March, with its sudden blizzards and terrific gales passed. Mid-April
came, and Toby and Charley, with dogs and komatik, met Skipper Zeb at
Black River tilt, when he appeared again out of the silent wilderness
with the harvest of his labours, and his winter's trapping was ended.
How happy they were when Skipper Zeb was home again. It was pleasant to
hear his big voice and his jolly laugh booming about the cabin. He was
always an optimist, and he always made every one feel that everything
was all right.
"Well, now! Here we are all safe and sound and snug! The winter gone,
and nothin' to worry about, but a wonderful lot to be thankful to the
Lard for!"
The days were long now, and with the coming of May the sun began to
assert his strength. The snow softened at midday, and sealskin boots
again took the place of buckskin moccasins.
Toby and Charley, with dogs and komatik, hauled wood that Toby had cut
in the fall, and more wood that Skipper Zeb felled each day, in
preparation for another winter.
"Before we knows un the summer'll be gone and the fishin' over, and
Dad'll be settin' up his traps again, and the winter'll come, and I'll
not be havin' you, Charley," said Toby sadly.
When there was enough wood cut and hauled to the cabin, and the warm
days of June came with their threat of a final break-up of the ice in
the bay, Long Tom Ham appeared to take the dogs to Lucky Bight for the
summer.
A lump came in Charley's throat when he saw Long Tom Ham drive the dogs
away. The going of the dogs marked the end of winter, and the time close
at hand when they should close the little cabin at Double Up Cove, where
he had spent so many happy months, and depart for Pinch-In Tickle, to
await the coming of the mail boat.
But with every wave of regret there followed the happy thought that he
would soon be with his father and his mother again, and the thought
always sent a tingle of joy up and down his spine. What a meeting that
would be! What a welcome he should receive! What tales he would have to
tell! How proud his father would be of him! How his mother would hover
over him and love him! As much as he regretted leaving his good friends,
these thoughts made the time that he must wait for his going seem all
too long.
Near the end of June came a deluge of rain. Miniature rivers poured down
the hillsides into the bay, and the world became a sea of slush. When
the rain ceased and the sky cleared, the sun shone warm and mellow, and
the ice, now broken into pans, began to move out with the tide.
Seals were now basking in the sunshine upon the loosened ice and upon
the shore, and for two weeks Skipper Zeb and the boys devoted their time
to hunting them. The skins were needed for boots, the flesh for dog
food, and the blubber for oil. Sometimes they would themselves eat seal
meat, and though the Twigs were fond of it, and Charley had pronounced
the meat excellent when he and Toby were starving on Swile Island, he
now thought it strong and not as palatable as he would like.
On the last day of June Skipper Zeb's trap boat, calked and made tight,
was launched, and Skipper Zeb announced:
"Well, now! Here we are clear of ice, and I'm thinkin' there'll soon be
signs of fish down at the tickle. To-morrow marnin', and the weather
holds fine, we'll be cruisin' down. In another week, or fortnight,
whatever, the mail boat'll be comin' and blowin' her whistle in the
offing. I tells you, Charley lad, when you comes, and when you wants to
go home so bad, that when the mail boat comes back and blows her whistle
in the offing, we'd be ready and waitin' for she."
And so it came to pass that Charley found himself again with Skipper Zeb
and his family in the little cabin at Pinch-In Tickle. How crude it had
seemed to him that day when Toby led him up the path, and he had first
met Skipper Zeb! How comfortable and hospitable it seemed to him now!
How many memories it held for him!
Early one morning there sounded the long blast of a whistle, and
presently the mail boat appeared in the tickle, and came to in the
offing. There was great excitement in Skipper Zeb's cabin. Charley had
no time to change to the clothes in which he had arrived, but they were
packed in a neat bundle, and in another bundle were the wolf and bear
skins, together with many other souvenirs of the winter. Charley wished
to give his rifle to Toby, but Toby declined:
"Keep un yourself to remember the bear, and our other huntin'."
"I'll send you and your father new ones, as I promised, anyhow," Charley
assured.
"Well, now, and there's the mail boat!" exclaimed Skipper Zeb. "She's
come at last to take Charley away from us! And this is the end of the
fix you gets in! I'm wonderful sorry to have you go, lad! We're thinkin'
of you like one of the family now, and we're not wishin' to lose you."
"We're all wonderful sorry!" and Mrs. Twig brushed away a tear.
"Some day," said Charley, his heart full, "I'll come back to see you,
and perhaps I'll bring Dad with me to show him how good you people are,
and how we live in a real wilderness."
"I'll be puttin' you over in the punt to the mail boat," said Toby,
reluctant to bid Charley farewell.
They all went down to the landing to see him off, Skipper Zeb, Mrs. Twig
and Violet. He sat in the stern of the punt, as he did on the day Toby
took him ashore, while Toby rowed him alongside and helped him on deck
with his baggage, and then the boys grasped each other's hands in
farewell.
"'Twere the finest winter I ever has--with you here," and Toby's choking
voice would permit him to say no more.
"It was the finest winter I ever spent, too," and Charley was little
less moved than Toby.
"The ship's movin'. Good-bye!" and Toby hurried down the ladder and into
his boat.
Charley stood at the rail watching Toby row his old punt back, until the
ship passed into the tickle and shut from view Toby, the rocky hillside,
the clinging cabins and Skipper Zeb with Mrs. Twig and Violet at the
landing still waving their farewell to him.
"Where you going?" the steward's question met Charley as he turned from
the rail.
"To St. John's. Don't you know me? I'm Charley Norton who came down with
you last fall."
It was several minutes before the steward could convince himself that
this upstanding, clear-eyed, bronze-skinned fellow, attired like a
Labradorman, was the pale, listless unhappy lad they had lost the
previous fall. Then he hastened to Captain Barcus with the news, and
Captain Barcus and the whole crew gathered around Charley and welcomed
him as they would have welcomed a returned hero, to his great confusion.
"Now a wireless to your father!" beamed Captain Barcus, when Charley had
been duly greeted.
* * * * *
Mr. Bruce Norton was in his private office on William Street, in New
York City, dictating his morning mail, when a boy laid a telegram upon
his desk. He finished the letter he was dictating, before opening the
message, and then he read:
"Will arrive in St. John's July twentieth, on mail boat from
Labrador. Had a great winter. Killed a wolf and shot a white bear.
Wire how you and mother are. Love to you both. Cannot wait to see
you.
"CHARLEY."
Mr. Norton was upon his feet before he had read the last line. He
stuffed the message into his pocket, seized his hat, and as he bolted
from his office he shouted to his secretary, who now filled the place
formerly occupied by Mr. Henry Wise:
"Get sleeper reservations for Mrs. Norton and myself to St. John's at
once!"
"For to-day?" asked the secretary.
"Yes! Yes! First train possible!" and Mr. Norton disappeared in an
elevator.
When Mr. Norton broke the good news to Mrs. Norton a half hour later,
the two declared it was the happiest day of their whole life. But when,
a week later, they greeted Charley in St. John's when he disembarked from
the mail boat, and he threw his arms around his mother, perhaps a
greater height of happiness was reached.
Before they left St. John's, Mr. Norton contracted for the best motor
boat that he could buy, to be shipped on the mail boat to Skipper Zeb;
and with it went a host of gifts to Mrs. Twig and Violet from Mrs.
Norton, and new rifles and ammunition to Skipper Zeb and Toby as gifts
from Charley.
And we may be sure that the friendship did not end with this. But our
story has already grown too long, and those happenings of after years
belong to another tale.
FOOTNOTE: [15] The Wolf.