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
They appear a happy, harmless set of men, brave and independent; and if
drinking and swearing are vices common to their caste and occupation,
it can scarcely be wondered at in the wild, reckless, roving life they
lead. They never trouble the peaceful inhabitants of the town. Their
broils are chiefly confined to their Irish comrades, and seldom go
beyond the scene of their mutual labour. It is not often that they find
their way into the jail or penitentiary.
A young lady told me an adventure that befell her and her sister, which
is rather a droll illustration of the manners of a French Canadian
lumberer. They were walking one fine summer evening along the west bank
of the Moira, and the narrator, in stooping over the water to gather
some wild-flowers that grew in a crevice of the rocks, dropped her
parasol into the river. A cry of vexation at the loss of an article of
dress, which is expensive, and almost indispensable beneath the rays of
a Canadian summer sun, burst from her lips, and attracted the attention
of a young man whom she had not before observed, who was swimming at
some distance down the river. He immediately turned, and dexterously
catching the parasol as it swiftly glided past him, swam towards the
ladies with the rescued article, carried dog-fashion, between his teeth.
In his zeal to render this little service, the poor fellow forgot that
he was not in a condition to appear before ladies; who, startled at such
an extraordinary apparition, made the best of their heels to fly
precipitately from the spot.
"I have no doubt," said Miss ---, laughing, "that the good-natured
fellow meant well, but I never was so frightened and confounded in my
life." The next morning the parasol was returned at the street door,
with "Jean Baptiste's compliments to the young ladies." So much for
French Canadian gallantry.
It is a pretty sight. A large raft of timber, extending perhaps for a
quarter of a mile, gliding down the bay in tow of a steamer, decorated
with red flags and green pine boughs, and managed by a set of bold
active fellows, whose jovial songs waken up the echoes of the lonely
woods. I have seen several of these rafts, containing many thousand
pounds worth of timber, taking their downward course in one day.
The centre of the raft is generally occupied by a shanty and cooking
apparatus, and at night it presents an imposing spectacle, seen by the
red light of their fires, as it glides beneath the shadow of some lofty
bank, with its dark overhanging trees. I have often coveted a sail on
those picturesque rafts, over those smooth moonlighted waters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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