Gilbert Parker

“ Bagot's eyes blazed. “Why didn't you offer rum—rum? They'd have done it for that—one—five—ten kegs of rum!”
He swayed to and fro in his excitement, yet their voices hardly rose above a hoarse whisper all the time.
“You forget,” answered the priest, “that it is against the law, and that as a priest of my order, I am vowed to give no rum to an Indian.”
“A vow? A vow? Name of God! what is a vow beside a woman—my wife?”
His misery and his rage were pitiful to see.
“Perjure my soul? Offer rum? Break my vow in the face of the enemies of God's Church? ”

“ It could scarcely be thought that such pride should be spent on a little pelt by a mere backwoodsman and his nine-year-old son. One has seen a woman fingering a splendid necklace, her eyes fascinated by the bunch of warm, deep jewels—a light not of mere vanity, or hunger, or avarice in her face—only the love of the beautiful thing. But this was an animal's skin. ”

“ Holding out the iron crucifix, he said: “On your knees and swear it, John Bagot.”
There was something inspiring, commanding, in the voice and manner, and Bagot, with a new hope rushing through his veins, knelt and repeated his words.
The priest turned to the door, and called, “Madame Lucette!”
The boy, hearing, waked, and sat up in bed suddenly.
“Mother! mother!” he cried, as the door flew open. The mother came to her husband's arms, laughing and weeping, and an instant afterwards was pouring out her love and anxiety over her child. ”

“ Bagot leaned forward, his body strained, every muscle tense. “A woman?” he said, as if breathing gave him sorrow—“my wife?”
“Your wife.”
“Quick! Quick! Go on—oh, go on, m'sieu'—good father.”
“She fell at my feet, begging me to save her.... I waved her off.”
The sweat dropped from Bagot's forehead, a low growl broke from him, and he made such a motion as a lion might make at its prey.
“You wouldn't—wouldn't save her—you coward!” He ground the words out.
The priest raised his palm against the other's violence. “Hush!... She drew away, saying that God and man had deserted her.... ”

“ For true love is unselfish and patient, and where it is the stronger, it cares for the weaker; but it was your wife who was unselfish, patient, and cared for you. Every time she said an ave she thought of you, and her every thanks to the good God had you therein. They know you well in heaven, Bagot—through your wife. Did you ever pray—ever since I married you to her?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“An hour or so ago.”
Once again the priest's eyes glanced towards the lighted candles.
Presently he said: “You asked me if I had heard anything of your wife. Listen, and be patient while you listen.... ”

“ The veins were beating like live cords in the man's throat and at his temples.
“'Twas just the same as Father Corraine bein' here, when mother had Sunday, wasn't it?”
The man made no reply, but a gloom drew down his forehead, and his lips doubled in as if he endured physical pain. He got to his feet and paced the floor. For weeks he had listened to the same kind of talk from this wounded, and, as he thought, dying son, and he was getting less and less able to bear it. The boy at nine years of age was, in manner of speech, the merest child, but his thoughts were sometimes large and wise. ”

“ He said to me, 'What does a priest want of a woman?' I said that I wished to give her back to her husband. He said that he had found her, and she was his, and that he would marry her when they reached the great camp of the tribe. I was patient. It would not do to make him angry. I wrote down on a piece of bark the things that I would give him for her: an order on the Company at Fort o' Sin for shot, blankets, and beads. He said no.”
The priest paused. Bagot's face was all swimming with sweat, his body was rigid, but the veins of his neck knotted and twisted. ”

“ His life had been spent in the wastes, with rough deeds and rugged habits, and a youth of hardship, danger, and almost savage endurance, had given him a half-barbarian temperament, which could strike an angry blow at one moment and fondle to death at the next. ”

“ When the great winds and rains come down from the hills, do not let the floods drown us, nor the woods cover us, nor the snow-slide bury us; and do not let the prairie-fires burn us. Keep wild beasts from killing us in our sleep, and give us good hearts that we may not kill them in anger.”
His finger twisted involuntarily into the bullet-hole in the pelt, and he paused a moment. ”

“ He had ever had that touch of mystical imagination inseparable from the far north, yet he had none of that religious belief which swallowed up natural awe and turned it to the refining of life, and to the advantage of a man's soul. ”