NURSE TELLS LADY MARY ABOUT A LITTLE BOY WHO WAS EATEN BY A BEAR IN THE
PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK--OF A BABY THAT WAS CARRIED AWAY, BUT TAKEN
ALIVE--A WALK IN THE GARDEN--HUMMING-BIRDS--CANADIAN BALSAMS.
"Nurse," said Lady Mary, "did you ever hear of any one having been eaten
by a wolf or bear?"
"I have heard of such things happening, my dear, in this country; but only
in lonely, unsettled parts, near swamps and deep woods."
"Did you ever hear of any little boy or girl having been carried off by a
wolf or bear?" asked the child.
"No, my lady, not in Canada, though similar accidents may have happened
there; but when I was a young girl I heard of such tragedies at New
Brunswick--one of the British provinces lying to the east of this, and a
cold and rather barren country, but containing many minerals, such as
coal, limestone, and marble, besides vast forests of pine, and small lakes
and rivers. It resembles Lower Canada in many respects; but it is not so
pleasant as the province of Upper Canada, neither is it so productive.
"Thirty years ago it was not so well cleared or cultivated as it is now,
and the woods were full of wild beasts that dwelt among the swamps and
wild rocky valleys. Bears, and wolves, and catamounts abounded, with foxes
of several kinds, and many of the fine-furred and smaller species of
animals, which were much sought for on account of their skins. Well, my
dear, near the little village where my aunt and uncle were living, there
were great tracts of unbroken swamps and forests, which of course
sheltered many wild animals. A sad accident happened a few days before we
arrived, which caused much sorrow and no little fright in the place.
"An old man went out into the woods one morning with his little grandson
to look for the oxen, which had strayed from the clearing. They had not
gone many yards from the enclosure when they heard a crackling and
rustling among the underwood and dry timber that strewed the ground. The
old man, thinking it was caused by the cattle they were looking for, bade
the little boy go forward and drive them on the track; but in a few
he heard a fearful cry from the child, and hurrying forward through the
tangled brushwood, saw the poor little boy in the deadly grasp of a huge
black bear, which was making off at a fast trot with his prey.
"The old man was unarmed, and too feeble to pursue the dreadful beast. He
could only wring his hands and rend his gray hairs in grief and terror;
but his lamentations could not restore the child to life. A band of
hunters and lumberers, armed with rifles and knives, turned out to beat
the woods, and were not long in tracking the savage animal to his retreat
in a neighbouring cedar swamp. A few fragments of the child's dress were
all that remained of him; but the villagers had the satisfaction of
killing the great she-bear with, her two half-grown cubs. The magistrates
of the district gave them a large sum for shooting these creatures, and
the skins were sold, and the money given to the parents of the little boy;
but no money could console them for the loss of their beloved child.
"The flesh of the bear is eaten both by Indians and hunters; it is like
coarse beef. The hams are cured and dried, and by many thought to be a
great dainty."
"Mrs. Frazer, I would not eat a bit of the ham made from a wicked, cruel
bear, that eats little children," said Lady Mary. "I wonder the hunters
were not afraid to go into the swamps where such savage beasts lived. Are
there as many bears and wolves now in those places?"
"No, my lady; great changes have taken place since that time. As the
country becomes more thickly settled, the woods disappear. The axe and the
fire destroy the haunts that sheltered these wild beasts, and they retreat
further back, where the deer and other creatures on which they principally
feed abound."
"Do the hunters follow them?"
"There is no place, however difficult or perilous, where the hunter will
not venture in search of game."
"And do they pursue the graceful deer? They are so pretty, with their
branching antlers and slender limbs, that I should have thought no man
could be so cruel as to slay them."
"But their flesh is very savoury, and the Indian, when tired of bear's
meat, is glad of a dish of fresh venison. So with his gun--if he has
one--or with his bow and arrow, he lies in wait among the foliage and
brushwood of the forest, or behind the rocks on the bank of some swift
torrent, and when the unsuspecting stag makes his appearance on the
opposite crag, he takes a careful aim, lets fly his rapid arrow, and
seldom fails to kill his victim; which, dropping into the stream below,
is borne by the current within his reach."
"They are brave men, those hunters," said Lady Mary; "but I fear they are
very cruel. I wish they would only kill the furious bears. That was a sad
story you told me just now, nurse, about the poor little boy. Have you
heard of any other sufferers; or do people sometimes escape from these
monsters?"
"I also heard of a little child," continued nurse, "not more than two
years old, who was with her mother in the harvest-field, who had spread a
shawl on the ground near a tall tree, and laid the child upon it to sleep
or play, when a bear came out of the wood and carried her off, leaping the
fence with her in his arms. But the mother ran screaming after the
beast, and the reapers pursued so closely with their pitch-forks and
reaping-hooks, that Bruin, who was only a half-grown bear, being hard
pressed, made for a tree; and as it was not easy to climb with a babe in
his arms, he quietly laid the little one down at the foot of the tree, and
soon was among the thick branches out of the reach of the enemy. I daresay
baby must have wondered what rough nurse had taken her up; but she was
unhurt, and is alive now."
"I am so glad, nurse, the dear baby was not hugged to death by that horrid
black bear; and I hope he was killed."
"I daresay, my lady, he was shot by some of the men; for they seldom
worked near the forest without having a gun with them, in case of seeing
deer, or pigeons, or partridges."
"I should not like to live in that country, Mrs. Frazer; for a bear, a
wolf, or a catamount might eat me."
"I never heard of a governor's daughter being eaten by a bear," said Mrs.
Frazer, laughing, as she noticed the earnest expression on the face of her
little charge. She then continued her account of the ursine family.
"The bear retires in cold weather, and sleeps till warmer seasons awaken
him. He does not lay up any store of winter provisions, because he seldom
rouses himself during the time of his long sleep; and in the spring he
finds food, both vegetable and animal, for he can eat anything when
hungry, like the hog. He often robs the wild bees of their honey, and his
hide, being so very thick, seems insensible to the stings of the angry
bees. Bruin will sometimes find odd places for his winter bed, for a
farmer, who was taking a stack of wheat into his barn to be threshed in
the winter time, once found a large black bear comfortably asleep in the
middle of the sheaves."
"How could the bear have got into the stack of wheat, nurse?"
"The claws of this animal are so strong, and he makes so much use of his
paws, which are almost like hands, that he must have pulled the sheaves
out and so made an entrance for himself. His skin and flesh amply repaid
the farmer for any injury the grain had received. I remember seeing the
bear brought home in triumph on the top of the load of wheat. Bears often
do great mischief by eating the Indian corn when it is ripening; for
besides what they devour, they spoil a vast deal by trampling the plants
down with their clumsy feet. They will, when hard pressed by hunger, come
close to the farmer's house and rob the pig-sty of its tenants. Many years
ago, before the forest was cleared away in the neighbourhood of what is
now a large town, but in those days consisted of only a few poor
log-houses, a settler was much annoyed by the frequent visits of a bear to
his hog-pen. At last he resolved to get a neighbour who was a very expert
hunter to come with his rifle and watch with him. The pen where the
fatling hogs were was close to the log house, it had a long, low, shingled
roof, and was carefully fastened up, so that no bear could find entrance.
Well, the farmer's son and the hunter had watched for two nights, and no
bear came, on the third they were both tired, and lay down to sleep upon
the floor of the kitchen, when the farmer's son was awakened by a sound as
of some one tearing and stripping the shingles from the pen. He looked
out, it was moonlight, and there he saw the dark shadow of some tall
figure on the ground, and spied the great black bear standing on its
hinder legs, and pulling the shingles off as fast as it could lay its big
black paws upon them. The hogs were in a great fright, screaming and
grunting with terror. The young man stepped back into the house, roused up
the hunter, who took aim from the doorway, and shot the bear dead. The
head of the huge beast was nailed up as a trophy, and the meat was dried
or salted for winter use, and great were the rejoicings of the settlers,
who had suffered so much from Bruin's thefts of corn and pork."
"I am glad the hunter killed him, nurse, for he might, have eaten up some
of the little children, when they were playing about in the fields."
"Sometimes," continued Mrs. Frazer, "the bears used to visit the sugar
bush, when the settlers were making maple sugar, and overturn the sap
troughs and drink the sweet liquid. I daresay they would have been glad of
a taste of the sugar too, if they could have got at it. The bear is not so
often met with now as it used to be many years ago. The fur of the bear
used to be worn as muffs and tippets, but is now little used for that
purpose, being thought to be too coarse and heavy; but it is still made
into caps for soldiers, and used for sleigh-robes."
This was all Mrs. Frazer chose to recollect about bears, for she was
unwilling to dwell long on any gloomy subject, which she knew was not good
for young minds: so she took her charge into the garden to look at the
flower-beds, and watch the birds and butterflies; and soon the child was
gaily running from flower to flower, watching with childish interest the
insects flitting to and fro. At last she stopped, and holding up her
finger to warn Mrs. Frazer not to come too near, stood gazing in wonder
and admiration on a fluttering object that was hovering over the
full-blown honey-suckles on a trellis near the greenhouse. Mrs. Frazer
approached her with due caution.
"Nurse," whispered the child, "look at that curious moth with a long bill
like a bird; see its beautiful shining colours. It has a red necklace,
like mamma's rubies. Oh, what a curious creature! It must be a moth or a
butterfly. What is it?"
"It is neither a moth nor a butterfly, my dear. It is a humming-bird."
[Illustration: CAUGHT AT LAST]
"Oh, nurse, a humming-bird--a real humming-bird!--pretty creature! But it
is gone. Oh, nurse, it darts through the air as swift as an arrow! What
was it doing--looking at the honey-suckles? I daresay it thought them very
pretty; or was it smelling them? They are very sweet."
"My dear child, he might be doing so; I don't know. Perhaps the good God
has given to these creatures the same senses for enjoying sweet scents and
bright colours as we have; yet it was not for the perfume, but the honey,
that this little bird came to visit the open flowers. The long slender
bill, which the humming-bird inserts into the tubes of the flowers, is his
instrument for extracting the honey. Look at the pretty creature's ruby
throat, and green and gold feathers."
"How does it make that whirring noise, nurse, just like the humming of a
top?" asked the child.
"The little bird produces the sound, from which he derives his name, by
beating the air with his wings. This rapid motion is necessary to sustain
his position in the air while sucking the flowers.
"I remember, Lady Mary, first seeing humming-birds when I was about your
age, while walking in the garden. It was a bright September morning, and
the rail-fences and every dry twig of the brushwood were filled with the
webs of the field-spider. Some, like thick white muslin, lay upon the
grass; while others were suspended from trees like forest lace-work, on
the threads of which the dewdrops hung like strings of shining pearls; and
hovering round the flowers were several ruby-throated humming-birds, the
whirring of whose wings as they beat the air sounded like the humming of a
spinning-wheel. And I thought, as I gazed upon them, and the beautiful
lace webs that hung among the bushes, that they must have been the work of
these curious creatures, which had made them to catch flies, and had
strung the bright dewdrops thereon to entice them--so little did I know of
the nature of these birds. But my father told me a great deal about them,
and read me some very pretty things about humming-birds; and one day, Lady
Mary, I will show you a stuffed one a friend gave me, with its tiny nest
and eggs not bigger than peas."
Lady Mary was much delighted at the idea of seeing the little nest and
eggs, and Mrs. Frazer said, "There is a wild-flower that is known to the
Canadians by the name of the Humming-flower, on account of the fondness
which those birds evince for it. This plant grows on the moist banks of
creeks It is very beautiful, of a bright orange-scarlet colour. The stalks
and stem of the plant are almost transparent. Some call it Speckled
Jewels, for the bright blossoms are spotted with dark purple; and some,
Touch-me-not."
"That is a droll name, nurse," said Lady Mary. "Does it prick one's finger
like a thistle?"
"No, my lady; but when the seed-pods are nearly ripe, if you touch them
they spring open and curl into little rings, and the seed drops out."
"Nurse, when you see any of these curious flowers, will you show them to
me?"
Mrs. Frazer said they would soon be in bloom, and promised Lady Mary to
bring her some, and to show her the singular manner in which the pods
burst. "But, my lady," said she, "the gardener will show you the same
thing in the greenhouse. As soon as the seed-pods of the balsams in the
pots begin to harden they will spring and curl, if touched, and drop the
seeds like the wild plant; for they belong to the same family. But it is
time for your ladyship to go in."
When Lady Mary returned to the schoolroom, her governess read to her some
interesting accounts of the habits of the humming-bird.
"'This lively little feathered gem--for in its hues it unites the
brightness of the emerald, the richness of the ruby, and the lustre of the
topaz--includes in its wide range more than one hundred species. It is the
smallest, and at the same time the most brilliant, of all the American
birds. Its headquarters may be said to be among the glowing flowers and
luxurious fruits of the torrid zone and the tropics. But one species, the
ruby-throated, is widely diffused, and is a summer visitor all over North
America, even within the arctic circle, where, for a brief space of time,
it revels in the ardent heat of the short-lived summer of the north. Like
the cuckoo, it follows the summer wherever it flies.
"'The ruby-throated humming-bird [Footnote: Trochilus Rubus] is the only
species that is known in Canada. With us it builds and breeds, and then
returns to summer skies and warmer airs. The length of the humming-bird is
only three inches and a half, and four and a quarter in extent from one
tip of the wing to the other When on the wing the bird has the form of a
cross, the wings forming no curve, though the tail is depressed during the
time that it is poised in the act of sucking the honey of the flower. The
tongue is long and slender; the bill long and straight; the legs are very
short, so that the feet are hardly visible when on the wing. They are
seldom seen walking, but rest on the slender sprigs when tired. The flight
is so rapid that it seems without effort. The humming sound is produced by
the wing, in the act of keeping itself balanced while feeding in this
position. They resemble the hawk-moth, which also keeps up a constant
vibratory motion with its wings. This little creature is of a temper as
fierce and fiery as its plumes, often attacking birds of treble its size;
but it seems very little disturbed by the near approach of the human
species, often entering open windows, and hovering around the flowers in
the flower-stand; it has even been known to approach the vase on the
table, and insert its bill among the flowers, quite fearless of those
persons who sat in the room. Sometimes these beautiful creatures have
suffered themselves to be captured by the hand.
"'The nest of the ruby throated humming-bird is usually built on a mossy
branch. At first sight it looks like a tuft of gray lichens, but when
closely examined shows both care and skill in its construction, the outer
wall being of fine bluish lichens cemented together, and the interior
lined with the silken threads of the milk weed, the velvety down of the
tall mullein, or the brown hair like filaments of the fern. These, or
similar soft materials, form the bed of the tiny young ones. The eggs are
white, two in number, and about the size of a pea, but oblong in shape.
The parents hatch their eggs in about ten days and in a week the little
ones are able to fly, though the old birds continue to supply them with
honey for some time longer. The Mexican Indians give the name of Sunbeam
to the humming-bird, either in reference to its bright plumage or its love
of sunshine.
"'The young of the humming-bird does not attain its gay plumage till the
second year. The male displays the finer colours--the ruby necklace being
confined to the old male bird. The green and coppery lustre of the
feathers is also finer in the male bird.'"
Lady Mary was much pleased with what she had heard about the humming-bird,
and she liked the name of Sunbeam for this lovely creature.