and each day finds him a little weaker, but he feels that he must go on.
Strange voices are speaking to him more frequently than ever, and his
dreams are filled with visions of the new world of which he has heard,
and now he has almost reached his journeys end, but it requires a great
effort for him to move, he is so foot-sore and weary, but the voices are
urging him on and at last the building is in sight. He drags himself
wearily to the door. It is night and the door is open--the place is
deserted, but he throws himself down on the floor with a sigh of
contentment. The next morning they found him with his hands clasped and
face upturned to the skies. The blue eyes were opened wide, the lips
parted in a happy smile, and poor little lonely Ned had found the
"bright world."
The Poet says:
So many abler tongues and pens than mine have chosen the St. Lawrence as
a theme on which they have written love songs, romances and legends,
that it would ill-become me to even attempt the subject. A writer, many
years ago, while paddling up the river and among the Islands, expressed
himself thus: "As the sun set below the islands the full moon rose in
all her beauty. The light evening breeze had subsided into a calm; not a
breath of air ruffled the glassy waters.
Impressed with the solemnity of the scene, I could not refrain from
wishing that here, at least, Nature might be permitted to reign
unmolested, but the solitary watch-fires of the recent settlers gave
proof that though his tenure was yet but frail, man! rapacious and
indefatigable man! was fast establishing usurpation." This was written
many years ago. What would be the astonishment of the writer, if he
could revisit the scene. Would he think it improvement or desecration?
On the islands cottages are built, and well kept lawns, sloping down to
the water, are brightened by the bright dresses of women and children,
and in some places the modern game of lawn tennis is being played, and
everything shows that Nature has not been allowed to reign unmolested.
Steamboats are plying from place to place; pleasure seekers lift their
voices to hear the sounds re-echoed from island to island, from shore to
shore, until the faint reverberation is lost among the murmuring pines.
Surely the crags and trees, the pines and poplars, are tempted to
return the echo as a protest against this invasion. If the sensibilities
were quickened to the sounds of nature, the words re-echoed would be
"leave us alone in our solitude."
The St. Lawrence does not speak to our hearts of deep tragedies, but
breathes into the soul a spirit of love.
"When Eve plucked death from the tree of life and brought tears of
sorrow upon earth, Adam was driven out into the world to mourn with her,
and taste from the bitter spring that we drink to-day."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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