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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... sweet and fair that charmed us in our youth- ful days ; it recalls the joys of infancy when we filled our laps with flowers . We hear again the song of blackbird , linnet and robin , and the far - away call of that mystery of childhood ...
... sweet May blossoms of the hawthorn hedge and the early spring flowers — must be gathered while the dew was still upon them , or the rites lost half their virtue . We were always up before the sun , and so eagerly did we watch for the ...
... sweet purple violets , primros- es , and the little sun - bright celandine ; and later on there was good store of wild strawberries , which we gathered and strung upon a stalk of to carry home to our mother as a peace - offering for ...
... to be recalled in after years when musing over past scenes of a life where lights and shadows form a mingled pattern of trials and blessings . MEMORIES OF A MAY MORNING * " Sweet day , SUNRISE AND SUNSET ON LAKE ONTARIO : A REMINISCENCE 13.
... sweet May morning . But what a change since yesterday in the temperature of the air ! Then chilling northeast winds , grey cloudy sky , cold and cheer- less ; now , bright cloudless blue sky and soft balmy airs . Yesterday I was wrapped ...
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 |