The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-10-30
A STRING OF SHORT STORIES
FROM THE FAR NORTHWEST
ny o. Warman.

hundred, maybe two hundred feet high
and tall spruce grow out OF the trunks Of
fallen cedars that never seem to rot.
South Of the park lies the city. and to the
north is the narrow neck Of the sea that
ruhbers round the point Of land where the
lighthouse stands. Directly across the inlet
perhaps mile wide, there la Roman Cath.
Ollie mission where Indians are made over
From the stony shore where the chapel
stands an Indian canoe was launched this
day, and In this canoe with the Indian boat
man were his wife, his sister and his three
children. An Alaskan steamer was steam
Ing In and an ocean liner leaving for the
Orient. They passed each other In the
narrow neck, and In their wake, In the twist
ing sea, the canoe was caught
Tangled In the tide, that was running
strong against the wind, the boat capdzed.
They say the red man had fire water under
his wampum; anyway, he went down to
rise no moro.
The children playing on the pebbled
shore and the people on the pier at the
hotel In North Vancouver saw the ship
outgoing boats, but In vain.
Instantly the Indian mother oame to the
surface, caught ono Of her babies In her
teeth, induced the other two to cling to
her shoulders, and swan for the shore
The children on the beach and the people
on the pier saw all this, and out from the
north shore another canoe shot to sea-
The tide would have taken the woman
out ooeanward. but the wind helped her
and she struggled on. her strong arms
growing weary with the heavy work and
the great weight she carried.
The men in the boat pulled hard, but the
wind Offset the tide and 1t seemed to the
anxious watchers on the pier that hours
went by before the heroic mother and her
babies, wet, limp and almost lifeless were
dragged aboard.
had been strung 30 often, owing, pre-
sumo. to my innocence and general YER
dancy, that determined to visit the mission
and verify the sad story.
-Om,' said the little French priest ''Tis
quite true, but the babies die, all Of dem
only the mother Is save
And now, IL all Americans look alike to
Mr.. Carnegie, I'd like to hang a hero medal
about this childess mothers neck.
II you ever go to Lake Abitibi, as you are
sure to do II you hunt for fish or food around
in the forest, ask about Michael White Bear.
If not before, you will go when the Grand
Trunk Pacific builds up that way, for there
lies virgin wilderness.
Michael White Bear Ia an Algonquin fur
catcher, who used to envy his brother, but
he has ceased to do 30 now.
Michaels brother had a wife who was
withered and paralyzed 30 far as her lower
limbs were accounted. And yet, despite
this affection she weighed 1870 pounds
dressed
The withered one was a seeress. She
could tell where was good hunting. and
that's what caused Michael White Bear to
break one of the shalt nots. He did Sc
cretly and sinfully covet his brothers wife,
whom his brother bore patiently upon his
back. from day to day, for she could not
walk.
She had that fadeless fondness for shop
ping to which all her sex are heir. and used
to compel her husband to tote her about the
post when the goods were being delivered
and things were down to a-dollar-ninety-
nine, or for skins less one feather. II her
husband refused to carry her in the shop
ping season, she would funk in the fall and
he would find no game.
But he was wise for his generation and
took her out, and she showed him the way
to the fur-folk. who, from year to year,
were moving further back into the forest
But Michael White Bear had hard luck,
coming frequently skinless to the Hudson
Bay trading post, which was all there wss
to this particular town by the beautiful
Abitibi. So Michael seeing his brother
prosperous, and knowing why, did covet
his brothers wife, and he fell.
1t was midnight in the deep dark forest,
along the limpid lake and on the further
shore where White Bears brother had gone
to fetch some freight for the Hudson Bay
Company. 1t was midnight when Michael
White Bear stole into his brothers house
and kidnapped the seeress and carried
her away 10 the woods.
1t was noon by the sun when the absent
one came lone and heard what had hap
pencd. "Uh, said the enraged man, deeply
and significantly. "Uh!"
Two SHOWS cane and went and Michael
White Bear had come to be regarded as a
thing Of the past at the post Far in the
forest he hid his purloined prophet through
the long winter and in the hot, short, succu-
lent summer he bore her on his back to the
next post, which was on the southern shore
of the big bay of Hudson, for he dreaded
Abitibi and his brother.
Two SHOWS and the grim reaper came to
Abitibi, found the aged Indian who had
been so mercfuly relieved of his faithless
wife, and passed him up.
Then it was that Michael White Bear,
hearing the sad news. returned to Abitibi,
and there he may be seen through the hot
northern summer bearing his brothers
burden, wrapped in blankets and pulling
his ear this way and that way as he goes
about the post on opening Days when red
calico and blue blankets are down to four
skins less feather.