Janet McLaren Part 6

The clay was already far advanced, and when in a short time he began to feel the strain which had been put on his own muscles, he came to the resolution of encamping where they were, and should no one appear, to continue the journey the next day.

Having first bathed the sufferer's leg in the cold waters of the stream, and bound it up as he best could, he commenced making preparations for encamping, by cutting some spruce fir tops for a bed, collecting stakes and slabs of birch bark to form a hut, and dry branches for a fire.

This did not take him long. He hurried through the work, for he wished to shoot some birds or catch some fish for supper. Having lighted a fire, he left his patient, suffering less apparently than before, and went off up the stream hoping to find the necessary provisions.

He was more successful even than he expected, and returned with an ample supply of fish and fowl. Hitherto the stranger had been in too much pain to speak more than a few words. The food greatly revived him; and as he sat up, leaning against the side of the hut, Donald observed that his eyes were fixed on him with an inquiring look. Donald had spoken several times in broad Scotch.

"It must be so," exclaimed the stranger at length, "though I am not surprised, Donald Morrison, that you do not know me."

Donald gazed eagerly at the stranger's countenance, then leaning forward, grasped his hand.

"Yes, I know you now, Alec Galbraith, my dear friend," he exclaimed, "though till this moment I had no suspicion who you were. How thankful I am that I should have been sent to your help."

Donald then told Alec how anxiously he had been inquiring for him, and how sorry he had been at being unable to discover where he was. "I don't like to make you talk now, though," he added. "You must tell me all about yourself by-and-by."

"That would not take long, Donald," answered Alec. "Though, as the subject is not a pleasant one, I will gladly defer it. Just before I had discovered who you were I had been intending to insist on your leaving me till you could send some one back from the towns.h.i.+p to bring me in, if any one could be found to perform so thankless an office for a wretched pauper like me. I had been counting on my strong arm and resolution to make my way in the backwoods, as many another determined fellow has done, and now I find myself suddenly brought down, and for what I can tell to the contrary, a helpless cripple for life."

"You are right in supposing that I would not leave you, my dear Alec,"

answered Donald gently. "Indeed, I would not have done so had you been a stranger. Trust to G.o.d's loving mercy for the future. Your leg is not, I hope, materially injured, and on your recovery you may be able to carry out the plan you proposed, for I feel sure you will find employment for your head as well as your arm, and the two together, in this magnificent country, will secure you all you can require. But oh, Alec, if you would but put faith in the love of G.o.d and His protecting care you would no longer be in dread of the future."

Alec sat silent for some minutes. "If G.o.d is such as I was always taught to suppose Him, He can only visit with His vengeance a being like myself, who has dared His power, and done numberless things which He is said to prohibit. No, I feel that I am a wretched outcast sinner in His sight, worthy only of punishment. He has for some time past been pursuing me with His vengeance, and I see no reason why He should stop till He has crushed me quite."

"Of course, my dear Alec, you are perfectly right in your estimation of yourself, and right, too, with regard to G.o.d, if you judge Him as man judges. His justice demands your punishment, but His love and mercy would preserve you if you would accept the plan He has formed for saving you and restoring you to that favour which you have justly lost. He asks you to do what you have just done, to acknowledge yourself a sinner, and now do what He demands besides, and throw yourself unreservedly upon Him."

"Your system is a beautiful one, Donald, but I confess that I cannot comprehend it," said Alec, with a groan, produced by the pain he was suffering, then he added, in his old careless and somewhat sarcastic tone, "Tell me, old fellow, is it thoroughly orthodox."

"It is according to G.o.d's word, and that I dare not dispute," answered Donald. "And I will pray that His Holy Spirit will make it as clear to your mind, and bring it home to your soul, as He has to mine. We will not, however, talk further now, as it is important that you should get some sleep. I will watch over you, and keep the fire burning, and I hope that to-morrow we shall be able to resume our journey. Before you sleep, dear friend, we will offer up a prayer for G.o.d's direction and a.s.sistance."

"As you think fit," answered Alec, expressing no satisfaction at the proposal.

Donald knelt and prayed, and then read a portion of G.o.d's Word. Alec sat listening, but made no remark, though he pressed his friend's hand when he had finished, and then lying down closed his eyes.

As Donald sat by the side of his friend he observed that though his slumbers were troubled he appeared to sleep soundly. He had resolved to carry him till he could get help, though he felt that the task was almost beyond his strength; but he did not despair. He prayed for that aid he so much needed, and felt sure that it would be sent in the way G.o.d might judge best.

The faithful believer does not expect a miracle to be wrought in his favour, but he knows that the Most High, who allows not a sparrow to fall to the ground without knowing it, so orders and arranges all the movements of His creatures, that He accomplishes, by apparently ordinary means, whatever He desires to bring about. Thus when the believer prays he is sure that his prayer will be answered, though it may not be in the way he, in his finite judgment would desire. Resting securely on G.o.d's love and mercy, he is sure that all will be ordered aright.

CHAPTER NINE.

WHEN ENCAMPED, DONALD IS VISITED BY AN INDIAN, WHO a.s.sISTS IN CARRYING ALEC TO THE TOWNs.h.i.+P--INFLUENCED BY THE CONDUCT OF THE CHRISTIAN INDIANS AND THE EXHORTATIONS OF HIS FRIENDS, ALEC IS BROUGHT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRUTH.--HIS BROTHER REQUIRES HIS PRESENCE IN ENGLAND, TO RECOVER HIS FATHER'S PROPERTY, AND HE SETS OFF.

Donald was still reading from his pocket Bible, but had begun to feel somewhat drowsy, when he was fully aroused by seeing a tall figure moving through the forest towards him. As the stranger approached, the light of the fire exhibited a person of a dark countenance, with black hair, in which were stuck a few tall feathers, while his coat and leggings, ornamented with fringe, were of untanned leather. Donald at once knew him to be one of the natives of the land. The Indian approached fearlessly, and sat down beside him.

"I see your fire from my camp," he said, in tolerable English. "I white man's friend. Where you go?"

Donald, who knew that the natives in that district were on friendly terms with the settlers, at once told him who he was, and the difficulty in which he was placed.

"I help you," said the Indian. "We not far from river. Canoe take up your friend to towns.h.i.+p."

The a.s.sistance offered was just what Donald had been praying for.

"G.o.d has sent you to my help, my friend," he said to the Indian, "and I gratefully accept your offer."

"You know G.o.d and His Son Jesus Christ?" asked the Indian.

"I do, my friend, praise His name that He has made Himself known to me."

"I know and love Him too," said the Indian. "He good Master; I wish all my people knew Him and served Him, then they not drink the fire-water, and vanish out of the land, as they are doing."

Donald grasped the Indian's hand. "I do, indeed, wish that not only your people, but mine also, were subjects of the Lord," he said. "Let us pray that we may have grace to make His name known among them."

The white man and the red knelt as brothers, side by side, and together offered up their prayers for the conversion of their countrymen.

"Please read G.o.d's Word to me," said the Indian. "I love to hear it."

Donald gladly did as he was requested, his companion occasionally asking him questions. It was nearly midnight before the Indian rose to return to his own camp, promising to come back in the morning with some of his people to convey Alec to the river.

Soon after daybreak, he appeared with a litter, which he had had constructed, and a supply of food, in case, as he said, his white brother might require it. Alec had been for some time awake. He did not appear surprised when the Indians arrived.

"I heard you reading to the stranger," he said, "but I was too weary to speak."

As soon as breakfast was over, Alec was placed on the litter, and the Indians bore him along lightly and easily through the forest. It was past noon before the bank of the stream was reached. Here they launched two of their canoes, which together were sufficient to convey the whole party. Alec was placed in one, under charge of the chief, and Donald took his seat in the other. At night they camped on sh.o.r.e, when Donald read the Bible to his redskin friends, Alec being apparently an attentive listener.

"It is strange," he afterwards remarked to Alec, "that that book should have such a power over the men of the wilderness as apparently to change their savage natures."

"G.o.d's Holy Spirit is the power applied to those who accept His offer made to them by means of the book," continued Donald. "You, my dear Alec, will experience the same change if you will but take G.o.d at His word and trust Him, although you, from having had these offers often made and rejected, may have to pa.s.s through many troubled waters, such as these children of the desert have not experienced. But remember His words, 'Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.'

'What encouragement does that promise afford sinners, conscious that they are such, and tossed about with doubts and fears.'"

Alec made no reply. Donald, however, felt sure that the conduct and conversation of his Indian friends had had a great effect on his mind.

On the evening of the second day, the party reached the towns.h.i.+p, when the Indians conveyed Alec to Donald's house. The sincerity of the chief was proved, when he refused to receive any reward for the service he had rendered.

"No, no, my friend," he answered. "I rejoice to help brother Christians, for I remember the Lord's words, 'I was hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.'"

Alec, who had been laid on Donald's bed, desired to bid farewell to the Indians before they took their departure, and to thank them for the service they had rendered him.

"Do not speak of it, friend," answered the Indian. "Jesus, our Master, went about doing good. I only try to be like Him, and I very, very far away from that."

"It is wonderful, very wonderful," murmured Alec, after the Indians had left him. "I do not think my philosophy could have changed them as their faith in the Bible appears to have done."

Notwithstanding this, it was long before Donald perceived the desired change in his friend's heart.

The surprise of David may be supposed, when, on his arrival from the office, he found a stranger in the house, and discovered who he was, and though he grieved to see him in so sad a condition, yet he was thankful that he had thus been placed under his and his brother's care. Like brothers, indeed, they watched over him, a.s.sisted by Mr Skinner, who, as they had to be constantly absent, proposed taking up his abode with them till Alec's recovery.

"I shall make a capital nurse," he said, "and may be able to minister to a mind diseased."

Donald had also obtained the a.s.sistance of a surgeon, who at first seemed very doubtful whether Alec would ever recover the use of his limb, and expressed himself somewhat carelessly to that effect in the hearing of his patient. Alec groaned.