Canadian Crusoes: A Tale of the Rice Lake Plains

The sun had risen in all the splendour of a Canadian summer morning, when the sleepers arose from their leafy beds. In spite of the novelty of their situation, they had slept as...

A fortnight had now passed, and Catharine still suffered so much from pain and fever, that they were unable to continue their wanderings; all that Hector and his cousin could do...

It is the hour of sunset; the sonorous sound of the cattle bells is heard, as they slowly emerge from the steep hill path that leads to Maxwell and Louis Perron’s little clearin...

“Aye from the sultry heat, We to our cave retreat, O’ercanopied by huge roots, intertwined, Of wildest texture, blacken’d o’er with age, Bound them their mantle green the climbe...

THERE lies between the Rice Lake and the Ontario, a deep and fertile valley, surrounded by lofty wood-crowned hills, the heights of which were clothed chiefly with groves of oak...

WHILE the Indians were actively pursuing their sports on the lake, shooting wild fowl, and hunting and fishing by torch-light, so exciting was the amusement of watching them, th...

Hector and Louis had now little employment, excepting chopping fire-wood, which was no very arduous task for two stout healthy lads, used from childhood to handling the axe. Tra...

THE Mohawk girl was in high spirits at the coming of the wild fowl to the lake; she would clap her hands and laugh with almost childish glee as she looked at them darkening the...

“Cold and forsaken, destitute of friends, And all good comforts else, unless some tree Whose speechless chanty doth better ours, With which the bitter east-winds made their spor...

FOR several days, they abstained from lighting a fire, lest the smoke should be seen; but this, the great height of the bank would have effectually prevented. They suffered much...

What changes a few years make in places! That spot over which the Indians roved, free of all control, is now a large and wide-spreading town. Those glorious old trees are fast f...

IT was now the middle of September: the weather, which had continued serene and beautiful for some time, with dewy nights and misty mornings, began to show symptoms of the chang...

“I know a lake where the cool waves break, And softly fall on the silver sand, And no stranger intrudes on that solitude, And no voices but ours disturb the strand.” IRISH SONG

The little bark touched the stony point of Long Island. The Indian lifted his weeping prisoner from the canoe, and motioned to her to move forward along the narrow path that led...

Old Jacob and Catharine, who had been mute spectators of the scene so full of interest to them, now presented themselves before the Ojebwa chief, and besought leave to depart. T...

The day was far advanced, before the sick Indian girl could be brought home to their sylvan lodge, where Catharine made up a comfortable couch for her, with boughs and grass, an...

“Now where the wave, with loud unquiet song, Dash’d o’er the rocky channel, froths along, Or where the silver waters soothed to rest, The tree’s tall shadow sleeps upon its brea...