"
I have not been able to write at any length of that part of all this vast
region of France's pioneering and evoking where France is best remembered
--remembered in speech that imitates that which is dearest to France's
ears; remembered in voices that even in the harsh winds of the north keep
something of the mellowness and softness of the south; remembered in the
surnames that recall beautiful trees and fields of perfume and hills of
vines and things of the sea which surrounded their ancestors; remembered
in the appellations of the saints that protect their firesides and their
fortunes; remembered in the names that still cling tenaciously to rivers
and towns of that land which calls Champlain its father--Canada.
A traveller in the lower St. Lawrence Valley might well think himself east
of the Atlantic as he hears the guard on the railway train from Montreal
to Quebec call: St. Rochs, Les Eboulements, Portneuf, Pont Rouge,
Capucins, Mont Louis, Pointe au Chene; or hears the speech as he walks at
the foot of the gray Rock of Quebec, or even reads the street signs in
Montreal.
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