"Yes, Philip, that is my intention. I have seen enough of the Far West, to take a very different view than what I had before. The Indians, for all the harm the Comanche warriors did us, have their own lives and beliefs; I have lived in Indian country long enough to respect them for what they are. They deserve better than to be displaced by the Americans, or forced to take on our religion, if it comes to that."
"I am glad you think so, Papa," said the boy earnestly.
"And are we really to go home, Papa?" asked Selina wistfully.
"That is part of the reason I wish to reach Canada. It is an English colony: we will be on home ground."
"Yes!" exclaimed Mrs. Elton. "God grant that we may reach it. And Bright Feather - Philip Augustus?"
The boy looked at his mother and sister and lifted his chin. "I will come with you, Papa."
To help ensure that the parting would be peaceable, the French traders and Mr. Elton presented Chief Great White Buffalo with such little presents as remained to them from their stores - some beads, mirrors, and knives. These were only tokens, but the chief received them graciously, in the spirit in which they were offered, and granted the Eltons permission to take the horses that had been made over to the use of Mrs. Elton and the children during their sojourn in the Comanche Nation. The Comanche were rich in horses, if nothing else, having hundreds in camp, both wild and tamed, and acquired who knows how; for they were highly proficient horse thieves, and considered that nobody minded about a few horses more or less.
The journey was unremarkable, and made easier for the Eltons and the trappers by virtue of their now being equally accustomed to travel in the bush. Well mounted, with a goodly supply of pemmican, cornmeal and shot, the party endured no discomforts they were not long hardened to; Philip Augustus proved his worth by showing himself a finer shot than even the trappers, and they ate well on elk and bear. They encountered few Indians, and no white men, on their journey east, as they made their way through the Wisconsin wilderness, wound around the Minnesota lakes, and crossed into Canada in the autumn of 1831.
The winter was spent in the new settlement called Tawa Town, on the site of the former village of the Ottawa Indians, who had been removed to a reservation at Blanchard's Fork. Little enough was there when they arrived, only a lodge and a few cabins, the Row Tavern, and a French trading post fitted out with a light to show the location of a certain sharp bend in the river. The most noticeable physical feature of the area was the Black Swamp; but the pioneers had been busily draining it, and the newcomers were told all about a man named Johnny Appleseed who had passed through and left a fine stand of growing apple trees. With so much enterprise going on about them, the Eltons themselves were not idle. The pelts that Philip Augustus had accumulated were as rich a store as Pierre and Jean had together, and with some of this capital the Eltons opened a store, taking over the dry goods of a shopkeeper who was consumptive, and had been recommended the more southerly prairie country for his cure.
If, in Highbury, Mrs. Elton could never have dreamt of a storekeeper being entertained at her own dinner table, still less could she ever have conceived that she might one day keep a store herself. Yet in Tawa Town it was another thing, and to her own and her family's surprise, she proved exceedingly adept at the work. It occurred to her that "Eltons" need not sell only dry goods, but might aspire to be an emporium like those she had read about in Chicago. Accordingly, she used some of the profits in building a handsome, two-storied, commercial log palace, and stocked it with goods of all sorts, that she ordered sent from the city: warm shirts and mufflers, boots and farm implements, lengths of dress goods, baby linen and furniture. It was, she proudly said, to be the first Department Store in Canada, and sure to make their fortune in a very few years.
This Department Store turned out to be principally Mrs. Elton's own concern. Mr. Elton was nominally the President, and kept to his office, working on accounts and orders, and providing an air of masculine authority; but it was Mrs. Elton who dealt with the public, ordered the goods, and was the ruling body. She was supremely happy in this work, and, in her activity, gave little thought to the defects of Tawa Town's society; but in spite of the store's rising success, by the second year of its establishment she could see that residence in Tawa Town would not do for a permanency. In the local academy, where the children had their classes, the teaching was only that of a backwoods graded school: this was not the finishing education Selina ought to have had, far less was it tending toward the Harvard or Oxford education of a gentleman, for Philip Augustus.
Then Mr. Elton was unhappy. He drooped, and was disconsolate; and Mrs. Elton could see how at loose ends a man was, when not in his proper profession. If his views had changed, and he no longer felt the call to Evangelise the Indians, he still believed it was more his calling to be a minister than a storekeeper, an English gentleman than an Canadian merchant; and he began to talk more frequently of home.
In their comfortable, three-roomed log cabin, Mrs. Elton was no longer served by Little Bear, for that maiden had remained behind with the Comanche, and married a brave. The family's help was all from the old country now, but this did not mean superior serving. After a long day in the store, Mrs. Elton now was faced with the prospect of a slatternly girl, Sally, to serve up the hot dinner of ham, beans and maple syrup, with plenty of what North Americans called 'sass'. Mrs. Elton looked forward to a useful conversation at the dinner table about stocks for the spring, but it was not to be.
"I see in the Lady's Book just arrived that bonnets are poke-shaped now. We must get some in," she declared energetically, "and men's jackets are shorter. There is no excuse for Tawa Town not to be fashionable, and I am determined it shall be the equal of larger places, ere long. Who says Canadians are out of knowledge of the wider world?"
Sally came in holding the ham by its bone, and thumped it down before Mr. Elton to be carved.
"Pray, do not hold the bone like that Sally - and Mr. Elton will use the silver knife, not the kitchen knife..."
"Well! I don't need to be talked to like that, Miz, I hope you recollect I am a lady the equal of yourself!"
"A lady!"
"Yes, I will have you know; I am only working to save up for a dress, so I won't have to go about in only my petticoat no longer; you won't think me your inferior, when I am married to Jacob Horner!"
"Sally, surely we need not discuss either your dress or your social standing at dinner. Did you do a baking of bread, as I required? I see none on the table."
"No - this here boy of yours told me off to clean his boots and there wasn't no time; I calculate you can eat hard tack, same as everybody else, for all you think you're fine quality. Well, I won't have any more of such face, and I'll be off."
She flounced out of the room, and Mrs. Elton looked at her husband in despair.
"That is the fourth girl in a year. We really have no luck with these Canadian servants."
"Well, Mamma, if you won't let them sit at the table with us, they believe you are putting on airs," Selina explained patiently.
"Even after all our time in America, the Far West, and now Upper Canada, with all we have experienced, I never can endure servants sitting at the table," murmured Mrs. Elton. "It seems to me that these Canadian servants are even worse and more insolent than the American ones."
"That is because they have emigrated from England, where they were in service, and used to being treated as inferiors," Mr. Elton reminded her, "and they want to show that it is a different matter, now they have come to the land of equality."
"I know all that," sighed Mrs. Elton, "but I declare they positively did things better amongst the Indians."
"That is what I am always saying," said Philip Augustus eagerly, "and if you will only let me go back among the Comanche some day, I know it is a much more sensible life than being cooped up in that stupid school and made to spell on a slate, as if I were a child."
"No more of that, my son," said his father sternly, "a decision is not
made to be altered. However, it is true enough, Augusta, that the boy is not getting the education he ought to have."
"Do you suppose I am?" asked Selina. "Why, I am fourteen, and the other girls don't have to ask their mothers anything - they go to school or not, as they please, and gad about the town square whenever they've a mind to. Why, Alice Carstairs chooses all her own frocks for herself."
The parents exchanged sober looks. "I will not have you put on Canadian attitudes and become a forward chit such as Alice Carstairs," said Mrs. Elton. "Such independence and impudence in a female child is disgusting."
"But you are female, too, Mama, and you are as independent as any Canadian; more so, for you are the only woman in the country hereabouts who runs a store."
"Your father runs the store," said Mrs. Elton repressively. "And you can see for yourself that I am occupied about the housework."
She rose to clear the plates, and carry them to the wash-tub.
"That is only because Sally left," said Selina pertly.
"Augusta, my dear," said her husband, "we must face facts. It is not the difficulty in obtaining servants - or any of the other inconveniences of Manitoba, that is in question; surely we experienced far worse on our travels, and we are comfortably enough settled now."
"I should think so!" she said emphatically. "Only think of my store - we are on the way to becoming rich, Philip!"
"Yes, but what does it do to gain the world, and lose oneself? Augusta, the children are not living in a society that can do them any good, or educate them as a lady and a gentleman should be educated; and - I cannot suppose that, occupied as you are - you have observed my situation."
"Your situation?" She was puzzled. "Why, you are a leading man in the neighbourhood, the chief merchant."
"I was never meant for the commercial life - to be in trade, Augusta," he said, bitterly.
"Trade? But you forget, Philip, such distinctions do not matter in Canada. You are a gentleman, though you are in trade; and what does it signify? I tell you, we have full five thousand dollars in capital, and our stock - "
"Listen to me a moment, Augusta. You see I am a minister, without a parish."
"Why, you could preach here if you have a mind," she said crossly.
"No; for here I am tied down with business cares. My own longing to be at home, in England, to pass the latter part of my life by my own fireside, among our own peaceful circle of friends, with their gentle ways, might be taken into account, but it has little importance beside the prospects for our son and daughter. Philip Augustus ought to be preparing for university; Selina ought to be learning accomplishments, and not being spoilt by American manners."
"I don't want to go to university," said Philip Augustus earnestly, "I don't want to be a minister, if you will forgive me, Father; I want to work to help the Indians keep their lands, and not to go back to England at all."
"And you, Selina?" asked Mrs. Elton tartly, "do you mean to marry a trapper or hunter, all in buckskin?"
"If you wish it, Mamma; and I should not mind either if he was as kind to me as dear Pierre and Jean were. But I think that Papa only means that I should learn English ways."
"Yes - I know he does." Mrs. Elton looked at her husband, bald, sad, aging and anxious as he was, and her heart softened. "And so we shall, go home to England, if that is what you think right, Philip."
"Do you mean it, Augusta?" he brightened.
"Indeed I do. We have enough money now, have we not, to be able to live in Highbury again?"
Mr. Elton was so excited, his words almost tripped over each other. "Indeed, indeed we do - and in perfect comfort, what is more. I am still nominal Vicar of the place, and we can afford to keep the curate, and live in the rectory ourselves - perhaps even to make some improvements, with the money we obtain from selling out. Yes, yes. Only one thing, Augusta: I do not know that we should tell people whence it came."
"The money, do you mean?"
"Coming from trade, you know. That would not be considered at all the thing."
"Oh Philip, it will be impossible to explain what our lives have been, to those at Highbury. It is inconceivable that they ever can understand. No; all that sort of thing will take care of itself. We will sell up the store. I believe Flanagan will be very happy to get it, and he has made enough with his blacksmithing and carriage-making, that he should be able to afford to pay a good price."
The rest of the evening was spent in happy plans. From Tawa Town the family would travel by canal and other waterways to Quebec, and visit Pierre and Jean, who were settled there with their families. The winter might be spent in Quebec, before taking ship for Liverpool in the spring. Philip Augustus, the one of the family least reconciled to the return to England, was at last made to understand that finishing his education would be the wisest course, for if trained as an attorney, he might return to America if he chose and be of real, substantial use to the Indians, as was his dearest wish and plan; and as for Selina, a hint of the beaux she might have, the gowns she might wear, and the balls she might attend, when she came out in two years' time, was enough to fill her head with dreams of the home country which she did not distinctly remember.
CHAPTER TWELVE
In the spring of 1832, the Eltons were settled in Quebec, waiting for the ice to break up, that they might be assured of a safe passage home. Truly it was a comfortable winter; for their trapper friend Pierre now had a comfortable stone house, with his wife Marie-Celestine, and their two babies; Jean was still a bachelor, and spent many of his evenings at his partner's fire, so that the Eltons were with their good friends again, who had helped them and gone through so much with them. They were able to contribute to the household generously; but in fact it was hardly necessary, for both the trappers had done well and were prospering in town, operating their own store.
Quebec was a fine city beyond anything the Eltons had expected. The principal streets were neatly paved with stones, and the lesser ones with planks of pine. There were street-lamps, filled with fish-oil; and the English Cathedral of the Holy Trinity which the Eltons attended, was well heated, with a cast iron stove and warm wood fires. It had also the first peal of bells in the country, and the English-speaking worshipers were as proud of it as the French Canadians were of their own more ancient Basilica, and the Convent of the Ursulines.
The spring brought unusually severe flooding, and the rivers Chaudiere and Etchemin overflowed their bounds so that animals and whole houses were carried away; but the Sergents were safe in the upper part of the town. One evening, they dined comfortably on a couple of ducks Philip Augustus had brought back from a day's shooting in the woods, and the talk was lively.
"Mrs. Elton, I do not know why you must return to your Old Country," said Pierre genially, "Quebec is the best city - we are luxurious, are we not? Such music, such theatres - why, you know that the very best actor in England came and acted in Quebec, not so very long ago."
"Yes, Edmund Kean," Mrs. Elton agreed, "I know he visited Canada; I remember seeing him when I was a young woman in London. Yes, Quebec is quite remarkable in its ideas of society. The dances, and the fashionably late hours, have surprised me, I confess. The people's manners, too, are far better in general than what we have found elsewhere except among the very newest émigrés, perhaps."
"And as for eating, you will find no finer fare than in Quebec," Pierre nodded.
"Indeed, no - Madame has accomplished wonders with these ducks, and the maple glace," Mrs. Elton acknowledged with a little bow toward her hostess, a shy little French Canadian woman in a lace cap.
"Canada really is a most superior country," agreed Mr. Elton. "There is talk that slavery will be completely outlawed by law in the Lower Canada, next year perhaps while I really do not believe such a thing will happen in the United States in my lifetime."
"The only thing I can possibly say against Quebec, is the extreme cold of the climate in winter. I don't know how many days there were when the temperature was twenty degree
s below zero, and a person's life is quite in danger if one walks out," said Mrs. Elton. Seeing Pierre's face fall, she added quickly, "Of course, if sensible precautions are taken, there need be no discomfort whatever."
"Oh, Mama, surely not, with all the wonderful modern contrivances they have here in winter," protested Philip Augustus. "Why, you can't forget the parties we had on the ice, with our snowshoes; and how comfortable it is in these warm flannel Canadian shirts and moccasins - not a bit of cold can get in."
"And the dog-sled races," put in Selina, "and how we went sliding on Montmorency Falls!"
"You are quiet, Jean," said Mr. Elton keenly observing his friend, "you do not join in singing the praises of your city like the others."
"Yes," said the young man reluctantly, "that is because I have heard some bad news today in the Lower Town. I have been hesitating to break in on our cheerfulness, but I must."
"Tell it quickly, then," said Pierre anxiously. "I have heard there was sickness there - but do not fear, MarieCelestine, our baby will be well; none of us have been in Lower Town at all this week."
"Many of the houses have been abandoned because of the floods," said Mr. Elton thoughtfully, "and the residents have moved up here. This might tend to spread any illness. Of what sort is it, Jean?"
"The cholera," he said, low.
There was an appalled silence. "Is it very bad?" asked Mrs. Elton apprehensively.
"Bad enough, they say. It started in that dirty boarding-house down in Champlain Street, and good Dr. Fortier is in the thick of it. He expects the epidemic to sweep the city, and talks about a quarantine station."
"We must stay, Pierre?" asked Marie-Celestine timidly.
"I think we will be well enough, ma chere, we must lay in a good stock of foodstuffs, and remain as close to home as possible. I do not know that people are advised to leave town, as yet."
"It would only be common sense, as far as possible," said Mr. Elton. "Tomorrow I will go down and see about booking passage in the first ship. After all we have gone through, we must not stay to sicken with the cholera."
Mrs Elton in Amercia Page 14