Three Boys in the Wild North Land - Egerton Ryerson Young (i read a book .TXT) 📗

water hanging on to my end of the pole, while the monster of a fish was at the other on his way to York Factory, it seemed to me."

"Why didn't you let go?" said Alec.

"Let go!" he replied, with a comical look, "sure the creature didn't give me time to let go; and then, when I came to my senses, didn't I remember that the gaff hook, pole, and all belonged to Mr Ross, and how could I face him and his gaff hook on its way to York Factory."

No one laughed more heartily than Mr Ross at the quaint answer. He had most thoroughly entered into the enjoyment of this odd adventure.

"Well, where is the gaff now?" he asked.

"Sure, it's in the boat, sir, and the fish, too," said Sam. "Do you think I'd have had the face to come home so early without it?"

This answer amused and more deeply interested all, and so Sam had to give the full account of his doings after his sudden jerk over the front of the canoe.

Some of these jack fish grow to be six feet in length, and are very strong. It seems it was one of the very largest that Sam had the good or ill fortune to hook.

With a tremendous jerk he was fairly lifted out of the boat, and seemed to skim along on the water with the fish like a small tug in front towing him along. Fortunately it was in a large, shallow place, where the water was not more than four feet deep, and so the fish was unable to dive and had to keep near the surface. As rapidly as possible the Indians used their paddles, and so were soon able to seize hold of Sam. They found him holding on to the one end of the gaff hook, while on the other the now about exhausted fish was still securely fastened. This was the Indian statement of the adventure.

Sam's account was that when he went out of that canoe so suddenly he resolved to hang on to his end of that gaff hook as long as the fish did at the other. It was a new sensation, and he enjoyed it amazingly to be thus ploughing along through the water towed by a fish. Then he felt sure that the fish could not keep it up very long and the canoe would not be far off; so he resolved to hang on to his fish until the men picked them both up. After the first sensation of the ducking, he said he much enjoyed the fun. The water was warm, and he knew that if he had to let go he could easily swim until the canoe came to his assistance.

Alec had had no accidents or adventures. He had often gone out with older people fishing in the streams of his native country, where he had helped to land the spent salmon after they had been well played by the fishermen, and this training had come to his help here; so he had the greatest number of the finest fish and the largest, excepting, of course, this one monster of Sam's that had played him such a trick.

Only for a short time in each summer can these jack fish be successfully captured in this way. So during the next few days the boys went out several times and had some rare sport without any very startling adventures.

One day, however, when resting on a high rock that overhung the deep waters of the lake they were visiting, they were the spectators of a battle between two fierce jack fish that fought and grappled and tore each other with all the ferocity of bulldogs.

As such sights are extremely rare, we will give a description of this marine battle. A number of the female fish were first observed slowly passing through the clear waters and depositing their roe on the gravelly bottom. Following in the rear were several of the male fish. They were, as usual, extremely jealous of each other, but for a time made no attempt at hostilities.

It is a well-known fact that a person situated some height directly over water can see much farther down into it than those who are close to its edge. So in this case the boys could see the fish distinctly, and also the gravelly bottom of the lake. While interested in watching the movements of the fish, suddenly there was a commotion among them, and the boys were excited and amazed to see two of the largest of the jack fish suddenly seize each other in their enormous jaws and make the most determined efforts to conquer. So securely locked together were their jaws that in their struggles they several times rolled over and over in the water.

After a minute or two of this desperate struggling they separated and seemed to be in distress. But their fury was not spent, and so after circling around in the water a little they rushed at each other with the greatest speed, almost like two fierce rams. Then with open mouths again they bit and tore each other, until once more locking their jaws they each exerted all their strength to vanquish their opponent. Thus it went on until they had had several rounds in this fierce way. How it would have ended we know not. As they fought they moved along the coast, and in order to see them to advantage the boys had to shift their position. One of them unfortunately rose up so high that, the sun being behind him in the heavens, his shadow was cast on the waters over the two fierce combatants. As quick as a flash they let go their grip on each other and dashed off in opposite directions.

Very much disappointed were the boys that the battle came to such an abrupt termination. They would have liked to see such a strange conflict fought out to the end.

Three Boys in the Wild North Land, by Egerton R. Young


CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

MISSION VILLAGE--SELF-DENYING TOILERS--PLEASANT VISITS--FLOURISHING SCHOOL--SYLLABIC CHARACTERS--COMPETITIVE SPORTS--ARCHERY--FOOT RACES-- WRESTLING--SWIMMING--CANOE RACES.

Not many miles from Sagasta-weekee was an Indian mission village. There a devoted missionary, Mr Evans, with his brave wife and a lady teacher, Miss Adams, were nobly toiling and were not unsuccessful in their efforts to Christianise and then to civilise the Indians. They were pursuing the right methods in trying to Christianise first, as it has ever seemed an impossibility to get much of an abiding civilisation out of a pagan Indian. However, this devoted man with his helpers was not toiling in vain. It is true that there were not many encouragements in their efforts to civilise in a land where hunting and fishing were nearly the only way by which a livelihood could be obtained.

One day there came from the mission an invitation to all at Sagasta- weekee who could come, to attend the annual examination of the village school, and to observe the progress made by the Indian children in the studies both in the Indian and English languages.

Mr Ross had taken, since the beginning of the mission, a great interest in the school, and not only attended at these examinations, but donated prizes for competition among the children.

Frank, Alec, and Sam were delighted to be included among the invited ones, as their curiosity was aroused to see the Indian youngsters in the school. They had seen them at their sports, and had admired their cleverness with their bows and arrows, and had almost envied the skill and daring with which they could, in rapids or on stormy waters, manage their light canoes.

When the morning arrived for the visit, Mr Ross sent on a canoe well- loaded with supplies for a substantial lunch for the children when the examinations were over, and he gave a hint to the boys that if they had anything extra lying around that they did not specially need they would doubtless have an opportunity to make some little dark-eyed, swarthy- faced Indian children rejoice. So the hint was taken, and in due time they all embarked in their canoes, and, adding their own strokes to those of the strong Indians who had been secured by Mr Ross, they were at the mission village before nine o'clock. They met with a very cordial greeting from Mr and Mrs Evans, and also from Miss Adams.

It was a great pleasure to the boys to see the Indian children in the school. Very frequently when the weather was fine had Mr Ross brought his family and guests to church on Sabbath mornings, but, as up to the present time the young white gentlemen had not yet visited the mission on a week day, all they saw now was novel and interesting. It was arranged that the school examinations should take place in the forenoon; then, after they had partaken of the handsome lunch which Mr Ross had prepared for them, they were to have the usual games and sports in the afternoon.

A number of prizes were to be contended for by the young Indians. It is true that from a civilised standpoint these prizes would not be considered of much value, but by these young Indians they were much valued. And then the honour of being the winner is just as much prized by them as it has ever been in more highly favoured lands.

The missionary had the worthy idea in his mind that, as these native races have so little literature in their own language, the sooner they learned English the better for them. The result was that all the lessons were in the two languages, with a decided preference for the English as their studies advanced.

This was the first opportunity the boys had had of seeing the methods, by which Mr Evans's syllabic characters were taught to the Indians. With a home-made blackboard, and a very white kind of clay as a substitute for chalk, these syllabic characters were put down upon the board like the alphabet, and there to be studied like the A, B, C's. It was committed to memory. The peculiarity about it, as the name "syllabic" implies, is that each character is a syllable, and so there is really no spelling in the language.

These are phonetic in character, and so, when the thirty-six characters are impressed upon the memory, all that remains to be done is to open the book, be it Bible, Testament, hymn book, prayer book, or catechism, and begin to read; no long, tedious efforts at learning to spell first words of one syllable, then words of two syllables, and so on. Each character is a syllable, and thus the method of learning to read is so simple that the intelligent boys and girls learn to read in their own language in a few weeks. Even many of the old people, when they renounce their pagan life and become Christians, readily get to understand these characters and learn to read.

With the mastery of English, and learning to read in the ordinary way, the work is very much slower. Still even here there is some progress, and the visitors were all pleased with the intelligence and aptitude of the scholars, both boys and girls. Mr Ross, who understood their language perfectly, at Mr Evans's request conducted the examinations, and Mrs Ross presented the prizes.

After