Their worst sin is independence and self-righteousness.

You can't teach the children anything in the schools, for instance, for the parents won't have them punished; they are quite sure that their children never do anything wrong.

That comes of living so far out of the world, and getting their living so easily.

I can tell you, Utopia has a bad effect on character." Caius let the matter go for that time; he had the prospect of seeing the clergyman often.
Another week, when the clergyman had come to the island and Caius met him by chance, they had the opportunity of walking up a long snowy hill together, leading their horses.

Caius asked him then about Madame Le Maitre and O'Shea, and heard a plain consecutive tale of their lives and of their coming to the island, which denuded the subject of all unknown elements and appeared to rob it of special interest.
Captain Le Maitre, it appeared, had a life-long lease of the property on Cloud Island, and also some property on the mainland south of Gaspe Basin; but the land was worth little except by tillage, and, being a seaman, he neglected it.