And your little Soul, Heaven bless her! "If I happen," said she, "but to steal "Just venture abroad on a sigh; “ In an instant, she frightens me in "With some phantom of prudence or terror, "For fear I should stray into sin, 66 66 Or, what is still worse, into error! « So, instead of displaying my graces 66 Through look and through words and through mien, “I am shut up in corners and places, “Where truly I blush to be seen!" Upon hearing this piteous confession, He did not know much of the matter; "But, to-morrow, sweet Spirit!" he said, "Be at home after midnight, and then "I will come when your lady's in bed, “And we'll talk o'er the subject again.". So she whisper'd a word in his ear, Your polite little Soul may expect him. A CANADIAN BOAT-SONG. WRITTEN ON THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE'. ET REMIGEM CANTUS HORTATUR. Quintilian. FAINTLY as tolls the evening chime, Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time. I wrote these words to an air, which our boat-men sung to us very frequently. The wind was so unfavourable, that they were obliged to row all the way, and we were five days in descending the river from Kingston to Montreal, exposed to an intense sun during the day, and at night forced to take shelter from the dews in any miserable hut upon the banks that would receive us. But the magnificent scenery of the St. Lawrence repays all these difficulties. Our Voyageurs had good voices, and sung perfectly in tune together. The original words of the air, to which I adapted these stanzas, appeared to be a long, incoherent story, of which I could understand but little, from the barbarous pronunciation of the Canadians. It begins Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontré Deux cavaliers très bien montés; Q Q Soon as the woods on shore look dim, And the refrain to every verse was A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer, A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais danser. I ventured to harmonize this air, and have published it. Without that charm, which association gives to every little memorial of scenes or feelings that are past, the melody may perhaps be thought common and trifling; but I remember when we have entered, at sunset, upon one of those beautiful lakes, into which the St. Lawrence so grandly and unexpectedly opens, I have heard this simple air with a pleasure which the finest compositions of the first masters have never given me, and now, there is not a note of it, which does not recal to my memory the dip of our oars in the St. Lawrence, the flight of our boat down the Rapids, and all those new and fanciful impressions to which my heart was alive during the whole of this very interesting voyage. The above stanzas are supposed to be sung by those voyageurs, who go to the Grande Portage by the Utawas River. For an account of this wonderful undertaking see Sir Alexander Mackenzie's General History of the Fur Trade, prefixed to his Journal. 2 " At the Rapid of St. Ann they are obliged to take out part, if not the whole, of their lading. It is from this spot the Canadians consider they take their departure, as it possesses the last church on the island, which is dedicated to the tutelar saint of voyagers." Mackenzie, General History of the Fur Trade. Why should we yet our sail unfurl? There is not a breath the blue wave to curl! But, when the wind blows off the shore, Oh! sweetly we'll rest our weary oar. Utawas tide! this trembling moon Shall see us float over thy surges soon. |