A Countess from Canada

  CHAPTER XXVI

  Fighting the Storm

  The summer had been one of such almost unvarying fine weather thatthe next morning's outlook came as a disagreeable surprise toKatherine. The sun shone with a pale, watery gleam, grey cloudswere piled along the horizon, and a moaning wind crept through thepine trees, made the birch leaves quiver, and thinned the foliageof the alders at the foot of the rapids.

  "Phil, we shall have to be quick this morning, or we shall have tocome crawling home round the shore instead of rowing straightacross the bay," Katherine said, as she piled bundles of pelts intothe boat, and tied over them a canvas sheet, for security from anychance wave.

  "Oh, we can hustle, and very likely the storm won't break beforenight!" Phil said easily.

  "More likely that it will break before noon," retorted Miles, whowas helping to bring out the pelts from the stockroom. "Don't goto-day, Katherine; it is fearful work crossing from Fort Garry whenthere is a strong north-east wind. I came across with Father once,when we thought we must have been swamped every minute."

  "Do not worry yourself, my dear boy," laughed Katherine, "I shallnot attempt to cross if the weather is very rough; I shall skirtthe shore all the way. It is miles farther, of course, but it issafe, and that is the main thing."

  "I wish you were not going, or that I could come with you," Milessaid in a worried tone. "Look here; couldn't Phil manage the storefor one day with Nellie's help, then we would take an extra pair ofoars, and I would help to row?"

  Katherine shook her head. "It is not to be thought of, dear. Iexpect some of those Indians from Nackowasset Creek will be overthe portage to-day; then Wise Eye is in the neighbourhood, I know,and if he as much as caught a glimpse of both of us going downriver in a boat he would fairly haunt the store until we came back,and Phil would have a tottering time of it."

  "That Nackowasset lot are a horrible set of thieves," said Miles.

  "Yes, and neither Phil nor Nellie would be up to all their tricks;so, you see, you will be quite indispensable. I shall get on verywell; don't worry about me in any case, for if the storm shouldprove terrifically bad we could even stay at Fort Garry all night,"Katherine replied.

  The last pelt was tucked away under the canvas sheet, Philscrambled aboard and crouched down in the most convenient place hecould find, and Katherine nodded a bright farewell to Miles, wholingered on the bank with a very dissatisfied look on his face;then the boat moved out into the current and began to slip quicklydown river. At present they felt little or nothing of the wind,but when the hut of Oily Dave was in line with them they began tofeel the influence of the freshening puffs of wind on theirprogress, and Katherine decided to take a middle course across theopen water to the fort; that is, she would not venture so far outas usual, nor would she hug the shore entirely.

  But although the wind came sighing and moaning over the water, itwas nothing more at present than a fairly stiff breeze, and,finding it so much better than she had expected, Katherine tookheart again, and was glad that she had persevered in herundertaking; for she was anxious to get the furs off her hands.Every place at the store was so crowded now, from the shipmentswhich had recently come in, that it was really a relief to getthese bundles of pelts cleared out of the way.

  "Oily Dave's hotel is closed, so I suppose the proprietor hascleared off out to the fishing," Phil said, as the little brown huton the left shore slid by, and they began to rock on the open waterof the river's mouth.

  "I expect he has," replied Katherine, who was pulling with long,steady strokes, the exercise and the wind between them bringing abright glow into her face. "Do you know, I am sure he has workedharder and more honestly this summer than for many a year past; Ibelieve he is beginning to be a reformed character."

  "How long will it take to reform him?" asked Phil, laughing; butKatherine could only shake her head and say she did not know.

  The gulls were riding on the crests of the waves, or skimming soclosely down on the water that it was hard to know whether theywere swimming or flying; and long strings of geese overhead allheaded southward showed plainly that summer was on the wane. Allthese things Katherine took note of as she pulled across the choppywater to Fort Garry, only now they did not sadden her as two daysago they would have done. Hope had shone into her life again, aheavy burden had been lifted, and it seemed to her that she couldnever again feel quite so sorrowful and worn down as she had donesometimes during the last few months.

  "Hurrah! Safely arrived!" she exclaimed, as the boat grounded onthe pebbly beach in front of the old blockhouse, which looked evengrimmer and uglier on this grey day than when the sun shone downupon it.

  "Good morning, Miss Radford! Now, I wonder who told you how badlyI needed a woman of some sort to happen along this morning?" saidPeter M'Crawney, coming out from the stockade on which the housewas built, and advancing to meet Katherine, who was coming up fromthe shore with a great bundle of pelts on each shoulder, whilePhil, laden in similar fashion, walked behind.

  "Does that mean that Mrs. M'Crawney is ill again?" Katherine asked.

  Peter shrugged his shoulders. "She is desperate uneasy in hermind, poor lass, and as hard to live with as a houseful ofmosquitoes, which it is lucky I haven't got, or I should be forcedto drown myself to keep from going out of my mind."

  "Not so bad as that, I hope," Katherine said with a laugh, andinstantly resolved that it would be her duty to stay an hour withthe poor woman, who pined so much because of the solitude in whichher life was cast.

  "It is pretty bad anyhow," he growled, a frown coming over hisface. He was a fairly patient man, all things considered, but hisdomestic tribulations were greater than anyone knew or even guessedat.

  Katherine turned an anxious eye towards the sky before going in atthe house door. If she could start back in anything under aquarter of an hour she might hope to go as she had come, with notmuch extra labour nor fatigue; but an hour or perhaps an hour and ahalf hence it would be very different. The storm was comingslowly, but when rough weather came like that it had a trick oflasting sometimes for several days. However, if the worst came tothe worst, she could always skirt the shore, and, consoling herselfwith this thought, she entered the house, leaving M'Crawney andPhil to unload the pelts and bring them up from the boat.

  The miserable, neglected look of the house struck Katherine first.Peter was not great at housework, while the half-breed, Simon, wholived with them, helped with the trapping in winter, and did alittle of all sorts of work, was rather less clean and tidy in hisways than even Peter. The sight of the dusty, ill-kept roomirritated Katherine. Last night's supper dishes still littered thetable, and had probably served for breakfast dishes as well. Whatwas the use of wasting her time in trying to console a woman who soneglected her home, and the privileges of home-making that camewith it? For a few minutes she felt disposed to turn back withonly a five minutes' civil talk. But there was one's duty to one'sneighbour--and that is a more important duty in isolated placesthan in more crowded centres.

  Then an idea flashed into her mind. If by any means she couldcontrive to make Mrs. M'Crawney ashamed of herself, it might bemore useful than medicine, might even work a cure, in fact; andthat would be something worth doing, even though it entailedskirting the shore all the way home. To think was to act.Whisking off her coat and hat, she rolled up her sleeves, and forwant of an apron pinned a big towel round her; a very dirty towelit was too, but something she must have to protect her frock, andit had to be the towel or nothing.

  First, with plenty of noise and clatter, she piled the dirtycrockery ready for washing, and, filling the stove with wood, set akettle of water on to get hot. This done, she flung door andwindow wide, and proceeded to sweep the room. By the amount of dustshe raised she judged that it must have been at least a week,perhaps a fortnight, since it was swept last.

  Of all the work in the world she hated sweeping most, declaring toherself that doing a portage in blazing sunshine, with a load offurs on one's bac
k, was play to sweeping. The dust got on herface, it walked up her nostrils and down her throat, making herfeel as if she must in self-defence throw down her broom and flyoutside, where the clean, strong wind was blowing. But it was notlike her to give up, when once she had set her hand to anything; soshe finished the sweeping, then fled outside to let the dust blowaway from her face and hair while the thick atmosphere in the roomshe had left cleared enough to admit of the next set of operations.

  Peter M'Crawney was talking to Phil on the other side of the fence,and from several inarticulate growls which reached her ears shejudged that Simon must be there too. Then she heard Phil start ona description of what had taken place at the captain's reception onthe ocean-going steamer, and judged herself safe for another tenminutes, for well she knew that he would not spare them fulldetails, especially of the monkey trick he had played on Nick Jones.

  In ten minutes one could do a great deal if one tried; so backagain she hurried, and set to work dusting the furniture with anold cotton jacket of Peter's, because she could find no duster.The buttons got in the way sometimes, but that was a minor detail,and it did not do to be over-particular about trifles when one wasin a hurry. The dusting was done, and she had started work on thedirty dishes, when the door of the inner room came open with ajerk, and Mrs. M'Crawney, very much in undress, poked her head out.

  "Miss Radford, is it you?" she cried in profound astonishment. "Icouldn't think what the noise was out here. If it had been night Ishould have settled it in my own mind that Peter and Simon had beenhaving too much to drink, though no two men could be more soberthan they are."

  "A good thing they are, for there must be terrible temptations formen living in such discomfort to drown their troubles in strongdrink," Katherine answered severely. Then she asked in a morekindly tone: "Do you feel better this morning?"

  "Oh, I am well enough, thank you! It isn't my body; bodies don'tmatter unless they ache, which mine doesn't, the saints bepraised!" Mrs. M'Crawney exclaimed with pious fervour, as sheemerged from her bedroom and seated herself in all her squaliduntidiness on the nearest chair.

  "If it is not your body, what is it, then? Do you think you aregoing out of your mind?" demanded Katherine sharply; and turningfrom her dish-washing, she treated the woman to a calm appraisingstare, which took in every detail, from the unbrushed hairstraggling over the ragged nightdress to the unwashed, naked feet.

  "Going out of my mind?" screamed Mrs. M'Crawney in furiousindignation. "Indeed no! I've got my wits as well as you've gotyour own, Miss Katherine Radford; more so, I should say, for I havea deal too much sense to go slaving myself to death doing work thatno one is likely to say 'thank you' for."

  Katherine laughed merrily: "Don't be too sure of that. I expectthat you will be saying 'thank you' presently, when you are washedand dressed; it makes such a difference when one's hair is tidy!If you will go into your room again I will bring you some hot waterin a minute. But I can hear my brother Phil coming, and he is sucha dreadful mimic that he will be taking you off for the benefit ofSeal Cove to-morrow, in spite of all that I can do to stop him."

  Mrs. M'Crawney vanished with all speed, the hint about being madefun of being more powerful to move her than anything else wouldhave been.

  Katherine carried in the hot water and tried not to see how badlythe bedroom needed sweeping also. She had no more time for heavyhousework that day, nor did she deem it a duty to waste herstrength on labour which the Irishwoman was equally well able toperform. Peter had come in when she returned to the outer room,and was looking about him as if scarcely able to believe theevidence of his own eyes.

  "Well, if it don't beat everything!" he exclaimed, then strode overto the shelf and examined the books, which Katherine had beencareful to dust. "You've taken the dust off the books too! Iexpect you found it rather thick on 'em, didn't you? I don't thinkit has been rubbed off 'em these six months past."

  "Just what I thought!" she retorted, scrubbing the table with greatenergy. "But I hope you don't expect me to pity you for that. Aman who can read books ought to know how to dust them."

  "I hadn't thought of doing it myself, that's a fact; but they lookreal nice now," he said admiringly. And he was wheeling round topay Katherine a compliment from another direction, when the bedroomdoor opened again, and a surprised: "Hullo! what's up?" burst fromhim.

  Even Katherine looked amazed, the transformation had been so rapid.Ten minutes ago a tousled, unclean creature, in a ragged nightgarment had disappeared, and now a clean-faced woman in a tidyfrock, and with tidy hair, came from the inner room.

  "It is like your impudence to be asking such personal questions asthat," Mrs. M'Crawney retorted lightly, with a smile which showedher good-looking when she was not peevish. "But it is better I'mfeeling in myself, which is sure to come to the outside sooner orlater. Now, Miss Radford, dear, there's no call for you to goblacking that stove; I'll do it myself after you are gone. I'mjust dreadful obliged to you for what you've done, especially forsweeping the floor. I've a soul above sweeping, I have, and Ican't be always lowering myself to dirty work of that sort; it isdamaging to the morals, I find."

  Katherine laughed until the tears came into her eyes, then gaspedout in jerky tones: "It would be very bad for my morals to livewith floors unswept, and I think that is how most people feel."

  "Perhaps they do, but I was never the ordinary kind of woman; mymother always said I was sort of one by meself, and she was right.When Mrs. Burton was staying here, with them two blessed babies, Iused to marvel how she could laugh and carry on as she did, whilethe hungry sea as drowned her husband rocked at the very door ofthe house. Now, if it had been me, and my husband lay somewhereout there under the grey, heaving water, I could not have sung anddanced and played hop-scotch, blindman's buff, and things of thatsort, the same as she did."

  Katherine's lips took on a scornful curl, and there was anindignant light in her eyes as she retorted: "No, I expect if Mr.M'Crawney died you would wear crape a yard deep all round yourfrocks, and talk morning, noon, and night of how much you lovedhim. But I am quite sure that he would love you a great deal moreif you took the trouble to give him tidy rooms and well-cookedmeals. If I were a man I should just hate a woman who treated meas badly as you treat Mr. M'Crawney."

  "Hooray, you've got it now, and no mistake, old woman!" interjectedPeter, rubbing his hands in huge enjoyment of the scene. Katherinehad forgotten all about him, or it is possible she would not havespoken so plainly; as it was, at the sound of his laugh, she turnedwith a swift apology to Mrs. M'Crawney.

  "Please forgive me, I have no right to meddle in your concerns; butit just makes me feel wrathful to see you throwing away thehappiness you might have, and existing in such dirt and discomfort,when everything about you might be clean, sweet, and wholesome."

  Mrs. M'Crawney dropped into a rocking-chair and laughed in greatamusement. "Sure, it is as good as going to a theaytre to see youa-carrying on and lecturing me with the stormlight in your eyes.You are a very pretty girl anyhow, but when you are angry it isdownright lovely that you are. I'd forgive ye for a deal more thantelling the truth, if you'd only come a bit oftener and row me."

  "I say, Katherine, are you nearly ready to start?" asked Phil,putting his head in at the door. He had been with Simon to inspectsome tame wolf cubs; but, seeing that the weather was growing morethreatening, had decided that the sooner they got away from FortGarry the better.

  "Yes, I will be ready in two minutes," Katherine answered; and,receiving payment for the pelts in a written order upon theCompany, which she tied in a bag round her neck for safety, shedrew on her coat, tied her hat securely on her head, and declaredherself ready to start.

  A fine rain was beginning to blur the sea like a fog, and sherealized that the journey before her might be a great deal worsethan she had expected.

  "Good-bye, my dear; a safe journey to you, and the best of luckalways!" exclaimed Mrs. M'Crawney, following her to the door.Then, seizing her
in a bearlike embrace, the Irishwoman whispered:"It is downright ashamed of myself you've made me; and if I don'tdo better in future, then my name is not Juliana KathleenM'Crawney, and never has been!"

  "Good-bye! We shall get home all right; don't worry about us,"Katherine answered bravely.

  "There is one comfort: we shan't need to wash our faces any moreto-day, though we may need a little drying," remarked Phil, as theyrounded an angle of the coast and caught the full force of the wind.

  "It might be worse, for we are being blown along," Katherinereplied, as she tugged at her oars and faced the driving rain.

  For three hours they toiled on, working their way from point topoint, skirting the swamps, and keeping in close under the alders.

  There was never real actual danger close inshore for anyone whounderstood the management of a boat, but the work was fearful, andKatherine was so near to exhaustion when she at last pulled roundpast the shut-up house of Oily Dave, that she was thankful to letPhil take the oars and pull up the quieter waters of the river toRoaring Water Portage.

  "I wonder how Oily Dave likes being at the fishing to-day?" saidPhil, swaying himself to and fro and jerking the boat fearfullywith his short, uneven strokes.

  But Katherine, sitting in a huddled, wet heap on the opposite seat,did not answer. She was thinking of someone else who was at thefishing, and praying that he might be kept in safety and broughtback unharmed.