Gulf and Glacier; or, The Percivals in Alaska

“Feed the black bear all you want to, but don’t fool with the cinnamon,” called the clerk after heedless Tom, who was already out of hearing.

Blackie was within a few rods of the hotel, and Tom was soon having great fun with him, tossing him lumps of sugar, and then holding them up while the bear, who was only a half-grown cub, stood clumsily on his hind legs and, supporting himself against the boy’s shoulders, stretched out his little gray snout for the coveted sweets.

They were in the midst of their frolic when Tom heard a chain rattle, up toward the woods. Something was moving among the stumps – another bear.

“Good-by, Pomp,” shouted Tom, letting his shaggy playmate down rather unceremoniously on all fours. “I must call on your cousin, over there.”

Pomp gazed at him with what Tom afterward declared was a most meaning look in his twinkling eyes, and galloped after him – only to be jerked sprawling at the end of his tether. Then he sat down, after the manner of his kind, and watched the retreating form of the dispenser of sugar, shaking his head gloomily.

“I’ll save a lump for you and be back before long, old fellow,” called Tom encouragingly over his shoulder.

The cinnamon proved to be double the size of his black neighbor. Instead of ambling up to his visitor as the other had done, he retreated a pace or two, and eyed him with such an unpleasant expression that Tom stopped short.

“Come, Brownie,” said he, in his most cajoling tones. “Here’s some sugar for you.” And he tossed him a lump.

Cinnamon stretched out his paw, raked the lump nearer, and bolted it. The taste was pleasing, and he slowly advanced, dragging his heavy chain after him.

“Friendly enough,” said Tom to himself. “I’ll try him with a lump in my hand.”

The bear took it rather too greedily for the comfort of the holder, but seemed in nowise inclined to hostile measures.

“Stand up!”

Bruin clumsily erected himself on his haunches, and caught the sugar tossed to him.

Tom was delighted.

“Now put your paws up on my shoulders and get it.” He stood back to the animal and looked at him over his shoulder.

Up came Cinnamon again, though rather sullenly, and reaching both paws around Tom’s neck from behind, clasped them on the boy’s breast.

“There, there!” cried Tom; “that’ll do, old fellow. You’re too heavy for me. Get down!”

A low growl from a shaggy throat within three inches of Tom’s ear, was the only reply.

Tom held up his last lump of sugar, and while his unwelcome comrade-in-arms was crunching it, strove to wriggle himself from the bear’s embrace.

It was of no use. The big, furry necklace only clasped the more tightly, and the menacing growl came again deeper than before.

The boy’s courage began to fail him. He looked down at the two great paws on his chest, armed with long, sharp claws. The bear’s breath came hot and fast on the back of his neck.

“Halloo! help!” shouted Tom desperately.

A savage snarl from the rear told him that a repetition of the cry might be fatal to him. The bear’s patience began to give out. The growls came nearer together, and more angrily. Every moment Tom expected to feel those long, white teeth in his scalp. To make matters worse, he now seemed to remember the words the hotel man had shouted after him, though he had paid no attention to them at the time.

If Randolph and the rest would only come! It was not like a fight with a wild bear. That would be bad enough. But to be killed by a chained beast, as a result of his own folly!

Both hope and courage were at the lowest ebb, and the danger really very great, when Tom’s hand felt in the lining of his coat a hard bunch.

Cautiously, with trembling hands, he ripped out the lining and extracted – a solitary lump of sugar which had slipped down through a hole in his pocket.

He held it out at arms-length. After a fruitless attempt to support himself with one paw and reach the sugar with the other, the bear relaxed his hold and dropped upon all fours.

To fling down the sugar and dart out of the radius of that hard-trodden circle was the work of a moment. Tom was safe!

The bear sprang after him, his little eyes twinkling with rage; but the chain held fast, and his late captive left him sprawling among the stumps.

I am not sure that Tom would have told this story at all, had not Randolph, one or two nights later, caught sight of ten red marks on his room-mate’s breast. Then it all came out, as you have it.

During the struggle with Bruin the sky had darkened, and it now began to rain heavily.

CHAPTER V.

A KING’S DAUGHTER IN A FREIGHT CAR

When Randolph and his party came rushing with shouts of laughter from the woods, they were joined by Tom, who was in an unusually meek mood. Fred looked at him suspiciously, but forbore to ask any questions.

The rain was coming down smartly, and all hands gathered, panting and laughing, around the generous fire in the little hotel office. “Where’s Bessie?” asked Mr. Percival, as soon as he could make his voice heard above the merry clamor.

“Oh! she’s just behind, with Mr. Selborne,” said Kittie. “Randolph, look out of the door to see if they are in sight.”

“They’ll get dreadfully wet,” remarked Pet. “Why didn’t they keep up?”

“Oh! Bess wanted to go up the glacier a little farther. I saw her pointing to a big rock” —

“And of course he went,” added Fred demurely.

Mr. Percival looked worried. His nephew reported that the missing couple were not in sight.

“It’s growing darker every moment,” he remarked anxiously. “I must go and look for them.”

Two strong young fellows who were employed about the hotel went with him. Leaving the jolly group around the fire, we will accompany the relief party. Those who prefer cosiness and warmth may stay behind!

The contrast was sharp, indeed, as Mr. Percival stepped out-of-doors with his two companions.

The sky was filled with black clouds, that rolled down the valley or hung in threatening masses along the lofty mountain slopes.

As they entered the forest they had to step carefully, lest they should stumble on some root or stone, half-hidden in the darkness. Through the boughs of the trees the rain dripped drearily.

They plodded on for over a mile, when they caught sight of a flickering light, appearing and vanishing, like a will-o’-the-wisp.

The two men from the hotel did not know what to make of it, but Mr. Percival guessed the source of the strange flame in a moment.

“They’ve built a fire,” he said quietly. “Or, at least, Bess has. I don’t believe the minister could do it, this wet night, if he tried!”

He could, though, as Captain Bess soon found out, when he had stopped to rest in the edge of the forest. About fifty feet from the path was a huge bowlder draped with ferns, with the top slightly overhanging its base.

To the shelter of this great rock the young clergyman had borne his charge, placing her on a dry cushion of moss and fir needles, where the faintness soon left her, though the pain did not. He had then busied himself in a wonderfully handy way, collecting dry stuff from beneath the bowlder, and in five minutes had a glorious fire snapping and crackling, right in the midst of the rain.

“That will be a comfort to us,” he remarked, eying the blaze with great satisfaction, “and will signal the party they are sure to send out for us.”

“O, yes!” cried Bess. And then, of course, she had to tell him, often pausing as the sharp twinges of pain shot more and more fiercely through her ankle, all about the lost party in Maine, and the exploit which had earned for her the title of Captain.

She had hardly finished her story when a shout was heard, and presently the relief party came hurrying into the firelit space.

“What is it, dear? Are you hurt?” asked Mr. Percival, hastily kneeling down beside his daughter and throwing his arms around her. He had not realized until that moment how deeply anxious he had been during that dismal walk.

“Only a little, father. It’s just my ankle. I turned it on the rocks.”

“How did you get here?”

“Mr. Selborne – carried me.”

Her father turned and clasped the young man’s hand, saying simply, “I thank you.” But each of the men knew the already strong friendship between them was deepened.

“Now for getting home,” called out Rossiter. “Too bad to leave the fire, though, isn’t it?”

“You can spend the night here if you like,” laughed Bess, rising painfully and clinging to her father’s arm.

It was clear that she could not walk a step.

The fire was cared for; then the two sturdy young backwoodsmen made an arm-chair with their hands and wrists, and tramped off with Bess between them as easily as if she were a kitten.

Very slowly though, and with great skill and care, feeling the ground carefully with their feet at every step. So they made their way back to the hotel, where there was a general jubilee over their return.

The train was side-tracked that night, close by the station. It was great fun for the young people to climb aboard, and, after a good-night sing, clamber into their berths to be lulled to sleep, not by the rumble of iron wheels, but the rushing waters of the Illicilliwaet.

Bessie, it should be said, was carried to the cars by her father. There was a physician in the party, and by his advice the strained ankle received such wise and timely treatment that by bed-time it was far less painful. In two or three days, the doctor said, she could use it again, though care would be necessary for a fortnight or more.

On the following morning the rain was still falling, but by ten o’clock the sky brightened a little, and the Percivals, with the exception of Bess, set out for a walk down the track. There was a long snow shed not far away, from which Tom hoped to get a good operating field for his kodak.

Hardly had they clambered to the top of the structure and “pressed the button” once, when a flying gust of rain, backed by a portentous black cloud, sent them flying down again.

“Let’s come in under the shed,” proposed Tom. This, however, was so cold and damp, that Fred and Randolph, seeing some detached freight cars, a few rods up the track, started off to explore for a better shelter.

A minute or two later they were beckoning and shouting to the rest of the party.

“Run for it!” they called out. “Plenty of room here for all hands!”

Pet distanced the other girls, and was mounting a short flight of steps to the end of the nearest freight car, when what was her surprise to be met at the door by a fresh-faced, modest-looking young woman.

“Come in,” she said simply. “I hope you haven’t got wet,” and led the way to the interior of the car.

“It’s like a fairy story,” whispered Pet to Kittie, as the latter scrambled up the steps. “Is she a princess in disguise?”

“Only so far as she is a true ‘King’s Daughter’ in her hospitality,” said Mr. Percival, catching Pet’s question, and replying in the same tone.

In trooped the excursionists, a dozen or more of them, all looking about them in amazement.

The car was divided into two compartments: one small one for a sleeping-room, the larger – in which the strangers were received – serving as kitchen and “living room.” A fire snapped and purred comfortably in the stove; before the tiny windows (against which the rain was now dashing in good earnest) were draped red curtains, and on the sill were pots of geranium and ivy.

Cheerful prints hung upon the walls, and altogether the old freight car, settled down at last after its many wanderings, was as cosey a home as heart could desire.

The bright little hostess proudly exhibited a photograph of her husband, a manly-looking fellow, and one or two other views which comprised her art treasures. Her modest and quiet demeanor would have done credit to a high-bred lady, and none of the Percivals, I think, will soon forget their hearty welcome, or the warm good-by with which she sped her parting guests.

Before leaving, it should be added, Randolph made the rounds of the car, and left a substantial remembrance in the hands of this far away “King’s Daughter.” But the train was ready, and the old locomotive in a flurried way calling her brood of one hundred chickens together.

Away went the cars once more, curving around the mountain spurs, crossing torrents, clinging to the rugged slopes of granite; now descending to the level of the Columbia, now climbing again to Eagle Pass, ever westward toward the Pacific.

That night, it should be mentioned, they passed through Kamloops, not a remarkable town in itself, but ever memorable from the fact that it gave its name to the car in which the Percivals crossed the Continent. A great celebration had been planned for the occasion; but as everybody was asleep at the time (about two in the morning), it didn’t come off. The titles of all the cars had by this time become very familiar, and the girls spoke of calling on a friend in the “Missanabie,” or stepping back to the “Nepigon,” as they would mention Newbury Street or Louisburg Square.

One morning they found themselves rolling along the high bank of the Fraser River, famous in the history of the gold fever of 1849; its muddy waters, laden with the wealth of empires, rushing past the train toward the ocean. On the shore Chinamen and Indians could be seen, dredging for gold, or fishing for salmon.

On the further side of the river ran the old Government wagon road, curiously built and buttressed with logs in many places, leading to the Cariboo gold country.

At Yale – an outfitting point for runners and ranchmen – there was a stop to water the engine. Children crowded up to the cars with small baskets of berries and nosegays.

Randolph brought in to Bessie – who was patiently bearing her lameness – a bunch of exquisite white pansies, a strange product for this wild, half-civilized country.

It was high noon when the conductor opened the door of the car and shouted:

“Vancouver! Vancouver!”

CHAPTER VI.

VICTORIA AND “THE QUEEN.”

“Vancouver,” began Mr. Percival that afternoon, “is the baby city of the Northwest.” They were in a barouche, five of them, driving through Stanley Park.

“What do you mean by that, sir?” asked his nephew.

“Why, it’s less than six years old, Randolph. Yet it has a population of over fifteen thousand. Six years ago to-day there was a dense forest where these great brick and stone buildings now stand.”

“Wasn’t it burned once, father?” asked Tom, anxious to show the result of his reading.

“When it was two months old,” replied Mr. Percival, “every house but one was destroyed by fire. Now it is one of the most prosperous and well-managed cities in the Dominion.”

“I noticed in the Canadian Pacific time-tables,” put in Fred, “that there is a regular line of steamers running from Vancouver to Japan and China.”

“What kind of trees are these, driver?” asked Randolph.

“Douglas fir and cedar, mostly,” said the driver, who proved to be a Vermont man. “The big ones are cedar.”

Big ones they were, truly; with trunks, or, in some cases, mere stumps, twenty to forty feet in diameter. The driver explained that in the early days of the city these magnificent trees were often ruthlessly destroyed, merely to get them out of the way. At last the city authorities took the matter in hand, and preserved a large tract of forest land, now called Stanley Park, for the permanent enjoyment of the people.

The road was a beautiful one, and in some places the travelers could catch glimpses of the broad Pacific, true to its name, breaking in slow, gentle waves on the beach just below.

At sunset the whole party boarded the steamer Islander, and the six hours’ moonlight sail that followed was more like fairy-land than anything they had yet seen.

The calm waters of the Gulf of Georgia, silvered and peaceful in the midsummer moonlight, stretched away on every side, broken only by wooded islands and the jutting promontories of Vancouver’s; while far away to the southwest Mount Baker’s snowy peak rose, pale and serene, among the clouds.

The young people sang all their “Kamloops” songs over and over, the music adding the one needful touch to the scene.

On arriving at the wharf in Victoria, they were glad to make their way through the noisy crowd of hackmen to the carriages reserved for their party, and take refuge in the Driard, where they were to rest for the next two days.

“Have you a piece of string, pa?”

It was a simple, kindly-faced little woman who asked the question, looking up to her husband, the gardener.

Randolph and Pet had taken a long walk through the streets of the city of Victoria, and out among the scattered houses and fields that border the way. Presently they reached a pretty cottage almost hidden from sight by a mass of climbing honeysuckle. In the garden beside it grew a profusion of old-fashioned flowers – stocks, sweet mignonette, geraniums, and many others.

A bed of lovely pansies attracted Pet’s attention.

“Oh! do you suppose they would sell some?”

“We’ll soon see,” and sure enough, there was “Ma” upon the little piazza, beaming with hospitality and pleasure at the approach of visitors.

She set to work at once gathering pansies, and while she arranged her nosegay, the two Bostonians talked with her husband, who, it seemed, was an Englishman, and earned his living from his garden, which he was just watering. He took especial pride in his fuchsias, which grew in lovely abundance and variety all around his door. Sweet peas were there, too, the vines nearly as high as your head, all covered with dainty “painted ladies.”

“Pa” having furnished the string, Randolph received (for twenty cents) a great bunch of pansies. The little saleswoman then added a stalk of gillyflower and a scarlet geranium for buttonholes, and with a smiling face said good-by.

The pansies were soon transferred, Pet keeping the gillyflower in her dress until she was out of sight, “so as not to hurt Ma’s feelings,” and then replacing it by the pretty “thoughts.”

Later in the day they visited the Chinese quarter of the city, in company with Tom and his inseparable kodak.

There was a delightful baby in one of the shops, and Tom begged hard to be allowed to “snap” it, but the parents said “No,” and could not be moved to relent, though they did offer the photographer a live gold-fish as some compensation for the refused privilege.

Mr. Percival also took his charges to the splendid naval station of Esquimault, where the Pacific Squadron of English ships were lying at anchor.

The Percivals hired a man (from Connecticut) to row them out in a boat to the great War Spite over which they were shown by a smart British sailor boy in blue. They were deeply interested in her great cannon, throwing a three hundred pound ball, her massive machinery, and her vicious-looking steel torpedoes, which run under water, and are guided by an electric wire connected with the ship. “You can guess the size of the vessel,” wrote Randolph to a friend that night, “when you learn that six hundred men are now quartered in her.”

Just at dusk, on the second day in Victoria, they went on board the good ship Queen, which was waiting to bear them northward to the rugged coast, the island-studded gulfs and bays, and the eternal ice-rivers of Alaska.

For a long time that evening they walked the deck, Kittie pacing side by side with Fred Seacomb, Randolph telling Pet of his Freshman struggles and triumphs and pleasures at Harvard, Tom talking eagerly with his father, whose arm he took as they went to and fro, or paused to look out over the quiet waters, or the twinkling lights of Victoria. Adelaide, Bess, Rossiter and Mrs. Percival formed a cosey group reclining in their steamer-chairs in the shelter of the staterooms which they were to occupy that night.

At six the next morning the passengers felt the first thrill which told that the Queen had begun her voyage. Hastily they dressed, and emerged one by one from their staterooms, to gain every moment of this enchanted day.

The voyage northward led through narrow channels, where one could almost toss a biscuit ashore on either side; across open stretches of the blue Pacific, whose great waves rocked them gently; along the base of lofty mountains, with wild, untraveled forests growing on the water’s very edge.

Soon they began to see Indian encampments, or solitary natives, paddling their queer-shaped, dug-out canoes. Whales rose solemnly and spouted with deep sighs. Porpoises showed their glistening backs above water, raced beside the ship, and threw themselves out into the sunlight. Eagles winged their way from shore to shore, and ducks paddled merrily in every small bay. On masses of floating timber hovered snow-gulls, their beautiful wings lifting and closing as their rafts were rocked in the steamer’s wake.

The second day on board was Sunday. There was an Episcopal service in the saloon in the forenoon, nearly all the excursionists assembling and joining in the hymns. The afternoon passed quietly, many of the passengers writing letters to home friends, some reading, some walking or reclining in steamer-chairs on deck.

In the evening the Percivals gathered for a sing in a sheltered place near the wheel-house. Never before did the old church tunes sound so sweetly. At nine o’clock the sky was all golden with sunset colors, reflected in the smooth waters of the Sound.

Just before that hour there had been a little silence. When two bells were struck, Mr. Percival was seen to smile with a curious expression.

“What is it, father?” asked Bess, who was nestling close to his side.

“Why, it reminded me first of church bells, and then of an odd little affair in a Maine town, not far from your uncle’s farm.”

“Oh! tell us about it,” cried two or three voices at once. “A story, a story!”

“Well, I should hardly like to turn this pleasant little Sunday evening meeting into a story-telling circle,” said Mr. Percival after a moment’s pause; “but as it’s all about a church, and is a sort of Christmas story, perhaps it will do no harm. Are you warm enough, Bessie?”

“Plenty, father,” replied the little Captain. “Do give us the story. I’ve heard you tell it before, but I always did like to see you tell.”

You must fancy, as you read the next few pages, that you are on the steamer, with collar turned up, or shawl muffled about your shoulders. Just in front of you is the story-teller, a man of about sixty, with iron-gray hair and full beard, kindly eyes and broad shoulders. His right arm is thrown over Bessie’s shoulder as she leans against him, the little injured foot on a camp-stool before her. Mr. Selborne, quiet and grave, with rather a thin face, but fine dark eyes and firm mouth under a brown mustache, comes next. Kittie and Tom are seated on the bench that runs around the whole deck, their backs to the rail. Pet is in a steamer-chair, and Randolph, Adelaide and Mrs. Percival are grouped together, completing the circle. Half a dozen other friends have drawn near, and are comfortably reclining, sitting or standing just behind Pet.

A radiant path leads over the waters toward the west, where the wooded islands throw their dark, rugged summits against the sky.

The muffled splashing of the steamer’s great wheels, mingled with the low whispers of wind and sea, fill the pauses of the speaker’s voice.

Overhead a brood of ocean fowl, a flock of slender-winged gulls, or a single eagle sweep silently across the bright field of gold.

It would be impossible, as there was no shorthand writer present, to give the narrative that followed in Mr. Percival’s exact words; or to reproduce the kindly twinkle of his eye as he dwelt upon the more humorous phases of it. These you must yourself supply as you read.

THE STORY OF THE CRACKED BELL

There was no doubt whatever of its melancholy condition. Cracked it was, and cracked it had been for the last two years. Just how the crack came there, nobody knew. It was, indeed, a tiny flaw, long ago covered by green rust, and apparently as harmless as the veriest thread or a wisp of straw, lodging for a moment on the old bell’s brazen sides. But when the clapper began to swing, and gave one timid touch to the smooth inner surface of its small cell, the flaw made itself known, and as the strokes grew louder and angrier, the dissonance so clattered and battered against the ears of the parish, that after two years’ patient endurance of this infliction (which they considered a direct discipline, to humble their pride over a new coat of white paint on the little church), one small, nervous sister rose in prayer meeting and begged that the bell be left quiet, or at least muffled for one day, as it disturbed her daughter, whom all the village knew to be suffering from consumption.