Life in the Backwoods

S >> Susanna Moodie >> Life in the Backwoods

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Prevarication, the worst of falsehoods, was a virtue in his eyes. So much
for the old man's morality.

Monaghan was in his glory, prepared to work or fight, whichever should
come uppermost; and there was old Thomas and his sons, the contractors for
the clearing, to expedite whose movements the bee was called. Old Thomas
was a very ambitious man in his way. Though he did not know A from B, he
took it into his head that he had received a call from Heaven to convert
the heathen in the wilderness; and every Sunday he held a meeting in our
logger's shanty, for the purpose of awakening sinners, and bringing over
"Injun pagans" to the true faith. His method of accomplishing this object
was very ingenious. He got his wife, Peggy--or "my Paggy," as he called
her--to read aloud for him a text from the Bible, until he knew it by
heart; and he had, as he said truly, "a good remembrancer," and never
heard a striking sermon but he retained the most important passages, and
retailed them secondhand to his bush audience.

I must say that I was not a little surprised at the old man's eloquence
when I went one Sunday over to the shanty to hear him preach. Several
wild young fellows had come on purpose to make fun of him; but his
discourse, which was upon the text, "We shall all meet before the
judgment-seat of Christ," was rather too serious a subject to turn into a
jest, with even old Thomas for the preacher. All went on very well until
the old man gave out a hymn, and led off in such a loud, discordant voice,
that my little Katie, who was standing between her father's knees, looked
suddenly up, and said, "Mamma, what a noise old Thomas makes!" This remark
led to a much greater noise, and the young men, unable to restrain their
long-suppressed laughter, ran tumultuously from the shanty. I could have
whipped the little elf; but small blame could be attached to a child of
two years old, who had never heard a preacher, especially such a preacher
as the old back woodsman, in her life. Poor man! he was perfectly
unconscious of the cause of the disturbance, and remarked to us, after the
service was over,

"Well, ma'am, did not we get on famously? Now, worn't that a _bootiful_
discourse?"

"It was, indeed; much better than I expected."

"Yes, yes; I knew it would please you. It had quite an effect on those
wild fellows. A few more such sermons will teach them good behaviour. Ah!
the bush is a bad place for young men. The farther in the bush, say I, the
farther from God, and the nearer to hell. I told that wicked Captain I____
of Dummer so the other Sunday; 'an',' says he, 'if you don't hold your
confounded jaw, you old fool, I'll kick you there.' Now, ma'am, now, sir,
was not that bad manners in a gentleman, to use such _appropriate
epitaphs_ to a humble servant of God, like I?"

And thus the old man ran on for an hour, dilating upon his own merits and
the sins of his neighbours.

There was John R____, from Smith-town, the most notorious swearer in the
district; a man who esteemed himself clever, nor did he want for natural
talent, but he had converted his mouth into such a sink of iniquity that
it corrupted the whole man, and all the weak and thoughtless of his own
sex who admitted him into their company. I had tried to convince John
R____ (for he often frequented the house under the pretence of borrowing
books) of the great crime that he was constantly committing, and of the
injurious effect it must produce upon his own family, but the mental
disease had taken too deep a root to be so easily cured. Like a person
labouring under some foul disease, he contaminated all he touched. Such
men seem to make an ambitious display of their bad habits in such scenes,
and if they afford a little help, they are sure to get intoxicated and
make a row. There was my friend, old Ned Dunn, who had been so anxious to
get us out of the burning fallow. There was a whole group of Dummer Pines:
Levi, the little wiry, witty poacher; Cornish Bill, the honest-hearted old
peasant, with his stalwart figure and uncouth dialect; and David and
Ned--all good men and true; and Malachi Chroak, a queer, withered-up,
monkey-man, that seemed like some mischievous elf, flitting from heap to
heap to make work and fun for the rest; and many others were at that bee
who have since found a rest in the wilderness: Adam T____, H____, J.
M____, H. N____ These, at different times, lost their lives in those
bright waters in which, on such occasions as these, they used to sport and
frolic to refresh themselves during the noonday heat. Alas! how many, who
were then young and in their prime, that river and its lakes have swept
away!

Our men worked well until dinner-time, when, after washing in the lake,
they all sat down to the rude board which I had prepared for them, loaded
with the best fare that could be procured in the bush. Pea-soup, legs of
pork, venison, eel, and raspberry pies, garnished with plenty of potatoes,
and whiskey to wash them down, besides a large iron kettle of tea. To pour
out the latter, and dispense it round, devolved upon me. My brother and
his friends, who were all temperance men, and consequently the best
workers in the field, kept me and the maid actively employed in
replenishing their cups.

The dinner passed off tolerably well; some of the lower order of the Irish
settlers were pretty far gone, but they committed no outrage upon our
feelings by either swearing or bad language, a few harmless jokes alone
circulating among them.

Some one was funning Old Wittals for having eaten seven large cabbages at
Mr. T____'s bee, a few days previous. His son, Sol, thought himself, as in
duty bound, to take up the cudgel for his father.

"Now, I guess that's a lie, anyhow. Fayther was sick that day, and I tell
you he only ate five."

This announcement was followed by such an explosion of mirth that the boy
looked fiercely round him, as if he could scarcely believe the fact that
the whole party were laughing at him.

Malachi Chroak, who was good-naturedly drunk, had discovered an old pair
of cracked bellows in a corner, which he placed under his arm, and
applying his mouth to the pipe, and working his elbows to and fro,
pretended that he was playing upon the bagpipes, every now and then
letting the wind escape in a shrill squeak from this novel instrument.

"Arrah, ladies and jintlemen, do jist turn your swate little eyes upon me
whilst I play for your iddifications the last illigant tune which my owld
grandmother taught me. Och hone! 'tis a thousand pities that such musical
owld crathurs should be suffered to die, at all at all, to be poked away
into a dirthy dark hole, when their canthles shud be burnin' a-top of a
bushel, givin' light to the house. An' then it is she that was the
illigant dancer, stepping out so lively and frisky, just so."

And here he minced to and fro, affecting the airs of a fine lady. The
supposititious bagpipe gave an uncertain, ominous howl, and he flung it
down, and started back with a ludicrous expression of alarm.

"Alive, is it ye are? Ye croaking owld divil, is that the tune you taught
your son?

"Och! my owld granny taught me, but now she is dead.
That a dhrop of nate whiskey is good for the head;
It would make a man spake when jist ready to dhie,
If you doubt it--my boys!--I'd advise you to thry.

"Och! my owld granny sleeps with her head on a stone,--
'Now, Malach, don't throuble the gals when I'm gone!'
I thried to obey her; but, och, I am shure,
There's no sorrow on earth that the angels can't cure.

"Och! I took her advice--I'm a bachelor still;
And I dance, and I play, with such excellent skill,
(_Taking up the bellows, and beginning to dance._)
That the dear little crathurs are striving in vain
Which first shall my hand or my fortin' obtain."

"Malach!" shouted a laughing group. "How was it that the old lady taught
you to go a-courting?

"Arrah, that's a sacret! I don't let out owld granny's sacrets," said
Malachi, gracefully waving his head to and fro to the squeaking of the
bellows; then, suddenly tossing back the long, dangling, black elf-locks
that curled down the sides of his lank, yellow cheeks, and winking
knowingly with his comical little deep-seated black eyes, he burst out
again--

"Wid the blarney I'd win the most dainty proud dame,
No gal can resist the soft sonnd of that same;
Wid the blarney, my boys--if yon doubt it, go thry--
But hand here the bottle, my whistle is dhry."

The men went back to the field, leaving Malachi to amuse those who
remained in the house; and we certainly did laugh our fill at his odd
capers and conceits.

Then he would insist upon marrying our maid. There could be no refusal--
have her he would. The girl, to keep him quiet, laughingly promised that
she would take him for her husband. This did not satisfy him. She must
take her oath upon the Bible to that effect. Mary pretended that there was
no bible in the house, but he found an old spelling-book upon a shelf in
the kitchen, and upon it he made her swear, and called upon me to bear
witness to her oath, that she was now his betrothed, and he would go next
day with her to the "praist." Poor Mary had reason to repent her frolic,
for he stuck close to her the whole evening, tormenting her to fulfil her
contract. After the sun went down, the logging-band came in to supper,
which was all ready for them. Those who remained sober ate the meal in
peace, and quietly returned to their own homes; while the vicious and the
drunken staid to brawl and fight.

After having placed the supper on the table, I was so tired with the
noise, and heat, and fatigue of the day, that I went to bed, leaving to
Mary and my husband the care of the guests.

We were obliged to endure a second and a third repetition of this odious
scene, before sixteen acres of land were rendered fit for the reception of
our fall crop of wheat.

My hatred to these tumultuous, disorderly meetings was not in the least
decreased by my husband being twice seriously hurt while attending them.
After the second injury he received, he seldom went to them himself, but
sent his oxen and servant in his place. In these odious gatherings, the
sober, moral, and industrious man is more likely to suffer than the
drunken and profane, as during the delirium of drink these men expose
others to danger as well as themselves.

The conduct of many of the settlers, who considered themselves gentlemen,
and would have been very much affronted to have been called otherwise, was
often more reprehensible than that of the poor Irish emigrants, to whom
they should have set an example of order and sobriety. The behaviour of
these young men drew upon them the severe but just censures of the poorer
class, whom they regarded in every way as their inferiors.

"That blackguard calls himself a gentleman. In what respect is he better
than us?" was an observation too frequently made use of at these
gatherings. To see a bad man in the very worst point of view, follow him
to a bee; be he profane, licentious, quarrelsome, or a rogue, all his
native wickedness will be fully developed there.

Just after the last of these logging-bees, we had to part with our good
servant Mary, and just at a time when it was the heaviest loss to me. Her
father, who had been a dairy man in the north of Ireland, an honest,
industrious man, had brought out upwards of one hundred pounds to this
country. With more wisdom than is generally exercised by Irish emigrants,
instead of sinking all his means in buying a bush farm he hired a very
good farm in Cavan, stocked it with cattle, and returned to his old
avocation. The services of his daughter, who was an excellent dairymaid,
were required to take the management of the cows; and her brother brought
a wagon and horses all the way from the front to take her home.

This event was perfectly unexpected, and left me without a moment's notice
to provide myself with another servant, at a time when servants were not
to be had, and I was perfectly unable to do the least thing. My little
Addie was sick almost to death with the summer complaint, and the eldest
still too young to take care of herself.

This was but the beginning of trouble.

Ague and lake fever had attacked our new settlement. The men in the shanty
were all down with it; and my husband was confined to his bed on each
alternate day, unable to raise hand or foot, and raving in the delirium of
the fever.

In my sister and brother's families, scarcely a healthy person remained to
attend upon the sick; and at Herriot's Falls, nine persons were stretched
upon the floor of one log cabin, unable to help themselves or one another.
After much difficulty, and only by offering enormous wages, I succeeded in
procuring a nurse to attend upon me during my confinement. The woman had
not been a day in the house before she was attacked by the same fever. In
the midst of this confusion, and with my precious little Addie lying
insensible on a pillow at the foot of my bed--expected every moment to
breathe her last sigh,--on the night of the 26th of August, the boy I had
so ardently coveted was born. The next day, Old Pine carried his wife (my
nurse) away upon his back, and I was left to struggle through, in the best
manner I could, with a sick husband, a sick child, and a new-born babe.

It was a melancholy season, one of severe mental and bodily suffering.
Those who have drawn such agreeable pictures of a residence in the
backwoods never dwell upon the periods of sickness, when, far from medical
advice, and often, as in my case, deprived of the assistance of friends by
adverse circumstances, you are left to languish, unattended, upon the
couch of pain. The day that my husband was free of the fit, he did what he
eould for me and his poor sick babes, but, ill as he was, he was obliged
to sow the wheat to enable the man to proceed with the drag, and was
therefore necessarily absent in the field the greater part of the day.

I was very ill, yet for hours at a time I had no friendly voice to cheer
me, to proffer me a drink of cold water, or to attend to the poor babe;
and worse, still worse, there was no one to help that pale, marble child,
who lay so cold and still, with half-closed violet eye, as if death had
already chilled her young heart in his iron grasp.

There was not a breath of air in our close, burning bed-closet; and the
weather was sultry beyond all that I have since experienced. How I wished
that I could be transported to an hospital at home, to enjoy the common
care that in such places is bestowed upon the sick! Bitter tears flowed
continually from my eyes over those young children. I had asked of Heaven
a son, and there he lay helpless by the side of his almost equally
helpless mother, who could not lift him up in her arms, or still his
cries; while the pale, fair angel, with her golden curls, who had lately
been the admiration of all who saw her, no longer recognized my voice, or
was conscious of my presence. I felt that I could almost resign the long
and eagerly hoped-for son, to win one more smile from that sweet,
suffering creature. Often did I weep myself to sleep, and wake to weep
again with renewed anguish.

And my poor little Katie, herself under three years of age, how patiently
she bore the loss of my care, and every comfort! How earnestly the dear
thing strove to help me! She would sit on my sick-bed, and hold my hand,
and ask me to look at her and speak to her; would inquire why Addie slept
so long, and when she would awake again. Those innocent questions went
like arrows to my heart. Lieutenant ____, the husband of my dear Emilia,
at length heard of my situation. His inestimable wife was from home,
nursing her sick mother; but he sent his maid-servant up every day for a
couple of hours, and the kind girl despatched a messenger nine miles
through the woods to Dummer, to fetch her younger sister, a child of
twelve ears old.

Oh, how grateful I felt for these signal mercies! for my situation for
nearly a week was one of the most pitiable that could be imagined. The
sickness was so prevalent that help was not to be obtained for money; and
without the assistance of that little girl, young as she was, it is more
than probable that neither myself nor my children would ever have risen
from that bed of sickness.

The conduct of our man Jacob, during this trying period, was marked with
the greatest kindness and consideration. On the days that his master was
confined to his bed with the fever, he used to place a vessel of cold
water and a cup by his bedside, and then put his honest English face in at
my door to know if he could make a cup of tea, or toast a bit of bread for
the mistress, before he went into the field.

Katie was indebted to him for all her meals. He baked, and cooked, and
churned, milked the cows, and made up the butter, as well and as carefully
as the best female servant could have done. As to poor John Monaghan, he
was down with the fever in the shanty, where four other men were all ill
the same terrible complaint.

I was obliged to leave my bed and endeavour to attend to the wants of my
young family long before I was really able. When I made my first attempt
to reach the parlour I was so weak, that, at every step, I felt as if I
should pitch forward to the ground, which seemed to undulate beneath my
feet like the floor of a cabin in a storm at sea. My husband continued to
suffer for many weeks with the ague; and when he was convalescent, all the
children, even the poor babe, were seized with it; nor did it leave us
until late in the spring of 1835.

CHAPTER V.

A TRIP TO STONY LAKE

My husband had long promised me a trip to Stony Lake, and in the summer of
1835, before the harvest commenced, he gave Mr. Y____, who kept the mill
at the rapids below Clear Lake, notice of our intention, and the worthy
old man and his family made due preparation for our reception. The little
girls were to accompany us.

We were to start at sunrise, to avoid the heat of the day, to go up as far
as Mr. Y____'s in our canoe, re-embark with his sons above the rapids in
birch-bark canoes, go as far up the lake as we could accomplish by
daylight, and return at night; the weather being very warm, and the moon
at full. Before six o'clock we were all seated in the little craft, which
spread her white sail to a foaming breeze, and sped merrily over the blue
waters. The lake on which our clearing stood was about a mile and a half
in length, and about three quarters of a mile in breadth; a mere pond,
when compared with the Bay of Quinte, Ontario, and the inland seas of
Canada. But it was _our_ lake, and, consequently, it had ten thousand
beauties in our eyes, which would scarcely have attracted the observation
of a stranger.

At the head of the Kutchawanook, the lake is divided by a long neck of
land, that forms a small bay on the right-hand side, and a very brisk
rapid on the left. The banks are formed of large masses of limestone; and
the cardinal-flower and the tiger-lily seem to have taken an especial
fancy to this spot, and to vie with each other in the display of their
gorgeous colours.

It is an excellent place for fishing; the water is very deep close to the
rocky pavement that forms the bank, and it has a pebbly bottom. Many a
magic hour, at rosy dawn, or evening gray, have I spent with my husband on
this romantic spot; our canoe fastened to a bush, and ourselves intent
upon ensnaring the black bass, a fish of excellent flavour that abounds in
this place.

Our paddles soon carried us past the narrows, and through the rapid water,
the children sitting quietly at the bottom of the boat, enchanted with all
they heard and saw, begging papa to stop and gather water-lilies, or to
catch one of the splendid butterflies that hovered over us; and often the
little Addie darted her white hand into the water to grasp at the shadow
of the gorgeous insects as they skimmed along the waves.

After passing the rapids, the river widened into another small lake,
perfectly round in form, and having in its centre a tiny green island, in
the midst of which stood, like a shattered monument of bygone storms, one
blasted, black ash-tree.

The Indians call this lake Bessikakoon, but I do not know the exact
meaning of the word. Some say that it means "the Indian's grave;" others,
"the lake of the one island." It is certain that an Indian girl is buried
beneath that blighted tree; but I never could learn the particulars of her
story, and perhaps there was no tale connected with it. She might have
fallen a victim to disease during the wanderings of her tribe, and been
buried on that spot; or she might have been drowned, which would account
for her having been buried away from the rest of her people.

This little lake lies in the heart of the wilderness. There is but one
clearing upon its shores, and that had been made by lumberers many years
before; the place abounded with red cedar. A second growth of young timber
had grown up in this spot, which was covered also with raspberry bushes--
several hundred acres being entirely overgrown with this delicious
berry.

It was here annually that we used to come in large picnic parties, to
collect this valuable fruit for our winter preserves, in defiance of
black-flies, mosquitoes, snakes, and even bears; all which have been
encountered by berry-pickers upon this spot, as busy and as active as
themselves, gathering an ample repast from Nature's bounteous lap.

And, oh! what beautiful wild shrubs and flowers grew up in that neglected
spot! Some of the happiest hours I spent in the bush are connected with
reminiscences of "Irving's shanty," for so the raspberry-grounds were
called. The clearing could not be seen from the shore. You had to scramble
through a cedar swamp to reach the sloping ground which produced the
berries.

The mill at the Clear Lake rapids was about three miles distant from our
own clearing; and after stemming another rapid, and passing between two
beautiful wooded islands, the canoe rounded a point, and the rude
structure was before us.

A wilder and more romantic spot than that which the old hunter had chosen
for his homestead in the wilderness could scarcely be imagined. The waters
of Clear Lake here empty themselves through a narrow, deep, rocky channel,
not exceeding a quarter of a mile in length, and tumble over a limestone
bridge of ten or twelve feet in height, which extends from one bank of the
river to the other. The shores on either side are very steep, and the
large oak-trees which have anchored their roots in every crevice of the
rock, throw their fantastic arms far over the foaming waterfall, the deep
green of their massy foliage forming a beautiful contrast with the white,
flashing waters that foam over the shoot at least fifty feet below the
brow of the limestone rock. By a flight of steps cut in the banks we
ascended to the platform above the river on which Mr. Y____'s house stood.

It was a large, rough-looking, log building, surrounded by barns and sheds
of the same primitive material. The porch before the door was covered with
hops, and the room of general resort, into which it immediately opened,
was of large dimensions, the huge fire-place forming the most striking
feature. On the hearth-stone, hot as was the weather, blazed a great fire,
encumbered with all sorts of culinary apparatus, which, I am inclined to
think, had been called into requisition for our sole benefit and
accommodation.

The good folks had breakfasted long before we started from home, but they
would not hear of our proceeding to Stony Lake until after we had dined.
It was only eight o'clock, A. M., and we had still four hours to dinner,
which gave us ample leisure to listen to the old man's stories, ramble
round the premises, and observe all the striking features of the place.

Mr. Y____ was a Catholic, and the son of a respectable farmer from the
south of Ireland. Some few years before, he had emigrated with a large
family of seven sons and two daughters, and being fond of field sports,
and greatly taken with the beauty of the locality in which he had pitched
his tent in the wilderness, he determined to raise a mill upon the dam
which Nature had provided at his hands, and wait patiently until the
increasing immigration should settle the township of Smith and Douro,
render the property valuable, and bring plenty of grist to the mill. He
was not far wrong in his calculations; and though, for the first few
years, he subsisted entirely by hunting, fishing, and raising what
potatoes and wheat he required for his own family, on the most fertile
spots he could find on his barren lot, very little corn passed through the
mill.

At the time we visited his place, he was driving a thriving trade, and all
the wheat that was grown in the neighbourhood was brought by water to be
ground at Y____'s mill. He had lost his wife a few years after coming to
the country; but his two daughters, Betty and Norah, were excellent
housewives, and amply supplied her loss. From these amiable women we
received a most kind and hearty welcome, and every comfort and luxury
within their reach. They appeared a most happy and contented family. The
sons--a fine, hardy, independent set of fellows--were regarded by the old
man with pride and affection. Many were his anecdotes of their prowes in
hunting and fishing. His method of giving them an aversion to strong drink
while very young amused me greatly, but it is not every child that could
have stood the test of his experiment.

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