178 Autumn 



is filled with unfledged cushats, young wild duck taken' 

 in defiance of the Acts of Parliament from the bog, 

 and succulent young squirrels from the plantation. 

 Add to all the legitimate spoils of the rod, the whit- 

 lings and bull trout, and even salmon, killed by the 

 father ; the yellow and speckled trout, the perches, 

 eels, and small jack, taken by the boys with rough 

 wands and tailor's thread, and crooked pins ; and, as 

 must be added, a quantity of illegitimate booty from 

 gun and snare, consisting mostly of rabbits, with a few 

 hares, and an occasional pheasant or partridge ; and 

 it will be understood why food is so abundant in the 

 house of a man oftener seen at the public-house than 

 at his work. Yet were the household removed to 

 town it would speedily be submerged among 'the 

 lapsed masses.' 



The avocations of city and commercial life blind 

 those who pursue them to their dependence on and 

 alliance with Nature. It makes them forget that all 

 their great offices, and shops, and bazaars, ships, rail- 

 ways, and canals, their companies, and mart and 

 exchanges, are but complications and compoundings 

 of man's simple and primitive calling, to sow the seed 

 and reap the harvest. In the hazy thin autumnal 

 sunshine, he who looks on a quiet rural landscape will 

 hardly avoid feeling with renewed freshness the force 

 of this strong elemental truth. Look down on that 

 brown white field wherefrom the high-piled cart has 

 borne the last dry shocks of wheat ; in one corner of it 



