38 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



.Keppel, in Grey, 27.17, and Sarawak, in Grey, 45.8 

 per cent. The loss is as widespread in the Maritime 

 Provinces as in Ontario. In New Brunswick, Hamp- 

 ton lost 36 per cent, of its homes, Hillsborough 39, 

 Sussex 46, St. Francis 49, and Madawaska 58 per cent. 

 Not poetic sentiment only but stern fact in fancy drest- 

 is given us in the lines : 



Memory gleams like a gem at night 



Through the gloom of to-day to me, 

 Bringing dreams of a childhood bright 

 At Chateauguay. 



Stands a house by the river side, 



Weeds upspring where the hearth should be, 

 Only its tottering walls abide, 

 At Chateauguay.* 



But the abandoned dwelling is a lesser social evil than 

 the weakened household. While engaged in pastoral 

 visiting lately, a parishioner spoke to me of the number 

 of houses in his neighborhood from which a multitude 

 once went with him to the house of God to keep holyday. 

 But the pathos of the situation was seen in this, that 

 he himself was living in his well-found house alone. 

 From Edwardsburg we lost in the decade one- 

 eleventh of our families, but one-fifth of our popu- 

 lation. The families which remain are depleted 

 households in the midst of a depleted countryside. 

 From the families which are still with us in Gren- 

 ville there have gone away 1,303 persons. This 

 does not mean that simply the redundant members 

 of the household leave. It means that in many 

 cases parents are left to carry on the farm alone. Let 



* Arthur Weir, " Fleur de Lys." 



