Books: Lady Mary and her Nurse
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Catherine Parr Traill >> Lady Mary and her Nurse
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10 Produced by Avinash Kothare, Tom Allen, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
This file was produced from images generously made available by the
Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions.
LADY MARY AND HER NURSE;
OR,
A PEEP INTO THE CANADIAN FOREST.
by
MRS. TRAILL
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
THE FLYING SQUIRREL--ITS FOOD--STORY OF A WOLF--INDIAN VILLAGE--WILD RICE
CHAPTER II.
SLEIGHING--SLEIGH ROBES--FUR CAPS--OTTER SKINS--OLD SNOW-STORM--OTTER
HUNTING--OTTER SLIDES--INDIAN NAMES--REMARKS ON WILD ANIMALS AND THEIR
HABITS
CHAPTER III.
PART I.--LADY MARY READS TO MRS. FRAZER THE FIRST PART OF THE HISTORY OF
THE SQUIRREL FAMILY
PART II.--WHICH TELLS HOW THE GREY SQUIRRELS GET ON WHILE THEY REMAINED
ON PINE ISLAND--HOW THEY BEHAVED TO THEIR POOR RELATIONS, THE CHITMUNKS--
AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM IN THE FOREST
PART III.--HOW THE SQUIRRELS GOT TO THE MILL AT THE RAPIDS--AND WHAT
HAPPENED TO VELVET-PAW
CHAPTER IV.
SQUIRRELS--THE CHITMUNKS--DOCILITY OF A PET ONE--ROGUERY OF A YANKEE
PEDLAR--RETURN OF THE MUSICAL CHITMUNK TO HIS MASTER'S BOSOM--SAGACITY OF
A BLACK SQUIRREL
CHAPTER V.
INDIAN BASKETS--THREAD--PLANTS--MAPLE SUGAR-TREE--INDIAN ORNAMENTAL WORKS
--RACOONS
CHAPTER VI.
CANADIAN FLOWERS--AMERICAN PORCUPINE--CANADIAN BIRDS--SNOW SPARROW-ROBIN
RED-BREAST
CHAPTER VII.
INDIAN BAG--INDIAN EMBROIDERY--BEAVER'S TAIL--BEAVER ARCHITECTURE--HABITS
OF THE BEAVER--BEAVER TOOLS--BEAVER MEADOWS
CHAPTER VIII.
INDIAN BOY AND HIS PETS--TAME BEAVER AT HOME--KITTEN, WILDFIRE--PET
RACOON AND THE SPANIEL PUPPIES--CANADIAN FLORA
CHAPTER IX.
NURSE TELLS LADY MARY ABOUT A LITTLE BOY WHO WAS EATEN BY A BEAR IN THE
PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK--OF A BABY THAT WAS CARRIED AWAY, BUT TAKEN
ALIVE--A WALK IN THE GARDEN--HUMMING BIRDS--CANADIAN BALSAMS
CHAPTER X.
AURORA BOREALIS, OR NORTHERN LIGHTS, MOST FREQUENTLY SEEN IN NORTHERN
CLIMATES--CALLED MERRY DANCERS--ROSE TINTS--TINT-LIKE APPEARANCE--LADY
MARY FRIGHTENED
CHAPTER XI
STRAWBERRIES--CANADIAN WILD FRUITS--WILD RASPBERRIES--THE HUNTER AND THE
LOST CHILD--CRANBERRIES--CRANBERRY MARSHES--NUTS
CHAPTER XII
GARTER SNAKES--RATTLE SNAKES--ANECDOTE OF A LITTLE BOY--FISHERMAN AND
SNAKE--SNAKE CHARMERS--SPIDERS--LAND TORTOISE
CHAPTER XIII
ELLEN AND HER PET PAWNS--DOCILITY OF PAN--JACK'S DROLL TRICKS--
AFFECTIONATE WOLF--FALL FLOWERS--DEPARTURE OF LADY MARY--THE END
A PEEP INTO THE CANADIAN FOREST.
CHAPTER I.
THE FLYING SQUIRREL--ITS FOOD--STORY OF A WOLF--INDIAN VILLAGE--WILD RICE.
"Nurse, what is the name of that pretty creature you have in your hand?
What bright eyes it has! What a soft tail, just like a grey feather! Is it
a little beaver?" asked the Governor's [Footnote: Lady Mary's father was
Governor of Canada.] little daughter, as her nurse came into the room
where her young charge, whom we shall call Lady Mary, was playing with her
doll.
Carefully sheltered against her breast, its velvet nose just peeping from
beneath her muslin neckerchief, the nurse held a small grey-furred animal,
of the most delicate form and colour.
"No, my lady," she replied, "this is not a young beaver; a beaver is a
much larger animal. A beaver's tail is not covered with fur; it is scaly,
broad, and flat; it looks something like black leather, not very unlike
that of my seal-skin slippers. The Indians eat beavers' tails at their
great feasts, and think they make an excellent dish."
"If they are black, and look like leather shoes, I am very sure I should
not like to eat them; so, if you please, Mrs. Frazer, do not let me have
any beavers' tails cooked for my dinner," said the little lady in a very
decided tone.
"Indeed, my lady," replied her nurse, smiling, "it would not be an easy
thing to obtain, if you wished to taste one, for beavers are not brought
to our market. It is only the Indians and hunters who know how to trap
them, and beavers are not so plentiful as they used to be."
Mrs. Frazer would have told Lady Mary a great deal about the way in which
the trappers take the beavers, but the little girl interrupted her by
saying, "Please, nurse, will you tell me the name of your pretty pet? Ah,
sweet thing! what bright eyes you have!" she added, caressing the soft
little head which was just seen from beneath the folds of the muslin
handkerchief to which it timidly nestled, casting furtive glances at the
admiring child, while the panting of its breast told the mortal terror
that shook its frame whenever the little girl's hand was advanced to coax
its soft back.
"It is a flying squirrel, Lady Mary," replied her nurse; "one of my
brothers caught it a month ago, when he was chopping in the forest. He
thought it might amuse your ladyship, and so he tamed it and sent it to me
in a basket filled with moss, with some acorns, and hickory-nuts, and
beech-mast for him to eat on his journey, for the little fellow has
travelled a long way: he came from the beech-woods near the town of
Coburg, in the Upper Province."
"And where is Coburg, nurse? Is it a large city like Montreal or Quebec?"
"No, my lady; it is a large town on the shores of the great Lake Ontario."
"And are there many woods near it?"
"Yes; but not so many as there used to be many years ago. The forest is
almost all cleared, and there are fields of wheat and Indian corn, and
nice farms and pretty houses, where a few years back the lofty forest grew
dark and thick."
"Nurse, you said there were acorns, and hickory-nuts, and beech-mast in
the basket. I have seen acorns at home in dear England and Scotland, and I
have eaten the hickory-nuts here; but what is beech-mast? Is it in
granaries for winter stores; and wild ducks and wild pigeons come from the
far north at the season when the beech-mast fall, to eat them; for God
teaches these, His creatures, to know the times and the seasons when His
bounteous hand is open to give them food from His boundless store. A great
many other birds and beasts also feed upon the beech-mast."
"It was very good of your brother to send me this pretty creature,
nurse," said the little lady; "I will ask Papa to give him some money."
"There is no need of that, Lady Mary. My brother is not in want; he has a
farm in the Upper Province, and is very well off."
"I am glad he is well off," said Lady Mary; "indeed, I do not see so many
beggars here as in England."
"People need not beg in Canada, if they are well and strong and can work;
a poor man can soon earn enough money to keep himself and his little ones."
"Nurse, will you be so kind as to ask Campbell to get a pretty cage for
my squirrel? I will let him live close to my dormice, who will be pleasant
company for him, and I will feed him every day myself with nuts and sugar,
and sweet cake and white bread. Now do not tremble and look so frightened,
as though I were going to hurt you; and pray, Mr. Squirrel, do not bite.
Oh! nurse, nurse, the wicked, spiteful creature has bitten my finger! See,
see, it has made it bleed! Naughty thing! I will not love you if you bite.
Pray, nurse, bind up my finger, or it will soil my frock."
Great was the pity bestowed upon the wound by Lady Mary's kind attendant,
till the little girl, tired of hearing so much said about the bitten
finger, gravely desired her maid to go in search of the cage, and catch
the truant, which had effected its escape, and was clinging to the
curtains of the bed. The cage was procured--a large wooden cage, with an
outer and an inner chamber, a bar for the little fellow to swing himself
on, and a drawer for his food, and a little dish for his water. The
sleeping-room was furnished by the nurse with soft wool, and a fine store
of nuts was put in the drawer; all his wants were well supplied, and Lady
Mary watched the catching of the little animal with much interest. Great
was the activity displayed by the runaway squirrel, and still greater the
astonishment evinced by the Governor's little daughter, at the flying
leaps made by the squirrel in its attempts to elude the grasp of its
pursuers.
"It flies! I am sure it must have wings. Look, look, nurse! it is here,
now it is on the wall, now on the curtains! It must have wings, but it has
no feathers!"
"It has no wings, dear lady, but it has a fine ridge of fur, that covers
a strong sinew or muscle between the fore and hinder legs; and it is by
the help of this muscle that it is able to spring so far, and so fast; and
its claws are so sharp that it can cling to a wall, or any flat surface.
The black and red squirrels, and the common grey, can jump very far, and
run up the bark of the trees very fast, but not so fast as the flying
squirrel."
At last Lady Mary's maid, with the help of one of the housemaids,
succeeded in catching the squirrel, and securing him within his cage. But
though Lady Mary tried all her words of endearment to coax the little
creature to eat some of the good things that had been provided so
liberally for his entertainment, he remained sullen and motionless at the
bottom of the cage. A captive is no less a captive in a cage with gilded
bars, and with dainties to eat, than if rusted iron shut him in, and kept
him from enjoying his freedom. It is for dear liberty that he pines, and
is sad, even in the midst of plenty!
"Dear nurse, why does my little squirrel tremble and look so unhappy?
Tell me if he wants anything to eat that we have not given him. Why does
he not lie down and sleep on the nice soft bed you have made for him in
his little chamber? See, he has not tasted the nice sweet cake and sugar
that I gave him."
"He is not used to such dainties, Lady Mary. In the forest, he feeds upon
hickory-nuts, and butter-nuts, and acorns, and beech-mast, and the buds of
the spruce, fir and pine kernels, and many other seeds and nuts and
berries, that we could not get for him; he loves grain too, and Indian
corn. He sleeps on green moss and leaves, and fine fibres of grass and
roots; and drinks heaven's blessed dew, as it lies bright and pure upon
the herbs of the field."
"Dear little squirrel, pretty creature! I know now what makes you sad.
You long to be abroad among your own green woods, and sleeping on the soft
green moss, which is far prettier than this ugly cotton wool. But you
shall stay with me, my sweet one, till the cold winter is passed and gone,
and the spring flowers have come again; and then, my pretty squirrel, I
will take you out of your dull cage, and we will go to St. Helen's green
island, and I will let you go free; but I will put a scarlet collar about
your neck before I let you go, that, if any one finds you, they may know
that you are my squirrel. Were you ever in the green forest, nurse? I hear
Papa talk about the 'Bush' and the 'Backwoods;' it must be very pleasant
in the summer, to live among the green trees. Were you ever there?"
"Yes, dear lady, I did live in the woods when I was a child. I was born
in a little log-shanty, far, far away up the country, near a beautiful
lake, called Rice Lake, among woods, and valleys, and hills covered with
flowers, and groves of pine, and white and black oaks."
"Stop, nurse, and tell me why they are called black and white; are the
flowers black and white?"
"No, my lady; it is because the wood of the one is darker than the other,
and the leaves of the black oak are dark and shining, while those of the
white oak are brighter and lighter. The black oak is a beautiful tree.
When I was a young girl, I used to like to climb the sides of the steep
valleys, and look down upon the tops of the oaks that grew beneath; and to
watch the wind lifting the boughs all glittering in the moonlight; they
looked like a sea of ruffled green water. It is very solemn, Lady Mary, to
be in the woods by night, and to hear no sound but the cry of the great
wood-owl, or the voice of the whip-poor-will, calling to his fellow from
the tamarack swamp; or, may be, the timid bleating of a fawn that has lost
its mother, or the howl of a wolf."
"Nurse, I should be so afraid; I am sure I should cry if I heard the
wicked wolves howling in the dark woods, by night. Did you ever know any
one who was eaten by a wolf?"
"No, my lady; the Canadian wolf is a great coward. I have heard the
hunters say, that they never attack any one, unless there is a great flock
together and the man is alone and unarmed. My uncle used to go out a great
deal hunting, sometimes by torchlight, and sometimes on the lake in a
canoe, with the Indians; and he shot and trapped a great many wolves and
foxes and racoons. He has a great many heads of wild animals nailed up on
the stoup in front of his log-house."
"Please tell me what a stoup is, nurse?"
"A verandah, my lady, is the same thing, only the old Dutch settlers gave
it the name of a stoup; and the stoup is heavier and broader, and not
quite so nicely made as a verandah. One day my uncle was crossing the lake
on the ice; it was a cold winter afternoon; he was in a hurry to take some
food to his brothers, who were drawing pine-logs in the bush. He had,
besides a bag of meal and flour, a new axe on his shoulder. He heard steps
as of a dog trotting after him; he turned his head, and there he saw close
at his heels, a big, hungry-looking grey wolf; he stopped and faced about,
and the big beast stopped and showed his white sharp teeth. My uncle did
not feel afraid, but looked steadily at the wolf, as much as to say,
'Follow me if you dare,' and walked on. When my uncle stopped, the wolf
stopped; when he went on, the beast also went on.
"I would have run away," said Lady Mary.
"If my uncle had let the wolf see that he was afraid of him, he would
have grown bolder, and have run after him and seized him. All animals are
afraid of brave men, but not of cowards. When the beast came too near, my
uncle faced him, and showed the bright axe, and the wolf then shrank back
a few paces. When my uncle got near the shore, he heard a long wild cry,
as if from twenty wolves at once. It might have been the echoes from the
islands that increased the sound; but it was very frightful, and made his
blood chill, for he knew that without his rifle he should stand a poor
chance against a large pack of hungry wolves. Just then a gun went off; he
heard the wolf give a terrible yell, he felt the whizzing of a bullet pass
him, and, turning about, saw the wolf lying dead on the ice. A loud shout
from the cedars in front told him from whom the shot came; it was my
father, who had been on the look-out on the lake shore, and he had fired
at and hit the wolf, when he saw that he could do so without hurting his
brother."
"Nurse, it would have been a sad thing if the gun had shot your uncle."
"It would; but my father was one of the best shots in the district, and
could hit a white spot on the bark of a tree at a great distance without
missing. It was an old Indian from Buckhorn Lake, who taught him to shoot
deer by torchlight, and to trap beavers."
"Well, I am glad that horrid wolf was killed, for wolves eat sheep and
lambs; and I dare say they would devour my little squirrel if they could
get him. Nurse, please to tell me again the name of the lake near which
you were born."
"It is called Rice Lake, my lady. It is a fine piece of water, more than
twenty miles long, and from three to five miles broad. It has pretty
wooded islands, and several rivers or streams empty themselves into it.
The Otonabee River is a fine broad stream, which flows through the forest
a long way. Many years ago, there were no clearings on the banks, and no
houses, only Indian tents or wigwams; but now, there are a great many
houses and farms."
"What are wigwams?"
"A sort of light tent, made with poles stuck into the ground, in a
circle, fastened together at the top, and covered on the outside with
skins of wild animals, or with birch bark. The Indians light a fire of
sticks and logs on the ground, in the middle of the wigwam, and lie or sit
all round it; the smoke goes up to the top and escapes. In the winter,
they bank it up with snow, and it is very warm."
"I think it must be a very ugly sort of house; and I am glad I do not
live in an Indian wigwam," said the little lady.
"The Indians are a very simple folk, my lady, and do not need fine
houses, like this in which your papa lives. They do not know the names or
uses of half the fine things that are in the houses of the white people.
They are happy and contented without them. It is not the richest that are
happiest, Lady Mary, and the Lord careth for the poor and the lowly. There
is a village on the shores of Rice Lake where the Indians live. It is not
very pretty. The houses are all built of logs, and some of them have
gardens and orchards. They have a neat church, and they have a good
minister, who takes great pains to teach them the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The poor Indians were Pagans until within the last few years."
"What are Pagans, nurse?"
"People, Lady Mary, who do not believe in God, and the Lord Jesus Christ,
our blessed Saviour."
"Nurse, is there real rice growing in the Rice Lake? I heard my governess
say that rice grew only in warm countries. Now, your lake must be very
cold if your uncle walked across the ice."
"This rice, my lady, is not real rice. I heard a gentleman tell my father,
that it was, properly speaking, a species of oats, [Footnote: Zizania or
water oats.]--water oats he called it, but the common name for it is wild
rice. This wild rice grows in vast beds in the lake, in patches of many
acres. It will grow in water from eight to ten or twelve feet deep; the
grassy leaves float upon the water like long narrow green ribbons. In the
month of August, the stem that is to bear the flower and the grain rises
straight up, above the surface, and light delicate blossoms come out of a
pale straw colour and lilac. They are very pretty, and wave in the wind
with a rustling noise. In the month of October, when the rice is ripe, the
leaves turn yellow, and the rice-heads grow heavy and droop; then the
squaws--as the Indian women are called--go out in their birch-bark canoes,
holding in one hand a stick, in the other a short curved paddle, with a
sharp edge. With this, they bend down the rice across the stick, and strike
off the heads, which fall into the canoe, as they push it along through the
rice-beds. In this way they collect a great many bushels in the course of
the day. The wild rice is not the least like the rice which your ladyship
has eaten; it is thin and covered with a light chaffy husk. The colour of
the grain itself is a brownish green, or olive, smooth, shining, and
brittle. After separating the outward chaff, the squaws put by a large
portion of the clean rice in its natural state for sale; for this they get
from a dollar and a half to two dollars a bushel. Some they parch, either
in large pots, or on mats made of the inner bark of cedar or bass wood,
beneath which they light a slow fire, and plant around it a temporary hedge
of green boughs, closely set to prevent the heat from escaping; they also
plant stakes, over which they stretch the matting at a certain height above
the fire. On this they spread the green rice, stirring it about with wooden
paddles, till it is properly parched; this is known by its bursting and
showing the white grain of the flour. When quite cool it is stowed away in
troughs, scooped out of butter-nut wood, or else sewed up in sheets of
birch-bark or bass-mats, or in coarsely made birch-bark baskets."
"And is the rice good to eat, nurse?"
"Some people like it as well as the white rice of Carolina; but it does
not look so well. It is a great blessing to the poor Indians, who boil it
in their soups, or eat it with maple molasses. And they eat it when
parched without any other cooking, when they are on a long journey in the
woods, or on the lakes. I have often eaten nice puddings made of it with
milk. The deer feed upon the green rice. They swim into the water, and eat
the green leaves and tops. The Indians go out at night to shoot the deer
on the water; they listen for them, and shoot them in the dark. The wild
ducks and water-fowls come down in great flocks to fatten on the ripe rice
in the fall of the year; also large flocks of rice buntings and red wings
which make their roosts among the low willows, flags, and lilies close to
the shallows of the lake."
"It seems very useful to birds as well as to men and beasts," said little
Lady Mary.
"Yes, my lady, and to fishes also, I make no doubt; for the good God has
cast it so abundantly abroad on the waters, that I dare say they also have
their share. When the rice is fully ripe, the sun shining on it gives it a
golden hue, just like a field of ripened grain. Surrounded by the deep
blue waters, it looks very pretty."
"I am very much obliged to you, nurse, for telling me so much about the
Indian rice, and I will ask mamma to let me have some one day for my
dinner, that I may know how it tastes."
Just then Lady Mary's governess came to bid her nurse dress her for a
sleigh-ride, and so for the present we shall leave her; but we will tell
our little readers something more in another chapter about Lady Mary and
her flying squirrel.
CHAPTER II.
SLEIGHING--SLEIGH ROBES--FUR CAPS--OTTER SKINS--OLD SNOW-STORM--OTTER
HUNTING--OTTER SLIDES--INDIAN NAMES--REMARKS ON WILD ANIMALS AND THEIR
HABITS.
"Nurse, we have had a very nice sleigh-drive. I like sleighing very much
over the white snow. The trees look so pretty, as if they were covered
with white flowers, and the ground sparkled just like mamma's diamonds."
"It is pleasant, Lady Mary, to ride through the woods on a bright
sunshiny day, after a fresh fall of snow. The young evergreens, hemlocks,
balsams, and spruce-trees, are loaded with great masses of the new-fallen
snow; while the slender saplings of the beech, birch, and basswood are
bent down to the very ground, making bowers so bright and beautiful, you
would be delighted to see them. Sometimes, as you drive along, great
masses of the snow come showering down upon you; but it is so light and
dry, that it shakes off without wetting you. It is pleasant to be wrapped
up in warm blankets, or buffalo robes, at the bottom of a lumber-sleigh,
and to travel through the forest by moonlight; the merry bells echoing
through the silent woods, and the stars just peeping down through the
frosted trees, which sparkle like diamonds in the moonbeams."
"Nurse, I should like to take a drive through the forest in winter. It is
so nice to hear the sleigh-bells. We used sometimes to go out in the snow
in Scotland, but we were in the carriage, and had no bells."
"No, Lady Mary: the snow seldom lies long enough in the old country to
make it worth while to have sleighs there; but in Russia and Sweden, and
other cold Northern countries, they use sleighs with bells."
Lady Mary ran to the little bookcase where she had a collection of
children's books, and very soon found, in one of Peter Parley's books, a
picture of Laplanders and Russians wrapped in furs sleighing.
"How long will the winter last, nurse?" said the child, after she had
tired herself with looking at the prints; "a long, long time--a great many
weeks?--a great many months?"
"Yes, my lady; five or six months."
"Oh, that is nice--nearly half a year of white snow, and sleigh-drives
every day, and bells ringing all the time! I tried to make out a tune, but
they only seemed to say, 'Up-hill, up-hill! down-hill, down-hill!' all the
way. Nurse, please tell me what are sleigh-robes made of?"
"Some sleigh-robes, Lady Mary, are made of bear-skins, lined with red or
blue flannel; some are of wolf-skins, lined with bright scarlet cloth; and
some of racoon; the commonest are buffalo-skins: I have seen some of
deer-skins, but these last are not so good, as the hair comes off, and they
are not so warm as the skins of the furred or woolly-coated animals."
"I sometimes see long tails hanging down over the backs of the sleigh and
cutters--they look very pretty, like the end of mamma's boa."
"The wolf and racoon skin robes are generally made up with the tails, and
sometimes the heads of the animals are also left. I noticed the head of a
wolf, with its sharp ears, and long white teeth, looking very fierce, at
the back of a cutter, the other day."
"Nurse, that must have looked very droll. Do you know, I saw a gentleman
the other day, walking with papa, who had a fox-skin cap on his head, and
the fox's nose was just peeping over his shoulder, and the tail hung down
his back, and I saw its bright black eyes looking so cunning. I thought it
must be alive, and that it had curled itself round his head; but the
gentleman took it off, and showed me that the eyes were glass."
"Some hunters, Lady Mary, make caps of otter, mink, or badger skins, and
ornament them with the tails, heads, and claws."
"I have seen a picture of the otter, nurse; it is a pretty, soft-looking
thing, with a round head and black eyes. Where do otters live?"
"The Canadian otters, Lady Mary, live in holes in the banks of sedgy,
shallow lakes, mill-ponds, and sheltered creeks. The Indian hunters find
their haunts by tracking their steps in the snow; for an Indian or
Canadian hunter knows the track made by any bird or beast, from the deep
broad print of the bear, to the tiny one of the little shrewmouse, which
is the smallest four-footed beast in this or any other country.
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