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Sunshine and Snow - Harold Bindloss · Nietzsche Philosophy Audiobooks

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of Sunshine and Snow. This is a libribox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All libribox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit libribox dot org. Read
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: by Laurie Banza. Sunshine and Snow by Harold fine Loss.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: The Paper Chase. It was a December day, the great
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  Speaker 1: day of all the year to Charlie Gordon and the
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  Speaker 1: boys at Ferdean School, which stands in a deep green
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: valley of the North Country. For the last term's work
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: was done that very morning. The prizes had been given away,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and on the following one they would depart Homewords for
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  Speaker 1: their Christmas holiday. Charlie had come out first in many subjects,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: besides winning a special certificate for all round excellence, and
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  Speaker 1: had read his prize essay to a gathering of all
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: his comrades and some of their parents in the Great
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Stone Hall, which had formed part of an ancient abbey.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: The prize distribution at Ferdane was generally well attended. Even now,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: as he ran first in the paper chase, he could
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  Speaker 1: remember the mass of faces turned towards him and the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: clapping of hands. Though it hurt him to see his
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: elder brother, Arthur, who stood among the guests watching him.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: He thought sadly Arthur was an officer of artillery, as
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: he too hoped to be, and since their father and
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: mother died, had been his only guardian. While Charlie was
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: never tired of singing his praises to less fortunate companions
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: who had not an army officer for a brother. Still,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: when everybody called bravo, and he blushed and felt uncomfortable.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: When one old lady said what a pretty boy, Arthur
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: only said, very quietly, you have done well, Charlie. In
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the afternoon there was always a paper chase, with prizes
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: for the two hairs if not caught, or the two
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: hounds that overtook them, and all the athletes of s
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  Speaker 1: Dean practiced for it. Charlie ran well, and now, with
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  Speaker 1: the empty bag which he held, the torn paper fluttering
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  Speaker 1: between his shoulders, he did his best, a comrade, panting
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  Speaker 1: at his heels, and several of the fastest hounds somewhere
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: two or three fields behind, while not far ahead, a
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  Speaker 1: high ridge of furzy down shut off the dip into
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  Speaker 1: the Ferdean Valley. Although it was winter, a gentle southwest
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: wind blew up channels soft to the breath, while as
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the daylight faded, a white mist rolled up from the valley,
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  Speaker 1: and the rush through the damp air brought the blood
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: mantling under the runner skin. He was a clean limbed,
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  Speaker 1: vigorous English boy, with mussels suppled and strengthened by a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: swim from the pebble beach and exercise in the open air.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: For they were taught at Ferdan that a healthy body
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: means a healthy mind, and that laziness and uncleanliness, with
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the habits they breed, formed a millstone which might hang
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: about a boy's neck during the rest of his life.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: So very few among them slunk off into the fir
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: woods to smoke, as unfortunately some schoolboys do, and when
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: caught red handed, it was bad for those who did.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: While it was currently reported that the head of the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: school once checked an indignant parent who complained about her
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: son getting kicked at football and tearing his clothes in
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  Speaker 1: the paper. Chase, madam, you should be thankful you boys
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: take an innocent pleasure in these desirable things, he said.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: If he doesn't lose his temper, a few kicks may
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: even be good for him. Charlie however, had had his failings,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: and one of them was a conviction that only the
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: best of everything was good enough for him. In itself,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: this was not very wrong, but in trying to get it,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: he sometimes forgot what others were entitled to. And because
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: he was generally successful, there began to grow up within
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: him a dangerous vanity many a vain boy finds when
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  Speaker 1: he has left the school. He lorded over that in
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  Speaker 1: the outside world, busy men are sometimes uncivil to presumptuous striplings,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and then the discovery that he is a very insignificant
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  Speaker 1: person pains him. Still, he did all that lay before
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  Speaker 1: him thoroughly, and now, dressed in Ferdean football jersey, with
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  Speaker 1: a crimson band round shoulders and breast, and the neatest
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  Speaker 1: of cricket shoes, he ran his hardest, swinging light footed
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  Speaker 1: across the long meadows, through the dead leaves that rustled
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  Speaker 1: beside a copse, and then over stiff plowed furrows that
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  Speaker 1: sadly soiled his shoes, towards the brook which crossed a hollow.
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  Speaker 1: He halted a moment on the short turf beside it,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: for the stream ran fast and high, and while he
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  Speaker 1: did so, the clumsy red haired boy behind him came
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  Speaker 1: lumbering up. We're cot I can't jump it, gasped the latter,
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  Speaker 1: looking ruefully at the wide stretch of muddy water, which
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  Speaker 1: eddied and gurgled among the rotting flags. No scent left
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  Speaker 1: for them to follow, so they'll head us off. Don't
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  Speaker 1: be a muff, Baxter, said Charlie, moving backwards as the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: hounds behind, catching sight of them, set up a triumphant cry,
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  Speaker 1: I can follow me, and with a rapid quickening of
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: short steps, he set himself at the leap, while Baxter
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: looked on and envied him. Then the lithe form shot
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  Speaker 1: out into mid air, landed lightly on the ball of
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  Speaker 1: the feet, and never looking behind him, Charlie went springly
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: up the opposite slope of the hollow. Might have waited
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  Speaker 1: for me, said Baxter, as setting his teeth. He also
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: hurled himself at the leap, but he fell short and
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: floundering waisted, lost his footing in a swifter rush of current, then,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: clawing at the rushes and willow branches, was swept towards
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a deeper pool, and Baxter could not swim, But the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: hounds were close upon their heels and Pierce the foremost,
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  Speaker 1: was prompt of action when he saw what had happened.
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  Speaker 1: Go on, you behind there, come with me, Maxwell. We
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  Speaker 1: must get him out, he shouted, and, throwing his chance
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  Speaker 1: of the prize away, leaped boldly into the water. There
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: was another splash close by, and when Pierce grabbed the
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: floundering Baxter, his comrade helped him, so that presently they
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  Speaker 1: dragged the unfortunate lad out upon the bank, spluttering and
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  Speaker 1: very wet, but not much the worse for his ducking.
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  Speaker 1: It was mean of Gordon, Major. He ought to have
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  Speaker 1: seen you across, Maxwell said, But of course that wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: strike him. The worst of Gordon is that he thinks
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  Speaker 1: such a lot of himself. Meantime, Charlie, remembering nothing but
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  Speaker 1: that he was first, ran on alone, rushing with a
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  Speaker 1: sharp crackle through yellow tufts of withered fern, or winding
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  Speaker 1: among the prickly firs on the edge of the down.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: He had trained hard for that race. And the boy
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: or man either, who will deny himself superfluous food, rise
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: on raw cold mornings for an icy bath, and in
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: other ways try to keep his body subject to his
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  Speaker 1: mind for the benefit of both, is entitled to rejoice
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  Speaker 1: in the strength that comes from it. Training can of
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  Speaker 1: course be overdone, but it teaches self restraint, and those
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  Speaker 1: who think too much of their food and comforts can
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  Speaker 1: never grow brave and strong. But Piers and Maxwell had
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: done so too, and they did not forget everything but
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  Speaker 1: the prize. So, with head flung proudly back and the
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  Speaker 1: damp air whipping his clear red cheeks, Charlie swept down
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  Speaker 1: the side of the valley while the gray walls of
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  Speaker 1: the Fardean rose higher ahead. The last stretch was a
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  Speaker 1: long meadow with a tall hedge at the end of it,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: beyond which he could see a number of grown up
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  Speaker 1: people as well as boys, waiting to witness the finish.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: And glancing behind him, Charlie slackened his stride and let
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  Speaker 1: the hounds draw up a little. He had an audience
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  Speaker 1: and would show them what he could do. Then the
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  Speaker 1: other saw him, and a shouting began. Gordon's home. First,
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  Speaker 1: Well done, Charlie, No, he's pumped out. The hounds are
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  Speaker 1: coming through the gate. A last spurt, Charlie, before they
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  Speaker 1: catch you. Sixty yards behind came the pursuers, panting heavily.
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  Speaker 1: Forty thirty and then there was a roar of voices,
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  Speaker 1: for the great hedge, with a steep fall behind it,
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  Speaker 1: lay close ahead, while someone shouted above all the rest
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  Speaker 1: and warning round the gap, Gordon, you'll never do it.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: But Charlie only clenched his hands and quickened his stride
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  Speaker 1: as the hounds came on hotfoot to catch him. Some
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  Speaker 1: of them spread out to bar the way to a
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  Speaker 1: gap where the thorns were thinner, and Charlie smiled a
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  Speaker 1: little to himself, knowing that by doing so they were
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  Speaker 1: throwing their chance away. He had fixed his eyes upon
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  Speaker 1: a spot. Straight before him were hazel branches, which would
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  Speaker 1: bend easily under anyone who had the courage to charge them,
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  Speaker 1: grew tall and slender, so a few seconds later a
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  Speaker 1: great shout went up as the slim figure went flying
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  Speaker 1: at what appeared to be the stiffest part of the barrier.
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  Speaker 1: The lad rose gallantly, and some of the watchers held
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  Speaker 1: their breath, expecting to see him come down head foremost,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: But there was a crash of yielding branches and rustle
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  Speaker 1: of withered leaves, and breaking through, he descended lightly through
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  Speaker 1: eight feet of air into the hollow below. Then, while
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  Speaker 1: several of the hounds tore their skins and jerseys as
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  Speaker 1: they struggled amid the thorns, and their thus trotted beaten
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  Speaker 1: round by the gap. He came on at an easy
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  Speaker 1: stride with a red gash on one leg. There were
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  Speaker 1: deafening cheers when he halted breathless at the goal, and
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  Speaker 1: a burly country gentleman clapped his shoulder as he said,
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  Speaker 1: well done, my lad, well done, my word, sir, there's
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  Speaker 1: good pluck in him. Where did you leave, my big,
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  Speaker 1: slow moving sun? But the head of the school only
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: nodded stiffly, as if he were not altogether pleased, and
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  Speaker 1: looked grim when after he asked where is Baxter, Charlie answered, smiling,
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  Speaker 1: I left him in the willow brooks, sir. Then the
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  Speaker 1: tail of the hunt came up with Baxter, and there
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  Speaker 1: was more cheering when the prizes were handed to the winners.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: While after Charlie had changed his clothes, he was told
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  Speaker 1: that the headmaster wanted to see him. He found him
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  Speaker 1: in his study, a gray haired man with a keen,
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  Speaker 1: close shaven face, which looked soft than usual under the
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  Speaker 1: light of a shaded lamp. Sit down, Gordon, he commenced, gravely,
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  Speaker 1: Your brother has important news for you, and you must
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  Speaker 1: try to meet it courageously. You are leaving Ferdine tomorrow,
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  Speaker 1: and I hope you will do your work in the
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: world as thoroughly as you have done it here. But
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I want you to remember that the best men do
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  Speaker 1: not work for the mere sake of the prizes. That is,
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  Speaker 1: the money or fame it brings. They call the latter.
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  Speaker 1: You will learn why some day, playing to the gallery
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and strong brave men despise it. For instance, you ran
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: and jumped well, but would you have taken the last
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  Speaker 1: dangerous leap if there had been no one to see you.
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  Speaker 1: You won the prize, but I would sooner have handed
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: it to Pierce or Maxwell, who gave up their chance
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  Speaker 1: to help poor Baxter. You will remember that neither the
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: prize nor the applause are after all very important, and
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the main thing is to do your work well. Won't
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: you now go bear your troubles bravely, do your best,
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  Speaker 1: as I think you have always tried to do, and
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  Speaker 1: some day we hope Ferdane will be proud of you.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: He shook the boy's hand, and Charlie went out abash
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  Speaker 1: to have tea with his brother Arthur. In a quaint
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: old village hostelry. This was all part of a long
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: expected treat, but Charlie felt he would hardly enjoy it now.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: While the master's words and his brother's looks in the
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: morning had left him with an uneasy feeling that there
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: was trouble at hand. Arthur was like him in face,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: with fair hair and honest gray eyes, and he stood
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: on the hearth rug looking at him. The boy fancied,
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  Speaker 1: half pityingly. I was glad to see you do so well, Charlie,
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  Speaker 1: he said, but I almost wish I had made a
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  Speaker 1: blacksmith or a carpenter of you. I am afraid you
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  Speaker 1: will be sorry to hear that you can't be a
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  Speaker 1: soldier as you hoped to. How would you like to
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: turn firmer instead? Then, as the boy stared at him
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  Speaker 1: with puzzled eyes, he laid a hand on his shoulder, saying, Charlie,
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  Speaker 1: the bank has failed and nearly all our money has
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  Speaker 1: been lost. I have left the army, and nothing remains
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  Speaker 1: but for you and little Reggie to begin life working
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  Speaker 1: for a few shillings weekly in some big English town,
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  Speaker 1: or go out with me to seek our fortune in
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: another country. There are too many poor people in this
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: one already. You remember what I told you about my
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: visit to Canada. Well, now we have very little money left.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I have decided to try farming on the prairie. You
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: would like to live in the open air and drive
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: your own oxen and horses, wouldn't you? At least it
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: would be better than licking postage stamps or copying letters
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: all day in a dingy office. The boy's first feeling
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: was that somebody had cruelly injured him. His one desire
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: had been to become a soldier, and he had often
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: pictured himself leading his company red coated men. Now, however,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: all that was gone. He was perhaps poorer than Evans,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: whom he had once laughed at for coming back each
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: term with fresh patches on his well worn clothes. He
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: might even have to wear old clothes too, and it
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: seemed hard and unfair. But his master's words had left
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: their mark, and he remembered that Arthur, who only seemed
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: sorry for him, had also lost everything, and said, very slowly,
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  Speaker 1: I would like it far better than living in a big,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: smoky town. Little Reggie is fond of cattle and horses too.
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  Speaker 1: But I had set my heart on being an army officer.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: That's right, said his brother Arthur. We can't often get
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: what we like. Perhaps it wouldn't be good for us
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  Speaker 1: if we did, and I am sorry for you. Still,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: you will learn to ride and shoot and plow, and
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: there are such things as coyotes and antelopes to hunt
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: if there are no more buffalo. Oh, yes, you'll like
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: it famously. However, it's the day before the holidays. Sit down,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: forget everything unpleasant, think of the saddles and guns and
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: snow shoes, and enjoy your tea. Charlie did his best
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: to be cheerful, and finally grew keenly interested in his
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: brother's stories about the prairie, while when he walked back
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: to the school afterwards, the future seemed brighter, and he
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: told an admiring audience what he was going to do.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Some of the listeners, however, laughed when Maxwell said, you'll
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: have to clean out stables an henhouses, Charlie, and black
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: your own boots if you wear any. And you won't
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: like that, you know, fancy Gordon Major plucking a fowl
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: or combing the tail of a mule. That's the worst
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: of setting oneself up to be particular. He went home
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: with Arthur and his younger brother Reggie next day, and
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: it was a somewhat silent journey while he remembered how
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: he had long looked forward to it. Then, for four
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: months he lived on a farm in the Bleak Hill country,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: where he got up long before daylight, even when there
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: was bitter frost, and he learned to do many disagreeable
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: but very useful things, until at last the spring came,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: and one afternoon he stood with Arthur and Reggie on
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the deck of a great steamer hauling out of dock
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: at Liverpool. Steam roared aloft from her escape pipe, the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: winches clattered, and the deck was like a fair with
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: swarming passengers, while he heard his brother say to a
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: tall soldierly man who shook his hand when the warning
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: bell rang, Yes, I feel it. I'm about the only
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: friend these youngsters have in the world, and it's a
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: heavy responsibility. However, it seems the only thing we can do,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: and for their sake I must make the best of it.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I can't thank your wife too much for taking care
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: of my sister. We shall have a hard time at
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: the beginning, but as soon as possible I will send
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: for her. The bell rang again, ropes were let go,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: and with the screw throbbing in time to the big
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: engines which pounded below, the steamer forged out slowly into
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the tide that raced seaward towards the Mercy. There was
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: a storm of voices, a great waving of hats, and
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: an answering cheer from the watchers ashore. Then the faces
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: grew blurred and hazy. Poorly dressed women sat down and cried,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: and the men talked thickly, while for some reason Charlie,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: who had neither father nor mother to leave behind, felt
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: his breath come faster, and something dim his eyes. It
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: was only then, when he was leaving it forever, he
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: learned how much he loved his native country. Presently the
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: dock wall faded behind them, too, rolling red painted lightships,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: each with a big lantern at her mast head, slid by,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: and the steamer commenced to lift her boughs leisurely out
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: of boiling white froth as she met the long heave
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: of the open sea and rolled westwards into a great
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: half circle of clear, transparent blue. But by and by
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the blue changed to crimson low down on the horizon,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: and there were smears of red fire on the sea
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: as the sun dipped like a burning coal beneath it,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: after which the twinkling stars came out one by one,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and the night wind sang songs and the ringing as
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the tall black masts lurched to and fro From one
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: of them, a reeling shaft of light zigzagged across the sky.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Charlie found it made him faint and dizzy to watch them,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: And after staring at a trembling steamer of brightness that
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: flickered up from a lighthouse near the Isle of Man,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: he suddenly lost all interest in everything and crawled away below,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: where he lay groaning with sea sickness. His room smelt
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: nastily and presently grew suffocating. He could scarcely keep himself
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: within his berth, and somebody was making unpleasant noises in
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the one below him. But though he did not think
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: so at the time, that sickness did him no harm,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: because Charlie had rather too good an opinion of himself,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and if anyone man or boy wants to find out
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: what a cowardly wretch he is, he could not do
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: better than make himself seasick. Still though their throbbing aided
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: to the torture of his aching head. The big engine
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: steadily pounded on and swinging like a pendulum, until the
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: cabin floor seemed to rise up on end beneath him,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: for there was a fresh breeze now. The steamer, hurling
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the white seas apart from before her boughs, rolled north
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: and west towards the rockbound coast of Ireland. Charlie, however,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: would have felt that thankful for his comfortable room had
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: he seen the crowded steerage or seasick immigrants who could
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: not get into their bursts, rolled up and down together
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: among their clattering pots and pans. An ocean voyage on
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: a large steamer is not always nice at the beginning,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: and third class passengers had not much comfort. Then. On
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the second afternoon, after calling in La Foyle for English immigrants,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the vessels steamed out into the Atlantic, past the great
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: cliffs of Donegal. Charlie leaned feebly against the bulwarks, watching
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the rainbows that flickered in the spray each time the
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: boughs dipped into a great blue ridge of water. Then
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: he watched the tall masts swing across the sky and
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: the bleak Irish hills grow dimmer behind them, after which's
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: eyes wandered curiously across the swarming passengers. They were men
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: of all nations, though most of them were evidently the
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: struggling poor. While a few days earlier he might have
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: glanced indifferently or even with this gusts at their toil
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: stained garments and care worn faces, now he could sympathize
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: with them, for he had learned what it costs to
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: leave one's mother country, and that it is not easy,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: even when there is only want and hardship at home,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: to leave all one loves behind and go out with
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: a brave heart to seek better fortune in the new lands.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Across the sea. Presently, there was a commotion about the
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: forward hatch, and a seamen appeared, dragging two unkept urchins
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: out from the black hole in the deck. One was
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: still flecked with bits of the dirty newspapers he had
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: wrapped about him to keep out of the cold when
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: he and his companion crawled down the slippery ladder and
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: hid themselves among the cargo before the steamer sailed. He
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: looked about ten years old and was dressed in very thin,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: ragged clothes, as he had been all the bitter winter,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: during which he hawked papers up and down the seaport town.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: While the other, who seen older, grasped one of the
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: boxes of wax lights he sold in Liverpool. It was
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: empty now, for he had struck the matches to keep
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the rats away, huge rats warm in many steamers holds.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: They can't drownd us or send us to prison, can they?
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Tom asked the younger lad, shivering, and the other flung
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: back his head as he answered, not they There aren't
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: no prisons in Kennedy. My ain't all this wonderful? Never
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: you mind for nothin an look straight at the captain, Jim,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I've heard as all sailors as soft hearted, and perhaps
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: he'll maybe be good to us. Found them hiding down
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the fore hold, Sir, said the seaman, and the officer nodded,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: answering take them to the skipper. Then the pair were
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: led aft by two big seamen, while eight hundred passengers
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: stared at them. Some of the women were pitiful and
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: a very poor. One fishing two oranges out of the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: bundle she never lost sight of by night or day,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: and now sat upon thrust them into the younger lad's hand.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: The pair had pinched blue faces and shivered in the breeze,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: for it had been very dark and cold in the hold,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and they had had very little to eat. As a
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: crouched there on the hard railway iron, which groaned as
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the steamer rolled, it struck Charlie that he was not
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: so very unfortunate and had much to be thankful for
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: as he watched them. End of chapter one, chapter two
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: of Sunshine Snow by Harold Beinloss. This LibriVox recording is
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. In collision about the time when
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: the seamen found the stowaways hiding in the hold, Arthur
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Gordon sat in the Captain's room, and he afterwards told
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Charlie what happened. He was chatting with the purser when
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: someone rapped at the door, and a sailor entering explained
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: how he came across two boys covered with damp newspapers,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: crouching in a corner among the cargo of railway iron.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: What do you mean by hiding in my ship, asked
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the captain sternly, as they were. Let in, tell me
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: your names, where you live, and just what brought you here?
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Don't you know? I could send you to prison for
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: trying to steal a passage without paying your fare. I'm Tom,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: said the eldest, trying to hide the thin blue knees
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: that peeped through his ragged clothes, with a wondering look
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: at the luxurious room. And this is Jim. Ain't got
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: no other names. We lives with Jim's mother in a cellar.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: She sewed sacks and was very kind to us, gives
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: us what she had, and it wasn't very much. Then
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: she dies and the workhouse buries her. What was it, Jim, flammation,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the doctor said, But I think it was starving. There
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: was a month when she had nothing hardly to eat,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: answered Jim, gulping down something in his throat, and the
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: captain added more gently. Go on, my lad, What did
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: you do then, then, said Tom boldly. We lives where
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: we could, under arches and sheds, dodging the police. Jim
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: he sells papers. I sells matches until we saw them.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Placards on the immigration offices, free homes and Kennedy, free
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: land work and plenty for everyone, all printed in big
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: red letters. And we says there's room for us too,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: somewhere in that good country so we clubs our trading
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: money four shilling it was, spends sixpence on provision, and
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: hides among the cargo where the rats nearly eat us.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: We'll give you the rest for our passage, sir, and
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: when we gets rich some day, we'll pay you some more.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: We're not cheats, but honest traders, sir. The purser solemnly
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: stretched out his hand for the bundle of coppers in
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: a dirty rag. Arthur Gordon, who was too kindly a
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: gentleman to hurt anybody's feelings, tried not to smile when
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the ragged urchin called himself a trader, and the captain,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: who asked a few more questions, pressed a bell button
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: as he said, hum, it was very wrong of you. Still,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: we're not going to hang you, Steward. Take these young
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: rascals forward and feed them in the steerage. They look
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: as if they wanted it. Hunt out some of my
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: old things and ask the stewardess to double them until
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: they fit. Those clothes are a disgrace to humanity. Now,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: my lads, you'll have to work for your passage, and
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I've got my eye on you. By the way, Steward,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: don't forget to wash them. Whatever you do, Tom touched
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: his grimy forehead. Jim stared blankly, and the captain, who
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: had boys of his own, said, as they went out,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: poor little bears. It's a hard world for such as them.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: I like the eldest lad there's spirit in him. What
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: are you going to do with that money, purser. The
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: purser laughed as he answered, make the saloon passengers add
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: to it and give it to the lads when they land.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I'll tell them the story at dinner to day. While
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Arthur Gordon said, I'm only a poor man, but will
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: you put this in for me? When he told his brother,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: he also said, so you see, Charlie, there are folks
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: very much worse off than you. And Charlie agreed with him.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: For six days the steamer sped westwards across a great
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: circle of blue, and Charlie thought he would never grow
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: tired of the measured dip of the long deck, the
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: wash of broken waves, and all the new wonders of
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the sea, while little Reggie would sit wrapped up for
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: hours with an unread book upon his knee and say,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: at times, I never dreamt of anything like this. It's
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: just glorious. Then she ran into the bank fog where
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: lies heavy and thick on the waters, where near Newfoundland
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: the ocean grows shallow and the great cod feed on
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the sands below. The sun went out, and there was
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: gray dimness all day, while the oily sea heaved in
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: slow green levels, and a ringing of bells came out
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: of the vapor as the ship crept at half speed
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: through the fishing fleet. The anxious captain never left his bridge.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Two men kept looking above the boughs, and now and then,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: with a roar of her whistle, a steamer they could
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: not see went by, while sometimes the frightened immigrants shouted,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: and a great iron hull rushed past, half visible through
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: the thick white curtain. A fog is perhaps the worst
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of all dangers at sea, and there is generally fog
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: off Newfoundland, where too many poor fishermen lose their lives
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: through collision annually. One dismal afternoon was fading into night
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: when Charlie, leaning over the rails, watched the mist slide path.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Arthur stood near, talking to Miss Armadale, a young lady
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: who lived in the part of Canada they were going to,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: and the two stowaways sat under a lifeboat close by.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you brought me, Tom. He heard one
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: of them say, we're partners in everythin', an we're goin
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: to make our fortune a Kennedy. It's lots better than
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: starvin and dodgin' the policemen. Where we come from. Hullo,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: there's another steamer comin. A great screech came ringing out
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: of the fog. Their steamer's whistle answered it with a
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: hoarse bellow, like an angry cow, and then a deep
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: boom deafened them. A mail boat bound for England and
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: a cargo steamer somewhere. This FOG's just thick with vessels,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: said a passing seaman. Then the tinkle of a bell
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: rose up through the engine room skylights. The machinery beat
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: more slowly, and between the roars of the whistles, Charlie
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: heard one of the urchins say, that's our ship, A
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: calling to them which way she's going. They talked to
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: each other with the whistles. Wouldn't it be awful, Tom,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: if one came smashing into us when we're almost at Kennedy.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: I've been counting the hours till we get there. Tom
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: did not answer, for just then a seaman on the
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: lookout cried, steamer's green light brought on our port bow, sir,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: And after an answering shout from the bridge, called again,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: as if alarmed, she's opening up her red. Then the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: deck trembled beneath them as the big engines were turned
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: backwards to stop the ship. But it was too late,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: and Charlie felt his heart beat wildly as a clamor
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: of frightened voices commenced, and after a shrill screech of
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: a whistle, the great bow of another steamer swept out
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: of the fog. It looked huge and awful, forging resistless
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: through the black water, which boiled with a drowsy roar
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: about the rusty iron, he could see that tall funnel
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: behind it, and a blink of colored lights. Then his
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: ears were deafened by a thundering rush of steam, and
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: eight hundred passengers were floundering and shouting all over the deck.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Next he staggered backwards, for there was a heavy shock,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: and amid a horrible grinding, the other vessel drove along
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: their rail, crunching in the iron like cardboard and tearing
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: the boats away, while Arthur, shouting, stand clear of the
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: wreckage Charlie, and thrust the lady beside him as far
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: back as he could. The ship rolled sideways and back again,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: as vessels in collision generally do, throwing the passengers down
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: in heaps, and the screams of terrified women were louder
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: than the roar of escaping steam Men leaped from vessel
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: to vessel, which in cases of panic even trained seamen will.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Some fell into the sea, and others fought and trampled
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: on each other to be the first to reach the
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: uninjured boats were two bareheaded mates, and a few sailors,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: swinging heavy ashwood bars, struck down the boldest of them.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: A collision at sea is terrifying, and sometimes strong men
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: brought suddenly without warning, face to face with death, act
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: like frightened children. While there is an end of all
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: sense in order. When once blind fear takes hold of
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: a crowd, the shouting, rending of iron and smashing of
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: wood grew louder. Somebody switched on an electric light for
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: working cargo by, and as the sudden glare beat down
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: upon the pale faces and struggling figures about the crowded deck,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Charlie saw the big lifeboat close by hurled up on
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: one end. His brother sprang in front of the lady
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: who stood near him, and shouted to the urchins, jump clear, Tom,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: crawl this way, Jim, before it falls and crushes both
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: of you. The stern of the steamer which struck them
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: was level with Charlie now, and it was one of
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: her iron dabots which had caught the boat. He saw Tom,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: the stowaway, drag the younger lad to his feet and
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: calling jump for the other ship. We're sinking, thrust him
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: from the broken rail. The younger lad jumped and clutched
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: the dabot, and then, just as the boat fell crushed in,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Tom sprang across the widening gulf, caught something and held
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: on by one hand, after which as the two vessels
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: drove clear at last there was a heavy splash in
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the sea, and Charlie saw only one small clinging figure
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: where two had been before. Then this one loosed its
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: hold and dropped into the dark water too. While Charlie,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: who in his excitement only remembered he could swim, was
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: running towards the rail when Arthur hurled him aside you
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: would only drown yourself. Stay here, I'm going to get him,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: he cried. After this, Arthur leaped out of the darkness,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and Charlie grew faint and sick, remembering the thrashing screw,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: whose iron blades might cut any swimmer to pieces. While
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: presently a cry came down from the bridge. The steamer
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: only struck us a glancing blow. If you stand fast
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: and keep quiet, you'll all be safe enough. Lower away
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: the two starboard lifeboats, mister Davies. There was a clatter
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: of blocks as two boats on the uninjured side sank
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: down into the sea. Men dropped into them, and the
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: other vessel was lost in the fog, while faint shouts
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: rose from the water, and a heavy silence followed. When
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the pounding engines stopped. Charlie felt his throat dry up
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: and his fingers would tremble as he pictured his brother
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: swimming somewhere in that icy water under the fog, and
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: he felt glad. When Miss Armadale placed a hand on
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: his shoulder. She looked at him compassionately, though he could
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: see she was trembling too, as she said, your brother
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: is a very brave man, and I'm sure he will
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: save them. There isn't that a splash of oars coming?
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: You must not be over anxious. The boats will find him.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Charlie took comfort. He felt proud of Arthur, and drawing
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: himself up, stood beside the lady as he thought protectingly
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: for what seemed an endless time, until a cheery shout
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: came out of the clammy mist. I think we have
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: got them all, sir. Then with a ghastly blue light
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: burning in the bows, a boat approached the ship, and,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: hurrying his companion to the rail, Charlie shouted with delight
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: as he saw his brother in the stern. The second
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: boat also came, surging towards them, and while wet objects
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: were helped up the steamer side, a man scrambled to
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: the bridge, and again the captain's voice came down. The
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: other ship has her bows badly crushed, but she can
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: get back to Halifax. Our vessel seems only damaged above
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: water level, and we're going on again soon. A horse
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: cheer went up from the passengers, who were comforted by
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: the news, and Charlie laughed excitedly, though his voice was thick,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: as hurling hurried questions at him. He grasped Arthur's arm.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Still he remembered hearing Miss Armadale say, I am thankful
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: to see you back safe again. It was very gallantly done,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: and I hope you will allow me to congratulate you
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: on more than your escape. I have often swum much
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: farther for amusement. There were several boats about, and the
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: only thing that troubled me was the cold, said Arthur gently,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: and the lady smiled at him curiously, as seeing her
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: own friends. At last, she turned away. The stowaways were
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: helped up next, and the ship's doctor bent over Jim,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: who lay limply on a seaman's arm with a red
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: gash across his forehead. Take this little fellow to the surgery.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: He's badly hurt, he said. See the rest get into
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: warm blanket steward, and they won't be much the worst.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: When i've time, i'll physic you according to your desserts.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: But it's a pity the worst dose i've got won't
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: teach you since when you had a comfortable ship under you.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Whatever must you jump into that cold water, for this
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: company's vessels are not built to sink. For an hour,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: the steamer's boats rowed through the fog burning blue lights,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: and then as she went on again, Arthur explained that
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: the other vessel had only struck them slantwise in passing,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: though several passengers were missing. He also said that he
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: found the two urchins clinging to a piece of the
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: boat for Tom, who could swim, had somehow got his
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: comrade there. He helped one lad on to the wreck,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: and then held the other up against it until a
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: boat came and took them off just in time. He
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: added simply, Arthur, as his brother knew, never said much
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: about his own doings, and there was no need for
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: him to do so, because a meritorious action speaks for itself.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: While by and by, he went away to talk to
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: Miss Armadale, who seemed very pleased to see him. Next morning,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Arthur went into the surgery and found Jim lying with
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: his white face half hidden by bandages, on a cot
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: in it. The purser and doctor sat there, looking very grave,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: and the former said, when Tom fell from the rail,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: what made you jump in? You couldn't do any good?
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: You said you couldn't swim, you know. Jim stared at
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: the speaker as though puzzled, before answering We was partners
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: in everything, Tom and me. And when he lets go,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: of course I let go too, I see, said the purser.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: There is more in that answer than I dare say.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: You guess. I wonder if among all my friends anyone
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: would do as much for me. You want to see
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: your part partner. Well, He glanced at the surgeon, who nodded,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: I'll bring him to you. He had not far to go,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: for Tom was crouching against the bulkhead just outside the door,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: as he had done most of the night. While when
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: he came in, the doctor whispered, I am afraid he
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: is very ill, and you must not excite him. Sit
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: still and don't talk much. He is not always quite sensible.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: The lad clenched one thin hand, his lips quivered, and
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: he walked in very quietly, and there was only a
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: dimness in his eyes as he touched the clammy fingers
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: the other stretched out towards him, while a low voice said,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: we was true partners, and I wanted you. I know
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: I'm very bad, though you won't say so. And perhaps
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: she'll go on to Kennedy without me. It's a very
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: good land, Tom plenty for everyone. Then Placard said, so,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: no more cold and no more starving. We was cold
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: and hungry, oft and yonder. But there's good times coming
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: for you and me. We're going to a better country. Hush,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: said the doctor. He's getting light headed again. And Tom,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: who tried not to choke, said, I'll be quiet as
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: a mouse, sir, if you'll only let me stay with him.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: I know he'd like to feel me near him. Then
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: the purser coughed a little, and Tom sat very still
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: holding his comrade's hand until the other sank into a
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: restless doze. While when the doctor went out with Arthur,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: he said he hasn't any chance. Poor little fellow got
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: badly crushed somehow, and he's sinking fast. There's nothing I
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: can do. The doctor was right, for Jim died a
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: few hours later, still holding his partner's hand, and lay
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: in a state in the wheelhouse. A little hunger pinched
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: figure out of which a heroic soul had gone wrapped
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: round in the broad red folds of his entry's flag.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: He's better off, said the purser, who came out bareheaded
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: as he said. There's neither hunger nor cold now for him,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: and sail maker will let him keep the flag. He
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: won the right to wear it by his fidelity. Charley
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Long remembered the solemn scene which followed at the changing
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: of the watch, when eight hundred passengers, most of them bareheaded,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: stood very silent about the deck, and a little roll
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: of canvas with the red flag wrapped about it, lay
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: on a grating at the rail. Clear sunlight shone down
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: on the white and crimson crosses that covered the dead
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: wave's breast, and the clammy fog had gone, and the
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: brass clasp of the book a clergyman read from flashed dazzlingly.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Then someone on the watch raised a beckoning hand, and
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: as the throbbing engines stopped, the solemn words came clearly
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: through the sudden hush. The grating tilted, there was a
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: splash in the dark blue water, and the steamer went
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: on again, leaving Jim, the newspaper seller, who had given
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: his life for his comrade, to rest with Many another
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: sprung from the same fearless race, far down in the
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: icy depths, until the sea gives up her dead. Afterwards,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: the bright rays seemed to grow warmer, and that evening
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: there was a shout from the passengers as the long
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: expected shore rose before them, a faint blur of grayness
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: broad across the blood red sunset. Some laughed excitedly, some
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: looked serious, and Charlie felt a thrill of hope and eagerness,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: while he saw that Tom's eyes were red as looking
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: forward over the dipping boughs, he caught through a mist
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: of tears his first glimpse of the promised land. He
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: did not reach it, either destitute or friendless, for the
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: purser had told his story well, and the rag that
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: had been full of pennies was heavy with golden coin now,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: while a kind Canadian promise to find work for him,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: and in due time he and Charlie met again. During
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the next five days, Charlie and Reggie had much to
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: interest them, and the long train went clattering through Old Quebec,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: then out across the meadows and orchards of fertile Ontario.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Passed many a prosperous wooden town, until it rolled into
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: a region of rock and forest. Then there were frothing rivers,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: lonely lakes, black pine woods, and a few Indian teepees
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: to stare at, until with a bee of wheels ringing
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: back from the granite rock. It thundered along the shores
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: of Lake Superior. Afterwards there were more rivers and forests
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: before these were left behind. In turn and clanking through
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: Winnipeg City, they ran past groves of willows out into
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: the great open Prairie, and Charlie knew they were getting
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: near their future home. On taking up a map of Canada,
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: anyone may see that north of the United States boundary,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: a wide stretch of level country runs west from Winnipeg
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: towards the Rocky Mountains, and this is the Great Prairie.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: You will notice it is divided into Manitoba, Aciniboia, and Alberta,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: but there is not very much difference between them, except
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: that men rear cattle and horses at its western end,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: which is higher and unduluting, and grow wheat in the
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: more level east. It is more than twice as large
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: as Great Britain, and part of it was once the
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: bottom of an inland sea. Now it is one great
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: stretch of grass that grows in most places just above
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: one's ankles, and in others to the waste. While this grass,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: growing and rotting for many centuries, has left a thick
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: black mold which is perhaps the richest wheat soil in
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: the world. You will remember that nature does nothing in
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: a hurry, and except in parts of the unhealthy tropics,
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: where they die of fever, seldom allows men to eat
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: in idleness. So here, though there is nearly always sunshine,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: there are also such things as drafts which starve the cattle,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: and frosts that shrivel the grain, so that the farmers
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: have never a very easy time. It is very hot
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: and bright in summer, and bitterly cold during the winter,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: when part of the prairie lies sheeted for months together
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: under frozen snow. There are few rich men in it,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: but there are still fewer very poor, while health, independence,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: and content are very much better than riches. And the
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: settlers grow strong and fearless because they own their own
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: land and work hard under clear sunshine in the open air. Therefore,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: though they sometimes lose their crops and cattle, they face
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: their troubles cheerfully, perhaps because the laborious life they lead
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: strengthens the best that is in them. But you will
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: say you want a story and not a lesson in geography,
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: of which you get enough at school end of chapter two,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Chapter three of Sunshine and snow by Harold Bindloss. This
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Libribox recording is in the public domain. The Stolen Cattle.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Arthur Gordon built his homestead on the Yassinian bowiean prairie,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: mostly on slender birch, logs and sods, because he was
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: too wise to waste what money he had left on
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: palm timber. He also built a sod stable and barn, and,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: being clever enough to realize how little he knew, which
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: some men as well as boys or not, hired a
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: grim old scotchman, Peter Mackenzie to advise and help him. Meantime,
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: he bought two big working oxen, a few cattle, a
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: team of horses, a heavy breaker plow to rip up
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: the matted sod harrows, a light wagon, and a cedar
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: to sow the grain, besides a binder which would both
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: cut and tie the sheaves. Then, finding he had very
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: little money left, he at once proceeded to plow for
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: his first crop. While Charlie always remembered the day they
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: drove the first furrow, there was a straggling wood of
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: slender birches behind them, a clear blue sky above, and
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: on every other side a great white waste of grass
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: dotted by slews or lakes of melted snow which would
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: dry up in summer. Still, a breath of yellow stubble
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: ran across it where another man had raised the crop.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: They slept in the barn because the house was not
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: finished yet, and Charlie, whose clothes now showed more than
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: signs of wear, was lighting fires with a bundle of
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: old newspapers among the stubble. The warm wind caught them,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: and with a loud crackling, a red blaze raced across
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: one part of it, while he ran to and fro
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: lighting those which had gone out again, until he was
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: sooty all over. Next he led his brother's oxen, tapping
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: them with a stick, while Arthur laughed when the heavy
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: breaker plow, which tore a long furrow through the snow
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: bluch sod zigzagged awkwardly, or the oxen stopped dead as
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: its share struck some soil still frozen beneath the surface. Afterwards,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Old Peter let him have the lines, and, clutching the
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: handles of the lighter plow, he turned up the mold
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: where the stubble had been, and so, with an hour's
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: rest at noonday, when he had had to weigh deep
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: in a slew. After the oxen, the work went on
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: until the stars were blinking down upon the prairie. At
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: first Charlie lost the patients with the slow moving beast,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: especially when they ran into water too deep for him.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: It would not come out, while he wet himself all
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: over trying to make them. It was the same every day.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: They rose at five in the morning, worked hard, lived plainly,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: until at last both plowing and sowing were done, and
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: leaving the grain to the care of the kindly earth,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: they resumed the house building. Meantime, a tender flush of
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: green crept across the prairie, and silver birches in the
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: bluff put out their whispering leaves, and it grew hotter
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: day by day. The mosquitoes came down in millions and
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: bit them, until sometimes their faces were so swollen that
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: they could hardly see. Little gophers like squirrels, scurried among
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: the tender grain, while the coyotes, which are the wolves
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: of the grassland, howled on moonlit nights along the edge
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: of the prairie. And then there was hay to cut
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: for winter, and Charlie drove the tinkling mower through the
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: long grass of the slews, and rode home under the
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: moon on a wagon piled high with dry white trusses,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: which smelt of peppermint. Also, he grew strong of limb
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: and cheerful, and learned it was not beneath him to
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: clean out either the stable or chicken house, and that
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: it was better to have sometimes very dirty hands than
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: keep them clean by idleness. Though the sharp tongue Peter
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: saw he had little chance of this. Sometimes he grew
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: angry with Peter. Then it happened one day, when the
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: tall wheat grew yellow towards the harvest, Arthur sent him
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: to count their half wild cattle, which wandered at will
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: across the prairie. He rode out in the early morning
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: with a marlin rifle slung across his shoulders, feeling proud
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: of himself. But though he swept the prairie until noon,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: there was no sign of the beast. It grew blazing hot.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: He was tired and thirsty, and he still rode on
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: until he discovered, by the trampled grasses and dints of hoofs,
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: that not only had a drove of cattle passed that way,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: but that several horsemen accompanied them. Then he patted the
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: bronco's neck and turned back for home, swinging through a
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: dust cloud across the long levels, which had grown white again,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: and towards dust dropped stiffly from the lathered horse. While,
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: when grimed with dust and perspiration, he told the story,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: Old Peter said, aye, I was partly expecting this. The
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: rustlers have lifted our beasts for us now. A little
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: time earlier, a very bad state of things existed across
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: the American border, where the rich owners of many head
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: of stock, the cattle barrens they were called, tried to
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: drive the poor men off their small plots of land.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: In return, the poor men burnt the others homesteads and
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: shot some of the greediest, while afterwards very cruel deeds
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: were done by either side, until when there was peace
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: at last, bands of desperate men who had lost everything
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: wandered about the country, robbing where they could. And it
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: was some of these Peter meant when he said the rustlers.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: So when Charlie added, I think they must have taken
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Carroll's beast as well, Arthur, whose face grew stern, said sharply,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: if they once get them across the border. It means
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: ruin for the money I hope to get for those cattle.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: Must keep us through the winter. Get into the saddle,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: ride over to Carrol's. I'll borrow another horse and meet you. Peter,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: slinging his rifle, he mounted the Bronco bareback, and while
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: little Reggie watched them enviously, they rode out at full
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: gallop under the starlight, with the dust whirling up behind them,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Charley's horse stumbling now. And then it was five miles
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: to Carroll's homestead, and they found him sitting on the doorstep,
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: a big, good humored Ontario man, who said gravely, if
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: they've lit out with my cattle, they might have taken
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: the farm as well. Well, it's a long way to
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: the American border, and we might come up with them.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Cattle travels slowly, I should say, somebody will get hurt
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: if we do. Mayn't I come, asked Charlie, And while
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: Arthur hesitated, Carol, who noticed the longing and the boy's
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: eyes laughed as he said, bring him along. If you're
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: raising him to the prairie, he may as well see
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: the rough side of it. And if you want to
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: teach a dog, to hold fast. You must begin when
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: he's a pup. I'm a peaceful man myself if other
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: folks will let me, but I don't lie down while
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: they put on big boots to tramp on me. Carol
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: found fresh horses and brought a young blackfoot Indian called
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: Coyote too, while he was meeting Peter. They pressed on
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: fast until Charley showed them the trail of the cattle.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: After that he rode like one in a dream, almost
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: falling asleep in the saddle. While at last, when the
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: red sun leapt up and Carol said they must rest,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: dropping and aching all over from the horse, he fell
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: asleep in earnest. It was in the heat of the
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: afternoon he awoke, and Arthur said that Coyote reported the
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: stolen cattle were not very far ahead, and when night
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: came they hoped to recover them. You see, if they
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: once crossed the border while we went collecting help, the
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: beast would be corned beef in Chicago before we took
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: up the trail again, said Carol. So we're going quietly
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: to steal them back again. There are six thieving rustlers
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: with them, big bad, hard men. But I figure somehow
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: we'll come out ahead of them. Starting once more, they
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: rode circuitously, following the hollows between each higher roll of grass,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: while Coyote the Indian went scouting before them until long
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: after stars were out. Then, leaving the horses tethered behind them,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: they crept on hands and knees towards the edge of
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: a ravine which wound steeply through the edge of a plateau,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: and Charlie never forgot what he saw when at a
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: whisper from Carrol, they lay still among the grass. A
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: few willows clothed the sides of the declivity, and a
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: herd of long horned cattle moved restlessly below, while a
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: fire blazed redily among a clump of dew damped bushes.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Tethered horses stood beside it, and a lower down white
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: mist filled a deeper hollow Beyond this, where the steep
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: sides fell away, A dim stretch of grass faded into
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: the distance, and the stars were paled overhead. Can't need
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: nothin by force, said Carol. They're armed every man an
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: watchin too, so we'll wait till they get sleepy, and
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: then stampeded the herd on them. Guess I'm a peaceful
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: person and don't want a rifle bullet in me if
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: I can help it. It's not nice when it goes in,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: and it hurts worse to get it out. After that,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: there was silence, and Charlie, laying flat on his chest,
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: could feel his heart beating as he breathed the scent
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: of wild peppermint and the smell of hot earth drinking
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: in the dew. The cattle were uneasy, and at times
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: searched to and fro, bellowing a dusky mask of tossing horns,
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: while white vapor rising from it, while now and then
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: a black shape rose up from the shadows and growled
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: at them. Once too, Charlie nearly cried out when, with
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: the red light on him, he saw a big bearded
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: man who balanced a rifle, staring up at the head
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: of the ravine, then remembering that if only because of
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: the firelight, the man could not see those who watched him. Meantime,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: coyote was very busy tying together bunches of dry grass,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: or crawling snakelike into the ravine, after which there was
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: a fresh disturbance among the cattle, and Carol said that
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: they were mad with thirst, and it would not take
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: much to stampede them or start them racing across the
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: prairie in a mad panic. Slowly the glimmer of firelight died,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: and at last Carol whispered it was time to commence,
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: for the beasts were moving towards them. So coyote was
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: sent for the horses, and Arthur said, keep in the rear, Charlie,
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: and take care of yourself. You are growing a big
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: lad now, and it's only fitting you should learn the
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: rough work as well as the smooth. And I would
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: sooner lose the farm and everything on it than that
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: any injury should happen to you. I will be careful,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: said Charlie, for his brother's voice trembled. Then Coyote came
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: up with the horses. While hardly had he mounted, than
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: a hoarse voice cried out below, who's there, Stand fast
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: before we plug a bullet into you. But it was
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: too late for a dark figure rose up among the
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: cattle with a bunch of blazing grasses in his hands.
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: Carol charged into the ravine, waving another and Arthur fired
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: his repeating rifle into the air. This was sufficient, for
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: the cattle were untamed, creatures which ran wild about the
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: prairie three parts of every year, and lowering its head,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: one burnt and frightened steered bolted furiously down the ravine.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: The others followed it, and next morning the narrow hollow
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: was filled with a thunder of hoofs. While scarcely hearing
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: the rifle bullet that hummed above his head, Charlie swayed
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: in his saddle as his half broken bronco swept down
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: the slope at a flying gallop. Coyote was yelling like
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: a whole pack of wolves on the other flank of
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: the herd, gatthering blazing grass among them. Carol roared himself,
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: horse close beside and riding just clear of the beast ahead,
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: Arthur Gordon's soldierly figure rushed through the darkness. The ground
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: sloped steeply, and beasts were madly afraid, and in that
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: condition there is nothing that can turn a stampeding herd.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: Dwarfed willows rose up before the excited lad and there
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: was a great crackle of branches as the horse broke through,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: while some of them lashed him like a whip. Tangled
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: tussocks of tall grass ripped apart and were whirled up
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: by the battering hoofs, and Charlie knew that he would
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: probably break his neck or leg if the beast blundered
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: into a badger hole. Still, he drove his heels against
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: the horses leathered flanks, for the sight below and the
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: touch of the cool night wind that screamed past him
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: set his blood bounding. He had once longed to be
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: a soldier, but this was as exhilarating as galloping the
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: guns into action, or a charge of cavalry. Where all
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: the rustlers went to he never knew, though, staring ahead
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: through the world whip dust, he fancied he saw one
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: human figure running for life before the sea of tossing
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: heads and horns. Then, with a smashing of bushes, the
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: herd charged through the camp, and he could dimly see
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: riderless horses that had broken their tethers galloping among them.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Carol and Coyote had laid their plans well, for the
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: thieves had no time to mount before the cattle were
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: upon them. Next. Charlie felt a sudden cold sickness as
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: the running figure disappeared, and he wondered if the herd
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: had charged straight over the fallen man. But he forgot
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: it in the exultation that followed the mad headlong rush,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: until an object which might have been a man, came
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: blundering as through to cut him off down one side
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: of the ravine. Instinctively, he bent low over his horse's mane,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: and it was well he did so, for there was
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: a red flash before him and the ringing of a rifle. Then,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: remembering he had no time to unsling his own weapon,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: and that the other man's was probably a repeater, he
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: struck the horse with his heels and drove him straight
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: at his enemy. There was no choice left him but
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: to defend himself or be shot, and all these thieves
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: could shoot well. So though Charlie set his teeth together
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: and determined to do the former, he was conscious of
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: a painful cold sinking under his belt. There was a
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: heavy thud and a shock, and he lurched backwards in
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: the saddle. Something or somebody rolled over among the grasses,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: and he was flying on again, while Carol shout rang
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: in his ears a good beginning for the pup. They
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: left the ravine behind. At last the herd ran straight
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: out across the dim prairie, and Carol let them run
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: for he said, the more grass they put between themselves
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: and the rustlers, the better. They're tough, bad men, and
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: they'll follow us presently when they find their horses, though
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: I guess it may take them all night to do
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: it when you once start them broncos they don't know
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: how to stop. It was afternoon next day, and the
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: herd could travel no further. When dusty and aching, they
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: lay hidden among the willows which fringed another ravine below.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: The cattle waded in the cool water of a creek
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: which wandered through the hollow, or lay contentedly among the
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: lush grasses, while on the farther side the prairie stretched
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: towards the horizon in a succession of swelling ridges. All
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: the party were very silent, for they knew the thieves
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: were following their trail, while Arthur's eyes grew anxious as
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: he watched the shadows lengthen creeping black and cool across
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: the dusty grass. They were safe while daylight lasted, but
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: the rifles would be useless in the dark, and they
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: had desperate men to deal with who were not afraid
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: of murder. Presently, a tall man in a blue shirt
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: holding a heavy rifle. Rode out from behind a rise
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: across the hollow, and, looking about him from under his broad,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: ragged hat, drew near the ravine. He shouted when he
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: saw the cattle, and several more similar ruffians, also mounted,
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: appeared behind then. Standing up in his stirrups with reckless bravado,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: he called, come out from where you're skulking like jack
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: rabbits in your lairs, and we'l made a deal with you.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: Give us up them cattle and we'll let you go.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: Try to hold them, and we'll most certainly make an
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: end of every one of you. We're genuine on tame rustlers.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: And don't you forget it, crawlin up like sneak thieves
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: in the dark. I'm ashamed of you. Arthur was rising
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: from the bushes when Carol pulled him down. Guess he's
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: been drinkin something stronger than creek water, he said. You
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: don't know. They're little ways like I do. And if
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: you show yourself, the rest might shoot you. I'm a
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: peaceful man if I can, but losing a horse may
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: scare them. That's an easy mark. Peter, go back, roared Arthur,
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: before we fire on you. If you want the cattle,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: come an take them, and quick as thought, an answering
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: bullet hum through the bushes, close above the speaker's head. Meantime,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: Old Peter stretched himself out full length, with his left
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: elbow buried in the mold and his legs crossed behind him,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: while an I ran down the blue rifle barrel. I'm
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: no sayin it's difficult, he answered, one hundred yards and
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: a clear light. Where will I take him? The pure beast?
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thinkin it's a painful necessity. Where you can,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: said Arthur, Only do it mercifully as you say it's
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: a painful necessity. And for a few moments Charlie held
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: his breath at snapping down the rear sight, Peter cuddled
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: his cheek against the stone of his rifle. Then the
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: muzzle tilted. There was a splitting of red flame, a
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: ringing report, and man and horse went down together. The
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: man got up again, shaking his fist in the air,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: and ran back after his comrades, while the beast lay still,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: and Peter said grimly, I'm sorry for the horse, but
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: it will be a lesson to them. After that, there
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: was a very anxious waiting for each of the watchers
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: knew their enemies would steal on them through the dark,
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: and Charlie felt that anything would be better than this
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: cruel suspense, until suddenly, with a great beat of hoofs,
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: the rustlers swept out straight as a crow flies across
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: the prairie. I might get one at long range, if
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: I wasn't a peaceful man, said Carroll longingly. But Arthur
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: Gordon broke in. No. We had a right to defend
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: our lives and property. But they're in full flight now why,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm thinking it time, said Peter with
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: a dry laugh. The Northwest Police are after them. Where
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: did you put my glasses? Oh aye, ye can see
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: the troopers horses just toppin' the rise. I kin the
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: big sergeant on the black charger. It's my second cousin. Ride,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: ye Donald ride. The cattle thieves were evidently off in
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: a very great hurry, for Charlie could see them driving
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: home their spurred heels into the horse's sides, or lashing
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: them with the long hide bartles savagely. They had good
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: reason to be, for when they grew smaller far down
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: on the white levels, Gordon's party stood up an cheered
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: as a detachment of mounted police raced by. They were
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: very bold horsemen, each one as well drilled as any
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: cavalry soldier, and when with a great pounding of hoofs
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: and jingle of steel, they dashed it headlong gallop past
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: the rabine, the leader on the big black charger waved
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: a hand to Peter. As Charlie learned subsequently, the sergeant,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: hearing of the rustlers, had called at their homestead, and
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: after listening to Reggie's story, rode his hardest on their trail.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: Then the police also vanished over the rim of the prairie,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: and there was silence again, for leaving Coyote to watch.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: The rest sank into well earned slumber, and it was
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: midnight before they started on their homeward journey. It ended safely,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: and they learned presently that two of the desperadoes who
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: had lost their horses were caught, while the rest got away.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: A few weeks later, the binders were driven through the crop,
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: and Arthur was glad when the harvest was over to
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: find that, though frost had spoiled a little, his first
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: years yield of wheat and oats would pay expenses. Charlie
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: rode with him beside the loaded wagons piled high with
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: sacks of corn one bitter day, when the snow dust
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: was already whirling across the prairie thirty miles to the railway,
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: and both felt grateful when that evening they watched the
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: long freight train lurch out across the white sprinkled wilderness,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: bearing there and others grain to the markets in Winnipeg.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: The fruitful earth, now sinking into its winter sleep, had
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: repaid them for their labor, and they could rest too while,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: because no man can work for himself alone, they had
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: helped to send the poor in England the cheap food
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: they badly needed. Next day, Arthur also made a journey
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: by passenger train, while when Charlie rode home alone, he
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: wondered if his brother had gone to see their friend
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: of the steamer, miss Armadale, who lived not very far away,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: and then wisely decided it was no business of his
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: if he had done so. End of chapter three, Chapter
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: four of Sunshine and Snow by Harold bine Loss. This
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: Lieberbox recording is in the public domain. Through the blizzard,
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: winter came and Charlie learned to use the heavy axe
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: which added to the breath of his shoulders as he
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: whirled it round his head, hewing birch logs for fuel.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: In the bluff, the stove glowed red hot by night
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: and day, and they slept under rugs of skin in
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: an upper room through which its iron chimney ran for
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: all the way across that great lonely land from Hudson's
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: Bay to the River Missouri. Winter is nearly arctic on
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: the prairie. Then there were long sleigh rides over the
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: snow to the little railway town for provisions for the men,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: who worked like giants, acquired gigantic appetites, and cozy evenings
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: spent beside the stove when their sister Alice, who had
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: come out from England to keep house, read to them.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: Frost fled, crusted the windows, and outside. The coyotes howled
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: as they sought shelter in the birch bluff from the
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: bitter cold, but it was very snug and warm. Within
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: winter passed, and even the longest winters do, and the
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: bleached grasses peeped out through the melting snow, turned green
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: for a few weeks and grew white again early in
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: the hot summer. But Arthur Gordon lost his crop that year.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: A few nights of bottomed frost shriveled up the grain. Still,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: he and Charlie only worked the harder, hoping for better
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: fortune and breaking more land to make up for the
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: loss next season. Though sometimes Alice sighed as she noticed
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: the troubled look in her brother's eyes when he turned
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: over his accounts. If a crop fails on the prairie,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: the settler and his family must live very sparingly during
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: the following year, and two bad heart harvists may ruin
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: him altogether. Winter came round once more, and one afternoon
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: Charlie and his brother stood dressed in long skin coats
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: in the unpaved streets of a railway town. Rost and
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: sun had tanned their faces almost to the color of oak,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: and their frames were nearly as strong. For it is
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: not in soft, warm climates, where life is easy, that
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: white men thrive best. Biting cold and sturdy labor hardened
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: instead of weaken them. The shingled roofs were white. Above them,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: and beyond the tall elevators where the wheat stored, a
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: lonely wilderness which had a curious blue white glimmer stretched
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: back towards the gray horizon, with little huffs of snow
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: dust racing across it. Presently. Arthur raised his fur cap
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: when they passed a store in which one could purchase
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: everything from tins, provisions, or a necktie to a plow.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: A lady muffled in splendid fir sat inside a sleigh
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: at its door, and Charlie blushed with pleasure when she
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: smiled at him graciously. This was miss Armadale, their friend
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: of the steamer, who lived with her father at bar
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: Holme Grange, one of the largest farms in that part
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: of Canada. Arthur lingered a moment beside the sleigh, and
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: then bowed as another sleigh passed him slowly. When he
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: walked away, there were two people in it, and one
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: a grim faced old man, whom Charlie knew was Colonel Armadale,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: stared straight at his brother without noticing him, after which
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: Charley heard him say to his younger companion, who tried
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: to hide a smile. Settler, Gordon has shown considerable presumption,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: and I have warmed Lilian not to encourage him. The
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: last time he came. I tried to make it plain
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: that it was blind foolishness for a man like him
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: with three hundred poor acres and a few half starved
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: cattle to grow interested in my daughter. Then he called out,
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: send your bill along, storekeeper, and if you charge as
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: much for your rubbish as you did last time, I'll
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: start a store of my own. My hogs meet some
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: of the decayed tin goods. Palm off on me, Lilian,
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: Come on when you're ready and overtake us at the crossing.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: Our sleigh is loaded, and I don't like the signs
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: of the weather. Charlie felt hot and angry, and he
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: noticed the storekeeper frowned, though he answered nothing, for Colonel
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: Armadale was the richest and worst tempered man and all
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: that gistrick. While Arthur, who had set his lips tight,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: sighed as the loaded sleigh moved out and grew smaller
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: across the prairie. Presently, Lilian Armadale followed, and the storekeeper said,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: a nice quiet man talk to he is guess one
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: would never think that sweet tempered girl was the daughter
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: of Yonder. Shirly old bear wants to marry her to
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: the man with him, some British relative, but she doesn't
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: like him. The boys are saying he's not much to
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: look at anyway. Even if he is rich, well you
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: jes hold on, Miss Armadale is worth it, and those
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: over fed horses of his will break old cast Iron's
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: neck for him some day, And except miss Lilly, nobody
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: will be sorry. Say has it struck you of blizzard's
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: coming along? If I ever hear you talkin that way again,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: there will be trouble between you and me, was Arthur's
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: sharp answer. Charlie, you had better ride on. There are
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: signs of a snowstorm. And if I don't catch you
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: before you reach the crossing, make straight for home. When
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: will those things be ready? Storekeeper Charlie was glad to obey,
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: for he was chilled all through, and so by and
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: by there there were four moving specks upon the prairie,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: hidden from one another by the low rises, which looked
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: at a distance like the waves of a frozen sea.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: It was bitterly cold, and puffs of icy wind hurled
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: stinging white crystals into his half frozen face until he
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: drew down the flaps of his fur cap to meet
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: his big collar. The horse did its best, for there
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: are times when dumb beasts are wiser than men, and
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: it knew a snow storm was coming, so the hoofs
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: hurled up the dusty snow, while the clumps of dwarf
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: willows which rushed past showed how fast they were traveling.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: Then there was only a great level desolation, which looked
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: as if no one had lived in it since the
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: beginning of the world, until at last he reached the
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: straggling woods which mark the crossing. Here again the prairie
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: rolled in broken rises. It was a little warmer in
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: the shelter of the trees, and Charlie checked his horse
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: when he found Miss Armadale holding her impatient team under
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: the edge of a big ravine. Prairie streams generally run
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: in a hollow like a deep railway cutting, and this
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: one was larger than usual, while the little river which
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: flowed through the bottom was not hard frozen yet, for
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: winter had just begun, and the trees sheltered it still.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: Looking down between the scattered silver barked birches which clothed
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: the slope on either side, he could see the glimmer
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: of black ice below, And because the narrow trail bent
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: to make the descent less steep, a rough log bridge
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: without a parapet some distance to the right. Did you
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: see my father on the way, asked the lady, And
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: when Charlie answered no, she added, perhaps he passed me
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: behind the long ridge, which I don't think, so, you know,
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: the one with the sledge trail on both sides of it.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid there's a big storm coming. Where is your
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: brother charge She stood up in the sleigh looking back
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: across the prairie, and Charlie thought she was even prettier
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: than his sister Alice. While there was something he liked
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: in her voice and kindly eyes, and he felt it
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: would be a pleasure to do anything for her. But
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: nothing moved on the prairie except the whirling drifts. For
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: the wind, which grew even colder, was fast rising now
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: while already daylight was fading, and the birches moaned eerily.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: Then he grew suddenly afraid, because there are times when
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: even strong men realize their feebleness before the great powers
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: of nature. And he knew that it often means death
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: to be caught in the rush of a blizzard on
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: the open prairie. The horses knew it too, for the
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: sleigh team snorted while miss Armadale shivered as she said,
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: I dare not wait any longer. Tell your brother to
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: make for the grange. You will never get home in time.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: No I am forgetting he not come. Then, with a
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: heightened color in her cheeks and a curious ring in
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: her voice, she added, yes, you will bring him. It
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: might cost his life to cross the prairie to night.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: There was a patter of hoofs behind them, but even
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: as Charlie turned round, the sleigh team bolted, and, leaving
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: the narrow trail, charged headlong down the slope. Then Charlie,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: remembering that the half frozen river would not bear the
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: weight of that load, urged his own horse after them.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: Miss Armadale stood upright, clenching the reins, her slight figure
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: swaying before him among the scattered trees, which fortunately grew
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: well apart. But the team were going their own way,
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: the straightest to the bottom, and he shuddered when the
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: sleigh drove, crashing against the trunk, even if the vehicle
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: was not wrecked before it reached it. The muddy creek,
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: like most prairie streams, was deep, but though the fur
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: robed figures sank down down, suddenly the sleigh went on
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: as though uninjured, while Charlie shouted, try to turn them
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: towards the bridge. I am coming to help you. He
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: drove his horse at a willow bush, and the beast
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: went through it with a bound birch. Twigs lashed his
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: face like whips, and once a branch struck his forehead
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: so that it bled while jumbled all together. The trunks
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: rushed past, but he was overtaking the sleigh, and Old
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: Peter had taught him to ride half broken broncos without
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: either stirrups or saddle, holding on by his knees. This
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: was painful and sometimes dangerous work, but few things worth
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: having can be got easily, and the skill he had
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: acquired so hardly was very useful now, for without it
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: he would never have come safely down that steep tree
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: cumbered descent. The wind screamed past him. There was a
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: haze of falling snow, and as he dashed by he
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: saw for a moment the drawn white face of the
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: lady in the sleigh. Then, bending down, he clutched at
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: and gripped the reins close in to the bit beside
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: one horse's head, and afterwards saw nothing clearly there was
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: only an uncertain vision of flying trees, a mad thunder
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: of hoofs, and the sleigh lurching behind him like a
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: ship at sea. It bounced clear of the earth in places,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: while the black ice, streaked with snow, seemed rushing towards
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: them from below. White powder rose in clouds from about.
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: The hissing steel runners and mingling with the steam of
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: the horses, filled his staring eyes. Then a mounted figure
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: shot out from among the trees, swayed sideways in the
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: saddle by the other horse's head, and his brother's voice
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: rang out, hold fast for your life, Lily. You cannot
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: turn them now. It won't bear us all. Charlie, let go. Charlie,
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: who had learned the useful lesson of swift obedience, loosed
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: his hold and struggled for a few moments to rein
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: in his horse. Then, trembling with excitement, wanted the sleigh
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: charge on down the slope towards the river. He knew
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: Arthur was trusting that the pace they traveled at would
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: carry them across before the ice broke through. He watched
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: the sleigh shoot out from the bank. Then there was
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: a sharp crackle, and he caught his breath as Arthur's
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: floundering horse disappeared from view. It had struck a weaker
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: place or stumbled, and the treacherous slippery covering had yielded
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: beneath it. But his brother, flinging himself from the saddle,
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: had already clutched the sleigh, and Charlie shouted with relief
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: when he saw him stand up in it, grasping the reins,
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: while a few seconds later the team crashed through the
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: willows by the water's edge on the farther side, and
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: drew clear of the dangerous ice. Charlie felt almost dizzy
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: now the crisis had passed, for he knew the horses
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: could not run away up the opposite slope. Then the
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: snow thickened, there was a roaring among the branches, and
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: the daylight went out, while when he reached the river
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: he could hardly see the hole in the ice under
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: which the current had doubtless sucked the unfortunate horse. He
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: crossed by the bridge, but the whole air was filled
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: with driving snow, while broken twigs were hurled about him
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: by the sudden gale, and when he reached the level
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: there was only thick, whirling whiteness ahead. It filled his
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: eyes and nostrils, deadened his hearing, and almost took his
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: breath away. He could not even see the trees, and
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: let the horse go its own way until it nearly
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: walked into what it looked like a white bear, and
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: was a man on foot. By the voice, he recognized
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: Colonel Armadale's companion, who shouted, where is the team that
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: ran away? We could see you from a distance. I
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: don't know, said Charlie, haven't seen them for ten minutes
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: more to the right, I think, And the other, grasping
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: his horse's bridle, said come back and tell him. While
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: by and by they reached a sleigh in which an
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: upright figure sat, sheeted with snow. He guessed it must
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: be Colonel Armadale. Then the old man said, in a
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: tone that seemed less sharp than usual, though the roar
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: of the gale prevented the lad from hearing, plainly, you
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: are Gordon, are you not. My daughter would have been
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: drowned long before we could have reached the ravine. We
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: croshed before her somehow, but for your brother's good sense
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: and gallantry, not seen them. Since it's hardly surprising, let
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: your horse go and get into the sleigh. No, Lawrence,
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: come back, d'ye hear? The other man appeared to demur,
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: saying something which sounded like I must try to find them, sir.
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: But Colonel Armadale turned upon him angrily. Come back, you idiot,
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: he repeated. Nobody could find them, and even if you could,
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: your extra weight would hamper them unnecessarily. Your brother should
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: know the prairie well, eh, Gordon, Yes, sir, said Charlie,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: who felt bitter against the speaker for his rudeness to Arthur.
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: But I'm going straight home and won't get in. Get
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: in at once, said Colonel Armadale. You would be frozen
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: stiff long before you reached your home. Lily's team can
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: find their own way to the stables. These Western horses
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: are like pigeons. That is, if your brother has the
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: sense to let them. We can do nothing but trust
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: our own to do the same. And it's considerably safer
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: under the sleigh robes than it is in the saddle.
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: Let them go, Lawrence, we have not a minute to lose.
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: Charlie loosed his horse, which followed the sleigh, and then,
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: for what seemed ages, the beasts blundered through a whirling
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: cloud of snow that grew thicker and thicker, while the
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: awful cold chilled the lad to the backbone. Still he
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: knew Colonel Armadale was right, and protected by the thick robes,
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: he could just keep alive, though he would certainly have
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: frozen in the saddle. But at last, when he could
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: hardly either speak or see, a dim brightness flickered ahead.
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: Voices hailed them, and he fell, half fainting over the
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: threshold into the glare of a great fire that burned
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: in the log built hall of Barnholm Grange. Some one
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: who took his skin coat away brought him hot coffee
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: and food, and when he had eaten and grown accustomed
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: to the temperature, the grim, white haired colonel made him
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: sit beside the stove in a big hide covered chair.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: Still there was an unusually gentle look in his stern
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: eyes now, and presently Charlie, whose head was swimming, found
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: him talking to him confidentially, until the colonel said, abruptly,
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: so your brother was an officer. What made him start
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: firming without capital on the prairie. Charlie explained at some
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: length as well as he could, and when he had finished,
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: the old man said hum, I see well, he has
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: been a good brother and done his duty to you.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: Never suspected he had so much in him, and that
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: he held her Majesty's commission is news to me. At least.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: He is a courageous gentleman, and I am indebted to
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: both of you. After this, he paced fiercely to and fro,
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: while the icy wind howled about the building, shaking it
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: until its logs it was made of, trembled, and its
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: wooden roofing shingles strained and clattered overhead, thicker and thicker
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: with a heavy thudding, the snow drove against the double windows,
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: until it seemed that nothing living could escape destruction upon
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: the open prairie. So presently Charlie, who felt his strength returning,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: said I can sit still no longer. You must please
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: lend me a horse, and I will go to look
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: for them. Sit down again, answered the colonel, Aye, you
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: have learned obedience. Do you think that if there was
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: any small chance of finding them? I would loiter here
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: while my only daughter struggles in peril of her life
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: somewhere out there in this awful snow. There are times,
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: my lad, when the boldest man is helpless and your
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: brother's only hope is to trust the instinct given as
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: a compensation to every dumb beast. No, we can only wait,
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: and to wait with patience as considerably harder than doing
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: risky things, as you will find some day after that,
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: the time passed very slowly, and the storm grew, if possible, fiercer,
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: until somebody shouted, and they stood holding the great door
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: open in the hall and staring with eyes that watered
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: into the maze of whirling drift outside. The snow blew
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: along fine as powder in blinding clouds like smoke. Thank Heaven,
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: said Colonel Armadale, as dim shapes which might have been
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: either beast or men, loomed out through the whiteness. He
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: ran forward, holding up a lantern. Charlie followed and was
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: immediately blown headlong into a drift, while when he scrambled
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: out of it, Arthur staggered past. He was crusted with
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: the wind packed powder into a formless object, and reeled
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: blindly into the hall with a burden which afterwards transpired
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: to be Lilian Armadale, who had fainted in his arms.
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: Then Charlie slipped out of the way, for everyone was
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: busy doing something for the two nearly frozen travelers, while
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: when Arthur appeared later in borrowed garments, Colonel Armadale met
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: him with outstretched hands. You have done me a great service,
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: a service I can never repay, and you are very
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: welcome to Barholm, he said. We must try to be
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: better friends than we have been in the future. Charlie
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: thought the last words hardly explained the position, for he
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: considered that nobody could have called Colonel Armadale's previous conduct
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: friendly at all. But he was glad when his brother
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: took the outstretched hand, for the older man's lips trembled
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: under his long mustache. Then he was led into a
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: snug matchboarded room and sank into a deep sleep, which
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: lasted ten hours on end. They stayed at the grange
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: all the next day, and Arthur afterwards told Charlie that
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: Miss Armadale would have spoiled him altogether had he stayed
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: any longer. Then, after a friendly parting with the colonel,
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: they rode home again, while as their horses picked their
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: way through the drifts, Arthur said, Charlie, I am afraid
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: I have given way to foolish pride. Colonel Armadale wanted
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: to pay me for the horse I lost, and I
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: would not let him. It was worse than foolish, when
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: we have Alice and Reggie to think of and have
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: lost all the crop. I am glad you did it,
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: said the lad, flinging back his head. It would look
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: too much like being paid for kindness, and even if
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: we are poor, I couldn't have taken the money. Then
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: he sighed, for he noticed his brother's face grew careworn,
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: and guessed that the thought of the coming year troubled him.
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: But Arthur only said half aloud, it was foolish. I
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: had no right to refuse. Still, bad luck can't last forever,
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: and it may all come right some day. It was
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: late when they reached their own homestead, which rose up
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: a few snow backed mounds out of the prairie, looking
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: very mean and small after the fine buildings of Barnholm Range.
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: Charley had told Alice what had happened, but she said nothing,
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: though she glanced at her elder brother sympathetically. He also
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: told Peter, adding, I think the Colonel is a much
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: nicer man than he looks when one gets to know him.
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: That's as may be, answered Old Peter with a twinkle
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: in his eye. Nath less, he seldom over civil, and
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: is just filled with stiff necked pride. Ye'll mark that
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: kind of old spirit prepares its own humbling. Do ye
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: mind what happened when I first trained ye an? Ye
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: would not sweep the stable? Ay, ye were vain as
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: only peacock. Then fine white hands like a young lady's hands,
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: ye had. No, there's a faint promise that some day
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: we may make ye an till man. But Charlie laughed
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: good humoredly, and flinging a broom at him by way
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: of playful compliment, ran out. Suddenly. He had already realized
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: that Peter had taught him many things worth knowing, and
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: he had discovered in Canada that it is much better
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: to be able to do useful work than live daintily
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: at somebody else's expense. He had seen a few rich
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: men in the dominion who financed railroads and owned great
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: flour mills, but could nevertheless hee a building log or
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: carry a grain bag as well as any of their laborers.
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: Arthur said, men like these are the backbone which stiffens
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: the country. End of chapter four, Chapter five of Sunshine
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: and snow by Harold Beinloss. This liberbox recording is in
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Adverse fortune. A year passed, and Charlie,
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: who grew into a tall young man, had grown to
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: love the prairie. He had also learned to mend his
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: own clothes with pieces of cotton flower bags, cook and
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: sweep out their rooms when his sister Alice was busy,
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: besides many other things. He used foolishly to think beneath him,
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: and there was but one checked to his contentment. They
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: had lost another crop again. Autumn frost followed a dry season,
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: and all that was left of the wheat was not
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: worth thrashing. But they sowed another which promised well, and
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: so one summer day Arthur and he rode home from
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: bar Holme Grange with lighter hearts than they had known
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: for some time. Lilian had gone to England, but her
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: father asked them to come and see him occasionally. It
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: was a clear, bright day, though by and by a
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: dimness spread across the sky, and the wind grew colder,
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: while the bleached buffalo bones, which are still sprinkled across
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: the prairie seemed to shine out curiously white. Among the grasses,
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: only a little while ago, the huge beasts traversed the
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: great plains in countless thousands, but there is not a
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: single wild one left to day. I'm afraid there's a
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: hailstorm not far away, said Arthur. Will ride into Yonder
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: Bluff for shelter. They went on at a gallop, and
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: it grew nearly dark before they reached the little wood,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: while the horses trembled when Charley tied them to a tree.
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: Then for some minutes there was a deep and very
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: solemn stillness, during which Charlie fancied that the air was
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: filled with sulfur, while the skin of his head prickled.
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: This lasted until a blaze of blue fire seemed to
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: fall from the heavens and flood all the prairie. It
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: was followed by a deafening peal of thunder. Next moment,
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: the birches swayed, suddenly sideways, and some tough as they
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: were snapped short off. Charley was forced to drive his
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: heels into the mole to bring his place. While the
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: wood was filling with falling leaves and the scream of
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: the blast, hailstones the size of marbles, and some of
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: them even larger, came hurtling like grape, shot between the
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: trees and rattles upon the wagon, into which they bounced
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: in bucketfuls. The horses reared upright as the bending branches
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: lashed them, and when fearing that they would bolt and
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: smash the wagon, he tried to hold them. Charlie's hands
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: bled under the thrashing of the ragged ice. It is
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: fortunate that we never see such hail in this country.
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: Then the storm ceased as suddenly as it came, the
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: wind grew still, the sun shone out hot and bright again,
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: and when they rode out from the bluff the grasses
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: were steaming. Only a cloud arch traveling south to spread
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: room before it, and the wrecked branches in the wood
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: told what had happened. The brothers were, however, very silent
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: during the rest of the journey, and when they reached
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: their farm towards the close of the afternoon, they found
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: Alice waiting for them, with tears upon her cheeks and
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: her eyelids reddened. She had not been crying needlessly, for
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: Alice was a light hearted girl, and Arthur's face changed
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: color as he looked at the corn. Nothing remained of
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: the tall wheat which was to feed them that winter,
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: but shattered blades, beaten into ribbons, and half buried in
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: the muddy ground. Is it quite ruined, asked Charlie, huskily,
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: and Arthur's sighed. Is making a strong effort, he answered calmly. Quite.
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: We must shut up the house, give up the farm,
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: and look for work with the horses and oxen on
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: the new railway. Still we won't despair while we have
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: health and strength left. We are not beaten yet, and
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: if we can earn the money, we must try again
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: next year. Then there was a world of sympathy in
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: Charley's voice, though all he could find to say was
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: poor old Arthur. No one spoke much that evening, for
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: their hearts were heavy, and Charlie, who realized he might
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: never live in it again, thought how snug and homely
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: the little log building was, and with what hopes he
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: had helped to raise it. But he forgot his troubles
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: in sleep, and though Arthur wondered about the prairie the
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: whole night through, they rode out early next morning to
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: the new railway, some forty miles distant. There, a fresh
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: disappointment awaited them, for the engineer in charge said we
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: have got all the teams we want here, but I
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: like the look of you, and I could send you
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: timberhewing on another branch line we are building in British Columbia.
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: Our silly men have all started in to make their
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: fortune gold mining there. I'll give you a note to
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: the road surveyor and free passes, and I dare say
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: he'll let you a contract you can make something out of.
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: Arthur thought hard for several minutes, for British Columbia was
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: several hundred miles away, before he answered, it's not what
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: I hoped for, but as I have lost my crop
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: and can't sit here and wait until we're runed, we
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: will thankfully accept your offer. The engineer gave them a letter,
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: and when they rode home again, it was arranged that
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: Alice should stay with Colonel Armadale, while after dividing the
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: cattle among their neighbors, the three brothers started with their
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: working beast on board a big freight train for the
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: mountains of British Columbia. It was a sorrowful parting, but
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: Arthur said, poor people must expect unpleasant things and can't
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: afford to be particular. We must make an effort to
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: help ourselves and look forward to meeting again. So in
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: due time they reached the new railway, which led from
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: the main line to a rich mining district among the mountains,
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: and the surveyor in charge of it looked at them
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: with approval. He thought he could tell good men when
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: he saw them. Yes, you can have a contract to
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: cut timber and haul it in for building snow sheds,
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: he said, But we don't pay until the work's finished,
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: and you take all the risks. We haven't any use
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: for the men who, when they strike a run of
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: bad luck, just grumble and lie down or throw up
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: their contract. What I start, I'll finish, said Arthur grimly,
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: and the surveyor nodded as he answered, glad to hear it.
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: I hope you will. You'll find us treat you fairly.
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: If you do. We keep our dollars for good men
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: and a big club for loafers. So Arthur made a
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: bargain with the railroad officials, and pitching tents on the hillside,
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: the brothers commenced their work. The line ran through a
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: deep valley among majestic, snow crested mountains with forests of
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: stately pine trees rolling down their sides, and a river
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: thundering in a gorge below. This was an awful chasm,
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: with sheer walls of rock which shut off each ray
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: of sunlight from the foaming water in the dim abyss,
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: and the railway was partly scooped out and partly built
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: against the side of the tremendous precipice, in a way
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: which engineers called underpinning. Several men had lost their lives
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: in doing it, for it was dangerous work. Now in
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: that country, great masses of sun softened snow came rushing
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: down the mountain sides every now and then, smashing the
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: forest before them, And in order to prevent the railway
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: from being swept away, it was necessary to roof that
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: portion in with a heavy timber building called a snow shed,
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: so that any avalanche might slide over the top of it.
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: And it was the brother's work to hew the great
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: redwood logs into shape. For this. They were giant trees.
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: There are few in the world bigger, and it was
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: hard work felling them, and even harder to drag them
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: along on rollers with oxen, until they rushed, crashing down
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: a slide paved with timber to the railway. This slide
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: took the brothers nearly three weeks to build, but they
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: worked from dawn until after sunset, swinging the heavy axe
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: or pulling a seven foot saw through the trunks until
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: they could hardly straighten their backs. Though as the weeks
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: went by, Arthur grew more cheerful, for he hoped they
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: would earn enough by the time the work was finished
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: to sow another crop next year. Then one day, part
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: of the hillside slipped away, as it sometimes did, and
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: there was only a great hollow where their log slide
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: had been, while much of the hewn timber was buried
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: under hundreds of tons of earth. Some men would have
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: abandoned the task in despair, but Arthur had taught his
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: brothers to believe that patient determination generally wins in the end.
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: So when the surveyor came to expect the room, he
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: met him calmly. I am sorry for you. You'll have to
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: build a new slide, and hauling your log round to
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: it will cost you double. What are you going to do,
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: asked the railway builder, and Arthur answered, cut a new
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: road through the forest. Go on and finish my contract
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: whatever it cost. Me, I'll hire more men and oxen
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: if my own are not enough. You need not be
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: afraid that I will fail you. The surveyor said no more.
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: Just then, though, he wrote a letter to the railway
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: offices in which, after telling the story, he said, the
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: timber cutter for this section is a very honest man,
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: and on opportunity, I'll give him a better contract. He
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: doesn't know when he is beaten, though he has had
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: the worst kind of luck. So Arthur sold the last
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: of his cattle, hired some of his neighbors whose crops
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: had also been destroyed by hale, and worked even harder
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: than before, while he bade Charlie, who manage the cooking,
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: cut down their grocery bill. Yet, though they had to
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: drag the logs twice as far, they had always the
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: particular hewn timber they had contracted to deliver ready for
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: the snow sheds and trestle bridges, and the railway lengthened rapidly,
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: while the inhabitants of the mining town sometimes rode out
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: to inspect the new road which would bring them prosperity,
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: and having heard the story, said that the brothers had
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: real hard grit in them Then it happened that one
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: hot night, when Arthur and Charlie had ridden up on
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: a locomotive to the blacksmith's shop near another construction camp
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: some distance away, where they slept in a tent, they
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: were awakened by a low rumbling. It sounded like thunder
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: rolling high up among the stars, and then was answered
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: by a deep reverberation lowered down along the shoulder of
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: the hills. Charlie sat shivering in the cold wind which
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: whistled past the tent, and looking out across the deep
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: dark valley, could see the moonlight glimmering on the white
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: line of eternal snow far above, and wreaths of silver
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: miss slowly drifting across the pines. There was no sign
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: of any danger, and yet that deep rumbling, which ceased again,
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: seemed awe inspiring and made him anxious. Then, as following
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: Arthur's example, he scrambled into his clothes, A grizzled hunter
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: they sometimes bought venison from, strode hurriedly out of the shadows.
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: I guess there's something coming which will badly bust your
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: railroad up, he said. The big ice rib that holds
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: back the snowfield has been melting fast. Now she's busted bad,
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: and before morning the snow's comin down. You heard the
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: beginning of it, but there's lots more where that come from.
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: I was up on the peaks after Cinnamon Bears when
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: I had seen the warning, and just lit out just
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: as quick as I could. It will be a snow
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: slide of the biggest, baddest kind, and I didn't think
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: it would be healthy to get in its way. Where
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: will the worst come? Asked R. Arthur, and the man answered,
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: right down the hollow where you're building the long snowshed.
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: I should figure anyhow it's going to be dangerous at
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: that end of the valley, and I'm stopping right up here.
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: You can't run up against the snowslide without gettin hurt
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: by it, Charlie, said Arthur, with hoarse anxiety in his voice.
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: The lower end of the snowshed is waiting, ready framed
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: for the roof, and the logs we hewed for are
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: cut and loaded on the cars. If the snowslide destroyed them,
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: we should have to cut others instead, which would ruin
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: us all together. And as it is, we shall hardly
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: make anything on the contract besides that this part of
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: the railway on which so many lives and so much
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: money has been spent, would be swept down over the
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: precipice into the river. We must try to save it.
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: Broke in Charlie and Arthur continued, we are going to
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: or at least do our very utmost. Remember it's our
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: farm and home we are fighting for. Come on, we'll
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: find some men to help us in the construction camp,
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: and perhaps before the snow reaches it, the shed will
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: be finished. You have got to work as you never
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: worked before. Tonight. They started running their hardest, and sometimes
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: stumbling over the loose ballast among the sleepers. It rolled
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: and slipped away beneath their feet. Charlie felt as though
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: his lungs would burst, while the perspiration which ran into
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: his eyes nearly blinded him. For here the line curving
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: wound up a long ascent, But remembering what depended upon
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: their success, he clenched his hands and held on stubbornly,
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: passing his brother on the way, until at last, panting
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: and breathless, they reached the tents beside a new bridge
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: to which most of the workmen had been sent from
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: the snow sheds. A great American locomotive built to climb
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: steep mountain lines, was waiting with banked fires before a
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: row of ballast trucks, And when they had wakened the
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: sleep papers, there was a murmur of excited questions as
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: Arthur told the story. Some of the men held small
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: contracts on the railway, and if the line were destroyed
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: would lose their work, and the rest had been unfortunate.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: Miners and cattle raisers that all alike, were fearless, staunch
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: and sturdy. So when Arthur Gordon had finished speaking, one
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: of them said, the engineer has gone down to the settlement,
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: and the surveyor's busy at the other end of the track.
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: Guess we'll have to get there and see this through
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: without him ourselves. Hold on a few minutes. We're all
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: coming along to do what we can. Arthur climbed on
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: to the big locomotive he had learned how to drive one,
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: and Charlie, at his bidding, thrust pine logs into the furnace.
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: Then several men crowded into the glass windowed sheltered called
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: the cab, and there was a hail from the trucks.
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: We're all aboard and ready let her go her hardest,
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: Arthur shoved down the lever, Charlie cramped still more fuel
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: into the twinkling furnace, and with a blast from her
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: funnel and a whir of wheels slipping on dew wet metals,
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: the Great Mountain locomotive, which was perhaps twice the size
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: of an English express train, started on a grim race
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: to beat the avalanche. The line led winding down from
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: the snow barred pass into the valley most of the way,
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: and when Arthur, who felt the machinery warm up beneath
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: him and knew he had no time to lose, turned
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: full steam on. The ballast cars commenced to swing and
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: bounce behind. A few shouts rose up from them through
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: the eddying dust, as the men who filled them were
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: flung against each other before they could find hold for
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: feet or hands to steady themselves with. You'll be spilling
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: those fellows all over the track, said one of the
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: men in a cab. The footplates rocked under his feet,
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: and Charlie, who held on by a guard rail, could
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: see through the rattling glasses the greatines come reeling towards them,
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: an endless maze of flying trees as the glare from
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: the headlamp, which is a huge lantern these engines carry
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: feet across them, they ceased to be separate trunks, for
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: at that speed the eye could not grasp the spaces
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: between them, and the whole forest wavered. When because the
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: line was not well ballasted yet, the big locomotives swung
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: to and fro. Then bare rocks hung above their heads,
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: and the roar of wheels, clash and clang of couplings,
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: and beat of the great connecting rods came back in
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: one deafening din while at times it seemed as if
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: they were jumping clear of the metals. For Arthur, whose
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: face grew set and grim, was racing the engine at
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: a breakneck speed down the incline. Faster still grew the pace.
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: There were more half heard cries from the men in
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: the lurching trucks behind, while Charlie could see nothing at
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: all now except the blaze of headlamp flickering through black
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: darkness like a comet. But as they rushed with a
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: crash and a rattle, vapor whirling around them out of
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: a snow shed, Arthur only said more steam, and a
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: man helped Charlie to throw fresh pinewood through the firebox door,
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: from which long red flame licked forth, so that before
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: he could shut it his clothes were smoldering. Then someone said,
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: we'll be on the trestle bridge in a minute. Say
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: did you forget? It's not finished yet, and they're mighty
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: careful of it. Only run the cars over it slowly,
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: one or two at a time. Yes, said Arthur, hoarsely,
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: though he did not look round. I forgot it. Hold tight.
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: We would smash up everything if I tried to stop her.
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: Now we'll hope she carries speed enough to cross before
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: the bridge kneeled. But there's nothing we can do but
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: chance it raise more steam. Flying fragments of ballast whirled
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: about the engine like driven. Thick dust mixed with steam
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: rushed past and staring out beneath the massive branches that
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: were blurred altogether in the headlamps glare. Charlie saw the
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: hillside fall apart into a great black hollow, and clear
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: in the moonlight that shone down here, the slender shape
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: of a wooden bridge stretching across it. The structure looked
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: very frail, a gossamer fabric giddily spanning the gloomy abyss.
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: Then a great trembling commenced under the wheels. There was
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: pitchy blackness with the roar of water below, and for
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: a moment they seemed flying through mid air, while the
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: rails heaved beneath them, and the men beside Charlie held
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: their breath. A strange coldness came upon him, and he
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: wondered what it would feel like to plunge down into
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: the river. Then someone shouted hoarsely whereover. Charlie grasped with
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: relief as he felt there was solid ground under them
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: once more, while Arthur wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: We're almost there, said the latter. A few minutes later,
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: as he shut off steam, the roar of wheels grew slacker,
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: and presently, with a grinding of brakes, the engine drew
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: up beside the cars loaded with hewn timber in the
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: partly finished shed. The Gordons had felled and squared most
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: of that timber and had not so far been paid
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: for doing it. While Arthur knew that although the avalanche
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: might smash to pieces a roofless shed, it would slide
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: without causing much damage over the top of a completed one.
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: He was, however, horribly afraid that the snow would come
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: down on them before the work was done. The logs
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: were all san and notched, pattern and numbered, ready to
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: be bolted to the frames, and as the men leapt
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: down from the trucks, the foreman builder said, we've got
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: to break up the record for quick erection to night boys,
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: and you'll show them, Folks and Crescent what you can do.
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: Start in as if you meant it, and we'll either
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: break our backs or put this contract through. Somebody lighted
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: a roaring lucigen, which is a big air blast lamp,
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: and when a column of dazzling flames shot up, men
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: swarmed like bees about the partly finished shed. But there
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: was little confusion and less wild language. While no one
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: got in his fellow's way. Each knew exactly where his
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: duty lay and did it thoroughly, which is the advantage
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: of system and discipline. So while some raised the heavy beams,
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: others fitted them, and as each slipped into a place
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: a man was ready to drive a bowl or hold
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: fast through them. Arthur and Reggie drove the ox teams, which,
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: by dragging a chain over a pulley, helped to raise
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: the heavy weights, while Charlie ran to and fro with
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: his arms full of spikes or iron bolts wherever the
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: men called him. It was not a prominent part he took,
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: but it was useful, and he had learned now what
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: he did not realize at school, that it did not
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: matter whether people saw or heard of him, so long
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: as he helped forward any necessary work he was interested in. Then,
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: amid a rattle of wheels, the surveyor came flying up
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: the line on a hand trolley, and when Arthur had
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: spoken with him, said, I saw your working light across
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: the valley and came to see what was happening. I
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: guess the company is much indebted to you for your
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: prompt measures. No, I don't think I can improve upon
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: the program you are doing. Well. Let us hope the
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: snow won't come, but if it does, we'll be right
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: there ready for it, and with good luck, will have
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: got on so far that it can't hurt us much.
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: That surveyor was a wise man, so he let well
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: enough alone, instead of confusing the men and ordering things differently,
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: merely because he had not arranged what they were doing
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: all by himself. Charlie had one narrow escape. He was
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: standing on a box of spikes which rested on a
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: plank hung outside the shed, holding a long iron bolt,
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: while a man who sat on a beam above him
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: drove it into a hole. When there was a rattle
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: beneath him and the box slipped away from his feet.
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: The precipice dropped steeply from the edge of the shed,
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: but instead of feeling for the plank with his toes,
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: he twined his knees round a log and still held
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: the bolt even before the workman said stick tight to
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: the iron and don't let it go until I tell you.
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: It was not a comfortable perch, and the jar of
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: the heavy hammer, which swung faster and faster, nearly shook
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: his fingers from the bolt, but he held on stubbornly
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: until the man leaning down grasped his shoulder, saying, swing
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: yourself up here beside me, Sonny. Charlie did so, and
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: when he sat on the beam in safety, felt himself
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: turned cold and dizzy, for there was no sign in
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: the and he knew only the grip of his knees
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: had saved him from following it into the awful chasm below.
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: You're a level headed youngster, said the workman approvingly. I
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: said nothing for fear of scaring you. But if you'd
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: thought more of taking care of yourself than you did
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: of your job, and had tried to drop on to
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: that scaffold, you'd have been smashed flatter than a flapjack
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: way down in the canyon. Now end of chapter five,
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: Chapter six of Sunshine and Snow by Harold Finewass. This
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: libribox recording is in the public domain. When the snows
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: came down, at last, the work was finished, and Charlie,
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: who had been puzzled by something strangely familiar in the
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: face of a stripling who helped to fit the beams,
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: stopped opposite him under the bright glare of the lucigen.
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: Like a flash, his thoughts turned back to the day
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: when their steamer crept slowly through the thick bank fog,
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 1: and he remembered the white faced lad waiting outside his
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: dying comrade's room. The picture was so vivid that he
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: almost fancied he could hear the throbbing of the steamer's crew.
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: Tom he said, I hardly knew you. Have you forgotten me?
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: And after staring hard at him, the other's eyes brightened,
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: and he answered, why it's mister Gordon, whose brother jumped
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: in after me. I am more than glad to see you,
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: Charlie called out excitedly, and when Arthur came up, the
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: young man smiled with pleasure. As Charlie explained who he was. Afterwards,
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: answering the many questions they asked him, he said, yes,
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 1: I'm Tom, the stowaway, the purser, and mister Marvin, you'll
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: remember him, left me safe in Quebec with friends of theirs.
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: They bought me an outfit. Some kind people on the
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: steamer had sent the money, set me for a year
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: to school, and afterwards set me learning to be a carpenter.
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: Now I'm earning nearly two dollars a day, and this
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: country is good enough for a poor man like me. Yes,
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: you can make quite certain of that, and I'm only
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: sorry poor Jim never lived to reach it. It was
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: he who read those placards, and I can't forget him. No,
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: I still dream of that collision, and sometimes at nights
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 1: I can see him lying there, so white and quiet
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: in the steamer's hospital. There's plenty for us to yonder
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: in that good country. Was the last, he said, then
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: I hear the big injuns humming. Curious, isn't it? I
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 1: can hear them now. It was a strange meeting up
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 1: there after the stress and hurry in the mountain wilderness.
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: And there was a few moments silence while Charley wondered
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: whether the starved urchin he met on board the steamer
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: would ever have grown into this sturdy, contented young workman
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: if he had stayed at home. He hardly thought it likely.
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 1: Then Arthur said, I believe he is right about the sound.
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: But it is the snow coming, not the steamer screw.
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: A deep trembling boom commenced and grew louder overhead. Then
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: with a hurried tramp of feet, the men flocked towards
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: the entrance of the shed, and the surveyor overtaking. Arthur said,
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: we'll have the snow slide upon us presently, and I'm
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: not quite certain what is best to do. Steam's down
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: on the locomotive. We couldn't raise it in time, and
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure if we could get clear before the
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: wreckage swept the valley. Of course, it will come right
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: down the hollow over the big glacier, Charlie, glancing upwards,
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 1: saw a dark gap in the lofty line of eternal snow,
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: which glimmered coldly high up under the stars, while the
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 1: tall vines shivered. As a great chorus of sound came
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: vibrating down through the darkness, it drowned. The hoarse fret
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: of the river in the gorge below grew louder and deeper,
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: until the boldness of the workmen ceased their murmuring, and
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: the forest in the valley were racked in listening silence,
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: while the great peaks spoke. It seemed to Charlie's excited
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: fancy it was some majestic chant they raised. For the
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: hills on the further side flung back the sound, and
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: it struck him there was a meaning in the vannid
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: city he had never understood before. Winter frosts that split
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: the hard rock, summer sun, grinding ice, and melting snow
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: had each their work to do, and enriching a good
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: land and wearing down the face of the hills. Neither
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: was it room they wrought, for the wreckage they brought
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: down would fertilize many a valley, and the rest swept
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: on by a mighty river. Helped to spread new wheatlands
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: west in to what was then the sea. So Charlie
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: too felt humbled and awe stricken, while in obedience to
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 1: everlasting laws which were older than the solid earth that
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: trembled as it heard the great voices of nature proclaimed
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: their message. Sometimes they speak in thunders, sometimes very softly,
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: but they are never silent. And Charlie, unheeding, had heard
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: them in the sigh of the grasses which grew and
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: died for centuries to add a few more inches of
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: black soil to the prairie. It was the surveyor who
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: broke the silence. I guess all things considered, we had
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: better trust the shed, he said timber cutter Gordon. We'll
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: test your work tonight, and if you've done it badly,
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: they'll be pretty few of us left in the morning
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: to tell you. So are you willing to take the chances?
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: Arthur only bent his head. I am content. We tried
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 1: to do our best, he said, and Charlie, who now
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 1: realized the necessity there is for doing everything well, felt
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 1: thankful he had made each saw cut as Arthur ordered,
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: on the exact center of the line, even when that
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: necessitated beginning once or twice over again. He looked at
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: the shed, and it seemed solid and strong, of well braced,
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: dark tunnel, whose slanting roof was level with the top
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: of the hewn down rock behind. Meantime, through the great
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: booming he could recognize sharper notes, the scream of mighty
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: boulders scoring a pathway over slopes of rock, the roar
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 1: of sliding gravel, and the crash of shattered pines, until
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: it seemed as if the whole mountain side were coming
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: down upon them, And, as occasionally happens in that country,
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: softened by melting snow and rent by alternate frost and thaw,
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 1: a good deal of it really was. The men about
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: him said nothing until they murmured hoarsely. When staring up
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 1: at the climbing forest, they saw its higher edge sink suddenly. Then,
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: under the misty moonlight, a great wedge of white streaked
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: with darker color seemed to lick up the stately trees
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: and roll downward irresistibly, leaving an empty gap behind it
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: where dense forests had been. I wonder how many thousand
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: tons of snow on earth and broken rock there is
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: in that, said the surveyor. A tremendous display of power,
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: and if one could only harness it, we would need
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: no more labor for the next few years. However, there's
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 1: nobody smart enough to drive a snow slide yet, and
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: a wise man gets out of the way of it.
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: It's time we crawled under cover boys back into the shed.
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: The men could scarcely hear his voice as they obeyed,
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: for the whole air seemed throbbing with sound, and the
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: earth shook. While Charlie found it comforting to stand holding
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: Reggie's hand close beside his elder brother under the strongest
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: part of the snow shed. Tom also joined them, and
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 1: when he said something in the latter's ear, Charlie remembered
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: it was not the first time the young carpenter and
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 1: Arthur had watched together in the presence of death, before
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: whom there is no difference between officer of the army
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: and starving stowaway. Then their sense of hearing was completely paralyzed,
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: and it seemed to Charlie that thousands of loaded trains
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: were rolling over his head, while flakes of stone cracked
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: off from the rock and splinters peeled from the stout
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: timbers as they bent inward. A little under the pressure
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: in a very terrible manner. The avalanche was proving the
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: builder's work for them, and none of those who had
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: toiled at it felt quite comfortable. It would not have
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: stood the strain a moment had not the shed been
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 1: built on what is known as the line of least resistance.
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 1: Nothing that man can make may withstand the primitive forces
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: of the universe. Though after a patient study of nature's laws,
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: which have remained the same since the framing of the earth,
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: he made learn how to profit by obeying them. So,
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: because the roof was sloped in such a way that
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: the wreck of forest and glacier might pass over it
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: without meeting any obstacle, it only shook and rattled beneath
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 1: the burden. Then, after a space of waiting, when the
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 1: men's throats grew dry and their eyes bloodshot, the uproar
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: died gradually away, And at last the surveyor said, you
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: built it well, boys, and I'm mighty thankful you did.
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: Now I think we can go out and look at
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: the damage. When Charlie breathed the cool night air again,
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: he could still hear masses of earth and rock plunging
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: down into the ravine, and on looking up, partly believed
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: his eyes, for as far as he could see, a
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: great strip of forests had been utterly blotted out. All
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: that remained of it was a few broken and splintered
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 1: stumps of trees. The rust had been ground into splinters.
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: I must thank you again, Contractor Gordon, in the name
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: of the company, said the surveyor, And I dare say
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: somehow we will make it up to you. Hullo, wherever
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: are you coming to? Tom sprang wildly forward, seized Arthur
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: by the shoulder, and, shouting stand clear, hurled him backwards.
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: While as they staggered and went down together, and the
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: surveyor leaped aside for his life, Charlie almost choked with
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: a crash against a broken pine. A great boulder, weighing
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: several tons at least came whirling down the slope and
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: passed so close that Charlie felt the cold wind it
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: made upon his face. Then, striking the rails, it leaped
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: out and vanished into the gorge below. Thanks, said Arthur,
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: helping up the panting lad Tom. I think we are
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: even now, only that you might have hung on without
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: my help to the wreck of the lifeboat. While that
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 1: boulder with certainly have smashed me as it was, it
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: almost grazed us. Then the last tinkle of sliding gravel
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: died away, and there followed a deep silence, through which
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: the fret of the river rose more angrily than before,
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: and throwing themselves down inside the shed by dozens, the
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: men sank one by one into slumber. When Charlie wakened,
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: the sun was high, and taking Reggie with him, he
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: went out to find Arthur talking to the surveyor. We'll
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: have to re roof part of the shed, but it
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: has saved the track, said the latter, And I should
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: say this slide has done a good turn to you.
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: You needn't haul logs from the mountain when the snow
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: has brought them down, with the barks and branches rubbed
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: off nice and ready for you. Expect you'll find trees
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: by the hundred laying around handy that save you chopping,
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: and have only to pick them out and roll them in.
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: We'll take all you can give us for the new
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: bridges after the sheds are finished. Charlie beamed with delight
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: when he saw that this was true, for trunks of
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: all sizes lay where the avalanche had passed, and in
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: many places they had only to roll them a short
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: distance with camp poles to the rails. It meant a
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: great saving of money. Yes, it should help us to
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: make up part of what we lost on the contract,
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 1: said Arthur. And I'm glad because we badly needed it. Afterwards,
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: the work went on as before, except that they got
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: their logs much more easily, until at last, one day
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: in early winter, all the inhabitants of the mining town
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: turned out to celebrate the coming of the first train.
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: Arthur and his brother stood beside the metals near the
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: last big bridge, the one they had crossed half finished
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: the eventful night, the snows came down under the shadow
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: of the scented cedars. Across the line, a procession with
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: flags and banners, which had marched out from the little
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: wooden town, waited to meet the train. One or two
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: men were reading over the speeches they hoped to make,
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: and the rest chatted and laughed boisterously with their eyes
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: turned towards the end of the valley, until an excited
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: shout greeted a puff of white steam as something that
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: twinkled in the sunlight swung round a distant curve. It
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: was a locomotive hauling a passenger train, and it meant
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: that there would no longer be any need to pay
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 1: famine prices for all foods or stores which had hitherto
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: been brought in over the snow choked passes and through
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 1: thundering rivers by dangerous fords on pack horses backs. There
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: were rich minerals in those mountains, and now the locomotive
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: would bring them heavy mining machinery. Everybody who lived there
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 1: hoped the struggling town would grow into a great city.
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: Arthur Gordon said nothing as he watched the train draw near.
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: He had toiled hard and spent his money freely helping
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: to build that road, but he feared he would be
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: very little richer for it. While how they were to
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: live during the next year, he did not know. He
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: wore coarse blue jean, which, like Charley's clothes, was patched
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: with strips of flower bags. In fact, the latter bore
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: the brand Champion Early Riser across his back. None of
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: the brothers were light hearted that bright morning, but though
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: they looked sober and serious, their eyes were fearless, and
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: they were not beaten yet. The years of work and
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: disappointment had fashioned them into strong, determined men who could
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: be trusted to fight out even a losing battle bravely,
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: which is not an easy thing to do. The train
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: came on rapidly, then, amid a burst of cheering, it
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: stopped opposite the brothers, and when a number of gentlemen
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: came out upon the platform of the leading car, a
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: citizen holding a paper stepped forward. We welcomed this locomotive
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: into Crescent City. He commenced, don't see no city. Well
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: you haven't quite got there yet. No, I mean, we
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: welcome the honorable company, but we're glad to see both
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: of you. This is going to be one of the
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: greatest towns on earth. And have patience, gentlemen. I've lost
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: my place. I'm proud to be its magistrate and own
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: the smartest store. Hm. Oh, yes, you're introducing a new
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 1: era of prosperity and a railroad's the greatest institution of civilization.
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 1: The silly man has actually read it. Civility. The reader
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: stopped and fumbled desperately with the paper, coughed and grew
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: red in the face, while a voice rose from the
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: laughing crowd out of breath. So early forgotten all them
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: pretty things. What about the maple leaf and the good
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: old beaver flag, Gentlemen and fellows, citizens, ladies and miners,
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, recommenced the confused oriitator. The fir tree doctor
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 1: made up this here speech for me, and there were
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: some nice ideas in it, but he has written it
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: that scribbably I can't read the thing. What I want
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: to say is I'm very glad you've come, and we've
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: a feast up yonder waiting. You won't eat anything for
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: a week. After we've made this town out of the
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: barren wilderness, and now we've got a railroad, we'll make
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: it a city of palaces. There were some jealous people
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 1: said we wanted a prison, but they was lying. It's schools,
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 1: good men, and machines we want, and we mean to
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: get them. I was taught with an ash plant, chiefly
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 1: to single turnips, back in the old country, and that's
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 1: why I can't express just what I'm feeling this auspicious day.
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: But my sons won't be. And when we've more men
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: with well crammed brains, not ashamed to use their muscles
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: as they Almighty meant them to, we'll show the rest
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 1: of the nations what we can do in this part
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: of the dominion. So I've only to finish. Drive on
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: with your science and engines and bring in prosperity. Then,
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: while some laughed and many cheered, the surveyor, who stood
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: up among the rich men and railroad's company guests on
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: the platform of the car, to the surprise of Charlie,
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: beckoned Arthur. This is contractor Gordon, he said, to a
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: famous engineer. You will remember I told you about him
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: and how he helped us to save part of the line.
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: I am glad to meet you, said the engineer, holding
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 1: out his hand to Arthur. We are indebted to you
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 1: and should be pleased if you will ride into the
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: town with us. I want to talk to you. Charlie
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: also started when another gray haired man touched his brother's shoulder,
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 1: for he recognized Colonel Armadale. I must congratulate you, too,
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: he said. We have heard several credible things about you,
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: and perhaps you did not know I was a large shareholder.
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: They're in this railway. We'll have to talk so much
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 1: at dinner that you must answer the speeches for us. Now,
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: mister surveyor, I'm a railroad builder and not a talker,
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: said the survey as he faced the expectant crowd, talking's easy.
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: Railroad buildings hard, and you folks should be proud because
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: you've got a good one. Yes, we're going to bring
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 1: you in prosperity, and we hope earn a few dividends
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: while you build your city. But when you get all rich,
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: don't forget the men who made this road. Some lost
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: their money and some lost their lives. You know, all
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: fought hard, and you'll give them their due. So when
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: you're raising statues to your mayors and presidents, don't forget
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 1: a little one to the man with the big, hard
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: hands who swings the shovel. There was applause, which swelled
• 2:14:50
  Speaker 1: into a roar as a stalwart man and dusty blue
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 1: jeans stood up. This country fed us well, and we'd
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: done our little best to pay it back. He said.
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 1: It wasn't easy, but we worried through. And I'd like
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: to mention one man to whom particular thanks are due.
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: He's standing right there beside the surveyor. He struck the
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 1: hardest bad luck, but he didn't lie down an die. No, sir,
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: says he what I've begun all finished an he'd done
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: it too. What's more, when any of the rest of
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 1: us was nearly beat he stood by and elped us.
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: Helped us with an axe and an ox team. However,
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 1: he was busy. Gave us flour when the grub run out,
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: an good oats for the starving beast. When we couldn't
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: buy no hay. Stand up, Arthur Gordon, We're all lookin
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 1: to you. The air was filled with lifted hats and
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: excited cries when Arthur Gordon leaned over the platform balustrade,
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 1: laying a big hand that trembled on the brass rail,
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 1: and Charlie's eyes grew bright with pleasure. When there was
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 1: another roar from the assembly as the surveyor patted his shoulder.
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: Arthur said little, and said it quietly, but he pleased
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: the listeners, for there was a deafening cheer when he finished,
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 1: and several of the principal guests shook hands with him.
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: Then Charlie's flush face beamed as Tom, who came up,
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: said just splendid, wasn't it. I wish I had a
• 2:16:16
  Speaker 1: brother like him. I knew he was going to be
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 1: a great man ever since the day he jumped overboard
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 1: to save me. After this, everybody scrambled for a place
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: on the cars, and when with the whistle screaming, the
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: train moved on, those who could not find one ran
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: behind it, cheering towards the town, with Reggie waving his
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: hat among them. When the latter turned back, he and
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: Charlie rode quietly home on a trolley to their shanty
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: of cedar bark While. When Arthur returned at night, he
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: looked happy and said he was very thankful. They have
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: paid me more than we bargained for, he said, made
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 1: it up in a number of small extras, and there's
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: another profitable contract open to me. I'm to go back
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: to the other new railroad near our homestead and begin
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: as soon as the frost goes. I want several dozen teams,
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 1: and we should make a good deal out of it. Charlie,
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: you and Reggie must sew the crop yourselves next year.
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: There is now no cause for anxiety, and if all
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 1: goes as well as it promises to, I shall be
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: able to start you by and by on government land
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: of your own. Then Arthur took out some old letters,
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: and when he sat down to write under the blinking lamp,
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 1: Charlie smiled at Reggie, and they slipped out to join
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 1: the workmen in camp. I think he wants to tell
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: miss Armadale about it, and won't miss us for once,
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: said Charlie. They spent a happy winter in their own homestead,
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: and when spring came, Arthur hired all the men and
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: teams he could on that part of the prairie and
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: went away to work on the new railroad, though he
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: often rode forty miles to see how his brothers got
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: on with the farm, and went back round by Barholm.
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: While they reaped a very good crop that year. Bad
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 1: fortune does not last forever, and the men who succeed
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 1: are those who can work on and wait patiently. For
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: greater than dash and daring are the powers of slow endurance.
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 1: Then Arthur brought a government surveyor and laid out one
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty acres of good land ready for Charlie,
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: who with his younger brother had been hewing logs for
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 1: their house in the bluff. But before it was ready,
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 1: Arthur married Lilian Armadale, and they went to live in
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: the old homestead, which had been doubled in size. It
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: was Tom, the former stowaway who took the contract for
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 1: the carpentry. So, after many disappointments and an uphill struggle,
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 1: the brothers found themselves on the way to prosperity. While
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: when Charlie, who is now a stalwart and successful young farmer,
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 1: rides after his cattle across the prairie, or watches the
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: fresh green wheat cover the plowing, he looks back to
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: those early days of adversity and remembers he owes much
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: to them. They had taught him useful lessons he might
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: never have otherwise learned. Once too, when he reaped his
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: first splendid crop, his sister Alice, who kept house for him, said,
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: you see, though times I was afraid we should have
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 1: to give it up, all happened for the best, and
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: we should never have value the good things if we
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 1: got them too easily. Do you know? As I watched
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 1: the binders pile up the sheaves, something recalled the last
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: Harvest Festival I was at in England, and I remember
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: the message so well. They who sow in tears shall
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: reap in joy. Alice is right, said Arthur, smiling at Lilian,
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: who stood close beside him. This is a good country.
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 1: But even he one cannot win success in fortune, or
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: a wife worth more than either without a tough struggle. Still,
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 1: and we are happier than many, for everybody does not
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: get such prizes. It was well worth while. The end
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: end of chapter six, end of Sunshine and Snow by
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 1: Harold Weinlass, read by Laurie Vanza