Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-10

gravity.
''Ah / have it now, Mr.. Macdonald. 1t
ees not 'ees.' il ees 'ecs! p"
Macdonald roared, but persisted, and IN
time Jan began to sc. the twist out OF ms
tongue.
The school opened in November, and
Jan found himself one of twenty or so.
gathered there from forty thousand
square miles of wilderness. Two white
youths and alf-breed had come from
the EtaWney: the factor at Nelson House
sent UP his son: and from the upper Wa
tiers of the Little Churchill there came
three others.
From the first JAMS music found him a
premier place in the interest of the tutor
by night as we'll as by day, and by the
end of the second month his only COM
petitor was the youth from Nelson House
His greatest source of knowledge was
not the teacher. but Macdonald. Ihere
was in him no inherent desire for the
learning Of the people to the south. That
he was storing away. like a faithful ma
chine. for the use OF Melissa. But Mac
Donald gave him that for which his soul
lOnged--a picture OF life as 1t existed in
the wonderful world beyond the wilder
ness, to which some strange spirit within
him, growing stronger as the weeks ana
months passed. seemed projecting his
hopes and his ambitions.
Between his thoughts of Melissa and
Lac Balm. he dreamed of that other
world: and several times during the Win
ter he took the little roll from the box Of
his violin, and read again and again the
written pages that it contained.
''Some time will CO." he assured him
self always. "Some time. when Melissa
is little older and can go too.
To young Macdonald the boy from Lac
was filled with an immense longing for
home; and as his inconsistencies grew he
poured more and more into JAMS atten-
tive ears his knowledge of the world from
<<11 Ii "a
history Of the old brass cannon that lay
abandoned among the vines and bushes,
where a fort had stood at Churchill many
wears before. He described the coming
of the first ship into the great Day: tolo
Of Hudson and his men. of great wars
that his listener had never dreamed or.
Of kings and queens and strange nations.
At night he read a great deal to Jan out
Of books that he had brought over with
him.
AS the weeks and months passed the
strange spirit that was calling to the
forest boy out of that other world stirred
more restlessly within him. At times II
urged him to eonfide IN MacDonald What
/ The secret nearly burst from MN one
Sunday. when Macdonald said:
I'm going home OH the ship that comes
over next summer. What do you say 10
going back with me. JAM?
The spirit surged through Jan in hot
flood, and it was only an accident that
kept him from saying what was in his
heart.
They were standing with the icy bay
stretching off in interminabie miles To-
ward the pole. A little way from them
the restless tide was beating up through
the broken ice and eating deeper into the
frozen shore. From out of the bank there
projected. here and there. the ends OF
dark. boxlike objects, which, in the earlier
DAYS Of the company, had been gun cases
In them were the bones OF men who had
lived and died an age ago: and as Jan
looked at the silent collins, now falling
into the sea, another spirit--the spirit
that bound him to Melsse--entered into
him. and he shuddered he thought OF
what might happen In the passing OF a
year.
1t was this spirit that won. In the
spring Jan went back to Lac Balm with
the company's supplies. The next autumn
he followed the school to York factory
and the third year he Joined it at Nelson
House. Then the company's teacher died
and no one came to fill his place.
In midwinter of this third year Jan re-
turned to Lac Balm, and, hugeinS the de-
lighted Melissa close IN his arms, he told
her that never again would he go away
without her. Melissa, tightening her arms
around his neck, made his promise sacred
by Offering her little rosebud of a mouth
for him to kiss. Later, the restless spirit
slumbering within his breast urged him to
speak to Cummins.
'When Melissa is a little older should
We not go with her into the south?" he
said. 'She must not live forever in a
place like this
Cummins looked at him for an instant