Alone in an Untamed Land by Maxine Trottier

Author:Maxine Trottier [Trottier, Maxine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781443128087
Publisher: Scholastic Canada Ltd
Published: 2016-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

le 10 octobre 1666

Today was Sunday, and so we went to mass. It was crowded, for this parish of Notre Dame is the only one in Montréal. The prayers and hymns were the same as those I have always heard in the church at home in Reignac. The behaviour of the people was not.

One old woman had brought a little white kid into the church. For some reason she had it wrapped in a blanket. It bleated during the singing. I believe it was too warm.

There was whispering, and laughter, and people wandered in and out. By the time the priest began to give his sermon, it was so noisy that he had to nearly shout to be heard. The people behind us were not listening anyway. I turned around once and saw that some were drinking what smelled like wine. One man raised his cup to me!

It made prayer rather difficult.

On the way back to the house Tante Barbe said, “Montréal can be a rough place for a young woman, Hélène. There are many good people here, though. It is hard to be poor. You have to be rough and strong to survive, and if their manners are not those of the court, then such is life.”

She is correct, I suppose, but it will take me a while to become accustomed to Sundays. Still, the old woman’s kid was a dear thing, although it stank horribly.

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