Fortunately the wind veered2 round to the south-east soon after the departure of the canoes from Moose Fort, and although there was not enough of it to ruffle3 the surface of the river, it had the effect of checking the influx4 of ice from James’s Bay. The tide, too, began to ebb5, so that the progress of the canoes was even more rapid than it appeared to be; and long before the sun set, they were past the point at the mouth of the river, and coasting along the shores of the salt ocean.
Outside of them the sea was covered with hummocks6 and fields of ice, some of which ever and anon met in the cross currents caused by the river, with a violent shock. Close to the shore, however, the thickness of the ice caused it to strand7, leaving a lane of open water, along which the canoes proceeded easily, the depth of water being much more than sufficient for them, as the largest canoe did not draw more than a foot. Sometimes, however, this space was blocked up by smaller fragments, and considerable difficulty was experienced in steering8 the canoes amongst them. Had the party travelled in boats, they would have easily dashed through many of these checks; but with canoes it is far otherwise. Not only are their bark sides easily broken, but the seams are covered with a kind of pitch which becomes so brittle9 in ice-cold water that it chips off in large lumps with the slightest touch. For the sea, therefore, boats are best; but when it comes to carrying the craft over waterfalls and up mountain sides, for days and weeks together, canoes are more useful, owing to their lightness.
“Take care, Massan,” said Mr Stanley, on approaching one of these floes. “Don’t chip the gum off if you can help it. If we spring a leak, we shan’t spend our first night on a pleasant camping-ground, for the shore just hereabouts does not look inviting10.”
“No fear, sir,” replied Massan. “Dick Prince is in the bow, and as long as his mouth’s shut I keep my mind easy.”
“You appear to have unlimited11 confidence in Prince,” said Stanley, with a smile. “Does he never fail in anything, that you are so sure of him?”
“Fail!” exclaimed the steersman, whose paddle swept constantly in a circle round his head, while he changed it from side to side as the motions of the canoe required—“fail! ay, that does he sometimes. Mortal man must get on the wrong side o’ luck now and then. I’ve seen Dick Prince fail, but I never saw him make a mistake.”
“Well, I’ve no doubt that he deserves your good opinion. Nevertheless, be more than ordinarily careful. If you had a wife and child in the canoe, Massan, you would understand my anxiety better.” Stanley smiled as he said this, and the worthy12 steersman replied in a grave tone,—“I have the wife and child of my bourgeois13 under my care.”
“True, true, Massan,” said Stanley, lying back on his couch and conversing14 with his wife in an undertone.
“’Tis curious,” said he, “to observe the confidence that Massan has in Prince; and yet it would be difficult to say wherein consists the superiority of the one over the other.”
“Perhaps it is the influence of a strong mind over a weaker,” suggested his wife.
“It may be so. Yet Prince is an utterly15 uneducated man. True, he shoots a hair’s-breadth better than Massan; but he is not a better canoe-man, neither is he more courageous16, and he is certainly less powerful: nevertheless Massan looks up to him and speaks of him as if he were greatly his superior. The secret of his power must lie in that steady, never-wavering inflexibility17 of purpose, that characterises our good bowman in everything he does.”
“Papa,” said Edith, who had been holding a long conversation with Chimo on the wonders of the scene around them—if we may call that a conversation where the one party does all the talking and the other all the listening—“papa, where shall we all sleep to-night?”
The thought seemed to have struck her for the first time, and she looked up eagerly for an answer, while Chimo gave a deep sigh of indifference18, and went to sleep, or pretended to do so, where he was.
“In the woods, Eda. How do you think you will like it?”
“Oh, I’m sure I shall like it very much,” replied the little one. “I’ve often wished to live in the woods altogether like the Indians, and do nothing but wander about and pull berries.”
“Ah, Jessie,” said Stanley, “what an idle little baggage your daughter is! I fear she’s a true chip of the old block!”
“Which do you consider the old block,” retorted Mrs Stanley—“you or me?”
“Never mind, wife; we’ll leave that an open question.—But tell me, Eda, don’t you think that wandering about and pulling berries would be a very useless sort of life?”
“No,” replied Edith, gravely. “Mamma often tells me that God wants me to be happy, and I’m quite sure that wandering about all day in the beautiful woods would make me happy.”
“But, my darling,” said Stanley, smiling at the simplicity19 of this plausible20 argument in favour of an idle life, “don’t you know that we ought to try to make others happy too, as well as ourselves?”
“Oh yes,” replied Eda, with a bright smile, “I know that, papa; and I would try to make everybody happy by going with them and showing them where the finest flowers and berries were to be found; and so we would all be happy together, and that’s what God wants, is it not?”
Mr Stanley glanced towards his wife with an arch smile. “There, Jessie, what think you of that?”
“Nay, husband, what think you?”
“I think,” he replied in an undertone, “that your sagacious teaching against idleness, and in favour of diligence and attention to duty, and so forth21, has not taken very deep root yet.”
“And I think,” said Mrs Stanley, “that however wise you men may be in some things, you are all most incomprehensibly stupid in regard to the development of young minds.”
“Take care now, Jessie; you’re verging22 upon metaphysics. But you have only given me your opinion of men as yet; you have still to say what you think of Eda’s acknowledged predilection23 for idleness.”
“Well,” replied Mrs Stanley, “I think that my sagacious teaching, as you are pleased to call it, has taken pretty firm root already, and that Eda’s speech is one of the first bright, beautiful blossoms, from which we may look for much fruit hereafter; for to make one’s self and one’s fellow-creatures happy, because such is the will of God, seems to me a simple and comprehensive way of stating the whole duty of man.”
Stanley’s eyes opened a little at this definition. “Hum! multum in parvo; it may be so,” he said; and casting down his eyes, he was soon lost in a profound reverie, while the canoe continued to progress forward by little impulsive24 bounds, under the rapid stroke of the paddles. Eda rested her fair cheek on the shaggy brow of Chimo, and accompanied him to the land of nod, until the sun began to sink behind the icebergs25 on the seaward horizon, where a dark line indicated an approaching breeze.
Massan cast an uneasy glance at this from time to time. At length he called to his friend in the bow, “Hello, Prince! will it come stiff; think ye?”
“No,” replied Prince, rising and shading his eyes with his hand; “it’ll be only a puff26; but that’s enough to drive the ice down on us, an’ shut up the open water.”
“It’s my ’pinion,” said Massan, “that we should hold away for the p’int yonder, an’ camp there.”
Dick Prince nodded assent27, and resumed his paddle.
As he did so the report of a gun came sharply over the water.
“Ha!” exclaimed Stanley, looking out ahead; “what’s that?”
“Only Mr Frank,” said Massan; “he’s dowsed two birds. I see’d them splash into the water.”
“That’s right,” said Stanley; “we shall have something fresh for the kettle to-night. And, by the way, we’ll need all we can kill, for we haven’t much provision to depend on, and part of it must be reserved in case of accidents, so that if Frank does not do his duty, we shall have to live on birch bark, Massan.”
“That would be rayther tough. I’m afeerd,” replied the steersman, laughing. “I’ve tried the tail o’ a deer-skin coat afore now, an’ it wasn’t much to boast of; but I niver tried a birch-bark steak. I doubt it would need a power o’ chewin?”
By this time the two large canoes had drawn28 gradually nearer to the leading one. As they approached, Frank ordered his men to cease paddling.
“Well, Frank, what success?” said Stanley, as they came up.
“There’s our supper,” cried Frank, tossing a large duck into the canoe; “and there’s a bite for the men,” he added, sending a huge gray goose into the midst of them. “I saw a herd29 of reindeer30 on the other side of the point; but the ice closed up the passage, and prevented me from getting within range. It will stop our further progress for to-night too; so I waited to advise you to camp here.”
“There it comes!” cried Dick Prince. “Jump out on the ice, lads, and unload as fast as you can.”
As Dick spoke31 he sprang on to a field of ice which was attached to the shore, and drawing the canoe alongside, began hastily to remove the cargo32. His example was instantly followed by the men, who sprang over the gunwales like cats; and in less than five minutes the cargoes33 were scattered34 over the ice. Meanwhile, the breeze which Massan had observed continued to freshen, and the seaward ice bore rapidly down on the shore, gradually narrowing and filling up the lanes of water among which the travellers had been hitherto wending their way. Dick Prince’s sudden action was caused by his observing a large, solid field, which bore down on them with considerable rapidity. His warning was just in time, for the goods were scarcely landed and the three canoes lifted out of the water, when the ice closed in with a crash that would have ground the frail35 barks to pieces, and the passage was closed up. So completely was every trace of water obliterated36, that it seemed as though there never had been any there before.
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1
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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2
veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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3
ruffle
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| v.弄皱，弄乱；激怒，扰乱；n.褶裥饰边 | |
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influx
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| n.流入，注入 | |
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ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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6
hummocks
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| n.小丘，岗( hummock的名词复数 ) | |
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7
strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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8
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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9
brittle
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| adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的 | |
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10
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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11
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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12
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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13
bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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14
conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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15
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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16
courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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17
inflexibility
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| n.不屈性，顽固，不变性；不可弯曲；非挠性；刚性 | |
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18
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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19
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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20
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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verging
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| 接近，逼近（verge的现在分词形式） | |
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predilection
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| n.偏好 | |
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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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icebergs
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| n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 ) | |
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26
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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27
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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28
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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30
reindeer
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| n.驯鹿 | |
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31
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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32
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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cargoes
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| n.（船或飞机装载的）货物( cargo的名词复数 )；大量，重负 | |
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34
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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35
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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36
obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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