Part 4 (1/2)
”I may possibly settle among you,” said his new friend. ”Wherever human beings are collected together, there I find my work.”
”Are you a minister then?” asked Donald.
”Are not all Christ's faithful servants His ministers?” asked Mr Skinner, ”called on by Him to make known His great love to peris.h.i.+ng sinners; to tell them the only way by which they can be saved? In that sense I reply yes to your question. My young friend I desire not to eat the bread of idleness, nor to take aught from other men's hands.”
Donald felt that he ought not to press his question further.
The party ascended the river in a sailing vessel to Montreal, and from thence Kingston was reached by stage waggons, which conveyed them along the banks of the river where the navigation was impeded by rapids, though the greater part of the journey was performed in large boats up the St Lawrence and through the beautiful lake of the ”Thousand Islands.”
”I wish Margaret and David could have a sight of this lovely scenery,”
said Donald to his friend, as they glided by numberless islets in succession, covered with rich and varied foliage.
”Their steps may some day be directed hither,” answered Mr Skinner, who was even a warmer admirer of the beauties of nature than his young companion.
At Kingston they embarked on board a large schooner. Next morning, when Donald came on deck, his surprise was great to find the vessel out of sight of land. The water was perfectly smooth; a thin mist hung over it, which probably concealed the nearer northern sh.o.r.e, for as the sun rose, he could distinguish in that direction a long low line of coast, fringed with the trees of the primeval forest. Here and there, as they sailed along, small openings could be perceived, where settlements had lately been formed, and the giants of the forest had fallen beneath the woodman's axe.
The voyage terminated at Toronto, till lately called Little York, on the western sh.o.r.e of the lake, but a long journey had yet to be performed across the peninsula to the district Mr Todd had undertaken to settle.
Waggons and drays were put in requisition to convey the party and their goods through the forest, while the leader and his staff, with other gentlemen, rode on ahead to prepare for their reception. Donald wondered how vehicles with wheels could make their way amid the stumps of trees, along the track which then formed the only road to the settlement. Here and there were swamps, which were made pa.s.sable by huge trunks of trees laid across the track, and bridges of timber, of a primitive, though of a strong character, had already been thrown across the streams.
”You see pioneers have been before us,” observed Mr Todd to Donald.
”Settlers direct from the old country would have been appalled with the difficulties the well-trained backwoodsmen have overcome.”
Here and there were small clearings, in the centre of which log-houses had been put up, to serve as wayside inns. At one of these Mr Todd and his party halted as evening closed in. The accommodation was scanty, though an ample meal of eggs and bacon and corn cakes, was served on a long table which stood in the middle of the public room. Upon it, beneath, and on the benches at the sides, the guests, wrapped in their cloaks, with their saddles for pillow's, pa.s.sed the night. Donald, before lying down, went out to take a turn in front of the hut. As he looked along the cutting towards the west, a bright glare met his eyes.
It at once struck him that the forest must be on fire, and he was hastening back to warn his companions, when he met Mr Skinner.
”There is no danger,” observed the latter. ”We will proceed along the road, and you will see the cause.”
The light from the fire enabled them to find their way among the stumps, and they soon saw before them an opening in the forest, in the centre of which blazed a huge pile of vast trunks of trees, surrounded by men, who, with long pitchforks, were throwing f.a.ggots under the trunks to a.s.sist in consuming them.
”Although these trees would be worth many pounds by the water-edge, here they are valueless and in the way, and no other mode has been discovered of disposing of them,” observed Mr Skinner to Donald. ”Yet I always regret to see the destruction of those magnificent productions with which G.o.d has clothed the earth, but thousands and tens of thousands of those monarchs of the forest are destined ere long to fall to make way for the habitation of man. Yet one living soul is of more value than them all, and we may hope that many a voice may be raised to Him in hymns of praise amid this region, hitherto a wilderness, and which has resounded only with the howl of the savage wolf, or the fierce war songs of the long benighted inhabitants of the land.”
A busy scene presented itself as the cavalcade at length reached the new settlement. Here and there, amid the stumps of trees, were scattered tents, shanties, and log-huts, either finished or in the course of erection. Women were cooking over fires in front of their rude dwellings, while their children played around. Oxen, urged on by the cries of their drivers, were dragging up huge logs to form the walls of the huts. Drays were conveying sawn timber from the banks of the broad stream which flowed by on one side--a saw-mill, turned by its water, being already busily at work. A little way off, the tall trees were falling with loud crashes before the woodmen's axes, engaged in enlarging the borders of the settlement. While here and there arose edifices of greater pretensions than their neighbours, with weather-boarded sides and roofs. Several broad roads intersected the projected town at right angles, from which, however, no attempt had as yet been made to remove the stumps of the trees; while all around arose the dark wall formed by the forest, closely hemming in the clearing, with the exception of the single opening through which the travellers had made their way.
”This is a wild place, indeed,” said Donald, as he surveyed the scene.
”It was wilder a few months ago,” answered Mr Todd. ”It is our task to reduce it into order, and ere long we shall see handsome houses, gaily painted cottages, blooming orchards, green pastures, and fields waving with rich corn, in lieu of the scene which now meets our eyes. But we have no time to lose. We must select a spot by the river for the new settlers to camp on, obtain a supply of wood for their fires, and get some shanties put up for the women and children and old people.”
Mr Todd and his attendants dismounted at the door of the chief inn. It was also a store, at which every iron article, from a plough to a needle, all sorts of haberdashery and clothing, groceries, stationery, drugs and beer, wines and spirits, could be procured, as the proprietor, who shook hands with the new arrivals, informed them.
Donald was soon actively engaged under Mr Todd in the duties of his office, and from that day forward till the close of the summer he had very few minutes he could call his own, with the exception of those granted during the blessed day of rest. He now learned to value the Sabbath more than ever, when he could rest from the toils of the week, and leave his surveying staff and chains, his axe and note-book, and turn with earnest faith to G.o.d's Word. No chapel or church had as yet arisen, and the gospel would not have been proclaimed had not Mr Skinner invited the inhabitants to meet him beneath the shade of the lofty trees, where, with his own hands, he had cleared away the brushwood. Here he proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation by the blood of the Lamb, to many who had never before heard the glorious news.
Many a.s.sembled gladly, especially the settlers from bonnie Scotland; some came from curiosity, or to pa.s.s away the time; and a few to mock at the unauthorised preacher, who, in his ordinary dress, ventured, as they a.s.serted, to set himself up among his fellows. Provided souls were won, the stranger cared nothing for the remarks which might be made.
He had purchased a plot of ground on the banks of the stream, some way removed from the towns.h.i.+p, and here, with the aid of three or four hired labourers, he had made a clearing and erected a log-hut, at which Donald was always a welcome guest, with several others who came to hear G.o.d's Word explained.
The winter came on, and snow covered the ground, but the axemen went on with their labours, and the tall trunks they felled could now with greater ease be dragged either to the saw-mill, to the spots where log-huts were to be erected, to form snake fencing, or to the great heaps prepared for burning. Donald was surprised to find how rapidly the months went by, and how soon the period of the year at which he had arrived in Canada had returned.
CHAPTER SIX.
LETTERS FROM HOME.--MARGARET LOSES HER FRIEND.--UNSATISFACTORY REPORT OF ALEC.--DAVID RESOLVES TO GO OUT.--DONALD URGES HIS SISTER AND JANET TO COME ALSO, AND PREPARES FOR THEIR RECEPTION.--NO TIDINGS CAN BE OBTAINED OF ALEC.--DAVID'S ARRIVAL.--MR. SKINNER EXPLAINS TO HIM IMPORTANT GOSPEL TRUTHS.
Donald had frequently written home, and had heard from Margaret and David in return. Every word from them was of interest to him, and all kind Janet's sayings and doings were faithfully recorded. She seemed to work even harder than ever; but as Margaret remarked:--