Country Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE BOUND OF PIONEER LIFE?GAME?NIGHT FISHINO?MOEB DETAILS ABOUT SUGAR-MAKING?SUGARING-OFF?TAKING A HAND AT THE OLD CHURN?SHEEP-WASHING?COUNTRY GIRLS, THEN AND NOW?SUBSTANCE AND SHADOW?U OLD GRAY AMD HIS ECCENTRICITIES?HARVEST?MY EAKL EMULATION OF PETER PAUL RUBENS?MEETING-HOUSES?ELIA ON QUAKER...
More Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE BOUND OF PIONEER LIFE?GAME?NIGHT FISHINO?MOEB DETAILS ABOUT SUGAR-MAKING?SUGARING-OFF?TAKING A HAND AT THE OLD CHURN?SHEEP-WASHING?COUNTRY GIRLS, THEN AND NOW?SUBSTANCE AND SHADOW?U OLD GRAY AMD HIS ECCENTRICITIES?HARVEST?MY EAKL EMULATION OF PETER PAUL RUBENS?MEETING-HOUSES?ELIA ON QUAKER MEETINGS?VARIEGATED AUTUMN LANDSCAPES?LOGGING AND QUILTING BEES?EVENING FUN?THE TOUCHIKG LAY OF THE YOUNG WOMAN WHO SAT DOWN TO SLEEP. TTISITING for the older folk and sleigh-riding for the younger were the principal amusements of the winter. The life then led was very plain and uneventful. There was no ostentatious display, or assumption of superiority by the first families. Indeed there was no room for the lines of demarcation which exist in these days. All had to struggle for a home and home comforts, and if some had been more successful in the rough battle of pioneer life than others, they saw no reason why they should be elated or puffed up over it. Neighbours were too scarce to be coldly or haughtily treated. They had hewn their way, side by side, into the fastnesses ofthe Canadian bush, and therefore stood on one common level. But few superfluities could be found either in their houses or on their persons. Their dress was of home-made fabric, plain, often coarse, but substantial and comfortable. Their manners were cordial and hearty, even to brusqueness, but they were true friends and honest counsellors, rejoicing with their neighbours in prosperity, and sympathising when days of darkness visited their homes. Modern refinement had not crept into their domestic circle to disturb it with shams and pretensions. Fashion had no court wherein to adjudicate on matters of dress. Time- worn styles of dress and living were considered the best, and hence there was no riv...