Girl From Keller's

Harold Bindloss

Description

Life on the Canadian prairie can be trying under the very best of circumstances. When the odds are stacked against you, it takes remarkable inner strength and fortitude to make it work. Those are lessons that long-time railroad man Festing must learn the hard way when he decides to make a career change and take up farming.

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781776588718
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE GIRL FROM KELLER'S
OR, SADIE'S CONQUEST
* * *
HAROLD BINDLOSS
 
*
The Girl From Keller's Or, Sadie's Conquest First published in 1917 Epub ISBN 978-1-77658-871-8 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77658-872-5 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Chapter I - The Portrait Chapter II - The Picnic Chapter III - Keller Interferes Chapter IV - Festing Commits Theft Chapter V - A Rash Promise Chapter VI - Festing Keeps His Word Chapter VII - Helen Takes the Lead Chapter VIII - A Debt of Gratitude Chapter IX - Festing Loses His Temper Chapter X - Helen Decides Chapter XI - Sadie Uses Pressure Chapter XII - The Sacrifice Chapter XIII - An Unexpected Meeting Chapter XIV - Sadie Finds a Friend Chapter XV - The Cheque Chapter XVI - A Counter-Stroke Chapter XVII - Festing Uses Force Chapter XVIII - Helen Makes a Mistake Chapter XIX - Sadie Sees a Way Chapter XX - Festing Gets to Work Chapter XXI - Charnock Tries His Strength Chapter XXII - Festing's New Partner Chapter XXIII - Charnock Makes Progress Chapter XXIV - The Chinook Wind Chapter XXV - The Thaw Chapter XXVI - A New Undertaking Chapter XXVII - Snow Chapter XXVIII - The Lewis Bolt Chapter XXIX - Foul Play Chapter XXX - Understanding Chapter XXXI - Charnock's Triumph
Chapter I - The Portrait
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It was getting dark when Festing stopped at the edge of a ravine on theSaskatchewan prairie. The trail that led up through the leaflessbirches was steep, and he had walked fast since he left his work atthe half-finished railroad bridge. Besides, he felt thoughtful, forsomething had happened during the visit of a Montreal superintendentengineer that had given him a hint. It was not exactly disturbing,because Festing had, to some extent, foreseen the line thesuperintendent would take; but a post to which he thought he had a claimhad been offered to somebody else. The post was not remarkablywell paid, but since he was passed over now, he would, no doubt, bedisappointed when he applied for the next, and it was significant thatas he stood at the top of the ravine he first looked back and thenahead.
In the distance, a dull red glow marked the bridge, where the glare ofthe throbbing blast-lamps flickered across a muddy river, swollen bymelting snow. He heard the ring of the riveters' hammers and the clangof flung-down rails. The whistle of a gravel train came faintly acrossthe grass, and he knew that for a long distance gangs of men weresmoothing the roughly graded track.
In front, everything was quiet. The pale-green sky was streaked alongthe horizon by a band of smoky red, and the gray prairie rolled into theforeground, checkered by clumps of birches and patches of melting snow.In one place, the figures of a man and horses moved slowly across thefading light; but except for this, the wide landscape was without lifeand desolate. Festing, however, knew it would not long remain a silentwaste. A change was coming with the railroad; in a few years, thewilderness would be covered with wheat; and noisy gasoline tractorswould displace the plowman's teams. Moreover, a change was coming tohim; he felt that he had reached the trail fork and now must choose hispath.
He was thirty years of age and a railroad builder, though he hardlythought he had much talent for his profession. Hard work and stubbornperseverance had carried him on up to the present, but it looked asif he could not go much farther. It was eight years since he began byjoining a shovel gang, and he felt the lack of scientific training. Hemight continue to fill subordinate posts, but the men who came to thefront had been taught by famous engineers and held certificates.
Yet Festing was ambitious and had abilities that sprang rather fromcharacter than technical knowledge, and now wondered whether he shouldleave the railroad and join the breakers of virgin soil. He knewsomething about prairie farming and believed that success was largely amatter of temperament. One must be able to hold on if one meant to win.Then he dismissed the matter for a time, and set off again with a firmand vigorous tread.
Spring had come suddenly, as it does on the high Saskatchewan plains,and he was conscious of a strange, bracing but vaguely disturbingquality in the keen air. One felt moved to adventure and a longing forsomething new. Men with brain and muscle were needed in the wide, silentland that would soon waken to busy life; but one must not give way toromantic impulses. Stern experience had taught Festing caution, hisviews were utilitarian, and he distrusted sentiment. Still, looking backon years of strenuous effort that aimed at practical objects, he feltthat there was something he had missed. One must work to live, butperhaps life had more to offer than the money one earned by toil.
The red glow on the horizon faded and an unbroken arch of dusky bluestretched above the plain. He passed a poplar bluff where the deadbranches cut against the sky. The undergrowth had withered down andthe wood was very quiet, with the snow-bleached grass growing about itsedge, but he seemed to feel the pulse of returning life. The damp sodthat the frost had lately left had a different smell. Then a faintmeasured throbbing came out of the distance, and he knew the beat ofwings before a harsh, clanging call fell from the sky.
He stopped and watched a crescent of small dark bodies plane down onoutstretched wings. The black geese were breaking their long journeyto the marshes by the Arctic Sea; they would rest for a few days in theprairie sloos and then push on again. Their harsh clamor had a noteof unrest and rang through the dark like a trumpet call, stirring theblood. The brant and bernicle beat their way North against the roaringwinds, and man with a different instinct pressed on towards the West.
It was a rich land that rolled back before him towards the setting sun.Birch and poplar bluffs broke the wide expanse; there was good water inthe winding creeks, a black soil that the wheat plant loved lay beneaththe sod, and the hollows held shallow lakes that seldom quite dried up.Soon the land would be covered with grain; already there were scatteredpatches on which the small homesteaders labored to free themselves fromdebt. For the most part, their means and tools were inadequate, thehaul to the elevators was long, and many would fall an easy prey to themortgage robber. But things would soon be different; the railroad hadcome. For all that, Festing resolved that he would not be rash. His paywas good in the meantime, and he would wait.
By and by a cluster of buildings rose out of the grass. A light or twotwinkled; a frame house, a sod stable, and straw-covered wheat bins thatlooked like huge beehives grew into shape. The homestead was good, ashomesteads in the back townships went, but Festing knew the land wasbadly worked. Charnock had begun well, with money in the bank, but luckhad been against him and he had got slack. Indeed this was Charnock'strouble; when a job got difficult, he did not stay with it.
Festing crossed the fall back-set, where the loam from the frost-splitclods stuck to his boots, passed the sod stable, noting that one end wasfalling down, and was met on the veranda by Charnock's dogs. They sprangupon him with welcoming barks, and pushing through them, he enteredthe untidy living-room. Charnock sat at a table strewn with papers thatlooked like bills, and there was a smear of ink on his chin.
"Hallo!" he said. "Sit down and take a smoke while I get through withthese."
Festing pulled a chair into his favorite corner by the stove and lookedabout when he had lighted his pipe. The room was comfortless and bare,with cracked, board walls, from which beads of resin exuded. A moosehead hung above a rack of expensive English guns, a piano stood ina corner, and lumps of the gumbo soil that lay about the floor hadgathered among its legs. Greasy supper plates occupied the end of thetable, and the boards round the stove were blackened by the distillatethat dripped from the joint where the pipe went through the ceiling.These things were significant, particularly the last, since one need notburn green wood, which had caused the tarry stain, and the joint couldhave been made tight.
Then Festing glanced at Charnock. The latter was a handsome man of aboutFesting's age. He had a high color and an easy smile, but he had, soto speak, degenerated since he came to Canada. Festing rememberedhis keenness and careless good-humor when he began to farm, butdisappointment had blunted the first, though his carelessness remained.He had been fastidious, but one now got a hint of a coarse streak andthere was something about his face that indicated dissipation. YetFesting admitted that he had charm.
"You don't look happy," he remarked.
"I don't feel particularly happy," Charnock replied. "In fact, thereckoning I've just made looks very like a notice to quit." He threwFesting a paper and swept the others into a drawer. "You might examinethe calculations and see if they're right. I'm not fond of figures."
"That was obvious long since. However, if you'll keep quiet for a fewminutes—"
Festing studied the paper, which contained a rough statement ofCharnock's affairs. The balance was against him, but Festing thoughtit might be wiped off, or at least pulled down, by economy andwell-directed effort. The trouble was that Charnock disliked economy,and of late had declined to make a fight. Festing doubted if h