[boueinot] builders OF NOVA SCOTIA 29 



The Loyalist poet Stansbury ^ wrote the following verses from Nova 

 Scotia to his wife to whom he did not present a very encouraging pros- 

 pect for the future : 



" Believe me Love, this vagrant life 

 O'er Nova Scotia's wilds to roam, 

 While far from children, friends or wife, 



Or place that I can call a home 

 Delights not me ; — another way 

 My treasures, pleasures, wishes lay. 



" In piercing, wet, and wintry skies, 



Where man would seem in vain to toil 



I see where'er I turn my eyes. 

 Luxuriant pasture, trees and soil. 



Uncharm'd I see : — another way 

 My fondest hopes and wishes lay. 



" Oh, could I through the future see 



Enough to form a settled plan. 

 To feed my infant train and thee 



And fill the rank and style of man ; 

 I'd cheerful be the livelong day. 



Since all my wishes point that way. 



" But when I see a sordid shed 



Of birchen bark procured with care. 

 Designed to shield the aged head 



Which British mercy placed there 

 'Tis too, too much ! I cannot stay. 



But turn with streaming eyes away. 



" Oh, how your heart would bleed to view 



Six pretty prattlers like your own, 

 Expos'd to every wind that blew ; 



Condemn'd in such a hut to moan. 

 Could this be borne, Cordelia, say? 



Contented in your cottage stay." 



" 'Tis true, that in this climate rude. 



The mind resolv'd may happy be ; 

 And may, with toil and solitude. 



Live independent and be free. 

 So the lone hermit yields to slow decay, 



Unfriended lives— unheeded glides away. 



" If so far humbled that no pride remains. 



But moot indifference which way flows the stream ; 



Resigned to penury, its cares and pains, 

 And hope has left you like a painted dream ; 



Then here, Cordelia, bend your pensive way. 

 And close the evening of Life's wretched day-" 



1 See " The Loyal verses of Joseph Stansbury and Doctor Jonathan Odell, re- 

 lating to the American Revolution. Now first edited by Winthrop Sargent, Albany, 

 1860." A rare book ; No. VI. of " Munsell's Historical Series." 



