Life in the Backwoods | Page 2

driver was a shrewd, clever man, for his opportunities. He took
charge of the living cargo, which consisted of my husband, our
maid-servant, the two little children, and myself--besides a large
hamper, full of poultry-- a dog, and a cat. The lordly sultan of the
imprisoned seraglio thought fit to conduct himself in a very eccentric

manner, for at every barnyard we happened to pass, he clapped his
wings, and crowed so long and loud that it afforded great amusement to
the whole party, and doubtless was very edifying to the poor hens, who
lay huddled together as mute as mice.
"That 'ere rooster thinks he's on the top of the heap," said our driver,
laughing. "I guess he's not used to travelling in a close conveyance.
Listen! How all the crowers in the neighbourhood give him back a note
of defiance! But he knows that he's safe enough at the bottom of the
basket."
The day was so bright for the time of year (the first week in February),
that we suffered no inconvenience from the cold. Little Katie was
enchanted with the jingling of the sleigh-bells, and, nestled among the
packages, kept singing or talking to the horses in her baby lingo.
Trifling as these little incidents were, before we had proceeded ten
miles on our long journey, they revived my drooping spirits, and I
began to feel a lively interest in the scenes through which we were
passing.
The first twenty miles of the way was over a hilly and well-cleared
country; and as in winter the deep snow fills up the inequalities, and
makes all roads alike, we glided as swiftly and steadily along as if they
had been the best highways in the world. Anon, the clearings began to
diminish, and tall woods arose on either side of the path; their solemn
aspect, and the deep silence that brooded over their vast solitudes,
inspiring the mind with a strange awe. Not a breath of wind stirred the
leafless branches, whose huge shadows, reflected upon the dazzling
white covering of snow, lay so perfectly still, that it seemed as if
Nature had suspended her operations, that life and motion had ceased,
and that she was sleeping in her winding-sheet, upon the bier of death.
"I guess you will find the woods pretty lonesome," said our driver,
whose thoughts had been evidently employed on the same subject as
our own. "We were once in the woods, but emigration has stepped
ahead of us, and made our'n a cleared part of the country. When I was a
boy, all this country, for thirty miles on every side of us, was bush land.
As to Peterborough, the place was unknown; not a settler had ever

passed through the great swamp, and some of them believed that it was
the end of the world."
"What swamp is that?" asked I.
"Oh, the great Cavan swamp. We are just two miles from it; and I tell
you the horses will need a good rest, and ourselves a good dinner, by
the time we are through it. Ah! Mrs. Moodie, if ever you travel that
way in summer, you will know something about corduroy roads. I was
'most jolted to death last fall; I thought it would have been no bad
notion to have insured my teeth before I left C----. I really expected that
they would have been shook out of my head before we had done
manoeuvring over the big logs."
"How will my crockery stand it in the next sleigh?" quoth I. "If the road
is such as you describe, I am afraid that I shall not bring a whole plate
to Douro."
"Oh! the snow is a great leveller--it makes all rough places smooth. But
with regard to this swamp, I have something to tell you. About ten
years ago, no one had ever seen the other side of it; and if pigs or cattle
strayed away into it, they fell a prey to the wolves and bears, and were
seldom recovered.
"An old Scotch emigrant, who had located himself on this side of it, so
often lost his beasts that he determined during the summer season to try
and explore the place, and see if there were any end to it. So he takes an
axe on his shoulder, and a bag of provisions for the week, not
forgetting a flask of whiskey, and off he starts all alone, and tells his
wife that if he never returned, she and little Jock must try and carry on
the farm without him; but he was determined to see the end of the
swamp, even if it led to the other world. He fell upon a fresh
cattle-track, which he followed all that day; and towards night he found
himself in