It was my lot, a long time ago, to bring down a school mistress to one of the Protestant missionary settlements of the far North.
Her luggage was going by steamer, but she chose the canoe route as it was much the shorter way. Her passage had been booked before hand in one of our canoes.
The lady, who was middle aged and very short sighted, had never before left her home town in the south. She arrived at the end of the railroad punctually on time, and dressed severely in black with white celluloid collar and cuffs. She wore ordinary laced boots and cotton gloves and was armed with an umbrella and a small hand bag which could not have contained much more than a toothbrush. She refused the loan of any more apparel, such as a raincoat or high boots, and took her place in the canoe without a word.
The mosquitoes were terrible. Inside of two hours the poor woman was bitten to such an extent that it hurt us to look at her.
At the first camp fire she took off her glasses, sat on them and smashed them to bits. They were her only pair. After that she had to be led by the hand through the portages and from her tent to the canoe.
We had no trouble in getting her out in time for breakfast at 4 A. M.
each morning. One yell from one of us and she was scrambling out of her tent fully dressed and with her hat on. Long afterwards, we found out that she did not even dare take her boots off at night. She was so stiff and bruised that she was afraid she might not be able to put them on again the next morning.
Nothing seemed to surprise nor frighten her. We had one very bad rapid to run. Her canoe was the last one. We waited anxiously to see how she would stand the ordeal. Down the rapid she came; her two Indian guides yelling; her canoe shipping a lot of water by the bow. She was calmly sitting on the little seat we had made for her. Her umbrella was opened and she was gazing at the sky. To this day we believe that she never saw the rapid which was about one mile long.
When we reached our destination, sunburn and mosquitoes had changed her face to such an extent that the missionaries hardly recognized her. Her clothes were in rags. She was covered with mud from head to foot. But her celluloid collar and cuffs were white. She used to wash them by trailing them in the water over the side of her canoe.
I don’t think she spoke ten words during the entire seven days of her trip.