Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Bidwell and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team
LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS,
A Sequel To Roughing It In The Bush.
By Susanna Moodie
Author Of “Life In The Clearings,” “Flora Lyndsay,” “Geoffrey Moncton,”
Etc., Etc.
I sketch from Nature, and the picture's true;
Whate'er the subject, whether grave or gay,
Painful experience in a distant land
Made it mine own.
New York:
John W. Lovell Company,
14 And 16 Vesey Street.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.--A Journey to the Woods--Corduroy Roads--No Ghosts in Canada
CHAPTER II.--The Wilderness and our Indian Friends--The House on
Fire--No Papoose; the Mother all alone
CHAPTER III.--Running the Fallow--A Wall of Fire--“But God can save us
yet.”
CHAPTER IV.--Our Logging Bee--“Och! my ould granny taught me.”--Signal
Mercies
CHAPTER V.--A Trip to Stony Lake--A Feast in an Outhouse--The Squatter's
Log Hut
CHAPTER VI.--Disappointed Hopes--Milk, Bread and Potatoes our only
Fare--The Deer Hunt
CHAPTER VII.--The Little Stumpy Man--Hiding from the Sheriff--An
ill-natured volunteer
CHAPTER VIII.--The Fire--“Oh, dear Mamma, do save Papa's Flute”--“No
time to be clane!”
CHAPTER IX.--The Outbreak--Moodie joins the Volunteers--“Scribblin' and
Scrabblin' when you should be in bed”
CHAPTER X.--The Whirlwind--Two Miles of Trees Levelled to the
Ground--Sick Children
CHAPTER XI.--The Walk to Dummer--Honest, Faithful Jenny--A sad
History--Tried and Found most Faithful
CHAPTER XII.--A Change in our Prospects--In a Canoe--Nearing the
Rapids--Dandelion Coffee
CHAPTER XIII.--The Magic Spell--“The Sleighs are Come!”--Leaving the
Bush--End of Life in the Backwoods
LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS
A SEQUEL TO ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH.
CHAPTER I.
A JOURNEY TO THE WOODS.
'Tis well for us poor denizens of earth
That God conceals the future from our gaze;
Or Hope, the blessed watcher on Life's tower,
Would fold her wings, and on the dreary waste
Close the bright eye that through the murky clouds
Of blank Despair still sees the glorious sun.
It was a bright, frosty morning when I bade adieu to the farm, the
birthplace of my little Agnes, who, nestled beneath my cloak, was
sweetly sleeping on my knee, unconscious of the long journey before us
into the wilderness. The sun had not as yet risen. Anxious to get to our
place of destination before dark, we started as early as we could. Our
own fine team had been sold the day before for forty pounds; and one of
our neighbours, a Mr. D----, was to convey us and our household goods to
Douro for the sum of twenty dollars. During the week he had made several
journeys, with furniture and stores; and all that now remained was to
be conveyed to the woods in two large lumber-sleighs, one driven by
himself, the other by a younger brother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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