4 
The Perennial Adventure 
Here, at Oshawa, teaching standards were low and reading 
was restricted to lives of the saints. But nearby an experimental 
orchard had been planted for convent use by a French priest. His 
name was Father Pugh. He was experienced in horticulture and 
taught little Alice to know many species, and how to make grafts. 
She also helped to weed the convent garden, to feed the chickens 
and gather eggs. 
The serious child studied by herself, as much as she could with 
limited facilities j and she learned from the Sisters how to knit, 
sew, crochet and cook. Once a year there was a truly happy inter¬ 
lude, when the Sisters went on Retreat to the Mother House in 
Toronto. The Eastwood girls then visited their uncle and his 
family at Highland Creek. What bliss to see their cousins and all 
the farm animals—to rove freely in woods and meadows, after 
the restrictions of convent life! 
Like Father Pugh, Dr. Eastwood was an experimental horti¬ 
culturist. Continually he was growing new vegetables, grafting 
fruits, and starting flowering plants from seed. He loved the 
little niece, whom he considered a “born botanist.” She shared 
his failures as well as his successes and, in appreciation, he started 
her botanical library with a treatise on plants. Her sister Kate re¬ 
ceived a fairy tale at the same time. 
Another pervasive influence over Alice was the French-Cana- 
dian nun who taught music at the convent, who instilled a grow¬ 
ing love and knowledge of music in her star pupil. This long 
outlasted the Sister’s departure. More than eighty years later, 
Miss Eastwood told a friend of her sorrow at parting from the 
gentle soul. Yet even this early grief had been transformed to 
