HELEN'S DIARY.
"Roche Lake, Madawaska River, March ----, 1814.
"One hundred miles yet to face over this weary way! Oh, why did I come?
Harold is well and strong, and could have done without me; while I am a
drag to him and the whole troop besides. It is two weeks since we left
Sparksville, or Bytown, as Lieutenant Smith calls it, and I have had
that miserable ague, in spite of the Doctor's medicine, every two days
since we started. Sometimes I have a funny kind of delirium with it.
While it lasts my head buzzes and whirls, and when I walk I feel as if
travelling with tremendous speed, and keep looking over my shoulder to
see if some hideous object is not chasing me. The sensation is horrible,
and the only relief is stillness. Even the motion of the sleigh affects
me, no matter how quietly I sit. During those long drives along the
Madawaska River the feeling was sometimes terrifying. I stood it while I
could. At last Harold spoke to Sir George, and he promised, if I could
endure it till we arrived at Roche Lake, to have a shanty built for me
in which I could rest until able to finish the journey. The reason he
chose Roche Lake was because we would there leave the smooth surface of
the ice for heavier marching through the forest.
"It was very good of Sir George. He sent men on ahead to build the
shanty, and now here we are, and a cozy cabin they have made of it,
although isolated at least a hundred miles away from any other white
man's dwelling. But I must jot down how it is built. To my surprise they
put in a little window and a heavy board door they were taking out for
the new fort. The roof is of split logs laid flat and covered with pine
branches, and as it won't thaw for a month there is no danger of the
snow melting and running through. The chimney is built of slabs of green
timber put across one corner, leaving a hole in the roof; and the sides
and back of the fireplace of sheet iron, intended for the smithy. It may
be crude, but we women folk--astonishing how clannish the life is making
us--find it very comfortable, considering the long nights we have so
often spent in the woods with a shelter not quarter so good.
"The journey from Bytown has been very weird to me, owing to my ague.
Still, I can remember the facts, I think. After Harold, the Doctor and I
started that first afternoon, we drove until nearly dark along the old
Jesuit trail before we overtook the men. They were putting up the camp
for the night, and had taken special care to provide for my comfort, so
that next morning, notwithstanding another chill, I was ready to
continue the journey. After that, for three whole days, we were guided
by Iroquois Indians, cutting our way through the woods to Calabogie
Lake. These red men of the forest are not very picturesque. We saw
nothing of their feathers and wampun and war paint. Perhaps that is
because we are so far from the frontier, where all the battles are
fought. Their dress resembles that of the habitants, and they are
proving themselves both friendly and trustworthy. Nearly every day they
bring in fresh venison or bear meat for sale, and to-day we were
astonished by a present from them of a huge elk.
"Strange, however, we rarely see the squaws. Perhaps it is because they
know that our men are a body of warriors going through the country, who
would have little use for women.
"How our soldiers rejoiced on being ordered to march on the ice of the
Madawaska! The river in some places is wide, winding in and out through
a rugged and open country, but the ice is thick and the surface smooth
and without drifts, save occasionally near a sudden bend. So, except
where the rapids interfered, we had steady marching and driving for days
over a road of our own make, and not along the Jesuit trail. The great
drawbacks are the depths of snow to be shovelled away or tramped down,
and the wearisome windings of the river.
"Harold tells me that a hundred miles as the crow flies on the Madawaska
would be two hundred by the windings of the stream.
"But my ague is coming back. I must stop my scribbling, and will start
it again to-morrow. It is so lonely out here in the woods that writing
is like talking to an old friend. Oh, those wretched little imps! There
they are again! You infernal bug-a-boos! You think you frighten me, do
you? Oh, I wish Harold was here, but he can't be until night! How my
head aches and swims, too! Still, I hate to give in. There, Emmiline in
the other end is singing. So I will put down what she says, if I can, in
spite of the little fiends who have been chasing me ever since I left
the Ottawa.
Rock-a-bo babee up de tree
Like vas de early morn,
And ve vill mak de feu de joie
And roast de Ingin corn.
Rock-a-bo babee, airly an' lat,
Ven sweet de birdies sing;
Petite garcon laugh an' ee grow fat,
An' make de woods to ring.
Rock-a-bo babee, Patre is come
From drivin' ever so far,
Over de rivare, so glad he's home
To wife and child, by gar.
"What a mercurial nature! She feels well and can sing a child song,
notwithstanding all her sorrow."
* * * * *
Diary continued next day.
"My ague was not so bad yesterday, though I did see the little devils,
and was disconsolate and blue all day, the bottom for a while being
knocked out of everything. But the long rest helped me, and now that I
feel better and have time, Mrs. Diary, I will have a good long chat with
you. The men finished fixing the shanty this morning. The two women have
a big kettle of water boiling outside and are doing some washing for the
men. They say there is enough to keep them busy every day for a week.
Emmiline--and, by the way, she sang that ditty very sweetly
yestereen--is cooking over the fire at the other end of the room. She's
as happy as a queen and is singing again. This time it's habitant love
song. How good-natured and volatile these French-Canadians are! The loss
of her two babies seem to be entirely forgotten in the joy of travelling
out west with her husband. Outside we can hear the axes of Bateese and
another driver chopping firewood for our camp. Harold, as well as Bond
and Hardman, are all away with the Colonel and his men cutting a new
road in and out among the granite boulders through the woods. They will
be back to-night to remain with their wives until the morning. It seems
an awfully funny arrangement--four married men with their wives to sleep
together in a single shanty. What a terrible thing it would be if any of
them got mixed!
"Strange, we never think of these things until they come upon us, and
then we take them as a matter of course--simply, I suppose, because we
have to. If I had known what lay before me on leaving England, I am just
as sure as--Still--I would have done a great deal for Harold--God knows
I would--and perhaps, yes, perhaps--What's the use of talking, anyway?
Whatever is, had to be; and whatever lies before us, we must face,
whether we will or no.
"Still, these men are not a bit rude to me, and our long shanty is so
arranged that our end is cut off from the rest, though what is said in
ordinary talk can be heard all over the room. Then about our bed, I was
going to tell how we make it, but I won't, even to you, Mrs. Diary.
"'Still keep somethin' to yoursel'
You'd scarcely tell to ony.'
"But I must say something more about our drive. For three or four days
after leaving Bytown, Captain Cummings was with me the half of each day
while Harold was marching, and I must say he seemed a different man,
just as gentlemanly as he could be, and so kind and thoughtful that I
felt ashamed of having ever entertained suspicions. He was considerate,
too, for on recovering the use of his ankle earlier than he expected, he
suggested a return to the old role. I must say I was both glad and sorry
to get some one else now and then in his place.
"Three days ago, though, one of my off days, in which I had no fever, he
again drove with me the whole afternoon, and as it had occurred more
than once before, I became interested in his conversation. He has read
and travelled so much that his talk is instructive, and before you know
it you are thrown off your guard. You vow to yourself that it shall
never occur again, and yet it does occur, even before you know it. That
afternoon we commenced almost at once to talk about Penetang.
"'Yes,' he said, 'I have taken the trouble to learn a good deal about
it. It is short for Penetanguishene, the name given to it by the Ojibway
Indians, and is said to be very picturesque.'
"'Has the name a meaning?' I asked.
"'Yes, it signifies the rolling sands or the shining shores made by the
gods of the fairies for lovers to bask upon.'
"'And do the Ojibways still live there?' I asked.
"Oh, no! Governor Simcoe bought the section twenty years ago from the
Matchedash Indians for garrison purposes, and it is only now, by advice
of the present Governor, Sir George Prevost, that the idea is being
carried out."
"'And so we are going there to build the fort,' was my response.
"'Don't you think we are an admirable body for the purpose?' he asked.
'A valiant knight of the Cross, with full complement of officers and men
to establish the quarters and put up the building, and a lady of quality
to preside at our functions and be queen of the realm.'
"'But what will you do with her in the meantime?' I asked merrily. 'Put
her on the rolling sands and shining shore until the fort is built?'
"'That's just it,' he returned. 'Turn her into a sea nymph and give her
a tent to adorn until the building is finished.'
"'You are very kind. But how came it, Captain Cummings, as chief officer
of the company to be stationed, that you did not get married and bring
your own wife to be queen and preside at your functions?'
"'I had very good reasons,' he blurted out. 'First, the lady to whom I
was engaged flatly declined to come west when I hinted the matter to
her. She was not so brave as you are. Second, she was a hothouse plant,
and would have been out of place in a garrison settlement. Third, I did
not love her enough to bother with her company, even if she had been
willing.'
"'And did she break the engagement?'
"'I suppose so, and I am happy to say I'm a free lance again, ready to
gather the luscious fruit whenever opportunity occurs.'
"'You don't believe then in the adage: 'Once in love, always in love?'
"'Lieutenant Manning does,' he replied.
"'And so does his wife,' was my response.
"'Oh, of course, but I believe in friendship more than love, and you
must count me your staunchest friend when we establish ourselves on the
shining shores of Penetang.'
"I thanked him, of course, and again I say what else could I do?"