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John Randolph bit his lip hard. It startled him to find how sharp a pain
could be.
* * * * *
Day after day Evadne waited but her knight never asked for his answer.
She began to meet him professionally, for his reputation was steadily
increasing, but he made no attempt to resume the conve... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"She gives herself!" cried John Randolph with a great throb of longing.
"It is what Jesus did, in Galilee."
A wave of passion broke over him. It was not true, this story. It could
not be! How could her nature, sweet as light, ever be attuned to that of
her cynical cousin? She was coming nearer, nearer. He would stay a... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"I think she fretted for you, John. She just seemed to pine away. Every
day we missed her about the same time, and they always found her in the
same place, down by the green road. Then scarlet fever came. She never
spoke of getting well--didn't seem to want to. The night she died she
put her arms around mother's neck ... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
* * * * *
Mrs. Reginald Hawthorne welcomed her husband's friend with a winning
charm. She was very pretty, very graceful and very young. Reginald
idolized her. John saw that as he looked around the sumptuous home whose
every fitting was a tribute to her taste. They had just finished
unpa... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"Oh, Reginald, do you mean it! I thought he was splendid. And what a
wonderful face he has!"
Reginald started. "Hah! Am I to be jealous of my old friend? But I might
have known," he added sadly, "no one could care long for such a wreck as
I!"
The girl wife put her arms around his neck and kissed him softly, "You
fooli... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
He stretched out his hand towards the drawer. There should be no more
weak delay. If a thing were to be done, 'twere well it were done
quickly.
The horror of a great fear fell upon him. Again his hand had fallen, and
this time he was powerless to lift it up!
The hours passed and he sat helpless, bound in that awful ch... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
He must shake off this strange lethargy. It was not possible for him to
die--he had not time. To-morrow was the meeting of the Panhattan
directors--they were relying upon him to work through the second call on
stock--and two of his notes fell due, if he did not retire them his
credit would be lost at the bank; and the... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
* * * * *
"Evadne!" Louis turned a white, scared face towards his cousin, who
stood beside him as he sat at his father's desk. Upstairs Mrs. Hildreth
and Isabelle were in solemn consultation with a dressmaker. In the
drawing-room Marion was being consoled by Simpson Kennard.
"Well, Louis... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
She had not dreamed of doing things on a grand scale. Evadne Hildreth
was wise enough to know that comfort cannot be dealt out in wholesale
packages,--she never forgot that Jesus of Nazareth helped the people one
by one.
She had never questioned the terms of her father's will--if there was a
will. She had supposed whe... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"What makes you look so strangely, if it is all nonsense, Reginald? why
do you shut out all the sunshine and why is the house so still? You told
me once you were going to die with a laugh on your lips. I am dying,
Reginald, why don't you help your wife to die as you mean to do?
A----h!"
Her voice died away in a low wa... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"Your Father loves you dear, for he sent his Son to die. The thief on
the cross was a sinner, yet Christ took him to Paradise. The fitness
must come from Jesus. His blood washes whiter than snow."
"But I have done nothing to earn it. I have lived for myself alone."
"We never can earn a gift, dear. God gives in a royal... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
* * * * *
The Hawthornes were going to Europe. The young wife's convalescence had
been tedious and it was a very frail little figure which clung to Evadne
the evening before they started. They had pleaded with her to go with
them. "Give up this toilsome work which is overtaxing your stre... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
The grey eyes, full of a clear shining, were lifted to his, "I am
absolutely satisfied with Jesus Christ."
Marion was married and living in New York. Louis had taken a small
house, where he lived with his mother and Isabelle. He spent his days in
the monotonous routine of a hank, and to his pleasure-loving nature the
... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"For pity's sake, Marion," cried Isabelle peevishly, "don't you grow to
be one of those tiresome women who think the whole world is interested
in a baby's tooth! I certainly do not echo your wish. I think children
are a nuisance."
Marion caught up her baby in dismay. "Why, Isabelle, just think how much
they do for us!... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"Oh, the same as usual. He looks like a ghost, and is about as cheerful
as a cemetery. He spends his holidays going over musty old letters in
papa's desk. I'm sure I don't see what fun he finds in it. It is so
selfish in him, when he might be giving mamma and me some pleasure--but
Louis never did think of anyone but h... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
She looked up. John Randolph was standing before her with a package in
his hands.
"I have been commissioned by the Hawthornes to give this into your own
possession," he said with a smile.
She opened it wonderingly. Bonds and certificates of stock bearing her
name. What did it mean? John Randolph had drawn a chair oppo... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
He looked round upon them, this man who found his joy in helping others,
and waited for their answer.
"It would be beautiful, beautiful!" cried Evadne, "if Miss
Chillingworth were willing. But the house is not large enough, Doctor
Randolph, we shall need three or four guest chambers, you know."
"Nothing easier than to... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
CHAPTER XXXII.
Very sweet grew the life at 'The Willows' and Mrs. Everidge and Evadne
and Miss Diana found their hands full of happy work.
Unavella still reigned supreme in her kitchen. "'Tain't a great sight
harder to cook for a dozen than six," she had remarked sententiously,
when the plan was unfolded to her, "it'... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
Soon after Evadne's dream had materialized John Randolph had sent her a
dainty little equipage to help on the work.
"You are too kind!" she cried, as she thanked him, "too generous!"
"Can we be that?" he asked, "when we are giving to a King? It is a
theory of mine that a drive in the country with the right companion i... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"You just seem to live in the present," wealthy Mrs. Greyson said with a
sigh, as she folded her jeweled fingers over her rich brocade, "I don't
see how you do it! Life is one long presentiment with me. I am filled
with such horrible forebodings. I tell Doctor Randolph, it is a sort of
moral nightmare."
"Some of you... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"Our dear Miss Diana has learned that 'we must sit in the sunshine if we
would reflect the rainbow,'" said Aunt Marthe in her low tones. "It is a
good rule, 'for every look we take at self, to take ten looks at Jesus.'
She lives in the light of his smile."
Then through the open window they heard Evadne singing,
"Oh,... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
Evadne shook her head sadly. "The only one who can help Louis is Jesus
Christ," she said.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Louis Hildreth lay upon a couch in the cool library the morning after
his arrival at 'The Willows.' Evadne had been shocked at the change in
him since she had seen him last. His eyes were sunken, while underneath... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"How do you do it?" he exclaimed one evening when they were alone
together. "You never rest! Your whole life seems to be centered in the
lives of others, and there is nothing attractive about them, if there
were I could understand. It looks like such drudgery to me. Tell me,
little coz, what makes you give up all your... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
"'Count it your highest good when God denies you.' Is that too hard a
gospel? We shall not read it so in the light of eternity. It is only
that Christ may become to us the 'altogether lovely' One."
"Did you ever love--a woman?" Louis put the question suddenly, watching
his friend's face with a jealous scrutiny.
"Yes."... | A Beautiful Possibility | Black, Edith Ferguson | 1857 | 1936 | ['en'] | 23 | {'Orphans -- Fiction', 'Christian life -- Fiction'} | PG10037 | |
David Schaal, Anuradha Valsa Raj and PG Distributed Proofreaders
THE MAGNETIC NORTH
By ELIZABETH ROBINS
(C. E. Raimond) Author of "The Open Question," "Below the Salt," etc.
_With a Map_
1904
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. WINTER CAMP IN THE YUKON
II. HOUSE-WARMING
III. TWO NEW SPISSIMENS
IV. THE BLOW-OUT
V. THE SHAMÁN
VI. A P... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
They knew, in a vague way, that winter would come early, but they had
not counted on the big September storm that dashed their heavy-laden
boats against the floe-ice, ultimately drove them ashore, and nearly
cost the little party their lives. On that last day of the long
struggle up the stream, a stiff north-easter wa... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Great luck, if we're going to take in water like this," said the
cheerful Kentuckian, shipping his oar and knocking off the ice--"great
luck that all the stores are so well protected."
"Protected!" snapped out an anxious, cast-iron-looking man at the
rudder.
"Yes, protected. How's water to get through the ice-coat th... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"If you can't row, take the rudder! Damnation! Take that rudder! Quick,
_or we'll kill you_!" And he half rose up, never dropping his oar.
Blindly, Potts obeyed.
The _Tulare_ was free now from the clinging mass at the bow, but they
knew they had struck their first floe.
Farther on they could see other white-caps bring... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
In detachments they went up the river several miles, and down about as
far. They looked in vain for any sign of the _Mary C._. They prospected
the hills. From the heights behind the camp they got a pretty fair idea
of the surrounding country. It was not reassuring.
"As to products, there seems to be plenty of undersiz... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Then this queer little company--a Denver bank-clerk, an ex-schoolmaster
from Nova Scotia, an Irish-American lawyer from San Francisco, a
Kentucky "Colonel" who had never smelt powder, and "the Boy" (who was
no boy at all, but a man of twenty-two)--these five set to work felling
trees, clearing away the snow, and diggi... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
On board ship O'Flynn, with his ready tongue and his golden
background--"representing capital"--was a leading spirit. Potts the
handy-man was a talker, too, and a good second. But, once in camp, Mac
the Miner was cock of the walk, in those first days, quoted "Caribou,"
and ordered everybody about to everybody's satisf... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
It was known that Mac had a very dacint little medicine-chest. Of
course, if any fellow was ill, Mac wasn't the man to refuse him a
little cold pizen; but he must be allowed to keep his own medicine
chest--and that little pot o' Dundee marmalade. As for O'Flynn, he
would look after the "dimmi-john."
But Mac was dead a... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Even Mac was found agreeing with the others of his Trio that, since
they had a grand, tough time in front of them, it was advisable to get
through the black months ahead with as little wear and tear as
possible. In spite of the Trio's superior talents, they built a small
ramshackle cabin with a tumble-down fireplace, ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Oh yes; we all know that reason."
The Americans laughed, and Mac, growing hot, was goaded into vaunting
the Britisher and running down the Yankee.
"Yankee!" echoed the Kentuckian. "And up in Nova Scotia they let this
man teach school! Doesn't know the difference yet between the little
corner they call New England and... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
The Boy came back a full hour before service on the second Sunday with
a couple of grouse and a beaming countenance. Mac, who was cook that
week, was the only man left in the tent. He looked agreeably surprised
at the apparition.
"Hello!" says he more pleasantly than his Sunday gloom usually
permitted. "Back in time f... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"He's got a team of Esquimaux dogs--calls 'em Mahlemeuts, and he's got
a birch-bark canoe, and a skin kyak from the coast." Then with an
inspiration: "His people are the sort of Royal Family down there,"
added the Boy, thinking to appeal to the Britisher's monarchical
instincts.
Mac had meditatively laid his hand on a... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
They were quite near now.
"How do," said the foremost native affably.
"How do." The Boy came forward and shook hands as though he hadn't seen
him for a month. "This," says he, turning first to Mac and then to the
other white men, "this is Prince Nicholas of Pymeut. Walk right in, all
of you, and have something to eat.... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Ugh!" said the Colonel under his breath.
Mac quickly swept what was left into the frying-pan, and began to cut a
fresh lot.
The Boy divided the cold beans, got out biscuits, and poured the tea,
while silence and a strong smell of ancient fish and rancid seal
pervaded the little tent.
O'Flynn put a question or two, bu... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Nicholas gave that funny little duck of the head that meant yes.
"That's how you learnt English," says the Colonel.
"No; me learn English at Holy Cross. Me been baptize."
"At that Jesuit mission up yonder?"
"Forty mile."
"Well," says Potts, "I guess you've had enough walking for one winter."
Nicholas seemed not to fol... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
And the three "pore benighted heathen" along with him, if they didn't
understand English words, they should have an object-lesson, and Mac
would himself pray the prayers they couldn't utter for themselves. He
jumped up, motioned the Boy to put on more wood, cleared away the
granite-ware dishes, filled the bean-pot and... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Do Mother Aloysius and the Sisters live where Father Brachet does?"
"Father Brachet, and Father Wills, and Brother Paul, and Brother
Etienne, all here." The native put two fingers on the floor. "Big white
cross in middle"--he laid down his pipe to personate the
cross--"here"--indicating the other side--"here Mother A... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"You can sing, can't you?" asks O'Flynn.
"Sing? No, me dance!"
The Boy roared with delight.
"Why, yes, I never thought of that. You fellows do the songs, and
Nicholas and I'll do the dances."
Mac glowered angrily. "Look here: if you don't mind being blasphemous
for yourself, don't demoralise the natives."
"Well, I lik... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Mac, who had had no innings up to this point, was now embarked upon a
most congenial occupation. Wrestling with the Lord on behalf of the
heathen, he lost count of time. On and on the prayer wound its slow
way; involution after involution, coil after coil, like a snake, the
Boy thought, lazing in the sun. Unaccustomed... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
The Boy winked at Nicholas, made a gesture, "Catch!" and fired a bit of
dried apple at him, at the same time putting a piece in his own mouth
to show him it was all right.
Nicholas followed suit, and seemed pleased with the result. He showed
all his strong, white teeth, and ecstatically winked his one eye back
at the ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"And the other white man--what became of him?"
Nicholas shrugged: "Kaiomi," though it was plain he knew well enough
the other lay under the Yukon ice.
"And that--_that_ was the end of the fellows who went by jeering at
us!"
"We'd better not crow yet," said Mac. And they bade Prince Nicholas and
his heathen retinue goo... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"It'll be dark all winter, window or no window," Mac reminded them.
"Never mind," said the Colonel, "when the candles give out we'll have
the fire-light. Keep all the spruce knots, boys!"
But one of the boys was not pleased. The next day, looking for a
monkey-wrench under the tarpaulin, he came across the wooden box a... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Then, why in--Why didn't you suggest it?"
"You wait till you know more about this kind o' life, and you won't go
in for fancy touches."
Nevertheless, the man who had mined at Caribou seemed to feel that some
contribution from him was necessary to offset the huge success of that
window. He did not feel called upon to ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Over all they laid a thick blanket of the earth which had been dug out
to make a level foundation. The cracks in the walls were chinked with
moss and mud-mortar. The floor was the naked ground, "to be carpeted
with skins by-and-by," so Mac said; but nobody believed Mac would put a
skin to any such sensible use.
The un... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Knows a darned sight too much? No, he _don't_, sir; that's just the
remarkable thing about Mac. He isn't trying to carry any more than he
can swing."
At the same time it is to be feared that none of his companions really
appreciated the pedagogue's learning. Nor had anyone but the Boy
sympathised with his resolution ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Everybody was looking forward to getting out of the tent and into the
warm cabin, and the building of the fireplace stirred enthusiasm. It
was two and a half feet deep, three and a half feet high, and four feet
wide, and when furnished with ten-inch hack logs, packed in glowing
ashes and laid one above another, with a... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"We ought to have begun sawing boards for our bunks and swing-shelf a
week back, before this heavy snowfall. Besides, there's enough
fire-wood now; we're only marking time until--"
"Until Mac's eyes get all right. I understand."
Again the Colonel had made a sound like "Sh!" and went on swinging his
axe.
They worked wi... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"_Let_ us use 'em! Faith! we had a right to'm."
"To boards out of _our_ boat!"
"And ye can have the loan o' the whip-saw to make more, whenever the
fancy takes ye."
"Loan o' the whip-saw! Why, it's mine," says the Colonel.
"Divil a bit of it, man!" says O'Flynn serenely. "Everything we've got
belongs to all of us, exc... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
When the frame was finished O'Flynn helped to put the trial-log in
place, having marked it off with charcoal to indicate inch and a
quarter planks. Then the Colonel, down in the pit, and O'Flynn on top
of the frame, took the great two-handled saw between them, and began
laboriously, one drawing the big blade up, and t... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Nobody heard much in those days of Caribou. The Colonel had gradually
slipped into the position of Boss of the camp. The Trio were still just
a trifle afraid of him, and he, on his side, never pressed a dangerous
issue too far.
But this is a little to anticipate.
One bitter gray morning, that had reduced Perry Davis t... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Are--are you a prospector?"
"No. I am Father Wills from Holy Cross."
"Oh!" And the Boy presently caught up with the Indian, and walked on
beside him, looking back every now and then to watch the dogs or
examine the harness. The driver spoke English, and answered questions
with a tolerable intelligence. "Are dogs ofte... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Is 'mush' their food?" asked the Boy.
"_Mush?_ No, fish."
"Why does your Indian go on like that about mush, then?"
"Oh, that's the only word the dogs know, except--a--certain expressions
we try to discourage the Indians from using. In the old days the
dog-drivers used to say 'mahsh.' Now you never hear anything but
s... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"That means, then, that you'll eat alone."
"Not if I know it."
The Colonel slid in place the heavy wooden bar that had never before
been requisitioned to secure the door, and he came and stood in the
middle of the cabin, where he could let out all his inches. Just
clearing the swing-shelf, he pulled his great figure u... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"No, no," said Father Wills firmly. "You shall sit as far away from
this splendid blaze as you can get, or you will have trouble with that
cheek." So the Boy had to yield his place to O'Flynn, and join Mac over
on the bean-bags.
"Why didn't you get a parki when you were at St. Michael's?" said the
priest as this chang... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"_Shall_ we, though?" Then, with a modified rapture: "Indians, I
suppose, and--and missionaries."
"Traders, too, and miners, and this year cheechalkos as well. You are
directly on the great highway of winter travel. Now that there's a good
hard crust on the snow you will have dog-trains passing every week, and
sometim... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
The priest glanced at the listening Indian. "No," said he gravely; "I
do not think _all_ the natives are like Nicholas. Andrew here is a true
son of the Church. But even if it were otherwise, _we_, you know"--the
Jesuit rose from the table with that calm smile of his--"we simply do
the work without question. The issue... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"No. I go to get relief for the Pymeuts."
"What's the matter with 'em?"
"Epidemic all summer, starvation now."
"Guess you won't find _any_body's got such a lot he wants to give it
away to the Indians."
"Our Father Superior has given much," said the priest gently; "but we
are not inexhaustible at Holy Cross. And the lo... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Why don't you build a false wall?"
"Well, I don't know; we hadn't thought of it."
"You'd find it correct this draught"; and the priest explained his
views on the subject while Potts's letter was being addressed. Andrew
put his head in.
"Ready, Father!"
As the priest was pocketing the letter the Boy dashed in, put on ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
The Colonel sat and waited. Presently he poured out a little coffee,
and drank it slowly, blissfully, with half-closed eyes. But when he had
set the granite cup down again, he stood up alert, like a man ready for
business. Mac had been asleep nearly three hours. The others wouldn't
be long now.
Well, if they came prem... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"You had only to say so, if you wanted to see me stand up against any
man alive. And when I sit down again it's my opinion one of us two
won't be good-lookin' any more."
He pushed back the stools.
"I thought maybe it was only necessary to mention it," said the Colonel
slowly. "I've been wanting for a fortnight to see ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"You remember you wouldn't sit here--"
"The Boy was always in and out. The cabin was cold."
"I left the Boy and O'Flynn at supper-time and went down to the Little
Cabin to--"
"To see what I was doin'--to spy on me."
"Well, all right--maybe I was spying, too. Incidentally I wanted to
tell you the cabin was hot as blaze... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"That's right! It's not much in my line to shift blame, even when I
don't deserve it; but you know so much you might as well know ... it
wasn't I who opened that demijohn first."
"But you don't mind being the one to shut it up--do you?"
"Shut it up?"
"Yes; let's get it down and--" The Colonel swung it off the shelf. I... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
* * * * *
"By-the-by, Colonel," said the Boy, just as he was turning in that
night, "I--a--I've asked that Jesuit chap to the House-Warming."
"Oh, you did, did you?"
"Yes."
"Well, you'd just better have a talk with Mac about it."
"Yes. I've been tryin' to think how I'd square Mac. Of cour... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
The evergreen wall with the big stone chimney shouldering itself up to
look out upon the frozen highway, became a conspicuous feature in the
landscape, welcome as the weeks went on to many an eye wearied with
long looking for shelter, and blinded by the snow-whitened waste.
An exception to what became a rule was, of a... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"What's here?" the Boy shouted through the "mushing"; and he tugged at
the goodly load, so neatly disposed under an old reindeer-skin
sleeping-bag, and lashed down with raw hide.
That? Oh, that was fish. _"Fish!_ Got so much fish at starving Pymeut
you can go hauling it down river? Well, sir, _we_ want fish. We _must_... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
He emitted a scornful "Peeluck!"
"What! Our chimney no good?"
He shrugged: "Why you have so tall hole your house? How you cover him
up?"
"We don't want to cover him up."
"Humph! winter fin' you tall hole. Winter come down--bring in
snow--drive fire out." He shivered in anticipation of what was to
happen. "Peeluck!"
Th... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Our first business, as I see it, is to keep peace in the camp, and
hold fast to a good understanding with one another. It's just over
little things like this that trouble begins. Mac's one of us; Father
Wills is an outsider. I won't rile Mac for the sake of any Jesuit
alive. No, sir; this is _your_ funeral, and you'r... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
It was pretty late when he got back to camp, and the men were at
supper. No, he hadn't shot anything.
"What's that bulging in your pocket?"
"Sort o' stone."
"Struck it rich?"
"Don't give me any chin-music, boys; give me tea. I'm dog-tired."
But when Mac got up first, as usual, to go down to the Little Cabin to
"wood u... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
No answer from the Boy.
"Early, hey?"
"Well--a--it's a good ways."
"What if it is?"
"Oh, I don't mind. I'd do more 'n that for you, Mac."
There was something unnatural in such devotion. Mac looked up. But the
Boy was too tired to play the big fish any longer. "I wonder if you'll
do something for me." He watched with a... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Did you know he'd discovered a fossil elephant?"
"No."
"Well, he has. I must light out, too, and have a look at it."
"Do; it'll be a cheerful sort of House-Warming with one of you off
scouring the country for more blisters and chilblains, and another
huntin' antediluvian elephants." The Colonel spoke with uncommon
ir... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Andrew nodded between coughs.
"What's he doing in there? Call him out," ordered Mac.
"He no walk."
Mac's hard face took on a look of cast-iron tragedy.
The wind, veering round again, had brought the last words to the priest
on the other side of the fire.
"Oh, it'll be all right by-and-by," he said cheerfully.
"But kno... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Oh, you mustn't do that!" said the priest to Mac with unexpected
severity. "Kaviak must lie in bed and keep warm." Down on the floor
went the saucepan. The child was caught away from the surprised Mac,
and the furs so closely gathered round the small shrunken body that
there was once more nothing visible but the wist... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
The Jesuit had fastened his eyes on Mac's woollen muffler, which had
been loosened during the ministering to Kaviak and had dropped on the
ground. "Do you need that scarf?" he asked, as though he suspected Mac
of wearing it for show. "Because if you didn't you could wrap it round
Kaviak while I help the men strike cam... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Nicholas paused an instant with Kaviak on his shoulder.
"Kaiomi--no savvy."
"You not seen him to-day?"
"No. He no up--?" With the swaddled child he made a gesture up the
river towards the white camp.
"No, he came down this morning to meet you."
Nicholas shook his head, and went on gathering up the furs. As he and
Mac ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
It was only when Mac had marched off, glowering still, and sternly
refusing to meet Kaviak's tearful but grateful eyes--it was only then,
bending over the sled and making fast the furs, that Father Wills, all
to himself, smiled a little.
It wasn't until they were in sight of the smoke from the Little Cabin
that Mac sl... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"In the United States?"
"Oh, I mean to send my boy to the old country. I want Bob to be
thorough."
The priest smiled, but almost imperceptibly.
"How old is he?"
"Oh, 'bout as old as this youngster." Mac spoke with calculated
indifference.
"Six or thereabouts?"
"No; four and a half. But he's bigger--"
"Of course."
"And... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
O'Flynn had come out of the Little Cabin, and seemed to be laboriously
trundling something along the footpath. He got so excited when he heard
the noise and saw the party that, inadvertently, he let his burden
slide down the icy slope, bumping and bouncing clumsily from one
impediment to another.
"Faith, look at 'im! ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"What's the matter with you?"
"Oh, nothin' to howl about. But see here, Mac."
"Well?"
"Soon's I can walk I'll go and get you the rest o' that elephant."
There was no more said till they got up to the others, who had waited
for the Indians to come back, and had unpacked Kaviak to spare him the
jolting uphill.
O'Flynn w... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"We've got fish."
"That's only mate on Fridays. We've had fish fur five days stiddy, an'
befure that, bacon three times a day wid sivin days to the week, an'
not enough bacon ayther, begob, whin all's said and done! Not enough to
be fillin', and plenty to give us the scurrvy. May the divil dance on
shorrt rations!"
"N... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"There's very little whiskey left, and I propose to brew a mild bowl--"
"To hell with your mild bowls!"
"A good enough punch, sah, but one that--that--a--well, that the whole
kit and boodle of us can drink. Indians and everybody, you know ...
Nicholas and Andrew may turn up. I want you two fellas to suppoht me
about t... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Hooray!"
"Mate? Arre ye sayin' mate, or is an angel singin'?"
"Now I _know_ that man's a Christian," soliloquised Potts.
"Look here: it'll take a little time to cook," said Mac, "and it's
worth waitin' for. Can you let us have a pail o' hot water in the
meantime?"
"Y-yes," said the Colonel, looking as if he had enoug... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"You talk his language, don't you?" Mac demanded of Nicholas.
The Pymeut pilot nodded.
"Tell him, if he'll lend the thing to me to wash, he shall have it
back."
Nicholas explained.
Kaviak, with streaming eyes and quivering lips, reluctantly handed it
over, and watched Mac anxiously till overwhelmed by a yet greater
mi... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Said Spissimen was now staring hungrily out of the Colonel's bunk,
holding towards Mac an appealing hand, with half a yard of shirt-sleeve
falling over it.
Mac pretended not to see, and drew up to the table the one remaining
available thing to sit on, his back to his patient.
When the dogs had been fed, and the other ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"So you didn't do much for the Pymeuts after all?"
"I did something," he said almost shortly. Then, with recovered
serenity, he turned to the Boy: "I promised I'd bring back any news."
"Yes."
"Well?"
Everybody stopped eating and hung on the priest's words.
"Captain Rainey's heard there's a big new strike--"
"In the Kl... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Potts and O'Flynn waited anxiously to sample the punch before giving
way to complete satisfaction, and Kaviak was impervious to
considerations either of punch or conviviality, being wrapped in
slumber on a corner of the buffalo-skin, between Mac's stool and the
natives, who also occupied places on the floor.
Upon O'Fl... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
_"Friends"_ (the Boy thought the keen eyes rested a fraction of a
moment longer on Mac than on the rest),--_"I think in some ways this is
the pleasantest House-Warming I ever went to. I won't take up time
thanking the Colonel for the friendly sentiments he's expressed, though
I return them heartily. I must use these m... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"You sure?"
He nodded.
_"And when Father Orloff of the Russian mission told us that he was
already having trouble with the two big rival parties frozen in the ice
below Ikogimeut--"_
"Gosh! Wonder if any of 'em were on our ship?"
_"Well, gentlemen, I do not disguise from you that, when I heard of the
large amount of w... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
But quickly, as though conscious that, if he had raised the moral tone
of the company, he had not raised its spirits, he hurried on:
_"Before I sit down, gentlemen, just one word more. I must congratulate
you on having found out so soon, not only the wisdom, but the pleasure
of looking at this Arctic world with intell... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Hear, hear!"
"About their origin and their destiny." (Mac was beginning to enjoy
himself. The Boy was beginning to be bored and to drum softly with his
fingers.) "Now, gentlemen, Buffon says that the poles were the first
portions of the earth's crust to cool. While the equator, and even the
tropics of Cancer and of C... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"All that Buffon says is--"
"Yes--and they invented one thing after another to meet the new
conditions--kaiaks and bidarras and ivory-tipped harpoons"--he was
pouring out his new notions at the fastest express rate--"and the
animals that couldn't stand it emigrated, and those that stayed behind
got changed--"
"Dry up.... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
In the turmoil and the contending of many voices Nicholas began to
explain to his friends that it wasn't a real fight, as it had every
appearance of being, and the visitors were in no immediate danger of
their lives. But Kaviak feared the worst, and began to weep forlornly.
"The world is dyin' at top and bottom!" scre... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Tell them 'The White Crow's Last Flight,'" urged the priest.
But Nicholas was not in the vein, and when they all urged him overmuch,
he, in self-defence, pulled a knife out of his pocket and a bit of
walrus ivory about the size of his thumb, and fell to carving.
"What you makin'?"
"Button," says Nicholas; "me heap hu... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
He brings you back fat, marrow, venison fresh from the mountain
Tired and worn, yet he's carved you a toy of the deer's horn,
While he was sitting and waiting long for the deer on the hillside.
Wake! see the crow! hiding himself from the arrow;
Wake, little one, wake! here is your father safe home.'"
"Who's ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
Kaviak had begun to cry for more punch, and Mac was evidently growing a
good deal perplexed as to the further treatment for his patient.
"Did ye be tellin' some wan, Father, that when ye found that Esquimer
he had grass stuffed in his mouth? Sure, he'll be missin' that grass.
Ram somethin' down his throat."
"Was it do... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"Nuh, nuh! don't you do that," said the Boy with startling suddenness.
"If you make that noise, I'll have to make a worse one. If you cry,
Kaviak, I'll have to sing. Hmt, hmt! don't you do it." And as Kaviak,
in spite of instructions, began to bawl, the Boy began to do a
plantation jig, crooning monotonously:
"'Gras... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 | |
"_'Wen de screech-owl light on de gable en'
En holler, Who--ool oh--oh!'_"
He danced up and hooted in Kaviak's face.
"_'Den yo' bettah keep yo eyeball peel,
Kase 'e bring bad luck t' yo'.
Oh--oh! oh-oh!'_"
Then, sinking his voice, dancing slowly, and glancing anxiously under the
table:
"_'Wen de ole black ... | The Magnetic North | Robins, Elizabeth | 1862 | 1952 | ['en'] | 22 | {'Yukon -- Fiction'} | PG10038 |
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