Turning once again to the colony at Red River, we introduce the reader
to the Scotch settlers in the autumn of the year--at a time when there
was some appearance of the commencement of a season of prosperity, after
all the troubles that had befallen and surrounded, and well-nigh
overwhelmed them in time past.
The Davidson and McKay families had re-established themselves on their
farms, rebuilt their houses and planted their fields, and splendid crops
of all kinds were now flourishing, ready for spade and sickle.
The soil was found to be excellent. In after years, forty-fold was no
uncommon return. In one case, for a bushel of barley sown, fifty-six
bushels were reaped; and from a bushel of seed potatoes were obtained
one hundred and forty-five bushels! Industry, however, had not at that
time been rewarded with such encouraging results, but there was
sufficient to indicate cheering prospects in the near future, and to
gladden the hearts of the pioneer settlers.
As a good number of these had, under the depressing influence of
disappointment and failure in the past, neglected to sow extensively,
not a few families were forced again to winter at Pembina, and draw
their supplies from the chase to avoid consuming all the seed which
alone ensured them against famine. Among these were the Swiss families,
most of whom, being watch and clock makers, pastry-cooks, mechanics and
musicians, were not well adapted for agricultural pursuits. Perhaps
they were as ill-adapted for the chase, but seed takes time to sow and
grow, whereas animals need no prolonged nursing--at least from man--and
are quickly killed if one can shoot.
The young leader of the Switzers, however, Andre Morel, soon left his
party at Pembina under the care of his lieutenant, and returned to Red
River Settlement, bent on mastering the details of husbandry, so as to
be able afterwards to direct the energies of his compatriots into a more
profitable occupation than the chase.
For this purpose, he sought and obtained employment with the Davidsons
in the new and enlarged edition of Prairie Cottage. His sister, Elise,
was engaged by old McKay to act as companion and assistant to his
daughter Elspie. Both the curly-haired Andre and the fair, blue-eyed
Elise, proved to be invaluable acquisitions in the households in which
they had found a home, for both were lively, intelligent companions,
hard workers at whatever they undertook, and were possessed of sweet
melodious voices. Andre also performed on the violin, an instrument
which has played a prominent part in the wild Nor'-West ever since the
white-man set down his foot there.
"What do you think, Elspie, of my brother's plan, of taking the farm
just below this one, after he has had enough experience to be able to
work it himself?" asked Elise.
"It will be very nice to have him settled so near us. Do you think he
will take the whole of it?"
"I think so. You see, the terms on which the Earl has granted the land
are so easy, and the supplies of goods, oatmeal, clothing, and farm
implements sent us so generous, that Andre finds he will have money
enough to enable him to start. Then, that strong, good-natured seaman,
Fred Jenkins, has actually agreed to serve as a man on the farm for a
whole year for nothing, except, of course, his food and lodging. Isn't
it generous of him?"
"Do you know why he is going to serve him for nothing?" asked Elspie,
with a quick look and smile.
"No--I do not," returned fair little Elise with an innocent look. "Do
you?"
"O no--of course I don't; I can only guess," replied her companion with
a light laugh. "Perhaps it is because he knows his services as a farm
servant can't be worth much at first."
"There you are wrong," returned Elise, stoutly. "No doubt he is
ignorant, as yet, about sowing and reaping and the like, but he is
wonderfully strong--just like a giant at lifting and carrying-and he has
become quite knowing about horses, and carting, and such things. All
that he stipulates for is that he shall board in our house. He says
he'll manage, somehow, to make enough money to buy all the clothes he
wants."
"What a delightful kind of servant," said Elspie, with an arch look,
which was quite thrown away on Elise, "and so disinterested to do it
without any reason."
"O! but he must have some reason, you know," rejoined Elise. "I
shouldn't wonder if it was out of gratitude to my brother who was very
kind to him--so he says--the first time they met."
"Did he say that was his reason?" asked Elspie quickly.
"No, he did not say so, but he has said more than once that he feels
very grateful to my brother, and it has just occurred to me that that
may be his reason. It would be very natural--wouldn't it?"
"Oh, very natural!--very!" returned the other. "But d'you know, Elise,
I don't like your brother's plan at all."
"No! why?"
"Because, don't you see, foolish girl, that it will take you away from
me? You will, of course, want to keep house for your brother, and I
have become so used to you, short though our intercourse has been, that
I don't see how I can get on at all without you?"
"Never mind, Elspie, dear. It will be a long while before Andre is
ready to take the farm. Besides, by that time, you know, you and Dan
will be married, so you won't miss me much--though I confess I should
like you to miss me a little."
Elspie sighed at this point. "I suspect that our marriage will not be
so soon as you think, Elise," she said. "Dan has tried to arrange it
more than once, but there seems to be a fate against it, for something
_always_ comes in the way!"
"Surely nothing will happen this time," said the sympathetic Elise.
"Everything begins to prosper now. The crops are beautiful; the weather
is splendid; the house is ready to begin to--all the logs are cut and
squared. Your father is quite willing, and Dan wishing for the day--
what more could you desire, Elspie?"
"Nothing; all seems well, but--" She finished the sentence with another
sigh.
While the two friends were thus conversing in the dairy, old McKay and
Dan Davidson were talking on the same subject in the hall of Ben Nevis.
"It iss a curious fact, Taniel," said the old man, with a pleased look,
"that it wass in this fery room in the old hoose that wass burnt, and
about the same time of the year, too, that you would be speakin' to me
about this fery thing. An' I do not think that we will be troubled this
time wi' the Nor'-Westers, whatever--though wan never knows what a tay
may bring furth."
"That is the very reason, sir," said Davidson, "that I want to get
married at once, so that if anything does happen again I may claim the
right to be Elspie's protector."
"Quite right, my boy, quite right; though I must say I would like to
wait till a real munister comes out; for although Mr Sutherland iss a
fery goot man, an' an elder too, he iss not chust exactly a munister,
you know, as I have said before. But have it your own way, Tan. If my
little lass is willin', old Tuncan McKay won't stand in your way."
That night the inhabitants of Red River lay down to sleep in comfort and
to dream, perchance, of the coming, though long delayed, prosperity that
had hitherto so often eluded their grasp.
Next day an event occurred which gave the poor settlers new cause for
grief amounting almost to despair.
Dan Davidson and Elspie were walking on the verandah in front of Ben
Nevis at the time. It was a warm sunny afternoon. All around looked
the picture of peace and prosperity.
"Does it not seem, Dan, as if all the troubles we have gone through were
a dark dream--as if there never had been any reality in them?" said
Elspie.
"It does indeed seem so," responded Dan, "and I hope and trust that we
shall henceforth be able to think of them as nothing more than a
troubled dream."
"What iss that you will be sayin' about troubled dreams?" asked old
McKay, coming out of the house at the moment.
"We were just saying, daddy, that all our troubles seem--"
"Look yonder, Tan," interrupted the old man, pointing with his pipe-stem
to a certain part of the heavens. "What iss it that I see? A queer
cloud, whatever! I don't remember seein' such a solid cloud as that in
all my experience."
"It is indeed queer. I hope it's not what Fred Jenkins would call a
`squall brewin' up,' for that wouldn't improve the crops."
"A squall!" exclaimed Jenkins, who chanced to come round the corner of
the house at the moment, with a spade on his shoulder. "That's never a
squall--no, nor a gale, nor a simoon, nor anything else o' the sort that
I ever heard of. Why, it's growin' bigger an' bigger!"
He shaded his eyes with his hand, and looked earnestly at the object in
question, which did indeed resemble a very dense, yet not a black,
cloud. For some moments the four spectators gazed in silence. Then old
McKay suddenly dropped his pipe, and looked at Dan with an expression of
intense solemnity.
"It iss my belief," he said in a hoarse whisper, "that it is them wee
deevils the grasshoppers!"
A very few minutes proved old McKay's surmise to be correct. Once
before, the colony had been devastated by this plague, and the memory of
the result was enough to alarm the most courageous among the settlers
who had experienced the calamity, though the new arrivals, being
ignorant, were disposed to regard the visitation lightly at first.
McKay himself became greatly excited when the air became darkened by the
cloud, which, ever increasing in size, rapidly approached.
"Haste ye, lads," he cried to some of the farm-servants who had joined
the group on the verandah, "get your spades, picks, an' shovels. Be
smart now: it is not possible to save all the crops, but we may try to
save the garden, whatever. Follow me!"
The garden referred to was not large or of great importance, but it was
a favourite hobby of the Highlander, and, at the time, was in full
bloom, luxuriant with fruit, flower, and vegetable. To save it from
destruction at such a time, McKay would have given almost anything, and
have gone almost any lengths. On this occasion, not knowing what to do,
yet impelled by his eagerness to do something, he adopted measures that
he had heard of as being used in other lands. He ordered a trench to be
cut and filled with water on the side of his garden nearest the
approaching plague, which might--if thoroughly carried out--have been of
some use against wingless grasshoppers but could be of no use whatever
against a flying foe. It would have taken an army of men to carry out
such an order promptly, and his men perceived this; but the master was
so energetic, so violent in throwing off his coat and working with his
own hand at pick and shovel, that they were irresistibly infected with
his enthusiasm, and set to work.
Old Duncan, did not, however, wield pick or shovel long. He was too
excited for that. He changed from one thing to another rapidly. Fires
were to be kindled along the line of defence, and he set the example in
this also. Then he remembered that blankets and other drapery had been
used somewhere with great effect in beating back the foe; therefore he
shouted wildly for his daughter and Elise Morel.
"Here we are, father: what can we do?"
"Go, fetch out all the blankets, sheets, table-cloths, an' towels in the
house, girls. It iss neck or nothin' this tay. Be smart, now! Take
men to help ye."
Two men were very busy there piling up little heaps of firewood, namely,
Dan Davidson and Fred Jenkins. What more natural than that these two,
on hearing the order given about blankets and table-cloths, etcetera,
should quit the fires and follow Elspie and Elise into the house!
In the first bedroom into which they entered they found Archie and
Billie Sinclair, the latter seated comfortably in an arm-chair close to
a window, the former wild with delight at the sudden demand on all his
energies. For Archie had been one of the first to leap to the work when
old McKay gave the order. Then he had suddenly recollected his little
helpless brother, and had dashed round to Prairie Cottage, got him on
his back, run with him to Ben Nevis Hall, placed him as we have seen in
a position to view the field of battle, and then, advising him to sit
quietly there and enjoy the fun, had dashed down-stairs to resume his
place in the forefront of battle!
He had run up again for a moment to inquire how Little Bill was getting
on, when the blanket and sheet searchers found them.
"All right," he exclaimed, on learning what they came for; "here you
are. Look alive! Don't stir, Little Bill!"
He hurled the bedding from a neighbouring bedstead as he spoke, tore
several blankets from the heap, and tumbled rather than ran down-stairs
with them, while the friends he had left behind followed his example.
By that time all the inmates and farm-servants of Prairie Cottage had
assembled at Ben Nevis Hall, attracted either by sympathy or curiosity
as to the amazing fracas which old McKay was creating. Of course they
entered into the spirit of the preparations, so that when the enemy at
last descended on them they found the garrison ready. But the defenders
might as well have remained quiet and gone to their beds.
Night was drawing near at the time, and was, as it were, precipitated by
the grasshoppers, which darkened the whole sky with what appeared to be
a heavy shower of snow.
The fires were lighted, water was poured into the trench, and the two
households fought with blanket, sheet, counterpane, and towel, in a
manner that proved the courage of the ancient heroes to be still
slumbering in men and women of modern days.
But what could courage do against such overwhelming odds? Thousands
were slaughtered. Millions pressed on behind.
"Don't give in, lads," cried the heroic and desperate Highlander,
wielding a great green blanket in a way that might have roused the
admiration if not the envy of Ajax himself. "Keep it up, Jenkins!"
"Ay, ay, sir!" responded the nautical warrior, as he laid about him with
an enormous buffalo robe, which was the only weapon that seemed
sufficiently suited to his gigantic frame; "never say die as long as
there's a shot in the locker."
Elise stood behind him, lost in admiration, and giving an imbecile flap
now and then with a towel to anything that happened to come in front of
her.
Elspie was more self-possessed. She tried to wield a jack-towel with
some effect, while Dan, Fergus, Duncan junior, Bourassin, Andre Morel,
and others ably, but uselessly, supported their heroic leader. La
Certe, who chanced to be there at the time, went actively about
encouraging others to do their very best. Old Peg made a feeble effort
to do what she conceived to be her duty, and Okematan stood by, calmly
looking on--his grave countenance exhibiting no symptom of emotion, but
his mind filled with intense surprise, not unmingled with pity, for the
Palefaces who displayed such an amount of energy in attempting the
impossible.
That self-defence, in the circumstances, was indeed impossible soon
became apparent, for the enemy descended in such clouds that they filled
up the half-formed ditch, extinguished the fires with their dead bodies,
defied the blanket-warriors, and swarmed not only into the garden of old
Duncan McKay but overwhelmed the whole land.
Darkness and exhaustion from the fight prevented the people of Ben Nevis
Hall and Prairie Cottage from at first comprehending the extent of the
calamity with which they had thus been visited, but enough had been seen
to convince McKay that his garden was doomed. When he at last allowed
the sad truth to force itself into his mind he suffered Elspie to lead
him into the house.
"Don't grieve, daddy," she said, in a low comforting tone; "perhaps it
won't be as bad as it seems."
"Fetch me my pipe, lass," he said on reaching his bedroom.
"Goot-night to you, my tear," he added, on receiving the implement of
consolation.
"Won't you eat--or drink--something, daddy dear?"
"Nothing--nothing. Leave me now. We hev had a goot fight, whatever,
an' it iss to bed I will be goin' now."
Left alone the old man lay down in his warrior-harness, so to speak,
lighted his pipe, smoked himself into a sort of philosophical contempt
for everything under the sun, moon, and stars, and finally dropped his
sufferings, as well as his pipe, by falling into a profound slumber.
Next morning when the people of Red River arose, they became fully aware
of the disaster that had befallen them. The grasshoppers had made what
Jenkins styled a clean sweep from stem to stern. Crops, gardens, and
every green herb in the settlement had perished; and all the sanguine
hopes of the long-suffering settlers were blighted once more.
Before passing from this subject it may be as well to mention that the
devastating hosts which visited the colony at this time left behind them
that which turned out to be a worse affliction than themselves. They
had deposited their larvae in the ground, and, about the end of the June
following, countless myriads of young grasshoppers issued forth to
overrun the fields. They swarmed in such masses as to be two, three,
and--in some places near water--even four inches deep. Along the rivers
they were found in heaps like sea-weed, and the water was almost
poisoned by them. Every vegetable substance was devoured--the leaves
and even bark of trees were eaten up, the grain vanished as fast as it
appeared above ground, everything was stripped to the bare stalk, and
ultimately, when they died in myriads, the decomposition of their dead
bodies was more offensive than their living presence.
Thus the settlers were driven by stress of misfortune once again to the
plains of Pembina, and obliged to consort with the Red-men and the
half-breeds, in obtaining sustenance for their families by means of the
gun, line, trap, and snare.