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Caroline © 1998 Dave Hadfield
(Voyageurs manned the canoes and were the work horses of the Montreal-based fur trade. It was a very hard life. These folks typically were farmers that signed up for the ready cash and the excitement that such a trip would bring. The husband might not come back at all: accidents, illness and the lure of a life out west in perfect freedom as a "coureur de bois" took their toll. In its own way, perhaps life for the women left behind was equally hard.)

Caroline's on her own, since her husband's gone away.
Such a long time ago, 1807, early May.
She watched him paddle up the river at Lachine,
And misses him much more than she can say.
Two children barely walking, and another on the way.

Caroline's on her own, on the farm among the trees.
Mind the field, tend the yard, work the garden on hands and knees,
Her friends are good to her -- her family isn't far,
Monsieur Curè speaks of La Vièrge Marie,
But her husband's on the water, and she wonders what he sees.

And in the winter she hears stories,
From the men who roam the land.
But she'd like to see it with her own eyes.
She'd like to know and understand

Caroline's on her own, and the pains are coming fast.
And her sisters are there to help her,
But they've been crying -- it cannot last
She seems to break her bonds and lift beyond the room,
And soars away to see him in a flash,
And a journey is newly started, as a journey has come to pass.

She seems to break her bonds and lift beyond the room,
And soars away to see him in a flash,
And a journey is newly started, as a journey has come to pass.