1859.] BROOKS' FARM, 225 



From Ottawa he went forty miles by. stages to Brooks' Farm, 

 along the banks of the Gatineau. This excursion made him 

 better acquainted with the forest and the lumber-men. Mr. 

 Brooks was a settler from New England, who had a large house 

 on his farm, which was a great resort of the lumberers. It 

 happened that the surrounding forest had been burnt the 

 summer before. It gave Philip a most dreary sensation, to 

 see the great tall pines and hemlocks, as far as his eye could 

 reach, bare, charred, and bleak. He spent a Sunday in this 

 quiet place. He soon found the family school-house, and 

 made friends with the children, and got the boys to be his 

 guides to the Pawgan Fall, the giant " Strid " of the Gatineau : 

 with which he was the more delighted, because he had no 

 wrong anticipations. " My pleasure was indescribably in- 

 creased by the very unwonted circumstance of having some 

 one to enjoy it with me. Young Oscar seemed quite riveted 

 to the spot, and we stood a long time enjoying it, embracing 

 each other on a ledge of rock, whence a false step would 

 precipitate us into the whirlpool, and mingling our talk with 

 the sound of the torrent. A morning service neither Protestant 

 nor Catholic, but altogether to my taste. . . . Does not Nature 

 adorn herself and symbolize in outward act her own religion ? 

 . . After tea, by previous arrangement, the family and neigh- 

 bours assembled in the parlour, for me to preach. There 

 were some thirty persons sitting round the comfortable room. 

 We managed to sing 6 Jesu, lover of my soul : ' I read Scrip- 

 ture, and then gave them an earnest address on retribution 

 and self-love, and the love of God; after which we prayed. 

 The people were very attentive and serious. The old man 

 said very little afterwards, and, I think, was impressed. No 

 argument that I could use next morning could induce him to 

 take any pay for my board and lodging, only for the stage 

 fare. . . . The great topic of interest in this region has been the 

 unfortunate descent of the ballooners, who went up for an 

 evening ride from New York State, without food, and were 

 carried up into the Canadian wilderness: wandered without 

 food, except two frogs and some clams, for several days : at 



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