The vessel in which we returned from Quebec to Montreal was crowded
with them, and at night they spread their beds between decks (those
who had beds, at least), and slept so close and thick about our
cabin door, that the passage to and fro was quite blocked up. They
were nearly all English; from Gloucestershire the greater part; and
had had a long winter-passage out; but it was wonderful to see how
clean the children had been kept, and how untiring in their love
and self-denial all the poor parents were.
Cant as we may, and as we shall to the end of all things, it is
very much harder for the poor to be virtuous than it is for the
rich; and the good that is in them, shines the brighter for it. In
many a noble mansion lives a man, the best of husbands and of
fathers, whose private worth in both capacities is justly lauded to
the skies. But bring him here, upon this crowded deck. Strip from
his fair young wife her silken dress and jewels, unbind her braided
hair, stamp early wrinkles on her brow, pinch her pale cheek with
care and much privation, array her faded form in coarsely patched
attire, let there be nothing but his love to set her forth or deck
her out, and you shall put it to the proof indeed.
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