14000 MILES 



that if the door opened a half-inch the whole arrange- 

 ment would have fallen with a crash, and everybody else 

 would have been frightened if we were not. 



The last forty miles to Sorel, where we crossed the 

 St. Lawrence to Berthier, we drove close by the river 

 Richelieu. We had left Montreal twenty miles to our 

 left, as we were bound to a point fifty miles farther north. 

 There were villages all along on either side of the river, 

 the larger ones marked by the cathedrals, whose 

 roofs and spires are dazzlingly bright with the tin cover- 

 ing, which does not change in the Canadian atmospl^ere. 

 In the smaller villages we saw many little "shrines" 

 along the wayside ; sometimes a tiny enclosure in the 

 corner of a field, with a cross ten or twelve feet high, and 

 a weather-beaten image nailed to it; and again a smaller 

 and ruder affair. Life in all the little villages seemed 

 very leisurely ; no rush or luxury, save of the camping- 

 out style. The little houses were very like the rough 

 cottages we find by lakes and ponds and at the seashore. 

 We were charmed by the French windows, which open 

 to all the light and air there is. The living-room was, 

 without exception, spotlessly neat, and almost invariably 

 furnished with a highly polished range, which would put 

 to shame many we see in the States ; and frequently a 

 bed with a bright patched quilt in one corner. The little 

 yards and the space under the piazza, which is usually 

 three or four feet from the ground, were swept like a 

 parlor. Touches of color and curtains of lace reveal a 

 love of the beautiful. The men in the field often had 

 wisps of red or white around their big straw hats, but 

 the women wore theirs without ornamentation. We saw 



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