Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-10-15
CHAPTER n,
Little Melissa.
THEY carried Cummins' wife to
where a clearing had been cut
in the edge of the forest, and


at the foot of a giant spruce,
towering sentinel-like to the sky, they
lowered her into the frozen earth
Gaspingly Williams, the old factor,
stumbled over the words on a ragged
page that had been torn from Bible
The rough men who stood about him
bowed their wild heads upon their
breasts, and sobs broke from them.
At last Williams stopped his reading,
stretched his long arms above his head
and cried chokingly:
'"The great God keep Mees Cum
minsp'
AS the earth fell there came from the
edge of the forest the low, sweet music
Of Jan Thoreau's violin. No man in all
the world could have told what he
played, for it was the music of JAMS
soul, wild and whispering of the winds,
sweetened by some strange Inheritance
that had come to him with the pic
ture which he carried in his throbbing
heart.
He played until only the tall spruce
and John Cummins stood over the lone
grave. When he stopped the man
turned to him. and they went together
to the little cabin where the woman
had lived
There was something new in the cab
in nova tiny white, breathing thing
over which an Indian woman watched.
The boy stood beside John Cummins
looking down upon it and trembling.
"Ah." be whispered, his great eyes
glowing, ''it ees the leetle white an
gelw
"It is the little Melisse," replied the
man.
He dropped upon his knees with his
sad face close to the new life that was
to take the place of the one that had
just gone out. Jan felt something tug
ging in a strange way at his heart, and
he, too. fell upon his knees beside John
Cummins in this first worship of the
child.
From this hour of their first kneeling
before the little life in the cabin some
thing sprang up between Jan Thoreau
and John Cummins which it would
have been hard for man to break.
That night when Jan picked up his
violin to go back to Mukee's cabin
Cummins put his two hands on the
boys shoulders and said:
"Jan. who are you and where did
you come from?"
Jan stretched his arm vaguely to the
north.
"Jan Thoreau." he replied simply.
"Thees is my violon. We come alone
through the beeg snow. We starve
seven day in the beeg snow. My violon
keep the wolf off at night"
"Look again. Jan. Didn't you come
from there or there or thereT
Cummins turned slowly, facing first
to the east and Hudson's bay, then to
the south, and lastly to the west There
was something more than curiosity in
the tense face that came back in star
ing inquiry to Jan Thoreau.
The boy hunched his shoulders, and
his eyes flashed.
at ees not lie that Jan Thoreau and
bees violon come through the beeg
snow" he replied softly. "It ees not
lier'
''There is plenty Of room here now"
said Cummins huskily. Twill you stay
with the little Melissa and me?"
with the leetle Melissew gasped the
boy. "I-I-stay with the leetle white
angel for ever and everw
No man learned more of Jan than
had Cummins. Even to Mukee his his
tory was equally simple and short. AL
ways be said that he came from out of
the north, which meant the Barren
lands, and the Barren lands meant
death. No man had ever come across
them as Jan had come, and at another
time and under other circumstances
Cummins and his people would have
believed him mad.
But they knew that Jan Thoreau had
come like messenger from the angels,
that the woman's soul had gone out to
meet him, and that she had died sweet
~ on John Cummins' breast while he
played. So the boy, with his thin, SEN
sitive face and his great, beautiful
eyes, became a part Of what the wo-
In way he made up for her loss.
The woman had brought something
new and sweet into their barren lives,
and he brought something new and
sweet-the music of his violin. He
played for them in the evening in the
factors Office. and at these times they
knew that Cummins' wife was very
near to them and that she was speak
ing to them through the things which
Jan Thoreau played
There were hours OF triumph for Jan
in the factors office. but it was the
audience in the little cabin that Jan
liked best, and. most of all, be loved
to have the little Melissa alone. AS
the days OF early spring trapping ap-
preached and the wilderness for a hun
dred miles around the post was crisis
crossed with the trails of the Cree and
Chippewayan fur seekers. Cummins
was absent for days at a time.