Eight in the evening
Our evening walks are delicious , especially at Silleri , where 't is the pleasantest thing in the world to listen to soft nonsense , `` Whilst the moon dances through the trembling leaves '' -LRB- A line I stole from Philander and Sylvia -RRB- : But to return : The French ladies never walk but at night , which shews their good taste ; and then only within the walls of Quebec , which does not : they saunter slowly , after supper , on a particular battery , which is a kind of little Mall : they have no idea of walking in the country , nor the least feeling of the lovely scene around them ; there are many of them who never saw the falls of Montmorenci , though little more than an hour 's drive from the town . They seem born without the smallest portion of curiosity , or any idea of the pleasures of the imagination , or indeed any pleasure but that of being admired ; love , or rather coquetry , dress , and devotion , seem to share all their hours : yet , as they are lively , and in general handsome , the men are very ready to excuse their want of knowledge . There are two ladies in the province , I am told , who read ; but both of them are above fifty , and they are regarded as prodigies of erudition . Eight in the evening . Absolutely , Lucy , I will marry a savage , and turn squaw -LRB- a pretty soft name for an Indian princess ! -RRB- : never was any thing so delightful as their lives ; they talk of French husbands , but commend me to an Indian one , who lets his wife ramble five hundred miles , without asking where she is going . I was sitting after dinner with a book , in a thicket of hawthorn near the beach , when a loud laugh called my attention to the river , where I saw a canoe of savages making to the shore ; there were six women , and two or three children , without one man amongst them : they landed , tied the canoe to the root of a tree , and finding out the most agreable shady spot amongst the bushes with which the beach was covered , which happened to be very near me , made a fire , on which they laid some fish to broil , and , fetching water from the river , sat down on the grass to their frugal repast .