How
fares it with you, Mrs. Moodie, and the young ones? It is growing
very cold."
We were now in the heart of a dark cedar-swamp, and my mind was
haunted with visions of wolves and bears; but beyond the long, wild
howl of a solitary wolf, no other sound awoke the sepulchral silence
of that dismal-looking wood.
"What a gloomy spot!" said I to my husband. "In the old country,
superstition would people it with ghosts."
"Ghosts! There are no ghosts in Canada!" said Mr. D - -. "The country
is too new for ghosts. No Canadian is afear'd of ghosts. It is only
in old countries, like your'n, that are full of sin and wickedness,
that people believe in such nonsense. No human habitation has ever
been erected in this wood through which you are passing. Until a
very few years ago, few white persons had ever passed through it;
and the Red Man would not pitch his tent in such a place as this.
Now, ghosts, as I understand the word, are the spirits of bad men
that are not allowed by Providence to rest in their graves but, for
a punishment, are made to haunt the spots where their worst deeds
were committed. I don't believe in all this; but, supposing it to be
true, bad men must have died here before their spirits could haunt
the place.
