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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1916-05-25, Page 7May 25th, 1916 THE WINGHAM TIMES Page MEE the HONOR of THE BIG SNOWS 11 By JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD Copyright 1911 by the Bobbs-Merrill Co, Leglee; SS �"2iS�ciS vs i`:S S , ROM i tit �fv io 'Bach day, as the weeks went on and • the spring sun began to soften the snow, she became a little more Like the wild children at Lac Bain and in the forest. They were eating dinner one day in the early spring, with the sunshine flooding in upon them, when a quick. low footfall caused Melisse to lift her eyes in the direction of the open door. A strange figure stood there. with bloodless face, staring eyes and garments hanging in tatters. but its arms were stretched out, as those -same arms had been held out to her a thousand times before, and, with the old glad cry, Melisse darted witb the swiftness of a sun shadow beyond Cummins, crying: "Jan. Jan; my Jan!" Words choked in Cummins' throat when be saw the white faced figure clutching Melisse to its breast. At last he gasped "Jan!" and threw out his arms, so that both were caught in their embrace. For an instant Jan turned his face up to the light. The other stared and understood. "You have been sick," he said, "but it has left no marks." "Thank Godl" breathed Jan. Peace followed in the blighted trails of the Red Terror. Again the forest ')Ile -world breathed without fear, but from Hudson's bay to Athabasca and as fat •south as the thousand waters of the Reindeer country the winds whispered of a terrible grief that would remain until babes were men and men went to their graves. The plague had taken a thousand souls. and yet the laughing, dancing The-ensilagesbrought new happinette • to roc an ening across the thin to Melisse. Croisset's wife was a good openings close ahead of him, her hair woman who bad spent her girlhood in loosening and sweeping out 'in the sun, Montreal, and Iowaka, now the 'mother of a fire eating little Jean and a hand- some daughter, was a soft voiced young Velars, who had grown sweeter and prettier with her years, which Is not usually the case with half breed women. "But it's good blood in her, beautiful blood," vaunted Jean proudly when- ever the opportunity came. "Her moth- er was a princess and her father a pure Frenchman whose father's father was a chef de bataillon. What better than that, eh? I say, what better could there be than that?" So, tor the first time in her life, Me- tisse discovered the joys of companion- ship with those of her own kind. This new companionship, pleasant as it was, did not come between her and Jan. If anything they were more to each other than ever. She no longer looked upon Jan as a mere playmate, a being whose diver- sion iversion was to amuse and to love her. He had t,ecome a man. In her eyes be was a hero who had gone forth to tight the dent ;i of which she still heard word and whisper all about her. Creel - set's wife and Iowaka told her that he had done the bravest thing that a man might do on earth. Together they resumed their studies, devoting hours to them each day, and through all that summer he taught her to play upon his violin. The warm months were a time of idleness at Lac Bain, and Jan made the most of them in his teaching of Melisse. She learn- ed to read the books which he had used at Fort Churchill, and by midsummer she could read those which he had used at York factory. At night they, wrote letters to each other and deliv- ered them across the table in the cab- in, while Cummins looked on and smoked, laughing happily at what they read aloud to him. One nighty late enough in the season for a fire to be crackling merrily in the stove, Jan was reading one of these letters when Melisse cried: "Stop, Jan—stop there!" Jan caught himself, and he blushed mightily when he read the next lines: "'I think you have beautiful eyes. I love them.' " "What is it?" cried Cummins inter- estedly. "Read on, Jan." "Don't!" commanded Melisse, spring- ing to her feet and running around the table. "I didn't mean you to read that!" She snatched the paper from Jan's hand and threw It into the fire. Jan's blood filled with pleasure, and at the bottom of his next letter he wrote back: "I think you have beautiful hair. I love it." That winter Jan wag appointed post hunter, and this gave him mach time at home, for meat was plentiful along the edge of the Barrens. The two con - tinned at their books until they came to the end of what Jan knew in them. After that, like searchers in strange places, they felt their way onward, slowly and with caution. During the next summer they labored through all the books which were in the little box in thecorner of the cabin. It was Melisse who now played most on the violin. One day she looked curiously Sato the F -hole of the in- strument, and her pretty mouth puck- ered itself into a round, red ,"0" of astonishment when Jan quickly snatch- ed the violin from her hands; "Excuse me, nay pretty Melisse„' he laughed at her le French. "I am go- ing to play you something new." That same day he took the little cloth covered roll from the violin and gave it another hiding place. Every fiber of his being sang in joy- ful response as he watched Melisse pass from cbildbood Into young girl- hood. To him Melisse. was growing into everything that was beautiful. She was hie world, his life, and at Post Lac Bain there was nothing to copse between the two. Jan noticed that in bet thirteenth ,'ear she could barely stand tinder his outstretched arm,.. The next year she had grown ao tall that she could not stand there at elle Very soon she would be a wo- man. "Jan, Jan; my Janie millions in that other big world beyond • the edge of the wilderness caught only xa passing rumor ot what had hap- pened. Lac Bain suffered least of the far northern posts, with the exception of Churchill, where the icy winds, down - pouring from the arctic, had sent the Red Terror shivering to the west- ward. In the late snows word came that Cummins was to take Williams' place as factor, and .Per-ee at once set off for the Bond do Lae to bring back Jean de Gravois.as "chief man.", Crots- set. gave up his for hunting to fill Mn• ..kee'niallee. .Heart Was Se. Weak Could Not Go Op Stairs Without Helps. When the heart becomes weak and does not do its work properly the nerves become unstrung and the whole system seems to go "all to pieces," ' When this happens you need a tonic to build up both the heart and nerves, and Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills VIII accomplish this f'tr you, providing you lo not let your -use run too long and allow it to become chronic. Mrs. Evangiliste Loverdure, Fort Coulonge, tette., writes, , "Last- suniiner Bey heart and nerves were so bad I could not sleep at night, and my heart was so weak I could not go up stake without .help. My doctor said he could do no snore for me as my heart was completely done. A cousin of mine cafneiitt one day ..Send told me that Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills cured her completely.. 1 •immediately gave her•. 50 cents to bring Ale a box, and since,that,day :there is a .box always on my sideboard. I am now hell, and my heart and nerves are stronger 'Oats when 1 was. a little school girl. I advise anyone- With heart trouble to try them. No doctor ea.n beat them." Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pillet arc .50c per box, 3 boxes for $1.25; for sale at all dealers' mailed direct on receipt et priet by The T. Milburn Co., Liruiteu, 'Toronto, Ont. her slender figure fleeing with the light- ness ightness of the pale sun shadows that ran up and down the mountain. He would not have overtaken her of his own choosing, but at the foot of the ridge Melisse•gave up. Never had he seen her so beautiful, still daring him with her laugh, quivering and panting, flinging back her hair. Half reaching out his arms, he cried: "Melisse, you are beautiful—you are almost a wonianl If you did your hair tip like the pictures we have in the books you would be a woman," he an- swered softly. "You are more beauti- ful than the pictures!" "You say that I am pretty and that 1 am almost a woman," she pouted, "and yet"— She shrugged her shoul- ders at him in mock disdain. "Jan Thoreau, this is the third time in the last week that you have not played the game right. I won't play with you any morel" In a tiasb he was at her side, her face between his two hands, and bending down, he kissed her upon the mouth. CONSTIPATION Is Productive Of More 111 Health Than Anything Else. If the truth was only known you would find that over one half of the ills of life are caused by allowing the bowels to get into a constipated condition, and the sole cause of constipation is au inactive liver, and unless the liver is kept active you may rest assured that headaches, jaundice, heartburn, piles, floating specks before the eyes, a feeling as if you were going to faint, or catarrh of the stomach will follow the wrong action of this, one of the most important organs of the body. Keep the liver active and working properly by the use of Milburn's Laxa- Liver Pills. Miss Rose Babineau, Amherst, N.S., writes: "Having been troubled for years with constipation, and trying various so-called remedies, which did me no good whatever, I was persuaded to try Milbum's Laxa-Liver Pills. I have found them most beneficial, for they are indeed a splendid pill. I can heartily recommend them to all who suffer from constipation." Milburn's Laxa-Liver Pills are 25c a vial, 5 vials for $1.00, at all dealers, or mailed direct on receipt of prihe by The T. Milburn Co., Limited, Toronto, Ont. "There," she said as he released her. "Isn't that the way we have played it aver since I can remember? Whenever ,you catch me you may have that." "I am afraid, Melisse," he said se- riously. "You are growing so tall and so pretty that I am afraid." "Afraidl My brother afraid to kiss mei And what will you do when I get to be a woman, Jan, which will be very soon, you say?" "I don't know, Melisse." She turned her back to him and flung out her hair, and Jan, who had done this same thing for her a hun- dred times before, divided the silken mass into three strands and plaited them into a braid. "I don't believe that yon care for me as much as you used to, Jan. I wish I were a woman, so that I might know If you are going to forget me entirely." Her shoulders trembled, and when he had finished his task he found that she was laughing and that her eyes were swimming with a new mischief which she was trying to hide from him. In that laugh there was some- thing which was not like Melisse. Slight as the change was he noticed it; but, instead of displeasing him, it set a vague sensation 'of pleasure trilling like a new song within him. When they reached the post Melisse went to the cabin with her bakneesh and Jan to the company's store, where he met Jean de Gravois. "Blessed saints, man, but is she not growing more beautiful every day?" said Jean. "Yes," said Jan. "She will soon be a woman." "A woman!" shouted Jean, who, not having his caribou whip, jumped up and down to emphasize bis words. "She will soon be a woman, did you say, Jan Thoreau? And if she is not a woman at thirty with two children— God send others like them!—when will she be, I ask you?" "I meant Melisse," laughed Jan. "And I meant ,Iowaka," said Jean. IIs hopped out like a cricket overbur- dened with life, calling loudly to his wife, who came to meet him, and say- ing to Jan: "Hurry to the cabin, Jan, and see what sort of a birthday gift Morisse has got for you." , The big room was empty when Jan came quietly through the open door. He stopped to listen and caught a faint laugh from the other room and then another, and to give warning of his presence he coughed loudly and scraped a chair along the floor. A mo- ment's silence followed. The farther door opened a little, and then it opened wide, and Melisse came out. "Now, what, do you think of me. brother Jan?" She stood in the lightof the window, through which came the afternoon sun, her hair piled in 'glistening coils upon the crown pf .her head as they bed seen them in the pictures, her cheeks flush• ed, her eyes glowing questioningly at Jan. "You are prettier than I batre ever seen you, Melisse,! be replied softly. "If I am prettier and yon like me this 'way, why 4on't,.ou"- She finished with a sweet, upturned pouting other Mouth, and with a sud- den, laughing cry Jan caught her In his arms and kissed the lips .she held up to him. It was but an instant, and be freed her, a hot blush burning In tale brown cheeks. a quick voice from -the door, and Jean de Gravois bounded in like a playful cat, scraping and bowing before Me- lisse until his bead nearly touched the floor. "Lovely saints, Jan Thoreau, but she is a woman, just as my Iowa- ka told me!" "You're terribly in love, Jean," cried Melisse, laughing until her eyes were wet; "Just like some of the people in the books which Jan and I read." "And I always shall be, my dear." Melisse flung the red shawl over her head, still laughing. "I will go to see her, Jean." "Well," said Gravols, looking search- ingly at Jan when she had left, "shall I give you my best wishes, Jan Tho- reau? Does it signify?" "Signify—what?" The little Frenchman's eyes snapped. "Why, when our pretty Cree maiden becomes engaged she puts up her hair for the first time; that is all, my dear Jan." He stopped suddenly, startled into silence by the strange look that had come into the other's face. For a full minute Jan stood as if the power of movement had gone from him. "No; it—means—nothing," he said finally, speaking as if the words were forced from him one by one. He drop- ped into a chair beside the table like one whose senses had been dulled by an unexpected blow. "Jan Thoreau," whispered Jean soft- ly, "have you forgotten that it was I who killed the missfoner for you, and that through all of these years Jean de Gravols bas never questioned you about the flght on the mountain top? Is there anything Jean de Gravols can do?" He sat down opposite Jan, bis thin, eager face propped in his hands, and watched silently until the other lifted his head. Their eyes met, steady, un. flinching, and in that look there were the oath and the seal of all that the honor of the big snows held for those two. Still without words Jan reached with- in his breast and drew forth the little roll which he had taken from his vio- lin. One by one he handed the pages over to Jean de Gravois. "My God!" said Jean, when he bad finished reading. He spoke no other words. White faced, the two men stared, Jan's throat twitching, Gravols' brown fingers crushing the rolls he held. "That ;was why I tried to kill the missioner," said Jan at last. "And that—that-1s why it could, not signify, that Melisse has done up her hair." He gathered up the papers so that they, shot back into the little cylinder shaped roll again. "I understand," replied. Jean in a low voice. "I understand and I praise the blessed. Virgin that it was Jean de `Gravols who killed the missfoner out upon the ice of Lac Bainl" "But the other," persisted Jan, "the other, which says that I"— "Stop!" cried Jean sharply. He came around the table and seized Jan's iranda-ie.--the_11san Fifa tit 11is.11tthe. CHAPTER VIII. Renunciation. r ay th- They bad ea the come up to thes fifteenth top of the ridge on which he had fought Lire missionary, to gather ted• sprigs et the bakneesh for the fete tial tiat they were to have in the cabin that night. High up on theface ol: ;h.jagged ,roRk Jan sawsaifit of the t into crimson vine thrusting,. the eon, and, With Meiisde laughing and encouraging him from bolo*, ho "My dear brother!" she laughed -at himgathering up the bakneesh on the table. "I love to have you 'kills Me.and now I ,have to make yon do it. Father kisses mo every morning when clifo4h :,ap maiire .had brown fingers. i bei is somethinifot you to forget. It means nothing—notbe ing at all, Jan Thoreau! Does any one know but you and me?" "No one. I intended that some day, Melisse and her father should know; but I waited too long. I waited until I was afraid, until the horror of telling her frightened me. 1 made myself for- get, burying it deeper each year, until today—on the mountain"— "And today in this cabin you will forget again, and you will bury ft so deep tbat it will never come back. I am proud of you, Jan Thoreau. I love you, and it is the first time that Jean de Gravols 'has ever said this to a man. Ah, 1 hear them coming!" With an absurd bow in the direction of the laughing voices which they now heard, the melodramatic little French- man pulled Jan to the door. Halfway' across the open were Melisse and Iowaka carrying a large Indian bas ket between them and making merry, over the task. When they saw Gra- vois and Jan they set down their bur- den and waved an invitation for the two men to come to their assistance. "You should be the second happiest man In the world, Jan Thoreau," ex- claimed Jean. "The first is Jean de Gravols!" He set off' like a bolt from a spring gun in the direction of the two who were waiting for them. He had hoist- ed the basket upon his shoulder by the time Jan arrived. "Are you growing old, too, Jan?" bantered Melisse as she dropped a few steps behind Jean and his wife. "You come so slowly!" "I think I'm twenty-nine." He looked at her steadily, the grief which he was fighting to keep back tightening the muscles about his mouth. Like the quick passing of sunshine the fun swept from her face, leaving her blue eyes staring up at him, filled with a pain which he had never seen in them before. In a moment he knew that she had understood him, and be could have cut out his tongue. Her band reached his arm, and she stopped him, her face lifted pleadingly, the tears slowly gathering in her eyes. "Forgive me!" she whispered, her voice breaking into a sob. "Dear, dear Jan, forgive mel Today is your birthday, Jan—yours and mine, mine and yours—and we will always have it that way, always, won't we, Jan?" Jan was glad when the evening came and was gone. Not until Jean and Iowaka had said good night with Crotsset and his wife and both Cum- mins and Melisse had gone to their rooms did he find himself relieved of the tension under which he had strug- gled during all of his playing and that night's merrymaking in the cabin. From the first he knew that his nerves were strung by some strange and indefinable sensation that was growing within him—something which he could hardly have explained at first, but which swiftly took form and mean- ing and oppressed him more as the hours flew by. After the others had gone Cummins sat up to smoke a pipe. When he had finished he went to his room. Jan was now sleeping in a room at the company's store, and after a time he rose silently to take down bis cap and coat. He opened the outer door quiet- ly so as not to arouse Melisse, who had gone to bed half an hour before. As he was about to go out there came a sound, a low, gentle, whisper- ed word: "Jan!" He turned. Melisse stood In her door. She had not undressed, and her hair was still done up in its soft Boils, with the crimson bakneesh shining in it. She came to him hesitatingly me til she stood with her two hands upon his arm, gazing into his tense face with that same question in her eyes. "Jan, you were not pleased with me tonight," she whispered. "Tell me why." "I was pleased with yon, Meilsse," he replied. He took one of her hands that was clinging to his arm and turned his face to the open night. Countless stars gleamed in the sky, as they had shone on another night fifteen years ago. Suddenly there leaped up from Jan Thoreau's breast a breath that burst from his lips in a low cry: "Melisse! Melisse! It was just Elf, teen years ago that 1 came 11:1 through that forest out there, starved and dy ing, and played my violin when yont mother died. You were a little baby then. and since that night you have never pleased me more than nowt" He dropped ber hand and turned squarely to the door to hide what las knew had come into his face. HI heard a soft, heartbroken little sob be, hind him. "Jan, dear Jan!" She laughed, happy and trembling, her lips held up to him. "1 didn't please you today;" she whit pared. "I will never do up my hair again!" He kissed her. and his arms dropped from her shoulders. "Never, never again --until you have forgotten to love me," she repeated. "Good night, Brother, Jen!' Across the open, througb the thinned cenaahlt•ti and aster that It. was known edge of the black spruce, deeper and ter emsstn, n{e i ' U,e •'I„bstick” of Cum• deeper into the cold, unquivering, life- lessness of the forest, .Ian went from tank \ n at all the honor the door that cloned between him and t eilderness pee- l/ellen;her last words still whisper• Ing in his ears. the warm touch of her hair an; his cheeks and the knowledge of what this day had meant for him Swiftly surging upon him, bringing with it a torment 'which racked him to the soul._ i Be went on until he came to where the beaten trail swept up and away from a swamp, He plunged into it, 1 picking his tangled way until he stood 111 upon a giant ridge frons which he IGRkRdBiittitrongh the white night into secure e,gos.% thBpt4ro. I,remember wheA M He tossit down to her. jios meed to kiss inc every time yon "It's the last one." she cried, sceeing came home, but now yon forget to de his disadvantage, "and I'm going• home. it at all. 1)o brothers love their sisters You can't catch mc." less as they grow older?" Jan slackened bis stens It was a "Sometimes they love the sister lees i41 La e" 1' ': y'"' =--'-' ". from rock ani the Other girl MOM Meliaite cams The Wretchedness of Constipation Ceti quiclrly be overcome by CARTER'S LITTLE LIVER PILLS Purely vegetable —act surely and gently on the liver. Cum 131liousnets, Head. ache, Dizzi- ness, and Indigestion. They do their duty. Srx.all Pill, Sman Dose, Small Price. Genuine must bear Signature mosamtwomposimanlmi Children Cry for Fletcher's The Hind You IIave Always Bought, and which has been in use for over ;0 yca;<s, has borne the signature of and has been made under his per. conalsupervisionsines itsinfancy. a97,------ , Allow no one to deceive you in this. All Counterfeits, Imitations and "Just -as -good" are but Experiments that trifle with and endanger the health ot Infants and Children—Experience against Experiment. What is CASTORIA Castoria is a harmless substitute for Castor Oil, Pare- goric, Drops and Soothing Syrups. It is pleasant. It contains neither Opium, Morphine nor other Narcotics substance. Its age is its guarantee. It destroys Worms and allays Feverishness. For more than thirty years it Las been in constant use for the relief of Constipation, Flatulency, Wind Colic, all Teething Troubles and Diarrhoea. It regulates the Stomach and Bowels, assimilates the Food, giving healthy and natural sleep. The Children's Panacea—The Mother's Friend. • GENUINE CASTORIA ALWAYS Fears the Signature of In Use For Over 30 Years The Kind You Have Always Bought ITHE CENTAUR COMPANY. NEW YORK CITY. the;limitlessibarrens to the'no • h. She was no longer the little Melisse, his:sister, he thought. And yet— He was almost saying her last Swords aloud: "Good night, Brother Jan!" She had come to him that day to let him kiss her as she had come to bim a thousand times before, but he had not kissed her in the old way. It was a different love that his lips had given, and even now the hot blood surged again into his face as he thought of what he had done. In that which hail stirred his blood, thrilling him with strange joy as he held her in his arms, he saw more than the shadow of sin— sacrilege against a thing which was more precious to him than life. CHAPTER IX. The New Agent and His Son. AN thrust a band inside bis coat and clutched at the papers that Jean de Gravois had read. Then he drew them forth slowly and held them crumpled In his fingers, while for many minutes he stared straight out into the gray gloom of the treeless plain. His eyes shifted. They went from rock to rock and from tree to tree un- til at last they rested upon a giant spruce which hung out over the pre- cipitous wall ot the ridge, its thick top beckoning and sighing to the black rocks that shot up out of the snow 600 feet below. Mnkee had told Jan its story. In the first autumn of the Wo- Teseessesee- fug f a spirit' in the old tree. "Tilat is the honor of these snows; it is what the great God means us to be. 1 swear that Jan Tboreau will never do wrong to the • little Melissel" With a face white and set In its determination he turned slowly away from the tree. When he came into the cabin for breakfast next morning Jan's face showed signs of the struggle through which he bad gone. Cummins bad al. ready finished, and he found Mellsse alone. Her hair was brusbed back in its old, smooth way, and when she heard him she flung her long braid over her shoulder, so that it fell down in front of her. He saw the move- ment, and smiled his thanks without speaking. "You don't look well, Jan," she said anxiously. "Yon are pale, and your eyes are bloodshot" "I am not feeling right." be admit ted, trying to appear cheerful. "but thin coffee will make a new man of me. You make the best coffee in the world, Melisse." "What are you going to do today, Brother Jan?" she asked. "Drive out on the Churchill trails Ledoq wants supplies. and he's too busy with his trap lines to come tn." "Will you take me?" "I'm afraid not, Melisse. It's te twelve mile run and a heavy Load." "Very well. I'll get ready immes diately." • She jumped up from the table, dart: Ing fun at him with her eyes, and ran. to ber room. "It's too far, Melisse;" he called aft. er her. "It's too far, and I've a heavyj load"— "Didn't I take that twenty mile rust with you over to— Oh, dear! Jan, have you seen my new lynx skin caprt "It's out here, hanging on the wall,* replied Jan, falling into her humor do+ spite himself. "But I say, Melisse"..., "Are the dogs ready'?" she called., "If they're not I'll be dressed before} you can harness them, Jan." "They'll be here within fifteen min.. utes," he replied, surrendering to her. Her merry face, laughing triumph at him through the partly open door, de- stroyed the last vestige of his opposi- tion, and he left her with somethings, of his old cheeriness of manner, whir; tlrng a gay forest tune as he hurried toward the store. When he returned with the team Me. lisse was waiting for him, a gray thingt of silvery lynx fur, with her cheeks, lips and eyes aglow, her trim little feet clad in soft caribou boots that came to her knees, and with a bunch of the brilliant bakneesh fastened jauntily in her cap. "I've made room for you," he said in greeting, pointing to the sledge. "Which I'm not going to fill for five miles at least," declared Melisse., "Isn't it a glorious morning, Jan? 11 feel as if I can run from here too Ledoq's1" With a crack of his whip and it shout, Jan swung the dogs across the open, with Melisse running lightly at his side.. From their cabin Jean and lowaka called out shrill adieus. "The day is not far off when they two will be as you and 1, my Iowaka0 said .lean in his poetic Cree. "I wager~ you that it will be before her nest birthday!" And Melisse was saying: "1 wonder if there are many peopllt as happy as Jean and towakal" Site caught tier breath. and Jan Tact% psi ost the dogs in a spurt that left her pantlnat. a full dozen rods behind hint tv.til n wild halloo he stopped tel!• tease ;end waited He Thrust the Papers, Crowded Them Down and Filled the Hole With Chunks of Bark, man's I{te at Lae Rain he and Per -ea bad enema() the old spruce, lopping off its hratiehes mint only the black cap in wrs stilt held r n noir of lbs !snit r. lie , C Cut (00 Bit CONInettelD.)