After the solemnity—for, though the ceremony was simple, it may be so denominated—we returned to the shanty, and the rain, which had been suspended during the performance, began again to pour.
It may appear ludicrous to many readers that I look on this incident with gravity, but in truth I am very serious; for, although Guelph is not so situated as ever to become celebrated for foreign commerce, the location possesses many advantages independent of being situated on a tongue of land surrounded by a clear and rapid stream. It will be seen by the map of the province that it stands almost in the centre of the table-land which separates four of the great lakes, namely, Ontario, Simcoe, Huron and Erie.
[ 31. SAM SLICK CRITICISES THE "BLUENOSES" OR NOVA SCOTIANS (1836).]
Source.—The Clockmaker, or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, by T. C. Haliburton. London, 1838.
As we approached within fifteen or twenty miles of Parrsboro', a sudden turn of the road brought us directly in front of a large wooden house, consisting of two stories and an immense roof, the height of which edifice was much increased by a stone foundation rising several feet above ground. Now did you ever see, said Mr. Slick, such a catamaran as that; there's a proper goney for you, for to go and raise such a building as that are; and he has as much use for it, I do suppose, as my old waggon here has for a fifth wheel. Bluenose always takes keer to have a big house, cause it shows a big man, and one that's considerable forehanded, and pretty well to do in the world. These Nova Scotians turn up their blue noses, as a bottle nose porpoise turns up his snout, and puff and snort exactly like him at a small house. If neighbour Carrit has a two storey house, all filled with winders like Sandy Hook lighthouse, neighbour Parsnip must add jist two feet more on to the post of hisn, and about as much more to the rafter, to go ahead of him; so all these long sarce gentlemen strive who can get the furdest in the sky, away from their farms. In New England our maxim is a small house and amost an everlastin almighty big barn; but these critters revarse it, they have little hovels for their cattle, about the bigness of a good sizeable bear trap, and a house for the humans as grand as Noah's Ark. Well, jist look at it and see what a figur it does cut. An old hat stuffed into one pane of glass, and an old flannel petticoat as yaller as jaundice in another, finish off the front; an old pair of breeches and the pad of a bran new cart-saddle worn out titivate the eend, while the back is all closed up on account of the wind. When it rains, if there aint a pretty how-do-you-do, it's a pity—beds toted out of this room, and tubs set in tother to catch soft water to wash; while the clapboards, loose at the eends, go clap, clap, clap, like gals a hacklin flax, and the winders and doors keep a dancin to the music. The only dry place in the house is in the chimbley corner, where the folks all huddle up, as an old hen and her chickens do under a cart of a wet day. I wish I had the matter of half a dozen pound of nails (you'll hear the old gentleman in the grand house say), for if I had, I'd fix them are clapboards; I guess they'll go for it some o' these days. I wish you had, his wife would say, for they do make a most particular unhansum clatter, that's a fact; and so they let it be till the next tempestical time comes, and then they wish agin. Now this grand house has only two rooms down stairs, that are altogether slicked up and finished off complete; the other is jist petitioned off roughlike, one half great dark entries, and tother half places that look a plaguy sight more like packin' boxes than rooms. Well, all upstairs is a great onfarnished place, filled with every sort of good for nothin trumpery in natur—barrels without eends, corncobs half husked, cast-off clothes and bits of old harness, sheep skins, hides and wool, apples, one half rotten and tother half squashed, a thousand or two of shingles that have bust their withs and broke loose all over the floor, hay rakes, forks and sickles without handles or teeth, rusty scythes and odds and eends without number....
Whenever you come to such a grand place as this Squire, depend on't the farm is all of a piece, great crops of thistles, and an everlastin yield of weeds, and cattle the best fed of any in the country, for they are always in the grain fields or mowin lands, and the pigs a rootin in the potatoe patches....
The last time I came by here, it was a little bit arter daylight down, rainin cats and dogs and as dark as Egypt; so, thinks I, I'll jist turn in here for shelter to Squire Bill Blake's. Well, I knocks away at the front door, till I thought I'd a split it in; but arter a rappin a while to no purpose and findin no one come, I gropes my way round to the back door, and opens it, and feelin all along the partition for the latch of the keepin room without finding it, I knocks agin, when someone from inside calls out "Walk." Thinks I, I don't cleverly know whether that indicates "walk in" or "walk out," it's plaguy short metre, that's a fact; but I'll see anyhow. Well, arter gropin about a while, at last I got hold of the string and lifted the latch and walked in, and there sot old Marm Blake, close into one corner of the chimbley fire-place, a see-sawin in a rockin-chair, and a half-grown black house-help, half asleep in tother corner, a scroudgin up over the embers. Who be you, said Marm Blake, for I can't see you. A stranger, said I. Beck, says she ... get up this minit and stir the coals till I see the man. Arter the coals were stirred into a blaze, the old lady surveyed me from head to foot, then she axed me my name, and where I came from, where I was agoin, and what my business was. I guess, said she, you must be reasonable wet, sit to the fire and dry yourself, or mayhap your health may be endamnified pr'aps.