Life in the Clearings versus the BushMoodie, Susanna
History
Life in the Clearings versus the Bush
Moodie, Susanna
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario; Moodie, Susannah, 1803-1885; Ontario -- Description and travel
The next morning we had to rise early to take the boat, and Jonathan was
up by the dawn of day; so that I went through as bold as a lion, and was
busily employed in discussing an excellent breakfast, while my poor
partner was sitting impatiently nursing his appetite at the foot of his
bed, and wishing the pale Quakeress across the bay. The steamer was in
sight before he was able to join us at the breakfast-table. I had now my
revenge, and teased him all the way home on being kept a prisoner, with
only a sickly woman for a jailor.
A young lady gave me an account of a funeral she witnessed in this
primitive village, which may not be uninteresting to my English readers,
as a picture of some of the customs of a new country.
The deceased was an old and very respectable resident in the township;
and as the Canadians delight in large funerals, he was followed to his
last home by nearly all the residents for miles round.
The use of the hearse is not known in rural districts, and, indeed, is
seldom used in towns or cities here. The corpse is generally carried to
the grave, the bearers being chosen from among the gentlemen of most
note in the neighbourhood, who, to the honour of the country be it
spoken, never refuse to act on these mournful occasions. These walking
funerals are far more imposing and affecting spectacles than the hearse
with its funeral plumes; and the simple fact of friends and neighbours
conveying a departed brother to his long home, has a more solemn and
touching effect upon the mind, than the train of hired mourners and
empty state-carriages.
When a body is brought from a distance for interment, it is conveyed in
a waggon, if in summer, spring, or autumn, and on a sleigh during the
winter season, and is attended to the grave by all the respectable
yeomen in the township.
I cannot resist the strong temptation of digressing from my present
subject, in order to relate a very affecting instance I witnessed at one
of these funerals of the attachment of a dog to his deceased master,
which drew tears from my eyes, and from the eyes of my children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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