"Rain, rain, go away, Come again some other day: --some other day next summer-- Phil and Katie want to play."
Philippa, dear girl, don"t look so dismal. It"s bound to clear up sometime."
"I wish the "sometime" would come soon, then," I said, rather grumpily.
"You know it hasn"t really rained for three days," protested Kate.
"It"s been damp and horrid and threatening, but it hasn"t rained. I defy you to say that it has actually rained."
"When it"s so wet underfoot that you can"t stir out without rubber boots it might as well be wet overhead too," I said, still grumpily.
"I believe you"re homesick, girl," said Kate anxiously.
"No, I"m not," I answered, laughing, and feeling ashamed of my ungraciousness. "n.o.body could be homesick with such a jolly good fellow as you around, Kate. It"s only that this weather is getting on my nerves a bit. I"m fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. If your chinook doesn"t come soon, Kitty, I"ll do something quite desperate."
"I feel that way myself," admitted Kate. "Real reckless, Phil. Anyhow, let"s put on our despised rubber boots and sally out for a wade."
"Here"s Jim Nash coming on horseback down the trail," I said. "Let"s wait and see if he"s got the mail."
We hurried down, Kate humming, "Somewhere the sun is shining," solely, I believe, because she knew it aggravated me. At any other time I should probably have thrown a pillow at her, but just now I was too eager to see if Jim Nash had brought any mail.
I had come from Ontario, the first of September, to visit Uncle Kenneth Morrison"s family. I had been looking forward to the trip for several years. My cousin Kate and I had always corresponded since they had "gone west" ten years before; and Kate, who revelled in the western life, had sung the praises of her adopted land rapturously and constantly. It was quite a joke on her that, when I did finally come to visit her, I should have struck the wettest autumn ever recorded in the history of the west. A wet September in Saskatchewan is no joke, however. The country was almost "flooded out." The trails soon became nearly impa.s.sable. All our plans for drives and picnics and inter-neighbour visiting--at that time a neighbour meant a man who lived at least six miles away--had to be given up. Yet I was not lonesome, and I enjoyed my visit in spite of everything. Kate was a host in herself. She was twenty-eight years old--eight years my senior--but the difference in our ages had never been any barrier to our friendship. She was a jolly, companionable, philosophical soul, with a jest for every situation, and a merry solution for every perplexity. The only fault I had to find with her was her tendency to make parodies. Kate"s parodies were perfectly awful and always got on my nerves.
She was dreadfully ashamed of the way the Saskatchewan weather was behaving after all her boasting. She was thin at the best of times, but now she grew positively scraggy with the worry of it. I am afraid I took an unholy delight in teasing her, and abused the western weather even more than was necessary.
Jim Nash--the lank youth who was hired to look after the place during Uncle Kenneth"s absence on a prolonged threshing expedition--had brought some mail. Kate"s share was a letter, postmarked Bothwell, a rising little town about one hundred and twenty miles from Arrow Creek. Kate had several friends there, and one of our plans had been to visit Bothwell and spend a week with them. We had meant to drive, of course, since there was no other way of getting there, and equally of course the plan had been abandoned because of the wet weather.
"Mother," exclaimed Kate, "Mary Taylor is going to be married in a fortnight"s time! She wants Phil and me to go up to Bothwell for the wedding."
"What a pity you can"t go," remarked Aunt Jennie placidly. Aunt Jennie was always a placid little soul, with a most enviable knack of taking everything easy. Nothing ever worried her greatly, and when she had decided that a thing was inevitable it did not worry her at all.
"But I am going," cried Kate. "I will go--I must go. I positively cannot let Mary Taylor--my own beloved Molly--go and perpetrate matrimony without my being on hand to see it. Yes, I"m going--and if Phil has a spark of the old Blair pioneer spirit in her, she"ll go too."
"Of course I"ll go if you go," I said.
Aunt Jennie did not think we were in earnest, so she merely laughed at first, and said, "How do you propose to go? Fly--or swim?"
"We"ll drive, as usual," said Kate calmly. "I"d feel more at home in that way of locomotion. We"ll borrow Jim Nash"s father"s democrat, and take the ponies. We"ll put on old clothes, raincoats, rubber caps and boots, and we"ll start tomorrow. In an ordinary time we could easily do it in six days or less, but this fall we"ll probably need ten or twelve."
"You don"t really mean to go, Kate!" said Aunt Jennie, beginning to perceive that Kate did mean it.
"I do," said Kate, in a convincing tone.
Aunt Jennie felt a little worried--as much as she could feel worried over anything--and she tried her best to dissuade Kate, although she plainly did not have much hope of doing so, having had enough experience with her determined daughter to realize that when Kate said she was going to do a thing she did it. It was rather funny to listen to the ensuing dialogue.
"Kate, you can"t do it. It"s a crazy idea! The road is one hundred and twenty miles long."
"I"ve driven it twice, Mother."
"Yes, but not in such a wet year. The trail is impa.s.sable in places."
"Oh, there are always plenty of dry spots to be found if you only look hard for them."
"But you don"t know where to look for them, and goodness knows what you"ll get into while you are looking."
"We"ll call at the M.P. barracks and get an Indian to guide us.
Indians always know the dry spots."
"The stage driver has decided not to make another trip till the October frosts set in."
"But he always has such a heavy load. It will be quite different with us, you must remember. We"ll travel light--just our provisions and a valise containing our wedding garments."
"What will you do if you get mired twenty miles from a human being?"
"But we won"t. I"m a good driver and I haven"t nerves--but I have nerve. Besides, you forget that we"ll have an Indian guide with us."
"There was a company of Hudson Bay freighters ambushed and killed along that very trail by Blackfoot Indians in 1839," said Aunt Jennie dolefully.
"Fifty years ago! Their ghosts must have ceased to haunt it by this time," said Kate flippantly.
"Well, you"ll get wet through and catch your deaths of cold,"
protested Aunt Jennie.
"No fear of it. We"ll be cased in rubber. And we"ll borrow a good tight tent from the M.P.s. Besides, I"m sure it"s not going to rain much more. I know the signs."
"At least wait for a day or two until you"re sure that it has cleared up," implored Aunt Jennie.
"Which being interpreted means, "Wait for a day or two, because then your father may be home and he"ll squelch your mad expedition,"" said Kate, with a sly glance at me. "No, no, my mother, your wiles are in vain. We"ll hit the trail tomorrow at sunrise. So just be good, darling, and help us pack up some provisions. I"ll send Jim for his father"s democrat."
Aunt Jennie resigned herself to the inevitable and betook herself to the pantry with the air of a woman who washes her hands of the consequences. I flew upstairs to pack some finery. I was wild with delight over the proposed outing. I did not realize what it actually meant, and I had perfect confidence in Kate, who was an expert driver, an experienced camper out, and an excellent manager. If I could have seen what was ahead of us I would certainly not have been quite so jubilant and reckless, but I would have gone all the same. I would not miss the laughter-provoking memories of that trip out of my life for anything. I have always been glad I went.
We left at sunrise the next morning; there was a sunrise that morning, for a wonder. The sun came up in a pinky-saffron sky and promised us a fine day. Aunt Jennie bade us goodbye and, estimable woman that she was, did not trouble us with advice or forebodings.
Mr. Nash had sent over his "democrat," a light wagon with springs; and Kate"s "s.h.a.ganappies," Tom and Jerry--native ponies, the toughest horse flesh to be found in the world--were hitched to it. Kate and I were properly accoutred for our trip and looked--but I try to forget how we looked! The memory is not flattering.
We drove off in the gayest of spirits. Our difficulties began at the start, for we had to drive a mile before we could find a place to ford the creek. Beyond that, however, we had a pa.s.sable trail for three miles to the little outpost of the Mounted Police, where five or six men were stationed on detachment duty.
"Sergeant Baker is a friend of mine," said Kate. "He"ll be only too glad to lend me all we require."
The sergeant was a friend of Kate"s, but he looked at her as if he thought she was crazy when she told him where we were going.
"You"d better take a canoe instead of a team," he said sarcastically.
"I"ve a good notion to arrest you both as horse thieves and prevent you from going on such a mad expedition."
"You know nothing short of arrest would stop me," said Kate, nodding at him with laughing eyes, "and you really won"t go to such an extreme, I know. So please be nice, even if it comes hard, and lend us some things. I"ve come a-borrying."
"I won"t lend you a thing," declared the sergeant. "I won"t aid and abet you in any such freak as this. Go home now, like a good girl."