repaid for all the troubl

filled his black wallet with all sorts of rubbish, as if he wilfully shut his eyes to the beautiful flowers, and chose only to admire ugly, insignificant plants that everybody else passes by

errible fright; but he held on to the flowers which had caused the trouble, and thanked his stars that he had saved them as well as his life. Well, he was an innocent man," continued Brian; "a very little made him happy, and at night he would sing and amuse himself li

the trials and sorrows that awaited us. During the last week of our stay in the township of H--, he visited us every evening, and never bade us good-night without a tear moistening his cheek. We parted with the hunter as with an old friend; and we

HUNTER T

ie down, my

ul bark g

e lonely ec

ses me

ars, thy swe

so keenl

kindle i

l of fier

thee, on fo

l outstripp'

e down, my f

this nig

in the horn

n, stream,

long the fo

ck the fl

and silen

l obliv

ce shall ch

when the c

e down, my g

er's lif

d upon the

e to watc

he blush o

ling in

ee, faithful

my Ag

er to this

osed eyes be

e down, my t

es, and n

ar strange m

tly throb

inkling lig

immer in

e falls the b

my brow

and heavens ar

'er!-brave fri