Maria Chapdelaine

mis

the congregation began to come

and the heavy spring rains were yet to come. This chill and universal white, the humbleness of the wooden church and the wooden houses scattered along the road, the gloomy forest edging so close that it seemed to threaten, these all spoke of a harsh existence in a stern land. But as the men

felt hat he would have preferred to wear. Beside him Egide Simard, and others who had come a long road by sleigh, fastened their long fur coats as they left the church, drawing them in at the waist with scarlet sashes. The young folk of the village, very smart in coats with otter col

do things go pretty w

my lads, n

n to smoke with evident satisfaction. The first puffs brought talk of the weather, the coming spring, the state of the ice on Lake St. John and the riv

this week beside the sand-bank opposite the island, where there have been warm spring-holes al

year," asserted one old fellow, "the f

there motionless for a little while, awaiting quiet,-hands deep in the pockets of the heavy lynx coat, knitting his forehead and half closing his keen eyes under the fur

and those looking for a job should see me before vespers. If you want this money to stay in t

ent with a laugh. The remark was heard in an envious undertone:-"And who

r than in malice, and the speak

n the highest step, Napoleon Laliberte proceeded in loudest tones:-"A surveyor from Roberval will be in the parish

their boundaries to gain or lose a few square feet, since the most enterprising among them h

at the store until Wednesday, or you can apply to Fran?ois Paradis of Mistassini who is with them. They have plenty of money a

hapeless that struggled in a bag at his feet. A great burst of laughter greeted him. They knew them

ts!" one young m

ty c

dol

r wife will never let you pay a

nd:-"A dollar, I wo

ook on his face awaited another bi

s, sole festival of their lives, they had doffed coarse blouses and homespun petticoats, and a stranger might well have stood amazed to find them habited almost with elegance in this remote sp

direction of the house. Others were satisfied to exchange jocular remarks with the young girls as they passed, in th

Chapdelaine is back from her visit to St. Prime, and there is her fathe

a farm in the woods on the other s

's th

th him is his da

e with her mother's people. They are Bouchards,

steps. One of the young people paid Maria the countryma

the woods. How are the young fellows of the village to manage an evening at their place, on the other sid

ps with her father and passed near by, they were taken with bashfulness and awkwardly drew back, as though some

e for spending an hour in one of the two gathering places of the village; the curé's house or the general store. Those who came from the back concessions, stretchi

had gone but a little way w

I am in great luck at meeting you, since your farm is so

d by a conscious effort of politeness; swiftly they returned, and their glan

dis!" exclaime

d your father dead too. Have you held on to the farm?" The young man did not answer

dis of Mistassini, Maria? H

hter, that is a different story; she is not t

; the high hills rising almost from the very banks of the river, the old monastery crouched between the river and the heights, the water that seethed and whitened, flinging itself in wild descent down the st

member Fran?ois Paradis." And Fran?ois, content

ly all the time in the woods, trapping or bartering with the Indians of Lake Mistassini and the Riviere aux Foins. I also

ng home to-d

ght afte

e goes out. I am here with some Belgians who are going to buy furs from the Indians; we shall push up so soon as

Fran?ois, we wi

ver, the dark hem of the woods crowding to the farther edge-leaving between the solitude of the great trees, thick-set and erect, and the bare desolateness of the ice

ll more depressing and sad, farther yet from the dwellings of man and the marks of his labour; and moreover all about her that morning had taken on a softer outline, was brighter with a new promis

-chested woman with the undeveloped features of a child, who talked very quickly and almost without taking breath while she made ready the meal in the kitchen. From time to time she halted her preparations and sat down opposite her visitors, less

ile eating, the two men talked about the conditi

, "but it will be touch-and-go, and I think you will be about the last. The

again to-night, and after supper the young folks from the village will drop in and spend the evening. It is

every night. We are greatly obliged to you, but I am going to put t

had struck him as well reasoned and fine; then after a

upon her that this was his way of asking for bread. A little later

t it, and behind her back the old fellow sent a sly wink in the directi

atter abroad, and also prints of a religious character; a representation in crudest colour and almost innocent of perspective of the basilica at Ste. A

irecting attention to his wants with dark sayings:-"Was your pig very lean?" he d

table-manners and bade him help himself in the usual fashion, he smoothed her ruffled temper with good-humoured excuses, "Quite right. Quite ri

their faces tanned to the colour of leather, and, shining from their eyes, the quenchless spir

he cold nights, gave an icy surface that slipped away easily beneath the runners. The high blue hills on the other side of L

often very sorry that we live so far from churches. Perhaps not being able to attend

t," sighed Maria, "

atin chants, the lighted tapers, the solemnity of the Sunday mass nev

la voir

pres de

ir ma

r a mon

eyes began to close and his chin to drop toward his breast. Driving always made him sleepy, and the horse, a

ere, Charl

had forthwith bestowed them upon an old, tired, lame horse of his, that he might give himself the pleasure every day when passing the enemy's house of calling out very loudly:-"Charles Eugene, ill-favoured beast

e in clear ringing tone

au ciel

a voir u

died away, and Maria gathered up the

distant from one another. Behind the clearings, and on either side of them to the river's bank, it was always forest: a dark green bac

set closer together, seemed an outpost of the village; but ever behind the bare fields marched t

ugene, get

slowed down, after a few livelier paces, he had dropped off again, his hands lying open upon his

universal whiteness. Even the incessant dark green of balsam, spruce and gray pine was rare; the few young and living trees were lost among the endless dead, either lying on the ground and buried in snow, or still erect but stripped and blackened. Twenty years before great forest fires had swept th

as nothing to look at; in the settlements new houses and barns might go up from year to year, or be deserted and tumble into ruin; bu

les Eugene accurately followed every turn of the road, took the short pitches at a full trot and climbed the opposite hills with a leisurely pace, like the capa

he level of the ice. Three houses were dotted along the mile of bank above; but they were humbler buildings than those of the village, and behind t

his forelegs to hold back on the slope and pulled u

d them, but before giving his horse the word, took som

e gone, the little firs which had marked it at intervals were nearly all fallen and lying in the half-thawed snow; as they passed the island the ice cracked twice without breaking. Charles Eugene trotted smartly toward the house of Charles Lindsay on the other bank. But when the sleigh reached

n his feet; his eyes beneath the fur ca

through the deep slush and sprang for the bank, throwing himself into the collar at every leap. Just a

t to cross this year," said he. And he halted th

ng in all directions to avoid boulders and stumps. Rising to a plateau where it wound back and forth through burnt lands it gave an occasional glimpse of steep hillside, of the rock

kly-crowding spruces and firs; now and then they caught momentary sight of the distant mountains on the Riviere

aria," said her father. "They have bee