Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The French-Canadian Conteur of the Olden Days
When but a slip of a lad, I passed several-summer and winter vacations in the neighboring counties, among the french-canadian habitans. The de lights of'those localities at such seasons are inexhaustible, and transcend all pow ers of description. Across the interven ing years'their charms and lovelinessstill call to me with attractions unim paired and unsurpassed. In 1896, with a congenial companion, I re-visited some of the old haunts of my boyhood days. I wished to renew old acquaintances, re call past experiences, and ascertain if the legendary lore had undergone any ma terial changes. During my stay in the country in the old days I had made com rades of a few of the sons of farmers, in the pastime of fishing and shooting. I had often dallied with them on broad and sunny slopes, tramped the forest in their company, gun and rod in hand, and paddled over waveless lakes of a sunny day, when they mirrored the beautiful colors of sky and scenery of adjacent shores, and also when their waters arose to the breeze, simulating tossing fields of green-pointed hillocks, or white billows. Escapades and larks of various kinds, 1 had enjoyed with those light-hearted and gay souls. During those days of idleness and contentment, the hours slipped by un perceived, the excitement of the moment absorbing us completely. It was only when the glow of day began to fade and dark ness was setting in, that we bethought 'oursleves of returning to the fireside. Our accommiments homeward were the rapt voices of the forest singing their weird sagas, the wonderful winged crea -3_tures of the night ?itting about like spir its of fire, and myriads of insects swarm ing over the ground boldly or in unsus pected seclusion of the woods. And to add an eerier tone to our emotions, there would be the screech of the night hawk and the plaintive whistle of whip poor-will. The latter has often been compared by the superstitious to the call of a widowed soul for its mate, out of the boundless expanse, and it certainly increased juvenile fears. These acts of animated creatures and the mysterious murmurs of nature, if properly interpret ed, might enable na to understand some of the unfathomed wisdom of the forest, and mysterious riddles of the universe. W'hen we shake off the dust of the body we may then interpret, through some sense unknown to earthly sight, some of the things that at present transcend our powers of explanation.
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