XX
A LETTER FROM THE GREAT DOCTOR
The Jug was lonely enough after the departure of David and Andy inSeptember. Margaret and Jamie missed them, perhaps, more than Thomas,who was accustomed to the solitude of the trails. Margaret was quitesure the place would have been well-nigh unbearable but for DoctorJoe, who went about his work whistling or singing snatches of song,and who always had a smile or a joke when he breezed into the cabin.And his evening stories were something to look forward to.
Doctor Joe was bustling about from morning until night, these days,preparing for his winter's work. There was no end of work to be doneabout the cabin, that all might be made "ship-shape," as he said, "andsnug for any storm that might blow."
Thomas was as patient as ever a man with a broken leg could be. But itwas quite natural that he should wish to be up and about. A hundredtimes during these weeks he asked Doctor Joe if it were not time totake the "lashin's" off his leg, and declared that he was "weary ofdawdlin' there in bed." His restlessness was not to be wondered at,for never before in all his life had Thomas Angus "dawdled" in bedfor a single day. Thomas Angus had always been an uncommonly strongand healthy man, for which he was duly thankful.
Never once after David and Andy departed did Jamie utter a word ofcomplaint about the mist in his eyes. They had gone forth to do greatdeeds. They would meet, up there in that lonely land of mystery, manya bitter hardship, and they would have "plenty o' grit, and keep theirhearts stout, like a man's," for they had promised their father andJamie they would. Why, then, should he complain? He, too, must keepplenty o' grit, and a stout heart, and be brave and patient.
Perhaps, too, Jamie was becoming accustomed to the mist, as one will,in time, become accustomed to anything. Perhaps the abounding hope ofyouth helped him--and with Jamie it was the hope that one day he wouldsee as well as ever he had--for was not the great doctor to work awonderful cure--when summer came again? Jamie's faith never wavered.He entertained no doubt that David and Andy and Indian Jake would meetwith success, and bring back with them the furs necessary to meet theexpense of the journey to New York. He never failed to ask for this inhis prayers. Oh, that the faith of childhood, simple, abiding,unquestioning, might never be shattered! What a blessed consolation isfaith! What a bulwark of strength in time of need!
Jamie often asked Margaret to describe the mountains to him as she sawthem from the cabin windows. It was a vast satisfaction to have theassurance that they were still there, big and brave and strong,standing guard over the world beyond the Bay. And sometimes he wouldask her to watch for the moment when the light from the setting suntipped their highest peaks with glory, and tell him when God reacheddown to kiss the world good night.
* * * * *
"Now that leg!" announced Doctor Joe one day. "We'll take the splintsoff and see what it looks like."
"I'm wonderful glad t' have un took off," said Thomas, his facebrightening visibly.
Doctor Joe laughed, as he went to work, and presently the bandages andsplints were removed, and he surveyed the leg.
"I never saw a better job!" he exclaimed. "Straight and fine! It won'tbe long, Thomas, till you'll forget you ever had a broken leg!"
"She feels strange," remarked Thomas.
"Does she, now?" laughed Doctor Joe.
"Aye, she does that! She pricks and hurts, and she wasn't hurtin' abit when th' lashin's were on," said Thomas.
"That'll soon pass away. It's the blood circulating," Doctor Joeexplained.
And after that it was not long until Thomas was moving about the cabinon a pair of rude crutches Doctor Joe had made for him, and mightilypleased he was.
"Plenty t' be thankful for," declared Thomas. "Here, now I'll soonhave as good a pair o' legs as ever I had, with Doctor Joe's mendin',and if Doctor Joe hadn't been here 'tis like as not, and liker too,I'd ha' been crippled for life."
Late in October winter snapped down upon them in a night. Everywherethe great bay was frozen, and there was no longer the sound of lappingwaves upon the beach. Very soon, too, the cheerful voice of RoaringBrook, tumbling headlong over the rocks, was hushed into silence.
Rime filled the air, and the cabin windows became thick-crusted with afrost that never melted that livelong winter. Before the end ofNovember the snow lay a full fathom deep every where, and there was nogoing abroad now, save upon snowshoes.
But there was wood enough ranked high in the shed to keep the bigstove roaring and crackling merrily, and the cabin assumed a greatercoziness than ever.
Thomas busied himself making snowshoes for future use, mending dogharness, and attending to innumerable odd jobs for which ordinarily inhis busy existence he found small leisure.
"'Tis a blessin' t' feel I has th' time for un without neglectin' andmakin' a shift of other work," he declared. Thomas found a blessingand a reason for thankfulness in everything.
Each morning almost before the break of dawn Doctor Joe would stealaway into the cold, dreary gloom of the silent forest, and eachnight, as dusk was settling, they would hear his cheery call as hereturned. This was the brightest hour of the day for Jamie andMargaret, aye and Thomas, too.
But following the fur trails from morning till night, and day afterday, was hard and wearisome work for Doctor Joe. His success as atrapper was indifferent. He was not born and bred to it as were Thomasand the boys. There were days and days when he returned of nightsempty handed, but he always wore a cheerful face and a smile when heentered the lighted cabin, no matter how gloomy it may have been inthe dark woods. And if Thomas, perchance, had permitted himself togrow down-hearted, Doctor Joe's smile and cheerfulness raised hisspirits and drove the gloom away. There is no tonic more potent than asmile and a cheerful face. 'Tis a great mender of a sore heart.
Doctor Joe, however, in spite of his brave front, was deeply troubledat his lack of success on the trail. It was of vital importance thatsufficient furs should be had to pay the way for Jamie's operation,and he was not in the least certain of the result of David's andAndy's winter hunt, or altogether satisfied as to their safety. Hecould never quite clear his mind of doubts as to Indian Jake'sresponsibility and integrity. So much depended upon the boys andIndian Jake! Jamie's whole future depended upon them or so Doctor Joebelieved. He was watching Jamie's eyes carefully and constantly, andthere was no doubt that the mist was gradually but constantlythickening.
When the northern posts are ice-bound the last autumn mail for thecoast is left by the mail boat each year at a post three hundred milesto the southward, and carried thence to its destination by dog sledge.Customarily this mail reaches the Hudson Bay Post in Eskimo Bay on theevening of the twenty-second or twenty-third of December. Doctor Joewas keenly anxious for its arrival this year, for he was confident itwould contain the hoped-for reply from the great New York surgeon, andas the time approached he was indeed in a state of nervous expectancy.
There was still the uncertainty as to whether or no the surgeon wouldbe in New York the following summer. Doctor Joe had promised that hewould be there, or at least held out such strong hopes that Jamie andThomas and Margaret were depending upon them as a promise, and withthe utmost faith. Doctor Joe felt the responsibility keenly, and asthe weeks wore away this feeling of personal responsibility increased.He did not dare to think of Jamie's future should his plans fail, andwhen the thought did force itself upon him a strange panic seized him.
Doctor Joe's anxiety was so keen that he must needs lose no time inreceiving the letter that he hoped would come to him, and two daysbefore Christmas, when he came home from the trail in the evening, heannounced that he was to go to the Post the following morning.
"How would you like to take the cruise with me, Margaret?" he asked."You haven't been away from The Jug in six months."
"Oh, 'twould be fine!" exclaimed Margaret, delighted at the prospect."I'd like so much t' go!"
"Then I'll drive the dogs over, and take you," said Doctor Joe. "Yourfather and Jamie will do very well wit
hout you for one day, and I'mnot going out on my trail on Christmas eve. Besides, we're very apt tomeet Santa Claus, and we mustn't miss seeing him, for he may havesomething for Jamie, and the old rascal would like as not go right onand never leave it, if we don't remind him."
Doctor Joe gave a quizzical glance toward Jamie, who was immediatelyintensely excited.
"Jamie and I'll do fine alone for _one_ day," declared Thomas, "thoughI don't know how we'd ever do without Margaret longer than that. Itnever would do to miss old Santa Claus, though, and Margaret must goalong."
"Ask he--ask he--if you sees he, now, t' bring me a knife!" exclaimedJamie, vastly excited. "A huntin' knife! When th' mist leaves my eyesI'll have un t' use when I goes huntin' with Pop. Tell he that, andhe'll sure give un to me!"
"Very well," agreed Doctor Joe, "we'll tell him. But supposing he hasno hunting knives? He may be all out of them. Then what shall he bringyou?"
"A jackknife," said Jamie, with prompt decision. "A jackknife that'llbe all my own."
Accordingly the following morning Doctor Joe made ready the sledge andharnessed the eight big dogs, and when Margaret heard the dogs yelpingin eagerness to be away she came running out, all bundled up, her eyessparkling and face aglow with the prospect of the journey. When shehad seated herself in a big box on the rear of the sledge, Doctor Joewrapped caribou skins about her and tucked her in as snug and warm ascould be. Then he seized the front of the komatik, as they called thesledge, jerked it sharply toward him to break it loose from the snow,and as he did so shouted "Oo-isht! Oo-isht!" With a creak the sledgewas freed and the dogs, straining at their traces, shot ahead at agallop down the steep slope to the ice.
The sledge once in motion coasted after the dogs at a mad pace. DoctorJoe, throwing himself upon it, with his feet extending forward andover the side, drove his heels into the snow in rapid succession,while he pulled back with all his might in an effort to retard thespeed. Margaret, enveloped by the cloud of snow which Doctor Joekicked up, clung desperately to the swaying box. It was exciting andthrilling. At the foot of the slope was a mass of ice hummocks, piledup by the tide, and as the dogs and sledge dashed among them thespeed slackened. Here, with quick, agile jerks upon the front of therunners, Doctor Joe steered them safely to the smooth white surface ofthe Bay.
Now the dogs settled to a comfortable trot. Doctor Joe seated himselfupon the sledge, and looking back he and Margaret waved their handsgaily to Thomas and Jamie, who were standing at the cabin door, whileThomas told Jamie what was taking place.
It was dusk when the howl of eager dogs announced the return of DoctorJoe and Margaret. Thomas and Jamie hastened to the door, and were intime to greet them as the sledge drew up the incline.
"Oh, we had a fine trip!" exclaimed Margaret enthusiastically, as shethrew off the caribou skins and stepped lightly from the box, quite aspleased and excited with her journey and visit to the trading post asany country girl in our land would be with a journey of a hundredmiles and a visit to a great city.
"Did you see Santa Claus?" asked Jamie in high expectation.
"Oh, yes, we saw him!" answered Margaret gaily.
"And is he t' come here?" and Jamie was on tiptoe with excitement.
"He's t' come here!" declared Margaret. "He'll not be passing _here_,_what_ever!"
"We told him that he must come _here_, whatever he did!" calledDoctor Joe, who was unharnessing the dogs. "We told him 'twould be asorry day for him if he passed The Jug without stopping."
"O-h-h!" breathed Jamie.
And presently, when Doctor Joe had turned the dogs loose and fed them,he came stamping into the cabin all aglow with the good news of aletter from the great doctor, who had written that he would cut themist away from Jamie's eyes. That in itself was the greatest Christmaspresent that could have come to any of them. Jamie asked a hundredquestions about it, and they all declared that they were never beforein all their lives made so glad of a Christmas eve.
That night, with faith complete, Jamie hung up his stocking, and sureenough on Christmas morning it contained not only the coveted knifebut a little package of candy. And to Margaret's great surprise, forshe had not in the least expected to be remembered, Santa Claus hadbrought her a beautiful knitted sweater to wear about when the cabinwas chilly, and she was no less happy with the gift than was Jamiewith his.
And Thomas and Doctor Joe were as happy as either of them. Santa Clausmust be a very happy old man indeed, for the greatest happiness in theworld comes from making others happy. And it is not the worth of agift in money, either, that counts for value, but the depth of lovethat goes with it. And after all, every one who does his best to makeothers happy at Christmas time or at any other time is a Santa Claus.
As the weeks passed the mist in Jamie's eyes grew so thick that atlength he ceased his old pathetic habit of brushing his hand beforethem to drive it away. It hurt Margaret's sympathetic heart solely tosee him groping for things that were usually near at hand, but whichhe could not find.
Thomas, who had long since abandoned his crutches, and was as busy asever, was openly worried over Jamie's condition, and more than onceMargaret discovered Doctor Joe staring long and steadily at Jamie withwhat she thought was a look of fear in his face, and it startled her.Was it possible, she asked herself, that the blindness might come toosoon for the great doctor to work his marvelous cure?
But Doctor Joe said there was no cause for worry, on that score, andfor the most part he was outwardly cheerful enough. There was stilltime, he declared--unless the eyes darkened much more rapidly in thecoming weeks than they had during the early winter, and there was noreason to expect that they would.
"It all depends now upon the furs the boys and Indian Jake bring out,"he said, "and they'll surely bring enough between them to payexpenses. Four hundred dollars will be plenty, and if we have threehundred I'll take Jamie, anyhow. My little hunt will fetch a hundred,and they'll be certain to have enough to make up the balance."
"O, aye, they'll sure have that much," and Thomas brightened.
"The boys should be out the first of June, and Jamie and I will go onthe first mail boat, the last of the month," said Doctor Joe. "It alldepends on our getting the furs. We _must_ have the furs, and there'sno reason to doubt we'll have them."
Jamie had faith, and plenty o' grit, too. _He_ had no doubt that Davidand Andy would come home with a fine lot of furs.
And so they all waited and watched hopefully and expectantly for thereturn of the hunters, never once dreaming of disappointment orfailure, or how strangely awry their plans were to go, as so often isthe case with the best laid plans.