Raymond S. Spears

“ His wife was dead; all the children were grown up, except two or three who were dead; but Jean survived, and old Jeadreau was proud of him, for he was big and strong and impatient, like his father—tearing with ambition, but like his mother, loving little children and loving his father and loving his own wife, whose tongue was sometimes impatient, but what wife ever lived who would not grow impatient with the stolid thick-headedness of men? ”

“ Always he had to feel the dread of what might happen! That is the way of young men. He swung with long strides along the trail. Half a mile from the camp he stopped short with a loud exclamation.
There was a trap-cubby, built up prettily with sides of old wood and top of balsam boughs, and with its back against a gaunt hardwood stub. Out to one side reached the well-sweep pole, resting in the forks of a sapling. The trap had been sprung, and dangling in mid air was a splendid big fisher, frozen and stark.
"The old Indian!" Jean laughed, raking the fisher and resetting the trap. ”

“ Ah—those blessed little children which, if they do not die and become angels, grow up into strong boys and fine young men, so like their fathers, not inheriting much knowledge or instinct about girls and women, but so willing to learn! And how wise the girls are, even little ones—and Marie? She was so lovely, and old Jeadreau dreamed wistfully, remembering the little girl—his only daughter, who was dead, but who might have grown up like Marie! ”

“ The boy Jeadreau raced ahead of the others, running lightly on barrel-stave-skiis.
"Hi-i!" young Jeadreau called to the others. "Daddy's got some fur! Daddy caught a black fox. Grandaddy bet he would!"
Jean let the children carry the fine carcass in. They handled it with every care. Marie met Jean at the doorway, and, after one look at the burden of the children, she began to cry—tears of happiness!
"I didn't find Daddy!" Jean faltered.
"Why, he's come back. He's here!"
"You bet, sonny, he's here!" the high voice of the old figure starting stiffly up from the big- rocking-chair cackled. ”

“ Thus the trap line led into the wilderness depths, and sometimes there was a trap every half-mile, but in other parts of the line there were two-mile gaps without a trap anywhere. Every few miles was a little brush shack. The, trail led into a perfect tumult and jumble of rocky hills and interspersed streams with pools and lakes surrounded by dense swamps.
Jean had never seen this country. Wherever he turned he noted tracks of fur in the snow, lynx along the stone cliffs, marten among the knoll top-tree clumps, mink and otter along the streams, and fisher in whatever direction he turned. ”

“ Half it was in memory, too, for he transported himself back into his own young manhood when his pretty little wife had spurred him, Jeadreau, just so! She had helped him thus. She had driven him thus, sometimes, but not often now that he recalled it. Not nearly as often as he deserved! And, oh, how it had hurt!
"But it was best so!" he mumbled under his breath. "Only poor jean, he feels now all discouraged the way I did. No! He could not catch a black fox. One must know the black fox's track, and he must follow it and then head it off and put the trap cunningly where the paw will step. ”

“ Through that gap was a runway of the wilderness creatures. A trap there couldn't help but catch something.
Jean laughed, but flushed uneasily, too, for he had run his own line all around this region, having chosen his own trapping country. His father had never commented on that fact—had he?
Then Jean did recall that his father had said he preferred a shorter line and wild-rose petal line-loops around the camps instead of a far swing or circle clear around the country.
"You get to know all the animals in a small territory," old Jeadreau had said. ”

“ The old man could remember his own youth, and its precious strength and the joy undying of loving a confident wife, working out destinies together—their own destinies, and setting their young children firmly on the way into prosperity of the soul, if not greatly in material riches. ”

“ Marie got a mighty good man. He got a fine woman, good-hearted girl, all right. I can be proud, too. He, track his old Daddy all the way 'round, not know if I was too ole to wallow in de loose snow. By golly, pretty stiff in my ole j'ints! But I take de short line an' trap heem strong! Bettaire dan a long line on'y half trapped. Dem young fellers don' know dat—they have yet to learn, but, by an' by, like me, day'll know with much satisfaction."
When he carried the fur in, with a fox-stretcher board, his children and grandchildren were planning Christmas. ”

“ He walked out, two or three times, into the balsam swamp down the railroad, saying that he was trying to kill a rabbit.
Marie scolded him.
"We've lots of rabbits! You've done enough running around. Suppose you should fall?"
"An old man steps slowly and he does not fall!" old Jeadreau smiled over her solicitude. ”

“ So the old man mused, half listening, and he pitied the children as only an old, old man can pity the young. He thought, too, if only he had just a little more than the hundred dollars which was saved up to bury him, and to pay the priest, who had comforted, and to pay the doctor who helped him through the agonies. ”

“ Experience is Everything
by
Raymond S. Spears
THE son, Jean, was very tired and discouraged; the daughter-in-law, Marie, was tired and thoughtful; the little children, of whom there were four played many games restlessly and fretfully. In the corner, between the big sheet-iron wood-stove and the two walls sat Daddy Jeadreau, tired—not with a day's toil like the young people, but tired because he was old and had done a man's work during a lifetime in the wilderness. The fatigue of sixty years was on his shoulders, and he was patient, observant, silent. ”