Pearls and PebblesHow fitting to close out the 20th century with a brand new edition of Pearls & Pebbles by the noted chronicler of pioneer life, Catharine Parr Traill. Published in 1894, Pearls & Pebbles is an unusual book with a lasting charm, in which the author's broad focus ranges from the Canadian natural environment to early settlement of Upper Canada. Through Traill's eyes, we see the life of the pioneer woman, the disappearance of the forest, and the corresponding changes in the life of the Native Canadians who have inhabited that forest. Editor Elizabeth Thompson reminds us of the significance of the writings by Traill, the aged author/naturalist, who felt that the hours spent gathering the pebbles and pearls from her notebooks and journals written in the backwoods of Canada was not time wasted. |
From inside the book
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... . Although the anticipated prosperity never materialized , as a writer , Catharine Traill capitalized on her pioneer experiences , publishing such non - fiction Canadian classics as The Backwoods of Canada EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.
... never - dull volume with a broad appeal , certain to be as popular now as it was over a century ago . One of the many facets of Pearls and Pebbles is its autobiographical quality ; it provides details of Traill's life - and encompasses ...
... never forgot her neighbor's sympathetic assistance : Last summer when Mrs. Traill was so ill that few thought she would recover , Jessie's grief was great . She recalled over and over again the kindness to her in the bush in those early ...
... patterns of growth and decay , following the life cycle of a tree - how it had been " sustained " by the earth while it was alive : Never idle were those vegetable miners , always digging materials XX PEARLS AND PEBBLES.
Catharine Parr Traill Elizabeth Helen Thompson. Never idle were those vegetable miners , always digging materials from the dark earth to add power and substance to the tree , hour by hour building up its wonderful structure , taking and ...
Contents
3 | |
5 | |
9 | |
14 | |
21 | |
MORE ABOUT MY FEATHERED FRIENDS | 32 |
A DEFENSE | 45 |
NOTES FROM MY OLD DIARY | 49 |
THOUGHTS ON VEGETABLE INSTINCT | 109 |
SOME CURIOUS PLANTS | 115 |
SOME VARIETIES OF POLLEN | 120 |
THE CRANBERRY MARSH | 123 |
OUR NATIVE GRASSES | 126 |
INDIAN GRASS | 132 |
MOSSES AND LICHENS | 136 |
THE INDIAN MOSS BAG | 141 |
THE SPIDER | 58 |
PROSPECTING AND WHAT I FOUND IN MY DIGGING | 62 |
THE ROBIN AND THE MIRROR | 65 |
IN THE CANADIAN WOODS | 67 |
THE FIRST DEATH IN THE CLEARING | 82 |
ALONE IN THE FOREST | 90 |
ON THE ISLAND OF MINNEWAWA | 99 |
THE CHILDREN OF THE FOREST | 103 |
SOMETHING GATHERS UP THE FRAGMENTS | 144 |
APPENDIX A | 151 |
APPENDIX B | 181 |
APPENDIX C | 183 |
ENDNOTES | 187 |
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS | 199 |
INDEX | 203 |