Broken Trail
Page 17
“I would make a feast in your honour,” Carries a Quiver said. “But how can we feast at this time of sorrow? Five warriors dead.”
“I don’t want a feast. It is better that we hunt to build up our stores of food.”
“I shall hunt with you.” Carries a Quiver paused. “It is time you had a rifle.”
“For a long time, I’ve been thinking the same thing.”
“Let us go back to the longhouse. I have a rifle to give you, now that you are a man. It belonged to your father. I have saved it for you ever since he died at Barren Hill.”
“I shall try to be worthy of it.”
“You already are.”
Broken Trail listened to the sound of the wind as he walked at Carries a Quiver’s side. It blew from the west, from beyond the great lakes, from lands that he had never seen, although someday he would. But first he must make himself ready for the long trail of his life.
“Uncle,” he said, “when my turn comes to speak to the council of warriors, I shall urge that we make peace with the Mississaugas. I shall say that the time has come to put a stop to raids against our brothers.”
“Then you and I shall speak with one voice to the council. Finally, others may be willing to see the need to find a better way. The world for which I prepared you will soon be no more. As the world changes, we must change, too.”
What lies ahead? Broken Trail wondered. Something better? Something worse? He supposed that the future would be better for the colonists but worse for the native people. But he could help them, moving back and forth, being part of both. Mitakue Oyasin, he thought. We are all related.
They had reached the dancing circle when Carries a Quiver stopped and laid his hand upon Broken Trail’s shoulder. Startled, Broken Trail turned to him.
“Remember your first deer?” Carries a Quiver asked.
“Does any hunter forget his first deer? Uncle, you stood at this spot and made the boast.”
“I called you a hunter who brings meat for the people.”
“I remember the scowl on Walks Crooked’s face.”
“And now there is no one who speaks more highly in your praise.”
Broken Trail felt a rush of happiness, like a spring of fresh water welling up inside. He threw back his head and laughed.
Carries a Quiver’s solemn face cracked in a smile. And then he was laughing too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jean Rae Baxter was born in Toronto, grew up in Hamilton, and lived for many years in the Kingston area. During her career as a secondary school English teacher, she wrote articles, poems and short plays. It was after retiring that she first turned her hand to writing fiction, soon discovering that this was what she liked to do best. She writes for adults and for young people. Her first book, A Twist of Malice, was a collection of short stories, published in 2005. It was followed by her young adult novel, The Way Lies North, in 2007. This novel received the 2008 Arts Hamilton Award for a young adult book and was nominated for the 2009 Red Maple Award in the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading Program and for the 2010 Stellar, British Columbia’s teen readers’ choice award. The Way Lies North tells the story of fifteen-year-old Charlotte Hooper, driven from her home and separated from her sweetheart by the violence of the American Revolution.
Jean Rae Baxter’s next novel, Looking for Cardenio, a literary murder mystery published in 2008, imagines what might happen if somebody discovered a manuscript of Shakespeare’s lost play.
With Broken Trail, she returns to the time of the American Revolution in a story about two teenage brothers, one a runaway who spends three years living as an Oneida while the other serves as a soldier. She is now working on a third novel involving the same characters featured in The Way Lies North and Broken Trail.
When she is not writing, she enjoys the company of family and friends—her Scottish terrier Robbie being part of both. Her favourite activities are reading and travel. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario, where she helps to organize the LiT LiVe reading series and serves on the Arts Hamilton Literary Advisory Committee. Visit her website at www.jeanraebaxter.ca.
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