r small canal. As we went
on, we had the excitement of watching boats pass us on their way to
Montreal, shooting the rapids. They were heavily loaded, mostly with
bags of flour, yet ran down the foaming waters safely. To us boys, was
more exciting the passage of rafts, for they splashed the water into
spray. Having overcome that rapid, we all got on board, and the crew had
an easier time in pushing along until we got in sight of a church
perched above a cluster of cottages. The mistress asked Treffle how they
made the passage before the small canals were cut where the rapids were
most dangerous. He explained, that at the first rapid all the freight
was unloaded and conveyed in carts to the landing-place on lake St
Francis, while the empty boats were poled and towed close alongside the
edge of the bank, avoiding the boiling water. In those days the boats
were lighter and sailed in companies, and their crews united to take
them up one by one. The village, the Cedars, was to be the resting-place
of the boatmen until next day, and scattering among the houses, where a
few of them had their families, they left the boat to the passengers.
Treffle led the way to houses where provisions could be bought and at
prices so low that the women wondered. Saying nothing so good to make
men strong, he bought for the mistress a big piece of boiled pork,
which, sliced thin, we enjoyed either with bread or our ship-biscuit. We
watched the baking of bread. It was fired in queer little white
plastered ovens set in front of each house, looking somewhat like
beehives placed on top of strong tables. The ovens are filled with wood,
which is set on fire, and when the oven is hot enough the wood is raked
out, the loaves shoved in, and the door shut. We youngsters gathered
round one on seeing the woman was about to open it. When she drew out
the first loaf, with a fine crust and an appetizing smell, we could not
help giving a cheer, it was so wonderful to us. We went back to the
boat with a lot of food, to which was added fish, bought from a man as
he landed from his canoe, which we fried. That evening we had the best
meal since we left home, and at night had plenty of room to sleep, for
the air being hot a number of us slept beneath the trees. We safely got
past the fourth and last of the rapids, floating out of a little canal
into a large lake. The wind was still in the west, so we had to keep
tacking, and it was afternoon when we passed Cornwall an