WILLIAM COB LETT. 89 



did I fall in love at once with this bouquet of lilies and 

 roses ? Oh ! by no means. I was, however, so enchanted 

 with the place, I so much enjoyed its tranquillity, the shade 

 of the maple trees, the business of the farm, the sports of the 

 water and of the woods, that I stayed at it to the last possible 

 minute, promising, at my departure, to come again as often as 

 I possibly could — a promise which I most punctually fulfilled. 



• Winter is the great season for jaunting and dancing (called 

 frolicking) in America. In this province, the river and the 

 creeks were the only roads from settlement to settlement. In 

 summer we travelled in canoes ; in winter, in sleighs on the 

 ice or snow. During more than two years, I spent all the 

 time I could with my Yankee friends : they were all fond of 

 me : I talked to them about country affairs, my evident delight 

 in which they took as a compliment to themselves : the father 

 and mother treated me as one of their children, the sons as 

 a brother, and the daughter, who was as modest and as full of 

 sensibility as she was beautiful, in a way to which a chap 

 much less sanguine than I was, would have given the tenderest 

 interpretation ; which treatment I, especially in the last-men- 

 tioned case, most cordially repaid. 



* Yet I was not a deceiver ; for my affection for her was very 

 great : I spent no really pleasant hours but with her : I was 

 uneasy if she showed the slightest regard for any other young 

 man : I was unhappy if the smallest matter affected her health 

 or spirits : I quitted her in dejection, and returned to her 

 with eager delight : many a time, when I could get leave but 

 for a day, I paddled in a canoe two whole succeeding nights, 

 in order to pass that day with her. If this was not love, it 

 was first cousin to it ; for, as to any criminal intention, I no 

 more thought of it, in her case, than if she had been my 



