Long before that time Theodora, Halstead and finally Ellen had left home
and gone out into the world for themselves, and as the old Squire was
now past eighty we did not quite like to have him journey to Canada. He
was still alert, but after an attack of rheumatic fever in the winter of
1869 his heart had disclosed slight defects; it was safer for him not to
exert himself so vigorously as formerly; and as the partnership had to
be terminated legally he gave me the power of attorney to go to Three
Rivers and act for him.
I was at a sawmill fifteen miles out of Three Rivers for a week or more;
but the day I left I came back to that place on a buckboard driven by a
French _habitant_ of the locality. On our way we passed a little stumpy
clearing where there was a small, new, very tidy house, neatly shingled
and clapboarded, with plots of bright asters and marigolds about the
door. Adjoining was an equally tidy barn, and in front one of the
best-kept, most luxuriant gardens I had ever seen in Canada. Farther
away was an acre of ripening oats and another of potatoes. A Jersey cow
with her tinkling bell was feeding at the borders of the clearing.
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