Works

The following lines were written at the request of a little girl, who said she would recite them at a Sunday School entertainment. Prof. J. S. Blackie of Edinburgh, in a letter acknowledging the receipt of my book, said he cons...

The following impromptu was given at a banquet to one of the captives of Fort Pit after he had related his experience.


Sad memories it doth awake,
The death of those fell at Frog Lake,...

Canadian provinces they lay
Divided by river and by bay,
Many a separate division,
Among them there was no cohesion.

But statesmen saw that a great nation
Could be formed by federation,...

The British soldiers on the Nile
With gratitude did kindly smile,
On the Canadian voyageurs
Who skilfully did ply their oars.

And they invoked their benison
On boatsmen led by Denison,...

The Credit Valley Railway Company having placed a car at the service of the council we were kindly invited to accompany them to Toronto.


Whene'er we take a tour abroad
We love to travel o'er new road,...

At London Thames is a broad stream,
Which was the scene of a sad theme,
A fragile steamer there did play,
O'ercrowded on a Queen's Birthday,
While all on board was bright and gay,...

England has given us the names
To adorn Canadian Thames,
And charms to them she has lent
In Oxford, Middlesex and Kent,
She Essex kisseth in her mouth,
And Scottish names, one north, one south,...

There was a maiden all forlorn,
She loved a youth, his name was Thorn,
But he was shy for to disclose
How he loved dear the sweet May Rose.

Lustre sweet it would give to Thorn,...

This is our earliest cheese ode. The Ingersoll factory has been removed to Thamesford.

When Father Ranney left the States,
In Canada to try the fates,
He settled down in Dereham,...

Two youths employed at the fur fort
Resolved to have half day of sport,
From Jasper House, in the far north,
For game they joyous issued forth,
The factor of the Hudson Bay...

All those who quality do prize
Must study color, taste and size,
And keep their dishes clean and sweet,
And all things round their factories neat,
For dairymen insist that these...

Meanderings of a stream rises twenty miles north of Toronto and sweeps around the whole of Southern Ontario.


We love to sing of tiny stream,
Through the lowland meadows running,...

Two hunters near to Hudson Bay,
Their names John Grant and Tom McKay,
Their skill and courage naught could daunt,
The boldest one perhaps was Grant.

The winter was their busy time,...

"We had a dream which was not all a dream." - Byron.


I laid me down one day in June,
It was late long afternoon,
A very sultry summer's eve,
Such times the senses oft deceive,...

Let others sing their favourite lay,
From early morn till close of day,
More useful themes engage our pen,
We sing the lay of our good hen.

For she doth lay each morn an egg,...

The engineer who drives the train,
From scalds he oft doth suffer pain,
And they are more noble scars,
Than hirelings gain in foreign wars.

Our hero's name should live forever,...

(Life of the early settlers.)


Canada hath wealthy yeomen
Whose fathers overcome the foemen,
The enemy they boldly slew
Was mighty forests they did hew,
And where they burned heaps of slain...

In summer time we roam o'er dingle,
But winter draws us round the ingle,
Why do you remain thus single,
When love would make two hearts tingle,
Pray, tell me why my dearest wingle,...

Having received a letter from a gentleman glorying in his typewriter we replied as follows:


You glory in your typewriter,
And its virtues you rehearse,
But we prefer the old inditer,...

The middle branch of Thames doth flow
O'er pebble bed and it doth glow
And sparkle like silver in the sun,
As it through pasture lands doth run.

In dam is ample water stored,...