When the bright warm days and cool starry nights of the Indian summer
gave place to the sharp days and frosty nights of early winter--when
young ice formed on the lakes and rendered canoeing impossible, and the
ducks and geese had fled to warmer climes, and the Frost King had sent
his first messengers of snow to cover the wilderness with a
winding-sheet and herald his return to the Winter Palace--then it was
that the banished Red River settlers began to feel the pinch of poverty
and to understand the full extent of the calamity that had befallen
them.
We have not space to follow them through all the details of that winter
at Jack River. Some died, all suffered more or less; but they had to
endure it, for escape from the country to the civilised world was even
more difficult and hopeless than escape from the dreaded wilds of
Siberia. The men hunted, fished under the ice, trapped, and sustained
themselves and their families in life during the long, dreary winter;
the only gain being that they became more or less expert at the
Red-man's work and ways of life.
Only two of the Indians remained with them to help them over their
difficulties--namely, Okematan and Kateegoose, with their respective
squaws. These last were invaluable as the makers of moccasins and
duffle socks and leathern coats, without which existence in such a
climate would have been impossible. They also imparted their knowledge
in such matters to the squaws of the white men.
There was one friend, however, who did not remain with the settlers when
things began to look dismal around them. This was the amiable, musical,
story-telling La Certe. That tender-hearted man could not endure the
sight of human distress. If he could not relieve it, he felt
constrained to shut his eyes to it and to flee from it. At the first
indication of the approach of winter he had come to old McKay with that
peculiarly mild, humble, deprecatory expression of countenance with
which he was wont to preface an appeal for assistance of some sort.
"What iss it you will be wantin' _now_?" demanded the old man, rather
testily, for he had an aversion to the half-breed's sneaking ways.
"Surely you will not be wantin' more powder an' shot efter the supply I
gave you last week?"
O no! nothing could be further from the mind of La Certe. He had plenty
of ammunition and provisions. He had only come to say that he was going
back to--to--Red River.
"Weel, weel," returned the Highlander, "there is no call for hesitation,
man, in tellin' me that. I will not be breakin' my heart when ye are
gone. I suppose that now ye hev got the best the season can supply, ye
think the comforts o' the Settlement will be more to your taste."
The remonstrative expression on La Certe's face deepened. The idea of
his own taste or comfort had not once entered his head: but he had a
wife and child whom he was bound to consider, and he had a hut--a home--
in Red River which he felt constrained to look after. Besides, he had
social duties of many kinds which claimed attention.
"I've no doubt ye hev," said McKay, with a short sarcastic laugh, "an'
ye will attend to them too--I'll be bound. But ye did not come here, I
suppose, to take a tender farewell o' me. What iss it you will be
wantin'? Oot wi' it, man!"
"There is a canoe--" said La Certe, with some hesitation.
"There iss many a canoe!" returned McKay with a peculiar grin.
"True, but there is one on the shore now, close to the flat rock
which--"
"My own canoe!" interrupted the other, "what will ye be wantin' wi'
that?"
La Certe did not wish to appear greedy, but the season was late, and his
own canoe was not in a very fit condition to carry a family round the
shores of a lake so large as Lake Winnipeg. Would the white father lend
his canoe to him? It could not be wanted much longer that Fall, and the
one he would leave behind him was an excellent canoe for ordinary
fishing and hunting purposes. He would be quite willing to hire the
canoe or to pay the full price for it if any accident should happen to
it.
"No," said McKay, firmly. "No, La Certe; your hiring means borrowing,
and your payin' means owin' a debt for the remainder o' your natural
life. I will see you at the bottom o' Lake Winnipeg before I will be
lending you my canoe."
La Certe smiled sadly, and gazed at the cap with which his hands played,
as if appealing to it for sympathy.
With an aspect of the profoundest resignation he made his bow and left
the Presence.
But La Certe was not in the least put out by this failure. He went to
his tent, and recounted the interview to his squaw, who, when he
entered, was in the act of giving her child, a creature of about four
years of age, one or two draws of her pipe, to let it taste how nice it
was.
Smoking in calm placidity, the amiable pair discussed the subject. The
conclusion they came to was, as usual, harmonious.
"I think he will agree to lend it next time I go to him," said La Certe,
hopefully.
"He will give in," replied Slowfoot, decidedly.
The four-year-old could not understand the subject, and made no comment;
but it howled for another smoke, and got it.
La Certe was wrong, and his wife was right--as usual. Old McKay did not
agree to "lend" his canoe the "next time," or the next again, but he did
"give in" at last, more, perhaps, to get rid of the half-breed's
importunity than because of good-will, and sold the canoe to him--on
credit.
When that winter was over, the Hudson's Bay Company again encouraged the
settlers to return, under promise of protection, and the spring found
the persevering people, in spite of all difficulties and previous
failures, busy putting into the ground what little seed they possessed,
and otherwise cultivating the soil.
Some of them there were, however, who, after lending a hand in this
work, determined to provide second strings to their bows by following
the buffalo-hunters to the plains. These were chiefly the young and
strong men, such as Dan Davidson and his brother Peter, Fergus McKay,
Antoine Dechamp, and Jacques Bourassin, among many others.
La Certe also went, as well as his squaw and the four-year-old. He
managed the thing characteristically thus.
When the half-breeds were making preparations for their spring hunt, he
paid a visit to Duncan McKay, who was busy at the time helping his
father and brother to rebuild their house. Indeed the edifice was
almost rebuilt, for the erection of small wooden houses does not usually
take long.
"You've come to beg, borrow, or steal, no doubt," said Cloudbrow, who
was worthy of his nickname, for he was as short of temper as Duncan
senior.
No, La Certe had come to do none of these things, he said, with a
conciliatory smile.
"Well, then, you can't have come to buy or to ask advances," growled
Duncan; "for you see that our store and all we possessed has been burnt
by your precious countrymen."
La Certe knew this, and professed himself profoundly grieved as well as
indignant with his countrymen. No, he did not come to buy or to borrow,
but to hire. The McKays had still some horses left, and carts. Could
they not spare a horse and cart to him on hire?
"No, we can do nothing of the sort," said Duncan shortly, resuming his
axe and work. "You can go to the Company. Perhaps they will trust
you--though they are fools if they do."
La Certe was regretful, but not cast down. He changed the subject,
commented on the building that was going on, the prospects of a good
harvest, and finally took refuge in that stale old subject, the weather.
Then he said in a casual way--as if it had just occurred to him--
"By the way--that knife that my wife got from Marie Blanc--"
Young McKay stopped, and looked quickly up for a moment, with a slight
flush, but instantly resumed work.
"Well," he said, quietly, "what about the knife?"
"Would you like to have it--my wife bade me inquire?"
"Why should _I_ like to have it?" he asked carelessly.
"Oh! I thought it was yours," said La Certe.
"You are mistaken. I said it was very like mine. But it is _not_
mine--and I have no wish for what does not belong to me."
"Of course not. Well, I must be going," said the half-breed, preparing
to leave. "I wished much to have your horse and cart, for they are both
good, and I would offer you 4 pounds for the trip, which, you know, is
double the usual charge, for I never grudge a good price for a good
thing."
"Yes, all the more when you hev no intention to pay it," said McKay with
a laugh. "However, since you seem so anxious, and offer so good a
price, I am willing to oblige you this time, in the hope that you are
really becoming an honest man!"
The half-breed was profuse in his thanks, and in his assurance that
Cloudbrow's hopes would certainly not be disappointed.
Having thus attained his chief object, our arch-beggar went off to
obtain provisions. Those which had been supplied him the previous
autumn by young McKay had been quite consumed by himself and his
friends--for the man, you see, had a liberal heart and hand.
But his first attempts were unsuccessful. He wanted ammunition. To go
to the plains without ammunition was obviously useless. He wanted
food--sugar, tea, flour, pork. To go to the plains without these would
be dreary work. But men knew La Certe's character, and refused him.
One after another he tried his friends. Then he tried them again. Then
he tried comparative strangers. He could not try his enemies, for,
strange to say, he had none. Then he went over them all again.
At last, by indomitable perseverance, he managed to wear out the
patience of one of his friends, who believed in the restoration of the
incorrigible, and he found himself fully equipped to take the field with
his hard-working comrades.
It may be remarked here that the buffalo runners generally went on the
credit system, trusting to a successful hunt to pay off their debts, and
leave them supplied with food for the winter. But, then, most of these
men were in earnest, and meant to pay off their debts loyally. Whereas
La Certe--good, humorous, easy-going man--had not the slightest
intention of paying his debts at all!