n
at Quebec on my return, although I do go to church. Now old Malachi
has, I think, a solemn reverence for the Divine Being, and strict
notions of duty, so far as he understands it--but as he never goes to
any town or mixes with any company, so the rites of religion, as I may
call them, and the observances of the holy feasts, are lost to him,
except as a sort of dream of former days, before he took to his hunter's
life. Indeed, he seldom knows what day or even what month it is. He
knows the seasons as they come and go, and that's all. One day is the
same as another, and he cannot tell which is Sunday, for he is not able
to keep a reckoning. Now, ma'am, when you desired Master John to be at
home on the Friday fortnight because it was Christmas-day, I perceived
old Malachi in deep thought: he was recalling to mind what Christmas-day
was; if you had not mentioned it, the day would have passed away like
any other; but you reminded him, and then it was that he said he would
come if he could. I'm sure that now he knows it is Christmas-day, he
intends to keep it as such."

"There is much truth in what Martin says," observed Mr Campbell; "we
require the seventh day in the week and other stated seasons of devotion
to be regularly set apart, in order to keep us in mind of our duties and
preserve the life of religion. In the woods, remote from communion with
other Christians, these things are easily forgotten, and when once we
have lost our calculation, it is not to be recovered. But come, Alfred,
and Henry, and Martin must be very tired, and we had better all go to
bed. I will sit up a little while to give some drink to my patient, if
she wishes it. Good night, my children."

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

CHRISTMAS IN CANADA.

Christmas-Day was indeed a change, as Emma had observed, from their
former Christmas; but although the frost was more than usually severe,
and the snow filled the air with its white flakes, and the north-east
wind howled through the leafless trees as they rasped their long arms
against each other, and the lake was one sheet of thick ice, with a
covering of snow which the wind had in different places blown up into
hillocks, still they had a good roof over their heads, and a warm,
blazing fire on the hearth; and they had no domestic miseries, the worst
miseries of all to contend against, for they were a united family,
loving and beloved; shewing mutual acts of kindness and mutual acts of
forbearance