BELOW ZERO.
Indian summer was succeeded by the 'temps boucaneux,' when hoarfrost
drooped noiselessly on the night its silver powder on all the dazzling
colouring, presenting nature robed in a delicate white guise each
morning, which the sun appropriated to himself as soon as he could get
above the vapours. Now were the vast waters of Canada passing from a
fluid to a solid form, giving out caloric in quantities, accompanied by
these thin mists. Towards the close of November navigation ceases on the
Ottawa; the beginning of December sees the mighty river frozen over. Yet
it lies in the latitude of Bordeaux! All honour to the benevolent Gulf
Stream which warms France and England comfortably.
When Linda's fingers were particularly cold, she would puzzle Robert and
her father with questions as to why this should be so. Mr. Holt once
told her that the prevailing wind came from the north-west across a vast
expanse of frozen continent and frozen ocean. Also that James's Bay, the
southern tongue of Hudson's, was apt to get choked with masses of ice
drifted in from the arctic seas, and which, being without a way of escape,
just jammed together and radiated cold in company on the surrounding
lands.
This explanation was given and received within earshot of a splendid
fire on one of those tremendous January mornings when the temperature
is perhaps twenty-five degrees below zero, when the very smoke cannot
disperse in the frozen atmosphere, and the breath of man and beast
returns upon them in snowy particles. Nobody cares to be out of
doors, for the air cuts like a knife, and one's garments stiffen like
sheet-iron. Linda stands at the window of the little parlour--well she
understands now why the hearth was made almost as wide as one side of
the room--and looks out on the white world, and on the coppery sun
struggling to enlighten the icy heavens, and on that strange phenomenon,
the _ver glas_, gleaming from every tree.
'Now, Mr. Holt, as you have been good enough to attempt an explanation
of the cold, perhaps you could tell me the cause of the _ver glas_? What
makes that thin incrustation of ice over the trunk and every twig which
has been attracting my admiration these three days? It was as if each
tree was dressed in a tight-fitting suit of crystal when the sun
succeeded in shining a little yesterday.'
'I imagine that the cause was the slight thaw on Monday, and the freezing
of the moisture that then covered the bark and branches into a coat of
ice. So I only _attempt_ explanations, Miss Linda.'
'Oh, but it is not your fault if they are unsatisfactory, as I own that
of the north-west winds and James's Bay was to me; it is the fault of
science. I'm afraid you'll not answer another question which I have,
since I am so ungrateful as not to accept everything you say with
becoming reverence.'
'Name your question.'
'Why is every fourth day milder than the others? Why may we reckon with
almost certainty on a degree of soft weather to-morrow?'
'Those are the tertian intervals, and nobody understands them.'
'Concise and candid, if it doesn't make me wiser; but I'm compensated
for that in finding something of which you are equally ignorant with
myself, Mr. Holt.'
Remarks of a more superficial character were extorted by the severity of
the weather from the inmates of the kitchen.
'Arrah, Miss Libby asthore, wor ye able to sleep one wink last night wid
the crakling of the threes? I niver heerd'--
'Sartin sure I was,' replied the rubicund damsel, as she moved briskly
about her work. She had a peculiarity of wearing very short skirts,
lest they should impede her progress; but once that Andy ventured a
complimentary joke on her ankles, he met with such scathing scorn that
he kept aloof from the subject in future, though often sorely tempted.
'Nothen ever kep me waking,' asseverated the Yankee girl with perfect
truth. 'Now, young man, jest git out o' my way; warm yar hands in yar
hair, if you've a mind teu--it's red enough, I guess.'
'Throth an' I wish I could take your advice, Miss; or if you'd give me a
few sparks of yer own hot timper, I needn't ever come up to the hearth
at all at all.'
'Thar, go 'long with you for a consaited sot-up chap, an' bring in a
couple of armfuls of wood,' said the lady. 'I reckon you'd best take
care of your hair settin' fire to the logs, Mister Handy,' she added
with a chuckle.
Linda entered the kitchen on some household business, and Mr. Callaghan
was too respectful to retort in her presence. But this is a specimen of
the odd sort of sparring which Arthur chose to consider courtship, and
to rally both parties about.
''Deed then I hope 'tisn't the likes of a crooked stick of her kind I'd
be afther bringin' home at long last,' Andy would say, wielding his axe
with redoubled vigour.
'I guess I ain't agoin' jest to be sich a soft un as to take the care of
_him_ for nothen',' the lady would say, flouncing about her kitchen and
laying ineffable emphasis on the last word. Whence it would appear that
the feud was irreconcilable.
Next day was bright, and the mercury had climbed nearer to zero; so
the sleigh was had out--Mr. Holt's sleigh, which had brought him from
Mapleton to Cedar Creek, and was very much at everybody's service while
he remained. Linda dressed in her warmest attire, and prepared for a
run to the 'Corner' with her father. The sleigh was but a 'cutter' for
carrying two, and had handsome robes of its equipment, a pair for each
seat; one of wolf-skins garnished with a row of tails at the bottom
and lined with scarlet; another a bear-skin, in which the beast's grim
countenance had been preserved, and his claws affixed as a fringe. When
Linda was comfortably wrapped up, Mr. Holt produced a third robe to
throw over all.
'What a curious texture! a platted material and yet fur!' she said,
looking at it.
''Tis of Indian manufacture, and I believe is made of rabbit skins cut
in strips, twisted and netted together so as to keep the hair outside on
both surfaces. You have a lovely day for your trip; I hope you will
enjoy it.'
Did she not? A large set-off against the severity of a Canadian winter
should be the ecstatic pleasures of sleighing. Those who have not tasted
it know not the highest bliss of movement. Gliding smoothly and rapidly
over the solid snow to the tinkling music of bells, the motion alone has
something in it most exhilarating, to say nothing of the accompaniments
of the ride, the clear bracing air, the beauty of the frost-bound
forests all around. Linda was determined that her friend Edith should
have her share of the enjoyment this brilliant day: so, stopping the
'steel-shod sleigh' at Daisy Burn, she persuaded Miss Armytage to don
her cloak and muffetees and warm hood, and take her place beside Mr.
Wynn for the rest of the way to the 'Corner' and back.
Edith had been in the midst of ironing her father's and brother's linen,
while Jay read aloud. As soon as she was gone, despite the protestations
of the little girl, Linda took the smoothing iron herself, and continued
the work merrily. While thus engaged, and Jay getting through her history
lesson still, a scratching was heard at the outside door of the kitchen.
'That's Ponto; what can have brought him home? he went with Reginald to
chop at the edge of the clearing.'
The dog was no sooner admitted than he jumped on them both, pulled their
gowns, ran back whining, and repeated these movements many times.
'He wants us to go with him, Jay--don't you think so?'