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Title: Beyond the Marshes
Author: Ralph Connor
Release Date: March 1, 2008 [eBook #24724]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEYOND THE MARSHES***
E-text prepared by Al Haines
BEYOND THE MARSHES
by
RALPH CONNOR
Author of "Black Rock" and "The Sky Pilot"
The Westminster Company Limited
Publishers
Toronto
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one
thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, by The Westminster Company,
Limited, at the Department of Agriculture.
Have you ever caught the scent of the clover as you were whirled away
by the train beyond the city on a summer's day and sped through the
rich pasture lands? And do you remember how you stepped forth at the
first halting-place to secure a sprig of the sweet, homely flower that
had spoken to you so eloquently in its own language, and how you
pressed it in your book? Does not its perfume remain with you till
this day? And every now and then a fragrance is wafted to our inner
senses as we read some simple story which is to us as a breath of the
clover, bringing us a message of sweetness and beauty, and going
straight to our hearts with the power that belongs to the secrets which
lie hidden at our lifers core.
And this sweet prairie idyll is surely one of those fragrant messages
which lays its hold on us as we pause for a moment in the midst of our
fevered lives and anxious thoughts, and step across the threshold of
that chamber where we must needs put our shoes from off our feet, for
the place whereon we stand is holy ground. And as we press on again to
life's duties, may we bear with us something of the precious perfume
diffused by plants which are divine in their origin and which must be
divine in their influence.
ISHBEL ABERDEEN
[Transcriber's note: "ISHBEL" is correct. It is not "ISABEL",
misspelled.]
BEYOND THE MARSHES
The missionary of the Bonjour field found me standing bag in hand upon
the railway platform watching my train steam away to the east. He is
glad to see me. I am of his own kind, and there are so few of his kind
about that his welcome is strong and warm. He is brown and spare and
tough-looking. For six months he has driven along the pitching trails
and corduroy roads, drenched by rains, scorched by suns, and pursued by
the flies. As to the flies there is something to be said. They add
much to the missionary's burden, and furnish unequaled opportunity for
the exercise of the Christian graces of patience and self-control. In
early spring they appear, and throughout the whole summer they continue
in varying forms, but in unvarying persistence and ferocity. There are
marsh flies, the bulldogs, "which take the piece right out," the gray
wings, the blue devils (local name), which doubtless take several
pieces right out, the mosquitoes, unsleeping, unmerciful, unspeakable,
the sand flies, which go right in and disappear, and the black flies.
"When do _they_ go away?" I asked a native.
"Oh, them black fellows go away on snow-shoes."
These each and all have taken a nip and a suck from the missionary as
he pushed on by night and by day through their savage territory. I
glance at him, and sure enough they seem to have got all the juice out
of him, but they have left the sinew and the bone. His nerve, too, is
all there, and his heart is sound and "under his ribs," which one of
his admiring flock considers the right spot.
It is Saturday afternoon, and we are to drive to the farthest of his
three stations to be ready for the Communion Service there, at
half-past ten to-morrow morning.
"Where does it lie?" I ask.
"Oh, away beyond the Marshes," was the answer. Every one evidently
knows where the Great Marshes are.
But first we must drink a delicious cup of tea from a brave young
Scotchwoman, who has learned the trick of making a home for her husband
and babies amid the limitations of Canadian wilds, little like the
Edinburgh home where she herself was a baby, and which she left not so
very long ago.
Then we must take a look at the new manse of which the missionary feels
he has the right to be modestly proud, for it is mostly the work of his
own hand. He, like his great Master, is a carpenter, and day and night
in the pauses of his preaching and visiting and studying, he has
wrought at it, getting such help as he can, till there it stands, among
the trees, the little cottage manse, announcing to all that the mission
has come to stay. The _front room_, with writing-desk, book-shelf,
table, all of the missionary's making, does for reception and dining
room, study, and parlor. Behind it is the kitchen, with ingenious
cupboards; and opening off from this the bedroom, five by seven, with
bedstead and washstand, both home-made, and both nailed fast to the
wall. Altogether a snug little, tight little house, going a long way
to content one with being a bachelor.
And now we hitch up Golddust, and are off through the glorious yellow
light and purple haze of this September afternoon. Golddust is the
missionary's horse, and evidently the missionary's weakness. His name,
and as his owner thinks his speed, his spirit, and other
characteristics, he inherits from his sire, Old Golddust of Western
racing fame. Old Golddust, if he has transmitted his characteristics,
must have been a horse of singular modesty, for his son continues
resolutely unwilling throughout this drive to make any display of his
nobler qualities. By an extraordinary piece of good fortune, due to an
evil but unfair report of Golddust in his young days, "they didn't know
how to handle him." the missionary had bought him for twenty-five
dollars! One result of the deal has been an unlimited confidence on
the part of the missionary in his own horse-dealing instinct. It is
quite true that Golddust has not always shown his present mild and
trustful disposition. Indeed, the missionary goes on to tell how,
being loaned for a day to a brother missionary up west, the horse had
returned in the evening much excited, but not much the worse, with a
pair of shafts dangling at his heels. The missionary brother did not
appear till the day following, and then in a shocking bad temper. "He
was a Methodist brother, and didn't understand horses"; and the happy,
far-away look in the face of his present owner led me to doubt whether
that day's exploit had lowered Golddust in his estimation.
Meantime we are drinking deep of the delights of this mellow afternoon.
On either side of our trail lie yellow harvest fields, narrow, like
those of eastern Canada, and set in frames of green poplar bluffs that
rustle and shimmer under the softly going wind. Then on through
_scrub_ we go, bumping over roots and pitching through holes, till we
suddenly push out from the scrub, and before us lie the Marshes. There
they sweep for miles away, with their different grasses waving and
whispering under the steady blowing breeze, first the red-top, then as
the soil grows wet the blue-joint and the swamp grass, and out of the
standing water the dark green reeds, and farthest in the tall, wild
cane bowing its stately, tasseled head. These red-top and blue-joint
reaches are the hay-lands of the settlers about.
Skirting the edge of the Marshes, we push again through straggling
scrub, then past more marshes, and into woods where we follow a winding
trail till it leads us into a little clearing. In the center of the
clearing stands a cluster of log buildings--stables of different kinds,
milk-house, the old shanty, and at a little distance the new house, all
looking snug and trim. Through the bars we drive into the yard filled
with cattle, for the milking time is on.
A shy lad of ten, with sun-burned, freckled face and good blue eyes,
comes forward and is greeted as "Donald" by the missionary.
"Hello, Donald, how are you?" I ask, opening the conversation. Donald
looks at me and is inaudible, meanwhile unhitching Golddust with
marvelous rapidity.
"How many cattle have you, Donald?" I venture again.
Donald evidently considered this a reasonable question, for he answers
in delicious Scotch:
"Abou-e-t the-r-r-h-ty."
What a pity we can find no spelling to reproduce that combination of
guttural and aspirate and the inimitable inflection of voice. It is so
delightful that I ask him again, and again the answer comes with even
more emphasis upon guttural and aspirate, and an added curve to the
inflection:
"Abou-e-t the-r-r-h-ty."
My heart goes out to him, and watching his neat, quick work with
Golddust, I begin to understand the look of thrift about the yard. It
is the mark of the "weel daein" Scot.
We go up to the door of the new log house. Before the door are two
broad, flat stones washed clean. "Scotch again," I say to myself. Had
I not seen them in many a Scotch village in front of the little stone
cottages, thatched and decked with the climbing rose!
The door is opened by Mrs. McPhail. That is not her name, of course.
I am not going to outrage the shy modesty of that little woman by
putting her name in bold print for all the world to see. A dear little
woman she is, bowed somewhat with the burden of her life, but though
her sweet face is worn and thin, it is very bright, and now it is aglow
with welcome to her friend the missionary. She welcomes me, too, but
with a gentle reserve. She is ready enough to give of her heart's
wealth, but only to those she has learned to trust. And my friend has
gained a full reward for his six months' work in that he has won this
woman's willing trust. When the flush called up by the greeting dies,
I see how pale she is, and I wonder how the winds and frosts and fierce
suns have left so little trace upon the face of a Manitoba farmer's
wife. I understand this later, but not now.
When she was a girl, her hair was thick and fair, but now it is white
and thin, and is drawn smoothly back and fastened in a decent little
knot behind. Her eyes, once bright and blue, are blue still, but
faded, for tears, salt and hot, have washed out the color. She wears a
flannel dress, simple and neat; and the collar at the neck and the
lace-edged kerchief at the breast and the tidy daintiness of all about
her make her a picture of one who had been in her youth "a weel
brocht-up lass."
Her house is her mirror. The newly plastered, log-built walls are
snow-white, the pine floor snow-white, and when the cloth is spread for
tea, it, too, is snow-white. Upon the wall hangs a row of graduated
pewter platter covers. How pathetically incongruous are they on the
walls of this Canadian log house! But they shine. The table and the
chairs shine. The spoons and knives and glasses and dishes shine,
glitter. The whole kitchen is spotless, from the white window blinds
to the white floor, and there is a glitter on every side, from the
pathetic pewter covers on the wall to the old silver teaspoons upon the
table.
Mr. McPhail comes in, a small man with a quiet, husky voice and a
self-respecting manner. His eye is clear and dark blue, and has a look
of intellect in it. When he speaks he has a way of looking straight
into you with a steady, thoughtful gaze. A man would find it equally
difficult to doubt or to deceive him. The pioneer life has bowed his
body and subdued his spirit, but the whole mass of his trials and the
full weight of his burdens have not broken his heart's courage, nor
soured its sweetness, nor dimmed his hope in God.
We are invited to tea with an air of apologetic cordiality. The food
is fit for princes--home-made bread white and flaky, butter yellow and
sweet, eggs just from the nest, and cream. There is cream enough for
your tea, for fruit, and to drink! Cake there is, too, and other
dainties; but not for me. No cake nor dainty can tempt me from this
bread and butter. Queen Victoria has not better this night. I much
doubt if she has as good! God bless her!
At the head and foot of the table sit the father and mother, and
Alexander, Jean, and Donald, with the missionary and myself, make up
the company. The children take their tea in silence but for a
whispered request now and then, or a reply to some low-toned direction
from the mother. They listen interested in their elders' talk, and
hugely amused at the jokes. There is no pert interjection of smart
sayings, so awful in ill-trained children of ill-bred parents. They
have learned that ancient and almost forgotten doctrine that children
should be seen. I tell my best stories and make my pet jokes just to
see them laugh. They laugh, as they do everything else, with a gentle
reserve; and occasionally Jean, a girl of fifteen, shy like the rest,
pulls herself up with a blush lest she has been unduly moved to
laughter. The mother presides over all with a quiet efficiency, taking
keen, intelligent interest in the conversation, now and then putting a
revealing question, all the while keeping a watchful eye upon the
visitors' plates lest they should come near being empty.
The talk goes back to the old times. But these people talk with
difficulty when their theme is themselves. But my interest and
questions draw their story from them.
Fifteen years ago the father and mother left the cozy Glasgow home and
the busy life of that busy city, and came over sea and land with their
little girl and baby boy to Winnipeg. There they lived for two years,
till with the land-yearning in their hearts they came out from the town
to this far-back spot away beyond the Marshes. Here they cut out of
the forest their home, and here they have lived amid the quiet, cool
woods ever since, remote from the bustle and heat of the great world.
"Why to this place instead of to any other?" I ask.
"There was the hay from the Marshes to be sold, and the wood, too,"
answered the little man. "But," he went on, "I could not make much out
of the wood, and I was too old to learn, so I gave it up, and went into
Winnipeg to work at my trade. And, indeed," he added cheerfully, "I
made very good wages of it."
I look at him and think of the day when he gave up the fight with the
wood, and came in beaten to tell his wife how he must go to the city.
I know she smiled at him, her heart going down the while, and cheered
him, though she was like to despair at the thought of the lonely
winter. Ah, the pathos of it! Did God help them that day? Ay, and
for many a day after. And may He forgive all people whose lives
overflow with plenty of everything, and who fret their souls for petty
ills.
Through the winter the snow piled up round the shanty where lived the
little fair-haired woman and her little girl of nine years and two
babies now, thinking, talking, dreaming, weeping, waiting for the
spring and the home-coming of the father. One of the horses died, and
the other was sold. Their places were taken by oxen. "And the oxen
are really very good; I like to work with the oxen," says the little
man, with heroic Scotch philosophy and invincible content. He cannot
have the best; he will make the best of what he can have. Again, may
God forgive us who fling down tools because they are not the best, and
refuse to work, and fret instead.
Those days are all gone, but they are not yet passed out of the life of
this family. They have left their stamp on heart and character of
these steadfast, gentle people, for they are a part of all that they
have met.
After tea I am told that I have not yet seen Katie, and the manner of
telling makes me feel that there is something in store for me. And so
there is. I am taken across a narrow hall and into another room,
spotless as the kitchen, the same white walls, white floor, and dainty
curtains. This is Katie's room, and there upon a bed lies Katie
herself. I have come into the heart of the home.
Katie is the eldest of the family. She is the little girl of nine that
stayed through the long winter with the mother, and helped her with the
babies inside and the beasts outside, and was the cheer and comfort of
the house, while the father was away in Winnipeg, brave little girl
that she was. She is now twenty-four, and for the last nine years she
has suffered from a mysterious and painful illness, and now for
eighteen months she has lain upon her bed and she cannot rise. We all
have in us the beast feeling that shrinks from the weak and wounded;
but when I look at Katie there is no shrinking in me. Her face has not
a sign of fretful weakness. It seems as if it had caught the glitter
of the home, of the pewter covers, and the old silver teaspoons. It is
bright. That is its characteristic. The broad brow is smooth, and the
mouth, though showing the lines of suffering--what control these lines
suggest!--is firm and content. The dark eyes look out from under their
straight black brows with a friendly searching. "Come near," they say;
"are you to be trusted?" and you know you are being found out. But
they are kindly eyes and full of peace, with none of that look in them
that shows when the heart is anxious or sore. The face, the mouth, the
eyes, tell the same tale of a soul that has left its storms behind and
has made the haven, though not without sign of the rough weather
without.
There is no sick-room feeling here. The coverlet, the sheets, the
night-dress, with frills at the breast and wrists--everything about
Katie is sweet and fresh. Every morning of her life she is sponged and
dressed and "freshed up a bit" by her mother's loving hands. It takes
an hour to do it, and there are many household cares; but what an hour
that is! What talk, what gentle, tearful jokes, what tender touches!
The hour is one of sacrament to them both, for He is always there in
whose presence they are reverent and glad.
We "take the books," and I am asked to be priest. One needs his holy
garments in a sanctuary like this. After the evening worship is over I
talk with Katie.
"Don't you feel the time long? Don't you grow weary sometimes?"
"No! Oh, no!" with slight surprise. "I am content."
"But surely you get lonely--blue now and then?"
"Lonely?" with the brightest of smiles. "Oh, no! They are all here."
Heaven forgive me! I had thought she perhaps might have wanted some of
the world's cheerful distraction.
"But was it always so? Didn't you fret at the first?" I persisted.
"No, not at _the first_."
"That means that bad times came afterwards?"
"Yes," she answers slowly, and a faint red comes up in her cheek as if
from shame. "After the first six months I found it pretty hard."
I wait, not sure what thoughts I have brought to her, and then she goes
on:
"It was hard to see my mother tired with the work, and Jean could not
get to school"; and she could go no further.
"But that all passed away?" I asked, after a pause.
"Oh, yes!" and her smile says much. It was the memory of her triumph
that brought her smile, and it illumined her face.
My words came slowly. I could not comfort where comfort was not
needed. I could not pity, facing a smile like that; and it seemed hard
to rejoice over one whose days were often full of pain. But it came to
me to say:
"He has done much for you; and you are doing much for Him."
"Yes: He has done much for me." But she would go no further. Her
service seemed small to her, but to me it seemed great and high. We,
in our full blood and unbroken life, have our work, our common work,
but this high work is not for us--we are not good enough. This He
keeps for those His love makes pure by pain. This would almost make
one content to suffer.
Next morning we all went to the little log school, where the Communion
service was to be held--all but the father and Katie.
"You have done me much good," I could not but say before I left; "and
you are a blessing in your home."
The color rose in her pale cheek, but she only said:
"I am glad you were sent to us."
Then I came away, humbly and softly, feeling as if I had been in a holy
place, where I was not worthy to stand. And a holy place it will ever
be to me--the white room, the spotless white room, lit by the glory of
that bright, sweet, patient face. At the Table that day the mother's
face had the same glory--the glory of those that overcome, the
reflection of the glory to follow. Happy, blessed home! The snows may
pile up into the bluff and the blizzards sweep over the whistling reeds
of the Marshes, but nothing can chill the love or dim the hopes that
warm and brighten the hearts in the little log house Beyond the
Marshes, for they have their source from that high place where love
never faileth and hopes never disappoint.
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