“Why seek ye here to bind me,
I would again be free;
They say ye are my kindred—­
But what are ye to me? 
My spring of youth was past
With the people of the wild: 
And slumber in the green-wood
My husband and my child. 
’Tis true I oft have seen ye
In the visions of the night;
But many a shadow comes
From the dreamer’s land of light. 
If e’er I’ve been among ye,
Save in my wandering thought,
The memory has passed away—­
Ye long have been forgot.” 
And were not these hard words to come
To that fond mother’s heart,
Who through such years of agony
Had kept her loving part. 
Her wildest wish was granted—­
Her deepest prayer was heard—­
Yet it but served to show her
How deeply she had err’d. 
The mysteries of God’s high will
May not be understood;
And mortals may not vainly ask,
To them, what seemeth good. 
With spirit wrung to earth,
In grief she bowed her head: 
“Oh! better far than meet thee thus,
To mourn thee with the dead.” 
But, think ye, He who comforted
The widowed one of Nain—­
Who bade the lonely Hagar
With hope revive again? 
Think ye that mother’s trusting love
Should bleed without a balm? 
No! o’er the troubled spirit
There came a blessed calm. 
Amid the savage relics
Around her daughter flung,
Upon her naked bosom
A crucifix there hung. 
And though the simple Indian
False tenets might enthral—­
Yet, ’twas the blessed symbol
Of Him who died for all. 
And the mourner’s heart rejoiced
For the promise seemed to say—­
She shall be thine in Heaven,
When the world has passed away. 
Tho’ now ye meet as strangers,
Yet there ye shall be one;
And live in love for ever,
When time and earth are gone.

In the days of the early settling of the country, marriages were attended with a ceremony called stumping.  This was a local way of publishing the banns, the names of the parties and the announcement of the event to take place being written on a slip of paper, and inserted on the numerous stumps bordering the corduroy road, that all who ran might read, though perchance none might scan it save some bewildered fox or wandering bear; the squire read the ceremony from the prayer-book, received his dollar, and further form for wedlock was required not.  Now they order these things differently.  A wedding is a regular frolic, and generally performed by a clergyman (though a few in the back settlements still adhere to the custom of their fathers), a large party being invited to solemnise the event.  The last winter we were in the country we attended one some distance from home; but here, while flying along the ice paths, distance is not thought of.  Nothing can be more exhilarating than sleigh-riding, the clear air bracing the nerves, and the bells ringing gladly out.  These bells are worn round the horse’s neck and on the harness, to give warning of the sleigh’s