The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-01-12


 Village in Barren Land--BIess-
 ing of the Fields.
 A line of telegraph poles stalked
 gauntly across hot expanse and
 faded into an all-encompassing blur of twilight, mist and rain.
 Resides them, buried in mud, lay the
 road from the St. Lawrence river to the
 Laurentian Hills. A long-suffertng
 French horse, which seemed to have
 learned from habitant masters the
 ploddlng patience of a peasant race,
 splashed fetlock-deep into puddle after
 puddle. The French driver, with the
 dr1zzle beating into his eyes, mur-
 mured mulified mealediction.
 In level pastures to left and right
 soaked sheep huddled up to rail fences
 seeking shelter and finding none. We
 looking pensively forth beneath the
 hood of our ram-shackle 'voture,' 7
 constructed our most recent folly and
 considered our most recent folly and
 repented thereof We wondered why
 We had left-for this-the alIurements
 of society-with a capital Sand the
 creature comforts of an effete civiliza- Tlon, and bethought ourselves how easi-
 ly, should it become worth while, our neglected heirs-at-law might prove us mad
 Yet the 5aunt now nearing it's end had been by no means without inter- est.The morning sun shone hazily, but cheerily when we set forth from Ber- thier-en-haut, little country town on the rivers brink, forty miles below Montreal, All the river country be- tween Montreal and Three Rivers is as level as the sea. Here and there, on an illimitable pjlain, which is peacock, oI- i've, gray or purple. according to the season and the hour, are gleaming clusters of white barns and cottages, faintly suggesting groups of sails glimpsed far off at sea. Here and there shines a meta1-sheathed spire. These belong to parish churches, which have given to the urrounding villages their musical and hallowed names, St. ,Cuthbert, St. Elizabeth, St, Felix de Valois and St. Elizabeth.
 And far to the northward, etched 1 against the sky, is line of hills, part of the oldest geological formation in the world The rocks which form their [ underpinning and often their surface, too, are all tilted and twisted, secured < by ice, and changed by fire Towards HhnSd 1a 1,i forth in a calculably ancient voiture with rakishly tilted top. We had d camera, a borrowed umbrella, a pile of froWsy rugs, and an old French driver, wiry and chirpy as cricket, and no stranger apparently, to whiskey blanc. "A la bonheur!
 For ten miles north of Berthier the country is unsurpassed in fertility in all the province of Quebec, and it sup ports 8 large, though scattered, popu- lation. What village is this?" we again and again ask our. driver, as we pass cluster arfsf Cluster Of earns and dwellings, and he has always the same laconic answer, No name, just the country" The houses are all alike, with one-story below the eurving roof, so that the projecting caves almost bafffe the intuition of the tourist have out-door ovens made of clay, and en- closed in little structures of brick, tation, such as the requirement. of men, ] Here and there one may see hanks of ft overhang the entrance door.
 Outside each Is a we'll, with it's prim- { itive sweep. Many of the houses have matched barns with white walls and l with doors painted red or black. Most I of the households, for reasons which ! hofnespun and home-dyed wool hung ! ID on the fence to dry.
 Sheep and cattle browse in the level I ields, which are crossed by shallow { aitches, lest standing water should rot l tRe~a grass At every few miles the finds little cheese factory. with primitive methods and machinery, ! oy which the omnipresence of the a ieadly microbe is placidIy ignred Rail I ences bound the pastures. No rock ! Ippears anywhere, anr one sees neither I hicket, woodland nor hedge, but here | lnd there stands a great solitary mea- | low elm as braceful as those of New V England. a From these rich, fiat pastures one | 'asses fin the twinkling of an eye" V nto the rugged desolation of the hills. ! treat sheets of bare rock appear. T up like pillows from beneath n he surface soil. Great boulders are n trewn everywhere. The road begins g 0 climb and dip, and dense thickets II f mountain shrubs, afame with the |, lst glories of autumn, hide the river U ountry from onr sight. P In the most barren spot, apparently, n f all this barren region, some fool . ardy souls have tried to make a vfl- l. lge Thirty years ago this hamlet tc t. Norbert-had two sawmiIls and a f, opuiation of 200 souls, but when the ~ lountafn woods had fallen before the tr h x the occupation of the villagers was V, one. Not good for farmeeng," said N, UT driver, indicating a field wherein ere only rocks and mullen stalks, and 1e paIpitan birches which are often le last effort of wornout land.
 Many of the children born into this Y illage have left their country for ', leir own good, and sought the hos - tality of Uncle Sam. In some cases " le old parents have followed their ' o lildren, leaving the old house des- " ate. But some cling to their homes .o,,' the last. They seem to be all old s- sre," said my companion, watshng ~. e white haired men at work bank iil iil