It needed a strong and firm grasp to force the terrified lad to his feet and even when he, at last, stood up he shivered like an aspen.
“A grave!”
“Certainly. A grave. But neither yours nor mine. Only that of some poor fellow who has died in the wilderness1. I’m sorry I piled the brush upon it, yet glad we discovered it in the end.”
“Yes. Of course. I mean to cover it with fresh sods and plant some of those purple orchids3 at its head. I’ll cut a cedar4 headstone, too, and mark it so that nobody else shall desecrate5 it as we have done.”
[Pg 189]
“You mustn’t touch it! It’s nobody’s—only a warning.”
“A warning, surely; that we must take great care lest a like fate come on us; but somebody lies under that mound6 and I pity him. Most probable that he lost his life in that very whirlpool which wrecked7 us. Twice I’ve been upset and lost all my belongings8, but escaped safe. I hope I’ll not run the same chance again. Come. Lie down again, and go to sleep.”
“Couldn’t sleep; to try in such a haunted place would be to be ‘spelled’——”
“Pierre Ricord! For a fellow that’s so smart at some things you are the biggest dunce I know, in others. Haven’t we slept like lords ever since we struck this camp? I’m going to make my bed up again and turn in. I advise you to do the same.”
Adrian tossed the branches aside, then rearranged them, lapping the soft ends over the hard ones in an orderly row which would have pleased a housewife. Thus freshened [Pg 190]his odorous mattress9 was as good as new, and stretching himself upon it he went to sleep immediately.
Pierre fully10 intended to keep awake; but fatigue11 and loneliness prevailed, and five minutes later he had crept close to Adrian’s side.
The sunshine on his face, and the sound of a knife cutting wood awoke him; and there was Adrian whittling12 away at a broad slab13 of cedar, smiling and jeering14, and in the best of spirits, despite his rather solemn occupation.
“For a fellow who wouldn’t sleep, you’ve done pretty well. See. I’ve caught a fish and set it cooking. I’ve picked a pile of berries, and have nearly finished this headstone. Added another accomplishment16 to my many—monument maker17. But I’m wrong to laugh over that, though the poor unknown to whom it belongs would be grateful to me, I’ve no doubt. Lend a hand, will you?”
But nothing would induce Pierre to engage in any such business. Nor would he touch [Pg 191]his breakfast while Adrian’s knife was busy. He sat apart, looking anywhere rather than toward his mate, and talking over his shoulder to him in a strangely subdued18 voice.
“Adrian!”
“Well?”
“Most done?”
“Nearly.”
“What you going to put on it?”
“I’ve been wondering. Think this: ‘To the Memory of My Unknown Brother.’”
“Wh-a-a-t!”
Adrian repeated the inscription19.
“We are all kin. It’s all one world, God’s world. All the people and all these forests, and the creatures in them—I tell you I’ve never heard a sermon that touched me as the sight of this grave in the wilderness has touched me. I mean to be a better, kinder man, because of it. Margot was right, none of us has a right to his own self. She told me often that I should go home to my own [Pg 192]folks and make everything right with them; then, if I could, come back and live in the woods, somewhere. ‘If I felt I must.’ But I don’t feel that way now. I want to get back and go to work. I want to live so that when I die—like that poor chap, yonder,—somebody will have been the better for my life. Pshaw! Why do I talk to you like this? Anyway, I’ll set this slab in place, and then——”
Pierre rose and still without looking Adrian’s way, pushed the new canoe into the water. He had carefully pitched it, on the day before, with a mixture of the old pork grease and gum from the trees, so that there need be no delay at starting.
Adrian finished his work, lettered the slab with a coal from the fire, and re-watered the wild flowers he had already planted.
“Aren’t you going to eat breakfast first?”
“Not in a graveyard,” answered Pierre, with a solemnity that checked Adrian’s desire to smile.
[Pg 193]
A last reverent20 attention, a final clearing of all rubbish from the spot, and he, too, stepped into the canoe and picked up his paddle. They had passed the rapids and reached a smooth stretch of the river, where they had camped, and now pulled steadily21 and easily away, once more upon their journey south. But not till they had put a considerable distance between themselves and that woodland grave, would Pierre consent to stop and eat the food that Adrian had prepared. Even then, he restricted the amount to be consumed, remarking with doleful conviction:
“We’re going to be starved before we reach Donovan’s. The ‘food stick’ burnt off and dropped into the fire, last night.”
Adrian remembered that his mate had spoken of it at the time, when by some carelessness, they had not secured the crotched sapling on which they hung their birch kettle.
“Oh! you simple thing. Why will you go through life tormenting22 yourself with [Pg 194]such nonsense? Come. Eat your breakfast. We’re going straight to Donovan’s as fast as we can. I’ve done with the woods for a time. So should you be done. You’re needed at the island. Not because of any dreams but because the more I recall of Mr. Dutton’s appearance the surer I am that he is a sick man. You’ll go back, won’t you?”
“Yes. I’m going back. Not because you ask me, though.”
“I don’t care why—only go.”
“I’m not going into the show business.”
Adrian smiled. “Of course you’re not. You’ll never have money enough. It would cost lots.”
“’Tisn’t that. ’Twas the dream. That was sent me. All them animals in black paint, and the blue herons without any heads, and—— My mother came for me, last night.”
“I heartily23 wish you could go to her this minute! She’s superstitious24 enough, in all conscience, yet she has the happy faculty25 of keeping her lugubrious26 son in subjection.”
[Pg 195]
Whenever Pierre became particularly depressing the other would rattle27 off as many of the longest words as occurred to him. They had the effect of diverting his comrade’s thoughts.
Then they pulled on again, nor did anything disastrous28 happen to further hinder their progress. The food did not give out, for they lived mostly upon berries, having neither time nor desire to stop and cook their remnant of beans. When they were especially tired Pierre lighted a fire and made a bucket of hemlock29 tea, but Adrian found cold water preferable to this decoction; and, in fact, they were much nearer Donovan’s, that first settlement in the wilderness, than even Pierre had suspected.
Their last portage was made—an easy one, there being nothing but themselves and the canoe to carry—and they came to a big dead water where they had looked to find another running stream; but had no sooner sighted it than their ears were greeted by the laughter [Pg 196]of loons, which threw up their legs and dived beneath the surface in that absurd manner which Adrian always found amusing.
“But you see a house! Look, look! Donovan’s, or somebody’s, no matter whose! A house, a house!”
There, indeed, it lay; a goodly farmstead, with its substantial cabins, its outbuildings, its groups of cattle on the cleared land, and—yes, yes, its moving human beings, and what seemed oddest still, its teams of horses.
Even Pierre was silent, and tears sprang to the eyes of both lads as they gazed. Until that moment neither had fully realized how lonely and desolate31 had been their situation.
“Now for it! It’s a biggish lake and we’re pretty tired! But that means rest, plenty to eat, people—everything.”
Their rudely built canoe was almost useless when they beached it at last on Donovan’s wharf32, and their own strength was spent. [Pg 197]But it was a hospitable33 household to which they had come, and one quite used to welcoming wanderers from the forest. They were fed and clothed and bedded, without question, but, when a long sleep had set them both right, tongues wagged and plans were settled with amazing promptness.
For there were other guests at the farm; a party of prospectors34, going north into the woods to locate timber for the next season’s cutting. These would be glad of Pierre’s company and help, and would pay him “the going wages.” But they would not return by the route he had come, though by leaving theirs at a point well north, he could easily make his way back to the island.
“So you shot the poor moose for nothing. You cannot even have his horns!” said Adrian reproachfully. “Well, as soon as I can vote, I mean to use all my influence to stop this murder in the forest.”
The strangers smiled and shrugged35 their shoulders. “We’re after game ourselves, as [Pg 198]well as timber, but legislation is already in progress to stop the indiscriminate slaughter36 of the fast disappearing moose and caribou37. Five hundred dollars is the fine to be imposed for any infringement38 of the law, once passed.”
Pierre’s jaw39 dropped. He was so impressed by the long words and the mention of that, to him, enormous sum, that he was rendered speechless for a longer time than Adrian ever remembered. But, if he said nothing, he reflected sadly upon the magnificent antlers he should see no more.
Adrian’s affairs were also, speedily and satisfactorily arranged. Farmer Donovan would willingly take him to the nearest stage route; thence to a railway would be easy journeying; and by steam he could travel swiftly, indeed, to that distant home which he now so longed to see.
The parting of the lads was brief, but not without emotion. Two people cannot go through their experiences and dangers, to remain indifferent to each other. In both their [Pg 199]hearts was now the kindliest feeling and the sincere hope that they should meet again. Pierre departed first and looked back many times at the tall, graceful40 figure of his comrade; then the trees intervened and the forest had again swallowed him into its familiar depths.
Then Adrian, also, stepped upon the waiting buck-board and was driven over the rough road in the opposite direction.
Three days later, with nothing in his pocket but his treasured knife, a roll of birch-bark, and the ten-dollar piece which, through all his adventures, he had worn pinned to his inner clothing, “a make-piece offering” to his mother he reached the brown stone steps to his father’s city mansion41.
There, for the first time, he hesitated. All the bitterness with which he had descended42 those steps, banished43 in disgrace, was keenly remembered.
“Can I, shall I, dare I go up and ring that bell?”
A vision floated before him. Margot’s earnest [Pg 200]face and tear-dimmed eyes. Her lips speaking:
“If I had father or mother anywhere—nothing should ever make me leave them. I would bear everything—but I would be true to them.”
An instant later a peal44 rang through that silent house, such as it had not echoed in many a day. What would be the answer to it?
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1
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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3
orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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5
desecrate
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| v.供俗用，亵渎，污辱 | |
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6
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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7
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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8
belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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9
mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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10
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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12
whittling
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| v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的现在分词 ) | |
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slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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14
jeering
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| adj.嘲弄的，揶揄的v.嘲笑( jeer的现在分词 ) | |
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15
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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16
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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17
maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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18
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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19
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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20
reverent
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| adj.恭敬的，虔诚的 | |
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21
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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22
tormenting
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| 使痛苦的，使苦恼的 | |
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23
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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24
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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25
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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26
lugubrious
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| adj.悲哀的，忧郁的 | |
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27
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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28
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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29
hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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30
loon
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| n.狂人 | |
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31
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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32
wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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33
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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34
prospectors
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| n.勘探者，探矿者( prospector的名词复数 ) | |
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35
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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36
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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37
caribou
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| n.北美驯鹿 | |
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38
infringement
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| n.违反；侵权 | |
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39
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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40
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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41
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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42
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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43
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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