who declares
that he saw pretty French Canadian brunettes of sixteen puffing clouds
of smoke as they worked in the harvest field, is solemnly rebuked by a
French Canadian writer; the brunettes must have been Indian women.[28]

Though nearly all the children now go to school, yet reading can hardly
be considered one of the amusements of the habitant. In the
neighbourhood of Malbaie, at least, rarely does one see other than books
of devotion in a habitant household; the book-shelf is conspicuous by
its absence. Of course newspapers are read but many of the habitants are
still illiterate, or nearly so, and read nothing. Not less gay are they
for this deprivation. They are endless talkers, good story tellers, and
fond of song and dance. They have preserved some of the popular songs of
France,--_Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre_, _En roulant ma Boule
roulant_, _A la Claire Fontaine_, and others--and these airs simple,
pleasing, a little sad, have become characteristic of French Canada.
Nearly every house has its violin, often home-made, and though this
music is rude it suffices for dancing. But some of the bishops are as
severe in regard to dancing as is the Methodist "Book of Discipline" and
in their dioceses the practise is allowed only under narrow
restrictions. The short Canadian summer makes that season for the
habitant one of severe labour. Winter, though it has its own labours,
such as cutting wood, is the great season of social intercourse. For a
long time the habitant would not consider a mechanic his social equal;
perhaps, still, the daughters of a farmer would spurn the advances of
the village carpenter. But whatever the social distinctions, baptisms,
marriages, anniversaries, are made the occasions for festivity. There
are _corvees recreatives_, such as parties gathered for taking the husks
off Indian corn, when there is apt to be a good deal of kissing as part
of the game. At New Year, the _jour de l'an_, the feasting lasts for
three days. Hospitality is universal and it is almost a slight not to
call at this time upon any acquaintance living within a distance of
twenty miles. Every habitant has his horse and sleigh and thinks little
of a long drive.

Often in the foreground of the habitant's life, always in the background
at least, stand the Church and the priest. Malbaie, like a hundred other
populous, present-day Roman Catholic parishes, was nursed in the first
instance by the travelling missionary. In winter