to afford you all the amusement in my power, deign to accompany me on
my long journey. Allow me a woman's privilege of talking of all sorts
of things by the way. Should I tire you with my desultory mode of
conversation, bear with me charitably, and take into account the
infirmities incidental to my gossiping sex and age. If I dwell too long
upon some subjects, do not call me a bore, or vain and trifling, if I
pass too lightly over others. The little knowledge I possess, I impart
freely, and wish that it was more profound and extensive, for your sake.

Come, and take your seat with me on the deck of the steamer; and as we
glide over the waters of this beautiful Bay of Quinte, I will make you
acquainted with every spot worthy of note along its picturesque shores.

An English lady, writing to me not long ago, expressed her weariness
of my long stories about the country of my adoption, in the following
terms:--"Don't fill your letters to me with descriptions of Canada. Who,
_in England_, thinks anything of _Canada!_"

Here the pride so common to the inhabitants of the favoured isles spoke
out. This is perhaps excusable in those who boast that they belong to a
country that possesses, in an eminent degree, the attributes bestowed
by old Jacob on his first-born,--"the excellency of dignity, and the
excellency of power." But, to my own thinking, it savoured not a little
of arrogance, and still more of ignorance, in the fair writer; who,
being a woman of talent, should have known better. A child is not a man,
but his progress is regarded with more attention on that account; and
his future greatness is very much determined by the progress he makes in
his youth.

To judge Canada by the same standard, she appears to be a giant for her