When Ruth's brothers and sisters were young, and books were not so common as now, she very often read aloud to her mother and the family.
Macauley's Essays and History, Prescott's works, the "Literary Garland," and lighter works were read from time to time as circumstances or taste dictated.GLEASON'S PICTORIAL, the ANGLO-SAXON, the SCOTTISH-AMERICAN, and HARPER'S MAGAZINE were read with great interest.She was a subscriber to the CENTURY MAGAZINE at the time of her death.Some of Hannah More's sacred dramas were frequently read on a Sabbath evening.
The writer remembers well how we younger children enjoyed the moment when David,"From his well-directed sling, quick hurled, with dexterous aim, a stone, which sank deep-lodged in the capacious forehead of the foe."And"The mighty mass of man fell prone, with its own weight, his shattered bulk was bruised.Straight the youth drew from his sheath the giant's pond'rous sword, and from the enormous trunk the gory head, furious in death, he severed."The language was rather beyond us, but we knew that David had killed the giant, and we did not bother about the big words.Or, when little Moses was left in the ark of bulrushes, exposed to all the dangers of the Nile swamp, how we almost trembled lest some evil should befall him before Pharaoh's daughter could rescue him, and rejoiced to think that Miriam did her part so well as to get her mother as a nurse for the little brother.Ruth seemed to enjoy reading these dramas over and over quite as much as we enjoyed listening to them.She grew fonder of reading as she grew older, and would talk of the characters in a book as if they were as real to her as her personal friends.
Ruth was deeply interested in the confederation of the Provinces when that question was before the people.After giving the matter a good deal of thought she decided in favor of the union.In early days, because of sympathy for a friend, she had conceived a prejudice against Dr.Tupper, who began his public life in Point de Bute, and with whom she was personally acquainted.The family at Prospect were supporters of Howe and the Liberal party in Nova Scotia at this time, but Howe had turned his back on Confederation, and Dr.Tupper was the leader of the Confederate party in that Province.Ruth was exceedingly anxious that the principle of union should triumph, and it was a grief to her that Dr.Tupper should triumph with it.But she lived long enough to forgive him and to appreciate the good work Sir Charles did for Canada.
The Free School question was another problem in which she was greatly interested, and as one of her favorite cousins was in the election of 1872, in which free non-sectarian schools were on trial in New Brunswick (at least, so thought the friends of this measure), she was anxious as to the outcome of the elections, and well pleased when they resulted well for free schools.
Of the twenty members of the second generation now living, the women outnumber the men thirteen to seven.Five of the twenty are octogenarians, two--Martin Trueman, of Point de Bute, and Thompson Trueman, of Sackville--have reached the patriarchal age of eighty-seven years.The former in one particular is like the late Mr.Gladstone--he takes his recreation with the axe.He has prepared many cords of wood for the stove in the last few years.
The first Trueman family were not strong men, but they were persistent workers, and could accomplish more in a given time than men of much stronger build.The second generation were physically equal or superior to that of the first, which was rather a rare circumstance in this country.The gift of language--of talking easily and gracefully, either in private or public--was not one of their possessions.Not a man of the first generation could talk ten minutes on a public platform; and the second generation are in this particular not much of an improvement on their forbears.This, in part, no doubt, accounts for the fact that a family which turns out elders, class-leaders and circuit stewards in such numbers has not produced a minister of the Trueman name.
Agriculture was the work to which the family set their hand in the new country.The children were taught that manual labor was honorable, and that agriculture was worthy of being prosecuted by the best of men.The seven sons and three sons-in-law were all successful farmers, and heredity no doubt had its influence.
