88 J. LESPERANCE : LITERATURE OF FRENCH CANADA. 
There is another mine of inspiration in the domestic and social life of the people. The 
habitant is a type in himself. The French village is like nothing else on this continent. 
If you take the male chracter, you have a range from the cowreur des bois and the rafts- 
man, to the village notary and the omnipotently beneficent curé. If you take the female 
model, you have the incipient maiden, with the white veil “of the first communion flowing 
from her blond hair, to the joyous factory girl decked out as a Dolly Varden, and the rustic 
Evangeline homeward from church returning with God’s benediction upon her. 
The climate of French Canada is hard; the winters are long, but there is literary 
inspiration even there. Indeed, winter must and does enter largely into the framework - 
of French-Canadian romance and song. We may take this picture as including all the 
elements. A hunter is out in pursuit of the wily moose; he tramps over miles of untrod- 
den snow, from the first streak of dawn till the last gleam of sunlight lingers in the 
western sky. The beast is weary ; he is weary. But the weaker yields to the stronger— 
la raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure—and the broad antlers are bowed in the submis- 
sion of death. Dragging his trophy behind him, in a last effort of exhausted nature, the 
hunter turns his face homeward. The way is long and the snow is deep, but the faint 
heart buoys itself in the hope of a reward from wife and children. A turn in the road, 
and from afar the squares of yellow light beam from the well-known window panes. 
The slender bridge is crossed, the pathway to the familiar threshold is traversed, the wel- 
come door is opened and—all is over. Here is my Canadian picture—a hard day’s work 
in the cold, cold world and, at night, rest in the arms of love, beside the warm fireside of 
Home. 

