Transcriber’s Note:
Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.
GLEANER TALES
BY
ROBERT SELLAR
HUNTINGDON, Q.
1895
Entered according to act of parliament of Canada, in
the year 1895, by Robert Sellar, at the
Department of Agriculture.
A glance at the map shows the south-western extremity of the provinceof Quebec to be a wedge shaped bit of territory; the St. Lawrence onone side, the United States on the other. All that is related in thefollowing pages is associated with this corner of Canada. The name ofthe book comes from the newspaper in which most of the tales firstappeared. There is a purpose in the book. It attempts to convey ina readable form an idea of an era in the life of Canada which haspassed—that of its first settlement by emigrants from the Britishisles—and to give an account of two striking episodes in its history,the invasion under Hampton and the year of the ship fever. These arehistorically correct; the briefer tales are based on actual incidentsin the lives of early settlers in the old county of Huntingdon.
CONTENTS.
| Page | |
| Hemlock | 1 |
| Archange and Marie | 205 |
| The Settler’s First Grist | 225 |
| Abner’s Device | 236 |
| A Settler’s Story | 254 |
| Jeanie Morison | 290 |
| Lost | 318 |
| An Incident of Huntingdon Fair | 324 |
| The Summer of Sorrow | 341 |
| Note | 459 |
HEMLOCK.
CHAPTER I.
The rain of the forenoon had been followed by an outburst of heat andthe sunshine beat with fierce intensity on the narrow square thatformed the yard of the barracks at Montreal. There was a milkiness inthe atmosphere which, conjoined with the low bank of black cloud thathung over the St Lawrence where it rolled out of sight, indicated arenewal of the downpour. The yard was deserted. Dinner was over andthe men lounged and snoozed indoors until the sun abated his fervor,always excepting the sentry, who stood in the shade of the gateway,his gaze alternately wandering from the refreshing motion of the bluewaters of St Mary’s current to the cluster of log houses, interspersedby stone edifices with high tin roofs, which formed the Montreal of1813. Presently the sound of hoofs was heard, and there came gallopingto the gate an orderly