It was four o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was getting low,
that I, near the base of the mountain and still industriously picking
berries, heard a shout from Hubbard and George at the canoe on the
shore of the lake below. I was anxious to hear the result of their
journey, and hurried down.
"It's there! it's there!" shouted Hubbard, as I came within talking
distance. "Michikamau is there, just behind the ridge. We saw the big
water; we saw it!"
In our great joy we fairly hugged each other, while George stood apart
with something of Indian stoicism, but with a broad grin, nevertheless,
expanding his good-natured features. We felt that Windbound Lake must
be directly connected with Michikamau, and that we were now within easy
reach of the caribou grounds and a land of plenty. It is true that
from the mountain top Hubbard and George had been unable to trace out
the connection, as Windbound Lake was so studded with islands, and had
so many narrow arms reaching out in the various directions between low,
thickly-wooded ridges, that their view of the waters between them and
Michikamau was more or less obscured; but they had no doubt that the
connection was there.
"And," added Hubbard, after I had heard all about the great discovery,
"good things never come singly. Look there!"
I looked where he pointed, and there on the rocks near George's feet
lay a pile of ptarmigans and one small rabbit. I picked them up and
counted them with nervous joy; there were nine--nine ptarmigans, and
the rabbit.
"You see," said Hubbard reverently, "God always gives us food when we
are really in great need, and He'll carry us through that way; in the
wilderness He'll send us manna." On similar occasions in the past
Hubbard had made like remarks to this, and he continued to make them on
similar occasions in the future. Invariably they were made with a
simplicity that robbed them of all cant; they came from the man's real
nature.
While George dressed three of the birds, Hubbard and I built a fire on
the rocks by the shore. Since early morning, when we had a breakfast
of thin soup made with three thin slices of bacon and three spoonfuls
of flour, we had had nothing to eat, and our hunger was such, that
while dinner was cooking, we each took the entrails of a bird, wrapped
them as George told us the Indians did, on the end of a stick, broiled
them over the fire and ate them greedily. And when the ptarmigans were
boiled what a glorious feast we had! In using a bit of bacon for soup
in the morning we had drawn for the first time on our "emergency
ration"--the situation seemed to warrant it; nevertheless, we were as
bent as ever on hoarding this precious little stock of food.
At five o'clock we paddled up the lake to the northeast, to begin our
search for the connection with Michikamau. Hubbard dropped a troll as
we proceeded, and caught two two-pound namaycush, which, when we went
into camp at dusk on a small island, George boiled entire, putting into
the pot just enough flour to give the water a milky appearance. With
this supper we had some of the blueberries stewed, and Hubbard said
they would have been the "real thing if we only had a little sugar for
them."
All day on September 10th we continued our search for the connection
with Michikamau, finally directing our course to the southwest where a
mountain seemed to offer a view of the waters in that direction. It
was dark when we reached its base, and we went into camp preparatory to
climbing to the summit in the morning. We had been somewhat delayed by
wind squalls that made canoeing dangerous, and before we made camp rain
began to fall. We caught no fish on the troll that day, but Hubbard
shot a large spruce-grouse. At our evening meal we ate the last of our
ptarmigans and rabbit.
"George," said Hubbard, after we had eaten our supper, "you have a few
more of mother's dried apples there. How would it be to stew them
to-night, and stir in a little flour to thicken them? Wouldn't they
thicken up better if you were to cook them to-night and let them stand
until morning?"
"Guess they would," replied George. "There ain't many of 'em here.
Shall I put them all to cook?
"Yes," said Hubbard, "put them all to cook, and we'll eat them for
breakfast with that small trout Wallace caught and the two ptarmigan
entrails."
In the morning (September 11th) we drew lots for the trout, and George
won. So he took the fish, and Hubbard and I each an entrail, and, with
the last of the apples before us that Hubbard's mother had dried, sat
down to breakfast.
"How well," said Hubbard, "I remember the tree on the old Michigan farm
from which these apples came! And now," he added, "I'm eating the last
of the fruit from it that I shall probably ever eat."
"Why," said George, "don't you expect to get back to eat any more?"
"That isn't it," replied Hubbard. "Father signed a contract for the
sale of the farm last spring, and they're to deliver the property over
to its new owners on the fifteenth of this month. Father wanted me to
come to the farm and run it, as he's too old to do the work any longer;
but I had other ambitions. I feel half sorry now I didn't; for after
all it's home to me, and always will be wherever I go in the world.
How often I've watched mother gathering these apples to dry! And then,
the apple butter! Did you ever eat apple butter, boys?"
George had not, but I had.
"Well," continued Hubbard, "there was an old woman lived near us who
could make apple butter better than anybody else. Mother used to have
her come over one day each fall and make a big lot for us. And, say,
but wasn't it delicious!
"I've told you, Wallace, about the maple sugaring on the farm, and you
had some of the syrup I brought from there when I visited father and
mother before I came away on this trip. We used to bring to the house
the very first syrup we made in the spring, while it was hot--the
first, you know, is always the best--and mother would have a nice pan
of red hot tea biscuits, and for tea she'd serve the biscuits with
cream and the hot new syrup. And sometimes we'd mix honey with the
syrup; for father was a great man with bees; he kept a great many of
them and had quantities of honey. He had a special house where he kept
his honey, and in which was a machine to separate it from the comb when
the comb was not well filled. In the honey house on a table he always
had a plate with a pound comb of white clover honey, and spoons to eat
it with; and he invited every visitor to help himself.
"Once, I remember, a neighbour called on father, and was duly taken out
to the honey house. He ate the whole pound. 'Will you have some
more?' asked father. 'Don't care if I do,' said the neighbour. So
father set out another pound comb, which the neighbour proceeded to put
out of sight with a facility fully equal to that with which he
demolished the first. 'Have some more,' said father. 'Thanks,' said
the neighbour, 'but maybe I've had enough.' I used to wonder how the
man ever did it, but I guess I myself could make two pounds of honey
disappear if I had it now."
Hubbard poured some tea in the cup that had contained his share of the
apple sauce, and after carefully stirring into the tea the bit of sauce
that clung to the cup, he poured it all into the kettle in which the
sauce had been cooked and stirred it again that he might get the last
bit of the apples from the tree on that far-away Michigan farm. Then
he poured it all back into his cup and drank it.
"I believe it sweetened the tea just a little," he said, "and that's
the last of mother's sweet apples."
Breakfast eaten, we had no dinner to look forward to. Of course there
was the "emergency ration," but we felt we must not draw on that to any
extent as yet. Hubbard was much depressed, perhaps because of his
reminiscences of home and perhaps because of our desperate situation.
We still had to find the way to Michikamau, and the cold rain that fell
this morning warned us that winter was near.
The look from the mountain top near our camp revealed nothing, owing to
the heavy mist and rain. Once more in the canoe, we started southward
close to the shore, to hunt for a rapid we had heard roaring in the
distance. Trolling by the way, we caught one two-pound namaycush. The
rapid proved to be really a fall where a good-sized stream emptied into
the lake. We had big hopes of trout, but found the stream too shoal
and rapid, with almost no pools, and we caught only a dozen small ones.
Towards evening we took a northwesterly course in the canoe in search
of the lake's outlet to Michikamau. While paddling we got a
seven-pound namaycush, which enabled us to eat that night. Our camp
was on a rock-bound island, partially covered with stunted gnarled
spruce and fir trees. The weather had cleared and the heavens were
bright with stars when we drew our canoe high upon the boulder-strewn
shore, clear of the breaking waves. The few small trout we had caught
we stowed away in the bow of the canoe, as they were to be reserved for
breakfast.
Early in the morning (September 12th) we were awakened by a northeast
gale that threatened every moment to carry our tent from its
fastenings, and as we peered out through the flaps, rain and snow
dashed in our faces. The wind also was playing high jinks with the
lake; it was white with foam, and the waves, dashing against the rocks
on the shore, threw the spray high in the air. Evidently there was no
hope of launching the canoe that day, and assuming indifference of the
driving storm that threatened to uncover us, we settled down for a
much-needed morning sleep. At ten o'clock George crawled out to build
a fire in the lee of some bushes and boil trout for a light breakfast.
Soon he stuck his head in the tent, and his face told us something had
happened even before he said:
"Well, that's too bad."
"What's too bad?" asked Hubbard anxiously.
"Somebody's stole the trout we left in the canoe."
"Who?" asked Hubbard and I together.
"Otter or somebody--maybe a marten." (George always referred to
animals as persons.)
We all went again to look and make sure the fish were not there
somewhere; but they were really gone, and we looked at one another and
laughed, and continued to make light of it as we ate a breakfast of
soup made of three little slices of bacon, with two or three spoonfuls
of flour and rice.
We occupied the day in talking--visiting, Hubbard called it--and
mending. Hubbard made a handsome pair of moccasins, using an old flour
sack for the uppers and a pair of skin mittens for the feet. George did
some neat work on his moccasins and clothing, and I made my trousers
look quite respectable again, and ripped up one pair of woollen socks
to get yarn to darn the holes in another. Altogether it was rather a
pleasant day, even though Hubbard's display of his beautiful new
moccasins did savour of ostentation and thereby excite much
heartburning on the part of George and me.
Our second day on the island was Sunday, September 13th. We awoke to
find that the wind, rain, and sleet were still with us. Our breakfast
was the same as all our meals of the previous day--thin bacon soup.
The morning we spent in reading from the Bible. Hubbard read Philemon
aloud and told us the story. I read aloud from the Psalms. George,
who received his religious training in a mission of the Anglican Church
on James Bay, listened to our reading with reverent attention.
Towards noon the storm began to moderate, and in a short stroll about
the island we found some blueberries and currants, which we fell upon
and devoured. At one o'clock the wind abated to such an extent that we
succeeded in leaving the island and reaching the mainland to the
northeast. The wind continuing to abate, we paddled several miles in
the afternoon looking in vain for the outlet. In the course of our
search we caught a namaycush, and immediately put to shore to eat it.
While it was being cooked we picked nearly a gallon of cranberries on a
sandy knoll. We camped near this spot, and for supper had a pot of the
cranberries stewed, leaving enough for two more meals.
For several days past now, when George and I were alone, he had
repeated to me stories of Indians that had starved to death, or had
barely escaped starvation, and a little later he spoke of these things
in Hubbard's presence. To me he would tell how weak he was becoming,
and how Indians would get weaker and weaker and then give up to it and
die. He also spoke of how he had heard the big northern loons cry at
night farther back on the trail, which cries, he said, the Indians
regarded as sure signs of coming calamity. At the same time he was
cheerful and courageous, never suggesting such a thing as turning back.
His state of mind was to me very interesting. Apparently two natures
were at war within him. One--the Indian--was haunted by superstitious
fears; the other--the white man--rejected these fears and invariably
conquered them. In other words, the Indian in him was panicky, but the
white man held him fast. And in seeing him master his superstitious
nature, I admired him the more.
Until this time it had been Hubbard's custom to retire to his blankets
early, while George and I continued to toast our shins by the fire and
enjoy our evening pipe. Then George would turn in, and I, while the
embers died, would sit alone for an hour or so and let my fancy form
pictures in the coals or carry me back to other days. In our Sunday
night's camp on Windbound Lake, however, Hubbard sat with me long after
George was lost in sleep, and together we talked of the home folks and
exchanged confidences.
I observed now a great change in Hubbard. Heretofore the work he had
to do had seemed almost wholly to occupy his thoughts. Now he craved
companionship, and he loved to sit with me and dwell on his home and
his wife, his mother and sister, and rehearse his early struggles in
the university and in New York City. Undoubtedly the boy was beginning
to suffer severely from homesickness--he was only a young fellow, you
know, with a gentle, affectionate nature that gripped him tight to the
persons and objects he loved. Our little confidential talks grew to be
quite the order of things, and often as the days went by we confessed
to each other that we looked forward to them during all the weary work
hours; they were the bright spots in our dreary life.
A tremendous gale with dashes of rain ushered in Monday morning,
September 14th. Again we were windbound, with nothing to do but remain
where we were and make the best of it. A little of our thin soup had
to serve for breakfast. Then we all slept till ten o'clock, when
Hubbard and I went out to the fire and George took a stroll through the
bush on the shore, in the hope of seeing something to shoot. While I
cleaned my rifle and pistol, Hubbard and I chatted about good things to
eat and the days of yore.
"Well, Wallace," he said, "I suppose that father and mother are to-day
leaving the old farm forever, and that I never can call it home again.
I dreamed of it last night. Over fifty years ago father cleared that
land when he was a young man and that part of Michigan was a
wilderness. He made a great farm of it, and it has been his home ever
since. How I hate to think of them going away and leaving it to
strangers who don't love it or care more for it than any other plot of
ground where good crops can be raised! Daisy [his sister] and I grew
up together there, and I used to tell her my ambitions, and she was
always interested. Daisy gave me more encouragement in my work than
anyone else in the world. I'd never have done half so well with my
work if it hadn't been for Daisy."
After a moment's silence, he continued:
"That hickory cleaning rod for the rifle we lost on a portage on the
big river [the Beaver] father cut himself on the old farm and shaped it
and gave it to me. That's the reason I hated so to lose it. If we go
back that way, we must try to find it. Father wanted to come with me
on this trip; he wanted to take care of me. He always thinks of me as
a child; he's never quite realised I'm a grown man. As old as he is, I
believe he could have stood this trip as well as I have. He was a
forty-niner in California, you know, and has spent a lot of his life in
the bush."
When George returned--empty-handed, alas!--we had our dinner. The menu
was not very extensive--it began with stewed cranberries and ended
there. The acid from the unsweetened berries made our mouths sore,
but, as George remarked, "it was a heap better than not eatin' at all."
Perhaps I should say here that these were the hungriest days of our
journey. What we suffered later on, the good Lord only knows; but we
never felt the food-craving, the hunger-pangs as now. In our enforced
idleness it was impossible for us to prevent our thoughts from dwelling
on things to eat, and this naturally accentuated our craving. Then,
again, as everyone that has had such an experience knows, the pangs of
hunger are mitigated after a certain period has been passed.
In the afternoon George and I took the pistols and ascended a low ridge
in the rear of the camp to look for ptarmigans. Soon George exclaimed
under his breath:
"There's two! Get down low and don't let 'em see you; the wind blows
so they'll be mighty wild. I'll belly round to that bush over there
and take a shot."
He crawled or wriggled along to the bush, which was the nearest cover
and about forty yards from the birds. With a dinner in prospect, I
watched him with keen anxiety. I could see him lying low and carefully
aiming his pistol. Suddenly, bang!--and one of the birds fluttered
straight up high in the air, trying desperately to sustain itself; then
fell into the brush on the hillside below. At that George raised his
head and gave a peculiar laugh--a laugh of wild exultation--an Indian
laugh. He was the Indian hunter then. I never heard him laugh so
again, nor saw him look quite as he did at that moment. As the other
bird flew away, he rose to his feet and shouted:
"I hit 'im!--did you see how he went? Now we'll find 'im."
But we didn't. We beat the bushes high and low for an hour, and
finally in disappointment and disgust gave up the search. The bird lay
there dead somewhere, but we never found it, and we returned to camp
empty-handed and perhaps, through anticipation, hungrier than ever.
On Tuesday (September 15th) the high west wind had not abated, and the
occasional sleet-squalls continued. We were dreary and disconsolate
when we came out of the tent and huddled close to the fire. For the
first time Hubbard heard George tell his stories of Indians that
starved. And there we were still windbound and helpless, with stomachs
crying continually for food. And the caribou migration was soon to
begin, if it had not already begun, and there seemed no prospect of the
weather clearing.
We made an inventory of the food we were hoarding for an emergency, and
found that in addition to about two pounds of flour, we had eighteen
pounds of pea meal, a little less than a pint of rice, and a half a
pound of bacon. George then told another story of Indians that
starved. At length he stopped talking, and we sat silent for a long
while, staring blankly at the blazing logs.
Slowly the minutes crawled. In great gusts the wind swept down,
howling dismally among the trees and driving the sleet into our faces.
Still we sat cowering in silence when Hubbard arose, pushed the loose
ends of the partially burned sticks into the fire and stood with his
back to the blaze, apparently deep in thought. Presently, turning
slowly towards the lake, he walked down through the intervening brush
and stood alone on the sandy shore contemplating the scene before
him--the dull, lowering skies, the ridges in the distance, the lake in
its angry mood protesting against his further advance, the low, wooded
land that hid the gate to Michikamau.
Weather-beaten, haggard, gaunt and ragged, he stood there watching;
then seemed to be lost completely in thought, forgetful of the wind and
weather and dashing spray. Finally he turned about briskly, and, with
quick, nervous steps, pushed through the brush to the fire, where
George and I were still sitting in silence. Suddenly, and without a
word of introduction, he said:
"Boys, what do you say to turning back?"