Roughing It in the Bush

The preceding sketches of Canadian life, as the reader may well suppose, are necessarily tinctured with somewhat somber hues, imparted by the difficulties and privations with wh...

The clouds of the preceding night, instead of dissolving in snow, brought on a rapid thaw. A thaw in the middle of winter is the most disagreeable change that can be imagined. A...

We trod a weary path through silent woods, Tangled and dark, unbroken by a sound Of cheerful life. The melancholy shriek Of hollow winds careering o'er the snow, Or tossing into...

Some men, like greedy monsters of the deep, Still prey upon their kind;--their hungry maws Engulph their victims like the rav'nous shark That day and night untiring plies around...

“Those who go a-borrowing, go a-sorrowing,” saith the old adage; and a wiser saw never came out of the mouth of experience. I have tested the truth of this proverb since my sett...

About a month previous to our emigration to Canada, my husband said to me, “You need not expect me home to dinner to-day; I am going with my friend Wilson to Y----, to hear Mr....

Our fate is seal'd! 'Tis now in vain to sigh For home, or friends, or country left behind. Come, dry those tears, and lift the downcast eye To the high heaven of hope, and be re...

There was a little man-- I'll sketch him if I can, For he clung to mine and me Like the old man of the sea; And in spite of taunt and scoff We could not pitch him off, For the c...

Can a corrupted stream pour through the land Health-giving waters? Can the slave, who lures His wretched followers with the hope of gain, Feel in his bosom the immortal fire Tha...

“O'er memory's glass I see his shadow flit, Though he was gathered to the silent dust Long years ago. A strange and wayward man, That shunn'd companionship, and lived apart; The...

“Ay, your rogue is a laughing rogue, and not a whit the less dangerous for the smile on his lip, which comes not from an honest heart, which reflects the light of the soul throu...

The early part of the winter of 1837, a year never to be forgotten in the annals of Canadian history, was very severe. During the month of February, the thermometer often ranged...

“Dear mother Nature! on thy ample breast Hast thou not room for thy neglected son? A stern necessity has driven him forth Alone and friendless. He has naught but thee, And the s...

Oh Nature! in thy ever-varying face, By rocky shore, or 'neath the forest tree, What love divine, what matchless skill, I trace! My full warm heart responsive thrills to thee. Y...

'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 C...

Queen of the West!--upon thy rocky throne, In solitary grandeur sternly placed; In awful majesty thou sitt'st alone, By Nature's master-hand supremely graced. The world has not...

A logging-bee followed the burning of the fallow, as a matter of course. In the bush, where hands are few, and labour commands an enormous rate of wages, these gatherings are co...

Well, stranger, here you are all safe and sound; You're now on shore. Methinks you look aghast,-- As if you'd made some slight mistake, and found A land you liked not. Think not...

Stern Disappointment, in thy iron grasp The soul lies stricken. So the timid deer, Who feels the foul fangs of the felon wolf Clench'd in his throat, grown desperate for life, T...

Adieu!--adieu!--when quivering lips refuse The bitter pangs of parting to declare; And the full bosom feels that it must lose Friends who were wont its inmost thoughts to share;...

Fly this plague-stricken spot! The hot, foul air Is rank with pestilence--the crowded marts And public ways, once populous with life, Are still and noisome as a churchyard vault...

“She died in early womanhood, Sweet scion of a stem so rude; A child of Nature, free from art, With candid brow and open heart; The flowers she loved now gently wave Above her l...

The dreadful cholera was depopulating Quebec and Montreal when our ship cast anchor off Grosse Isle, on the 30th of August 1832, and we were boarded a few minutes after by the h...

The future flower lies folded in the bud,-- Its beauty, colour, fragrance, graceful form, Carefully shrouded in that tiny cell; Till time and circumstance, and sun and shower, E...

“A nose, kind sir! Sure mother Nature, With all her freaks, ne'er formed this feature. If such were mine, I'd try and trade it, And swear the gods had never made it.”

Dark, heavy clouds were gathering in the west, Wrapping the forest in funereal gloom; Onward they roll'd, and rear'd each livid crest, Like Death's murk shadows frowning o'er ea...

Behold that man, with lanky locks, Which hang in strange confusion o'er his brow; And nicely scan his garments, rent and patch'd, In colours varied, like a pictured map; And wat...

There is a hollow roaring in the air-- The hideous hissing of ten thousand flames, That from the centre of yon sable cloud Leap madly up, like serpents in the dark, Shaking thei...