Gilbert Parker

“ Pierre continued: “But then women are strange. What you expect they will not—no. Riches?—it is nothing; houses like that on the hill, nothing. They have whims. The hut is as good as the house, with the kitchen in the open where the river welts and washes, and a man—the great man of the world to them—to play the little game of life with.... Pshaw! you are idle: move; you are thick in the head: think hard; you like the girl: speak.”
As he said this, there showed beneath them the front timbers of a small crib of logs with a crew of two men, making for the rapids and the slide below. ”

“ The rapids long and the banks of green,
As we ride away in the morning,
On the froth of the Long Lachine?”
One day, soon after they came, the dams and booms were opened above, and forests of logs came riding down to Bamber's Boom. The current was strong, and the logs came on swiftly. As Brydon's gang worked, they saw a man out upon a small raft of driftwood, which had been suddenly caught in the drive of logs, and was carried out towards the middle channel. The river-drivers laughed, for they failed to see that the man was old, and that he could not run across the rolling logs to the shore. ”

“ Then there was a silence. “Well?” she asked.
“It is beautiful,” he said, “and the sun is still bright.”
“You see as far as Indian Island?”
“I can see the white comb of the reef beyond it, my dear.”
“And no one—is coming?”
“There are men making for the shore, and the fires are burning, but no one is—coming this way.... He would come by the road, perhaps.”
“Oh no, by the river. Pierre has not found him. Can you see the Eddy?”
“Yes. It is all quiet there; nothing but the logs tossing round it.” ”

“ But when the mother took to her bed again, the young doctor said it was best that Brydon should come. Pierre had time and inclination to go for him. But before he went he was taken to Judith's bedside. Pierre had seen life and death in many forms, but never anything quite like this: a delicate creature floating away upon a summer current travelling in those valleys which are neither of this life nor of that ”

“ They say that a woman was drowned there, and that you can see her face in the water, if you happen there at sunrise, weeping and smiling also: a picture in the water.... Do you think it true, father?”
“Life is so strange, and who knows what is not life, my child?” ”

“ Then he went far up the river to Rice Lake and beyond, to bring down the drives of logs for his Company. June came, and then there was a sudden sorrow at the Bridge House. How great it was, Pierre's words as he stood at the door one evening will testify. He said to the young doctor: “Save the child, and you shall have back the I O U on your house.” Which was also evidence that the young doctor had fallen into the habit of gambling.
The young doctor looked hard at him. He had a selfish nature. “You can only do what you can do,” he said. ”