_From John Grant's Diary_
During the years that I spent abroad, in study, there were times when a
tremendous longing would come over me, so great that I was sorely tempted
to run away, even if for a few weeks only, and revel in the satisfaction
of my desire. It would seize upon me during long evenings, when I was
sometimes a little wearied with hard work. I hungered at such times for
the smoke of a camp-fire, for its resinous smells, for the distant calls
of night birds, for the crackling flames that cast strange lights upon
friendly faces.
All this was ours on the evening we spent after our little caribou hunt.
Miss Jelliffe, who had had some slight experience with small target
rifles, made a good shot at a fine stag, and we were all very cheerful.
The fire burned brightly before the tent she shared with Susie, and the
dry dead pine with logs of long-burning birch crackled merrily. Over the
little lake, behind the dark conifers and the distant hills, the sun had
gone down in a glory of incandescent gold and crimson.
After we had finished our supper we all sat around the blaze and the
tales began, of big caribou and mighty salmon. Yet after a time, as
one always must in this country, we drifted off to stories of the
never-ending fight against mighty powers.
Very simply, in brief sentences, with short intervals to permit of more
accurate recollection, good old Sammy opened to us vistas of unending
fields of ice whereupon men slew the harp-seals, and pictured to us the
manner in which the toll of death sometimes turns against the slayers. He
also spoke of fishing schooners tossed by fierce gales, drifting by the
side of mountainous bergs of ice rimmed with foam from the billows lashed
in fury, and of seams that had opened as the ship spewed off its creeping
oakum. I am sure we could all see the men at the pumps, working until
their stiffened arms and frozen hands refused the bidding of brains
benumbed by cold and hunger.
"Yes, ma'am, it's hard, mighty hard, times and times, but when yer gets
through wid it ye'll still be there, if yer has luck, and them as doesn't
get ketched gets back ter th' wife an' young, 'uns, an' is thankful they
kin start all over again."
I saw how interested Miss Jelliffe was, and did my best to draw the man
out. Like most real fighters he was little inclined to live his own
combats over again, yet when he was once started it took little effort to
keep him going. After this I questioned Frenchy, very carefully, for he
is even less inclined than the other fishermen to talk about himself. I
have never known the secret, if there be one, in the life of this man,
alone of his people on this shore, with that child of his. He is always
ever so friendly, and looks at one with big, dog-like, trusting eyes, but
I have never sought to obtain a confidence he does not seem to be willing
to bestow on any one. For this reason I merely asked him whether he had
traveled much in foreign lands, as a sailor.
Then, as he puffed quietly at his pipe, the man gradually expanded just a
little, though never speaking of anything he had personally accomplished.
His tales, contrasting with Sammy's, took us to hot countries, with names
that were rather vague to us.
He led us up some rivers tenanted by strange beasts wallowing in fetid
mud which, when disturbed, sent forth bubbles that burst with foul odors,
and made more unbearable the tepid moisture one had to breathe. Hostile,
yellow people in strange garb slunk along the banks, hiding behind
bamboos and watching the boats rowed by white men nearly succumbing to
the torpor of the misty heat, while pulling with arms enfeebled by the
fevers of what he called _La Rivière Rouge_. There had been fighting,
nights and days of it, and once he had forgotten everything and awakened
on board a ship that was out of sight of land. Now the trade winds were
blowing, and many of the sick and wounded felt better, yet the great
sharks kept on following because of the long bundles that were daily
dropped overboard, done up in sail cloth and weighted at the feet. And
when one arrived in port there were poor old women who called for
Jean-Marie and for Joseph, and who sank fainting on the docks. But others
were happy.
I could see that Miss Jelliffe was deeply interested in these tales of
things related very simply, very naturally, as if the sailor had spoken
of catching squid or under-running trawls. She wondered, as I did, why
this man who had sailed so many seas should have drifted here and taken
up his life in a strange land with the little yellow-haired boy in which
his heart was enwrapped.
Sammy and Susie listened open-mouthed to those tales of things they could
not realize or understand, for they could make little out of them, since
the man was often hard pushed for words, using a good many from his own
tongue.
"Why don't you go back to your own country?" asked Miss Jelliffe, very
softly.
But he made no answer, pretending not to have heard her question. For an
instant she looked at him, then turned her head away. I also saw that a
strange moisture had gathered in the big man's eyes, lighted as they were
by the flames into which he peered, as if seeking in them lost things
that were past redeeming.
For some time we all remained very silent, as if oppressed by the awe of
these tales, and I had to take a desperate measure to change the trend of
thought. In a low voice I began to sing a lilting Irish melody with a
sweet refrain in which Miss Jelliffe joined, soon followed by Sammy's
deep tones and Susie's shrill ones, while Frenchy began to keep time with
a blackened pot-stick.
So it was only a few minutes before cheerful thoughts returned to us, as
the darkness deepened and the stars glittered, clear and close at hand.
Then we finally said good-night and Miss Jelliffe sought her tent,
attended by Susie.
We men went away to our lean-to, and talked a little longer before
stretching out for a sound night's sleep. And it seemed but a few
instants before we were up again, with the sunlight beginning to stream
over the distant hillocks towards the sea that was now hidden from us. I
took my rod to the outlet, where trout were rising, and returned soon to
find that coffee was being made while the men were cutting bacon and
chopping more wood.
Then Susie came to us, wanting some hot water and hurriedly returning to
the tent. Finally the flaps were turned aside and the young woman came
out, rosy of cheek and bright-eyed. Susie had a small fire before her
tent, and Miss Jelliffe held her hands before it for a moment. When she
came towards us I was kneeling on a small rock at the water's edge,
cleaning trout, while Frenchy was scraping away at the caribou head, the
scalp of which hung over a pole, to dry a little after a good salting.
Sammy was smiting away at an old pine log for more firewood.
"Good morning," she cried. "It is a perfect shame that you allowed me to
sleep so long. Oh! The beautiful trout! Where did you get them?"
I explained my capture, and told her that a few moments had been enough
to secure all that were needed for all hands. The two men grinned at her
delightedly, as she went up to them, happy and smiling, and she had to
inform them that she had spent a wonderful night of such sleep as no one
could possibly get outside of the wilderness.
"Isn't it all lovely and cheerful!" she exclaimed. "Now I insist on being
useful too. Won't you let me fry the trout?"
She knelt by the fire, holding a frying pan whose hollow handle had been
fitted with a long stick. The big dab of butter soon melted, and in a
moment the trout were crepitating and curling up in the pan, sending
forth heavenly odors.
"We can take our time," I told her, "for we will not look for another
stag to-day. All that meat is going to make a heavy load to take back."
"But it is a shame," she said, contritely. "You were going for a hunt,
and now that I have killed the stag you won't have any sport at all."
"I have had as good sport as any man has the right to expect," I said.
"Please don't believe that it all lies in pulling a trigger. It is just
this sort of thing that makes hunting glorious; the cheery fire and the
flapping tent doors, the breeze ruffling the lake, the sitting at night
by the fire and the tales we heard there. I will agree never to kill a
caribou again if you will only furnish me with such sport as this from
time to time."
"I was just thinking," she said, "that I am a law-breaker. I have no
license to kill caribou."
"I have no doubt that you may be forgiven if you will send the money to
St. John's and apply for a license. Then you can shoot two more, with an
easy conscience."
"I will certainly send it," she replied, "but you ought to keep that
head, you know."
"No indeed, it is yours, and you must take it back with you to be
mounted. If I should ever return to New York I will ask you to allow me
to have a look at it."
"I shall never forgive you if you don't call," she answered, charmingly.
"But don't speak just now of going back to New York. I don't think I
shall ever leave a place with such regret. I simply refuse to think of
it."
It was really delightful to see this splendid girl, brought up in the
most refined surroundings and yet so influenced by the glamour of the
outdoor life. To the strong and healthful there can be no attraction in
great towns that may not be dwarfed by the great pulsing of the lands
sought by the lovers of rod and gun. Here she had gathered new ideas and
unwonted thoughts. She is the best example I have ever seen of the
sturdy, beautiful girlhood of modern life, and is an utter pleasure to
look upon.
After a time we started towards Sweetapple Cove. The meat, or as much of
it as we could carry, had all been tied up in packs. I was able to take a
good load of it and Susie trudged along, bearing the big caribou head
upon her shoulders.
"'Tain't much the weight on it," she said, "but it's clumsy. Them men has
all they kin lug an' I'm a goin' ter hoof it erlong wid this, jest ter
show willing."
Walking back seemed quite a different thing. After leaving the little
lake we had climbed up, but now we were again on the great marshy barrens
which inclined down towards the sea.
"Now," said Miss Jelliffe, during a spell of resting, "I should be
utterly lost if I were alone. Nothing seems at all familiar and it is all
a great jumble of little green islands of vegetation, of grey moss that
is endless, of twisted junipers and lonely boulders. I don't know where I
am, but I am perfectly happy, since some one knows the way."
Of course I was only acquainted with the general lie of the land,
but the direction was quite clear to me. I wish everything was as
straight-forward and clear as the way to the Cove.
"I am quite ashamed of myself," she continued. "I am the only one who is
carrying nothing and is perfectly useless. I wonder your backs are not
broken with those tremendous loads."
But the two men only grinned.
"It is nothing when you get used to it," I said, "providing one ever
really gets used to a hard grind. But there are people to whom strong
physical effort is a punishment while others simply accept it, grit their
teeth, and carry the thing out."
"I suppose one has to learn how to accept things cheerfully," said Miss
Jelliffe. "My life has been such an easy one that I have never had to try
to bear heavy burdens."
"I am sure you will do it courageously, if ever the time comes," I
answered.
Then we took up our packs and went on, making rather slow progress, as we
were not pressed for time and the loads were heavy. In the middle of the
day we took our lunch near a little brook, and, after starting again, we
soon saw, from the summit of a little hill, the bright and glittering
sea. Before us descended the valley of Sweetapple River, looking like a
silvery ribbon winding in and out among the trees. To one side of us
there was a rocky hill, once swept by a storm of flames and now tenanted
only by the gaunt skeletons of charred firs and tamaracks. In the
mistiness ahead of us the coast line, with its grim outlines softened,
lost itself and melted away as if nature, in a kindly spirit, had sought
to throw a veil over brutal features and covered them with a mantle of
tender hues.
"This is ideally beautiful," said Miss Jelliffe. "I can understand that
you may hesitate to leave all this to return to the grime of great
cities."
Thus we returned to the Cove, and the girl hastened to her father, eager
to tell him of our hunt and to show him the great head. I went with her
to the house, and took pleasure in seeing the interest shown by the old
gentleman. He certainly is a good sportsman.
"If Helen hasn't thanked you enough," he said, "I want to put in my oar.
I am really extremely obliged to you for giving her such a good time."
I left in a short time and Miss Jelliffe put out her hand in her frank
and friendly way. I must say she is a girl in many thousands.
And now I wonder why I am writing all this. My diary, begun in
self-defence at a time when I expected to spend so dreary a time that an
addled and rusted brain would result unless I sought hard to keep it
employed, scarcely has an excuse for being, now. The Jelliffes and the
Barnetts, with the good people of the Cove, are surely enough to keep a
man interested in the world about him. It has simply become a silly
habit, this jotting down of idle words.