The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-26
The Honor =@s @ of the E. E.
By Jslrnss Oliver Gun
Continued.>

Ehe tutor sent over by the company. Re studied by night as well as by day, and by the end of the second month his only competitor was the youth from Nelson House. His great est source Of knowledge was not the teacher, but Mcdonald. There was In him no inherent desire for the learn Ing of the people to the south; that he was storing away, like faithful ma. rhine. for the use of Meiisse. But Mcdonald gave him that for which bis soui ionged-a picture of life as it existed in the wonderful world be- yona the wilderness, to which some strange spirit within him, growing stron9er as the weeks and months parsed, seemed projecting his hopes nn0 his ambitions.
 Between his thoughts of Melisse and Lac Bain he dreamed of that other world, and several times during the winter he took the little roll from the box of his violin and read again and again the written pages that it con- 4ained.
 ssofne time I will go," he assured himself aiways-"some time when Mefisss is little older and can go Roo"
 To young Mcdonald the boy from Gac Bain was "fnd." The Scottish youth was niled with an immense longing for home. aud as his home sickness, grew he poured more and mcre into Jams attentive ears his kn6wiedge-efstbe world from which he had come.
 Tn fhe spring Jan went back to Lac Bain with the company supplies. The next autumn he followed the school to York factory, and the third year be Joined ft at Nelson House. Then the ronpany's teacher died, and no one came to fill his place.
 In midwinter of this third year Jan returned to Lac Bain, and, hugging the delighted Melisse close in his arms, he told her that never again would he go away without her. Melisse, tight enine .hsf arms around his neck, made his promise sacred by offering her lit tie rosebud of mouth for him to kiss. Later the restless spirit slumbering within his breast urged him to speak to Cummins.
 when Melisse is little older should we not go with her into the south ?" be said. ssShe must not live forever in a place ike fhis.'
 Cummins looked at him for an in- stant as if he did not understand. When Jan's meaning struck home his eyes hardened, and there was the vii braut ring Of steel in his quiet voice.
 sHer mother will be out there under the old spruce until the end of time" he said slowly, "and we will never leave her-unless, some day. Melisse goes alone"
 From thatthour Jan no longer looked into the box of his violin. &He strug- gled againstathe desire that had grown with his years until he believed that he had crushed it and stamped it out of his existence. In his life there came to be but one rising and one setting of the sun. MaIisse was his universe. She crowded his heart until beyond her he began to lose visions of any other world
 Each day added to his joy. He call ed her ''my little sister," and with sweet gravity Melisse called him s'brother Jan" and returned in full measure his boundless love. He mark ed the slow turning of her faxen hair into sunny gold and month bX month watched joyfully the deepening of that gold into warm shades of brown. She was to be like her motherl Jan,s soul rejoiced, andS in his silent way Cum mins offered fup wordless prayers of thankfulness.
 So matters stood at Post Lac Bain In the beginning of Melisse's ninth year, when up from the south there came a rumor.
 Rumor grew{ into runnor. From the east, the south and the west they mul- tplied, until on all sides the Paul Re veres of the wilderness carried news that the Reds Terror was at their heels, and the chillhof great fear swept like a shtvering wind from the edge of civ ilization to thelbay.
 Nineteen years before these same ru- mnrs had come up from the south, and the7Red Terzer had followed. The hor- TOT of it stillyremained with the forest people, for a thousand unmarked graves, summed like pestilence and scattered from the lower waters of James bay to. the lake country of the Athabasca, gave. evidence of the toll 1t demanded.
 From DuBrochet, on Reindeer lake, authentic word first came to Lac Bain early in the winter. Henderson was factor there, and be passed up the warming that had Scome to him from Nelson House and the country to the southeast.
 There's smallpox on the Nelson" his messenger informed Williams, "And 1t has struck the Crees on woilaston lake God only knows what 1t is doing to the bay Indians, but we hear that it is wip- ing out the Chippewayans between the Albany and the Churchill" He left the same day with his winded dogs "I'm oh for the Trenchmen to the west witA tAe compliments of our company,' he-expiained. a.sesr,rFssog sra
 Three days later word came from Churchill that all of the company's servants and her majesty's subjects west of the bay should prepare them seIves for the coming of the Red Terror. Williams thick face went as white as the paper he held as he read the words of the Churchill factor.