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diff --git a/43934-0.txt b/43934-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..feecb32 --- /dev/null +++ b/43934-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2769 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43934 *** + +HARBOR JIM + + + + +[Illustration: SIGNAL HILL, HARBOUR OF ST. JOHNS.] + + + + + HARBOR JIM + + OF NEWFOUNDLAND + + + + + By + A. EUGENE BARTLETT, D.D. + _Author of "The Joy Maker," etc._ + + + + + [Illustration] + + + + + NEW YORK CHICAGO + Fleming H. Revell Company + LONDON AND EDINBURGH + + + + + Copyright, 1922, by + FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY + + + + + New York: 158 Fifth Avenue + Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. + London: 21 Paternoster Square + Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street + + + + + _To those Newfoundlanders who, in gathering + harvests from the sea for the world's hungry, + have garnered for themselves both faith and + courage, I dedicate this book._ + + + + + Contents + + + I. JIM AND BOB 9 + + II. THE CONVERSION OF JIM 20 + + III. AN ENGAGEMENT AS PLANNED 30 + + IV. SOME MIRACLES 40 + + V. "I ASKED FOR FISH" 49 + + VI. LIVIN' ALONG 56 + + VII. THE HEAVEN HOME 61 + + VIII. CHRISTMAS WITH JIM'S FRIENDS 68 + + IX. HONEY-MOONING ON THE FLAKES 80 + + X. JIM AND HIS BOOK 86 + + XI. RAILROADING WITH THE KID 93 + + XII. THROUGH THE VALLEY WITH THE LITTLE + FELLOW 100 + + XIII. THE QUEER ONE 107 + + + + +I + +JIM AND BOB + + +Bob McCartney was spreading cod on the flakes and I was watching +him and estimating the chances of better weather. The sun had not +succeeded in rolling back the fog and St. John's was still half asleep +in blankets of mist. Signal Hill was altogether hidden and the harbor +entrance could not be seen. In the water-soaked atmosphere the flakes +were merged together and the tiny houses of the fishers were almost +joined into one long rambling house. The air was heavy with the smell +of fish and the morning was not conducive to enthusiastic conversation. + +Bob McCartney was a Newfoundlander born and bred and had left with his +ancestors in Ireland the gift of blarney. This morning in particular he +contented himself with monosyllabic answers, that occasionally did not +come even to the estate words, but ended only in an effective grunt. +Finally he condescended to speak a whole sentence with some little life +in his voice. + +"Yes, I guess she's agoin' to lift, fer there goes Harbor Jim." + +I strained my eyes to see thru the fog and could just discern a sail +boat headed toward what I supposed was the harbor entrance. + +"And who is Harbor Jim?" I asked. + +"Why, he's my friend and he can knock spalls off'n any Lander in the +Dominion," replied Bob and then lapsed into silence as he went on +slowly laying out his cod on the flakes. + +Just then the sun made a gain and succeeded in piercing thru the fog +and I saw, suddenly, a little boat some seventy-five yards out from the +shore, and standing out near the bow stood a man as erect as the mast +behind him, and looking straight out to sea. + +"There's Harbor Jim!" and Bob pointed over his shoulder in the +direction of the boat as he spoke the words. + +It gave me a thrill, as the light brought him sharply to my attention, +to see him standing there, intently looking toward the harbor entrance. +I looked from the shore even as he looked from his boat and the sun at +that moment uncovered the rocks on both sides. He lifted his hand and +the helper behind him brought the sail to the faint breeze that was +springing up, and the boat headed for the harbor entrance and the open +sea. + +The sun seemed to lift Bob's spirit and the sight of Harbor Jim to warm +the cockles of his heart, for he began in a good-natured drawl to tell +me of the finding of his friend. + +"It was the third week in March, eleven years ago, come next spring, +that we were sealing down North. Harbor Jim and I were then on Cap'en +Boynton's ship. I didn't know Jim then more'n any other fellow. It was +an odd kind of a trip. For days it hung nasty and we couldn't have seen +a seal if he had been within shot of us. + +"Then, one day, I think it was a Friday, but that doesn't matter, it +come bright and sparkling and grew cold. By noon our ship was frozen in +the ice, and we were waiting and hoping the look-out would see seals. +The ice had been piled up in some places and just south it looked like +a town, a little village with houses and meeting house and school, all +a sparklin' pretty. I never seed bluer sky, deep as chicory flowers and +you could see fer miles, seems though you was a-goin' to see thru it +almost to 'tother side o' the world. + +"Long about two o'clock the look-out yelled: 'Seals to the nor-east!' + +"No sooner did he yell than the Cap'en shouted: 'Look alive men! Over +and after!' + +"Then with gaffs and guns and ropes we went over the ship's side and +after the seals. The ice was uncertain and some of the men went thru +the crust into the sea, but we quickly pulled them out and were off +agin. + +"Now in the days before we had decided to make a contest of it, as we +often did. It made good sport and we would get more seals. Harbor Jim +and I had chosen up, like they do in a spellin' bee, and all the men +had been divided into two sides to see which one on'em would bring the +biggest load o' seals back to the ship. + +"Unfortunately the seals were some distance from the ship and it was +after two when we started. We were so intent on getting the catch that +we failed to note it was not only beginning to snow, but also getting +on toward the end o' the day. + +"At the moment when we should have turned back, I saw an old hood, +that's an old seal that pulls a visor over his eyes and fights to a +finish. I'd been tender-hearted and passed by just then a young seal +that looked kinder pitiful at me and begged for life and I resolved +that I'd get the old hood, come what would. He lured me away from the +crowd, and when I finally succeeded in silencing him, the men were +gone, and thru the snow I could not see the ship. + +"Worse luck still the ice-pan on which I stood was beginning to shake +and break up. I thought of the woman at home and the boy, and I thought +of freezing to death out to sea and I guess, too, I thought o' my sins. +The other fellows had gone back to the ship and I was alone, facing +the cold, the storm and the night. Then I began to shout in the hope +that they were not too far away to hear me. After some waiting, that +seemed longer than probably 'twas, I heared two words and I don't +honest think, if I gets to Paradise and the good Lord says, 'Come, Bob, +there's room,' it'll sound half so good as it did to me then when I +heared ringing out: + +"'Comin', Bob!' It was the shout of Harbor Jim. I kept hollering and he +found me and together we made our way back. I don't know jes' how and +I don't believe he does, but when we reached the rest, we joined hands +and felt our way back to the ship. + +"I have asked him about it, many a time, but he always says, '_He_ +showed me the way, Bob, and He'll show you the way. Ask Him, Bob.' + +"He went after me when all the rest said he was a fool and a riskin' +of his life. That's how I found my friend and I don't believe Jonathan +ever loved David more'n I love Jim. He never goes scow-ways; he always +sails straight. But you mustn't think I am the only one that loves him. +Jerusalem spriggins, I do believe the whole world would love Jim, if +they only could know him." + +The lethargy that had been born out of the morning had completely +disappeared. Bob had become all animation as he told of the finding of +his friend. If I had not known that Bob was a man who never showed his +feelings, except in most orderly and measured fashion, I should have +thought, once or twice, that the tears were starting, but it must have +been the dampness of the morning, that the sun was now fast drying up. + +The city of St. John's now stood out clear in the sunshine. Harbor +Jim's boat had gone thru the narrow entrance and disappeared out to +sea. Both sides of the bay stood out sharp, revealing a harbor that +from many viewpoints is as beautiful as that of Naples. + +Bob carefully laid out his last fish and left it to dry on the flakes. +Rubbing his sleeve across his face, he abruptly turned and said: + +"I needs a plug of terbaccy. Walk down town and I'll tell you how Jim +got his name." + +I did not need a second invitation and we started toward town. + +"You see it was this-away. His mother gave him the Jim, but his friends +and neighbors give him the Harbor. + +"Jim was always one to take chances, 'specially if some one needed him. +Didn't he take a chance--a big one--when he saved me on the ice-pan? +But somehow he always pulled thru. Other boats would lie outside and +wait but Jim would pull thru the Narrows and tie up and be home afore +the others. The others dasn't come into the Harbor, a fear o' the rocks. + +"Folks come to say, 'Jim always makes the Harbor.' Then jes' naturally +they come to call him Harbor Jim. It's so now that the women folks +are always glad if their men can go with Jim, for they feel that then +they'll sure come back. Everybody who lives yere loves Harbor Jim." + +"I would like to meet Harbor Jim and have a talk with him," I said, +when Bob ceased talking and trudged on in silence. "I am sure he has a +philosophy worth hearing about and adopting." + +"You can meet him all right," replied Bob, "but as for talkin' much +with him, I don't know. He isn't very strong on talkin'. He says some +folks talk so much, they set their tongue to goin' and go off and leave +it runnin' and it does a heap a mischief. Another time he sed to me +that he thought most folks would _do_ more if they talked less. + +"I remember a year ago a white-washed Yankee was here travelling for +some soap concern. He heared about Harbor Jim and wanted me to take +him over to his house and introduce him and I did. That Yankee started +right in doing all the talkin'. He had a tongue that was balanced and +would wag easy. He told Jim he was making a mistake in not having a +bigger garden, that he ought to farm more and fish less. He told him +what the Dominion needed and when at last he began to get out of breath +he turned to Jim and said: + +"'What do you think?' + +"And Harbor Jim just said kind of slow like and deliberate: + +"'Guess you have said it all, sir, but mebbe when everybody goes to +farming they will need a little fish to change off from potatoes and +cabbage, and I guess I better bid you good day and go fishing.' That +was every word Jim said and that Yankee watched him go out of sight and +what that Yankee said then want a credit to him nor favorable to the +Dominion." + +I smiled at the thought of the discomforted travelling man and wondered +if my own luck or my own tact would succeed any better, for I was +already convinced that Harbor Jim was a man worth knowing. + +"Suppose we go and meet Mrs. Harbor Jim," I said to Bob when the +tobacco had been purchased and his pipe was doing right. + +"If you say so, but meetin' her ain't the same as meetin' him. She's +all right, but she's jes' learning from Jim, she says so herself," +answered Bob. + +Their home was in a little town a few miles out from St. John's and +it was kind of Bob to go out with me. After a walk of about an hour +we stood looking down upon a little fishing village with great, +brown-stained rocks protecting it a little from the sea. + +"This is his town," said Bob, "can you find his house?" + +But they looked alike to me; for all were small rectangular affairs, +flat-roofed, shingled and painted white. Jim's house was evidently no +different from his neighbor's. + +"I guess I'll have to tell you," Bob chuckled, as we went down a lane +and saw two rather dirty children at play in front of a house where a +woman was bending over a tub of clothes. + +"Hello, Bob, did Jim go out?" the woman called, as soon as she +recognized Bob. + +"Yes, he went out a couple of hours ago. Here's a man who wants to meet +Mrs. Harbor Jim." + +She wiped her hands on her wet apron, pushed the hair back from the +baby's face as she passed her and beckoned us to follow her into the +house. Extending her hand she said: + +"I think, sir, you want to see my husband, but he's a fishin' and may +not be back afore tomorrow. Can I do anything for you, sir? There's +some brewse,[1] on the back of the stove, if you care to eat. I am +wondering what you can be awantin' this time of a working morning? Is +it that some one has fell sick and wants Jim to watch or pray?" + +"We were a bit tired with walking and thought we would like to rest and +see you and the children in passing," I said none to easily, for the +little woman was searching us hard to find the reason of our visit. + +Bob came to our rescue by starting a conversation about the promise +of prices for fish and what Bill Coaker was doing for the Fishermen's +Protective Union. Relieved by the shift in the conversation I looked +about the room. It was positively no different from other fishermen's +homes that I had visited; no better furniture, no more of it; the house +was no cleaner; and the woman, who was Jim's wife, was on a par with +other women of the neighborhood; only she seemed a little brighter and +a certain light was in her eyes when she spoke of Jim. There was just +one object that attracted my attention, a spruce tree in one corner, +and I asked the purpose of it. + +She replied: "Jim keeps a tree in that corner. He says it keeps him +remembering how beautiful the world is. He says it connects us with out +o' doors and Jim loves the open country just as he does the sea." + +Then after a pause she added: "But you must come again when Jim is +home. I want you to know him. I wish every one could know Jim; he is so +good, so true, so kind!" + +That was all I could find out about Harbor Jim that day, but I did not +forget that tribute to her husband, spoken simply, out of her heart, +and it made me feel as I went back to the city with Bob, that perhaps +I had under-estimated her ability and worth. It was more than a week +afterward that in unexpected fashion and without introduction, I met +Jim, But there was not a day of that week that I did not think of the +little woman in faded blue, her flaxen hair falling over her face in +confusion, because of wind and work, as I had seen her that morning +over the white-picketed fence of Jim's house. I knew that I should not +leave St. John's until I had seen Harbor Jim and his wife again. + +[1] A Newfoundland dish of hard bread, fish and pork. + + + + +II + +THE CONVERSION OF JIM + + +The pressure of my own work, during the following days, postponed my +intended visit to Harbor Jim's. Then, one afternoon, I started for a +walk, not to Jim's, but to Signal Tower by way of the flakes. The path +I chose, wound around among the little fishermen's summer homes and +past the flakes now heavy with fish curing in the sun; then across the +little valley, near the end of the promontory, up back of the hospital +to Cabot Tower and down around the reservoir back to the city. St. +John's offers many attractive walks. There is the road out to Quidi +Vidi, past the little lake where the regattas are held. There is the +road to Bowring Park that gives one the quiet of woods there, with many +flowers and a little, singing brook; but for one who loves the sea +and the fishers, the walk that goes along the flakes must ever be the +favorite. + +The afternoon of my walk was clear and the deep, blue water of the +harbor was in sight most of the way. I had reached Cabot Tower and had +been looking across the unhindered sea toward Ireland, the nearest +land beyond, and was turning to go down toward the city, that lay +comfortably upon the hills in the mellow, warm light of late afternoon, +when I noticed a rather tall, bronzed fisherman, standing close by, +evidently sharing the view with me. + +I turned and looked squarely at him and thought, "John Cabot himself +might have been such a one as you are." + +I nodded and the fellow returned it and said, removing his hat as he +spoke: + +"Don't you think we had better uncover before such a view as that?" + +I did as he suggested and drawn to the fellow by his winsome smile +I decided to go back to the city with him; but there was a certain +reserve in his manner, that did not make it quite easy to go with him +unbidden. I hesitated and then asked: + +"Have you any objection to my walking back to the city with you?" + +"Not in the least," he replied, "provided you do not spoil the last of +the day with too many words. You see, sir, I need some time to let that +scene sink into my soul." + +For a New Yorker who had been interviewing Dominion leaders and talking +politics in the interests of a newspaper, the command to keep silent +was at least a surprise, but no doubt altogether wholesome. + +We started toward the city. The hill drops rather rapidly, you may +remember, and then winds more leisurely. Forbidden to spoil the +afternoon with words, I could at least watch my unknown companion who +chose to practice the vow of silence like a Trappist monk. + +He was a fisherman. His clothes told me that, but there was to his walk +an elasticity, a certain springiness that the fishermen I knew had +lacked. He carried his head higher, his back was straighter. He walked +as the son of a King might have walked, who had decided for the time to +travel incognito and had chosen the garb of a fisherman. + +Now and then I would get a little ahead of him for the chance of +looking back and up into his face. The very smile with which he had +closed my mouth lingered and lit his face, just as light sometimes +lingers on clouds at sunset. I fell to wondering how long it would +last, just as sometimes I had estimated the length of sunsets. + +We came to a house and a little girl, seeing him, came running down +and, without a word, slipped her hand into the man's and walked on some +three rods and then left him and went back into the house from which +she had come. She also smiled and seemed glad to walk and be silent. + +The houses increased in number as we came down the hill. Two boys came +and, grabbing each a hand of my companion, walked a little way with +him. This time he bestowed upon the boys, not words but a marble a +piece. The boys utterly ignored me, kept their eyes rivetted upon him +and left, giving him a hearty "Thank you!" + +When we came to the last dip of the hill that descends into the city, +he paused and, keeping his eyes on the western sky, said: + +"Hard on you, sir! I didn't intend to be rude, but since I was +converted I have to have more time to myself. Seems only fair that a +fellow should have a little time now and then to enjoy his own company. +Here's a good place to watch the Lord as He blesses the city at the +close of the day." + +He waved me to a seat beside him and we sat watching. The silence was +not as oppressive. I was a little nearer to my companion and the great +gray clouds suffused with pink rivetted my attention. As the sunset +waned and the cold, gray of night came on, he got up and, starting +toward the city, said: + +"Thank you for praying with me." + +Now I had not been aware of having said anything at all, but I +remembered that prayer may be uttered or unexpressed and ventured no +reply. + +"Words often weigh down as well as lift. A lot of folks are smothered +with them." He was breaking the silence which he had stipulated should +be maintained until the view had sunk into his soul. "Words have to be +well chosen, then they lift their pound. I'm not averse to talking on +occasion; only, I find, when I'm talking too much, I'm thinking too +little. Then, again, God wants to have His say now and then, and how +can He, if we are sputtering all the while? Guess He talks still to +some folks in the cool of the evening just as He did in the old garden." + +Released from the command to be silent and no longer with the +opportunity of seeing my companion clearly, for it was fast growing +dark, I felt that I would very much like to know something more of this +strange, yet likable, fellow, and the words that he had spoken about +his conversion prompted me in turn to break the silence. + +"I think I have received more out of this walk and this sunset than any +I can remember, but my conversion was evidently not the same as yours. +I would like to know about your conversion. Maybe it would open my eyes +wider and let me see more as you do." + +I spoke now, not curiously, but earnestly, for I wanted to know how he +could find so much on the old familiar hill and how I might find what +he was finding. + +He laughed heartily and his laugh left the situation less tense and +made him seem more human. + +"Maybe my conversion won't interest you," he said, "then again, it may +help you. It was on this very road, I was converted. Only it was in the +morning at half past nine. It was a foggy morning. Newfoundland has a +good many of them. I used to think, too many, before I was converted, +but now it seems to me best, for it just curtains the beautiful world +and each time the curtain lifts it seems a little fairer than before +for the waiting. + +"Now I've always loved the hills and the sea and enjoyed a good view, +as most fishermen do, but that morning I was scuffing along, out of +patience with a poor catch of the day before and seeing nothing but +fog. The sea and the hills were out of sight. Suddenly I heard a voice +say: + +"'Why don't you look at yourself, Jim?' + +"I stopped stock still in the middle of the road, like a hand had been +put upon me and detained me. The voice was no more but the question was +for me and it had to be answered. + +"It would take some time, so I decided to sit down and consider it. I +could show you the very rock, sometime, if you cared to see it. I had +never done much thinking 'till that morning. I said to myself: + +"'James, you don't know yourself well enough to call yourself by your +first name. You have peeped into your neighbors' affairs. You've +criticised other folks but you've never really gotten acquainted with +yourself.' + +"So I stood myself up and asked myself questions in a real, down-right, +honest desire to see just what I was and what I was doing here. First I +says: + +"'Who are you, Jim?' + +"And I figured out that I had the right answer, though I had forgotten +it and lived in contradiction of it. I was and I am a child of the +Father. + +"Do you know, sir, the knowledge of that will ask a man a good many +more questions and answer 'em, too. + +"'Where are you living, Jim?' I said to myself and the answer came, +'You are living in His world and it's a good world. He made it for +you and His other children. He's put fish in all the seas and if it +ain't one kind it's another. There is enough in His world for all the +children, and if any on'em starves, it's because some on'em is blind +or the other children has forgotten they are to share His things. It's +a fair world, with blue sky and little birds that sing, and little +flowers that praise Him, too.' + +"It's a cheery thought, sir, that we're a livin' in _His_ world. It +makes it worth while to live right. Then the next question I put myself +was this: + +"'What are you worth?' + +"I reckoned up and found I was worth five quintals of salt fish, a half +a barrel of cod liver oil and twelve lobster pots, most of 'em empty. +I owned no house and aside from the fish I had $149 in the bank and an +extra suit of clothes that wouldn't count for much. + +"'Is that _all_ you're worth,' I said, and I saw it wasn't enough +to count me rich. I remembered, I could really think that morning, +that Job's riches were not in camels and sheep. So I might be rich in +other things beside codfish and oil, but I grew ashamed of myself that +morning when I come to see how little I could count up that was worth +carrying with me for eternity. + +"Bob McCartney's friendship, the part I'd given, counted a little; but +when it come to counting faith and hope and truth, it didn't show up +very well. I was poor and I had come to know it and that was the best +part of it. There was hope then for me and a chance I might become rich. + +"'Where are you going?' again the Voice asked me a big question. I meet +folks who have forgotten, just as I had done. But it helps to keep a +fellow on the right track to remember where the road ends. + +"'What are you doing here?' was the next question and I put myself to +answer it there on the rock that morning I was converted. + +"Fishing, I answered first, but what for, and is that all, came the +questions. Now I take it fishing or farming, writing or preaching, it +don't make much difference, so long as we're each just where He wants +us to be and are doing just what He wants us to do. And every man has +got to find out if he is where the Father wants him to be. + +"It didn't take me long to find out that I might be where He wanted +me to be, but I knew I wasn't doing all He wanted me to do and I was +adoin' a good many things He didn't want me to do. + +"Then I made some resolutions. Some folks don't believe in 'em, I know, +but they always seemed to me to be good crutches, till a man could +manage to get on without them and learn to walk straight. I resolved to +be the best fisherman ever put out to sea, to clean my fish thorough, +to salt 'em well and sell 'em honest weight. + +"Then I resolved to know more of His world since He made it for me and +the other children. Then, I remembered that since He had sent His Son +to show the way, I'd better listen to Him and go His way. + +"The next day I went over to Parson Curtis' and said to him: + +"'Yesterday was my day o' grace, and I was converted at half past nine. +I'm not saved, but I'm on the way to salvation and I'd like to be +broughten just as near to His Son as I can be. I'm just a learnin', but +no child ever wanted to learn more than I do now.' + +"So when it come Sunday, he took me into the fellowship of Jesus and +I've been learnin' ever since." + +I think I have given you almost his words. You see they were short, +real words, and the only fear I have is that in repeating them I may +have lost the quiet, deep-seated earnestness that was in his voice. He +spoke that night from his heart. We were on Water Street now and it was +time for us to part. + +"Thank you," I said, and I spoke as sincerely as he had spoken, "and if +you don't mind I would like to know your name. It is James, what?" + +He reached out a big hand and took a firm grip of mine and said: "I'm +Jim. Harbor Jim they call me." And then I remembered that I had been +looking for him. + + + + +III + +AN ENGAGEMENT AS PLANNED + + +"Come," came a voice from within and I opened the door and stepped into +Harbor Jim's cozy home. Its warmth and cheer were in sharp contrast to +the evening without. It was raining hard and everything was saturated +with water. Out of the chill and wet, I stepped across the threshold +into warmth and dryness. + +I thought at once of the Cotter's Saturday night. In the centre of +the room at a little table, close to a kerosene lamp, was Harbor Jim +reading from the Bible, and sharing the rather uncertain light with +him was his wife with a pile of stockings to be mended, in her lap. +Beyond them, a small fire-place with rough stone dogs. A spruce fire +crackled like pop corn and did its best to dissipate anything of +disconsolateness that might have crept in from the night's cold rain. +At the right of the fire-place, on a roll of comforters, lay a little +girl of perhaps two years, breathing gently in her sleep. + +Harbor Jim did not rise to greet me but with a motion of his hand +expressed his desire that I should remove my wet coat and take the +empty chair. He paused long enough for me to be comfortably seated and +resumed his reading. He was in the midst of the Ninety-First Psalm, and +he read slowly on, as one none too familiar with print and anxious that +no word or meaning be lost. + +"He shall cover thee with His wings, and under His feathers shalt thou +trust. You understand it, Effie," he said, turning to his wife. "It's +the picture you see every day when the mother hen tucks the little ones +under her wings. + +"You, sir, will remember," he turned now to me, "that our Master used +the same thought of the cuddling power of love, when He stood on Olivet +and looked down on the sin-blind Jerusalem. I would have gathered you +as a hen doth her chicks under her wing. + +"His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. This sentence puzzled me +for a good while, chiefly because I didn't know what a buckler was. +For a long time I couldn't find any Lander who did know. Finally I got +an Englishman to look it up in a book he had and he told me it was +something that went all around the body. Then I seed it plain. The Lord +was to protect us at the one danger point, with the shield; but He +doesn't stop there, He protects us at all points with the buckler." + +He did not pause again in the reading of the Psalm until he came to the +word angels, and then he spoke rather forcibly of his belief in angels. + +"Yes, I believe in angels, travelling angels. Why shouldn't He let 'em +travel? He let's us go about, then surely He must let them journey +considerable more. Naturally they want to be where they are needed most +and I reckon this world needs 'em. When we get the listenin' habit, +we'll all hear 'em, and when we get to the trustin' habit, we'll obey +'em when they bring us messages. I reckon they've helped me a good +deal. Sometimes they guide me to a big haul of fish, but more often +they bring me to a passage of Scripture, that's like a draft of cool +water on a thirsty day. I don't want you to think I'm looney, sir, but +I fancy they walk with me sometimes and most often when no humans are +with me." + +At the last verse he paused and then read these words twice: + +"With long life will I satisfy thee. This promise has troubled me a +good deal. It don't seem to be coming true. Good little kids die; +and tough, scaly old rascals live on poking fun at the righteous. I +have been wondering what the Hebrews meant, for a good many of their +prophets have said the same thing. + +"Mebbe it's one of the delayed promises. But I imagine it is coming +true oftener than we know. There is some connection between holiness +and happiness and between contented days and lengthened days. It is +natural to expect the man who obeys the law to find the benefit here +and now in this life. Well, if the Lord had each one of us alone +working out the promises, it would be very easy for Him and for us, but +He's seen fit to let us live together and we interfere with one another +considerable; but He thinks it best because we've got to get well +acquainted with each other before we are really able to know Him. As we +get so we can understand the laws for the many as well as the laws for +the each, I guess we'll most of us live long, but now the main thing is +to live well." + +"But does it seem quite fair, Jim?" his wife questioned him, naturally, +as though they were alone together. + +"I've thought about that a good while, Effie," he replied. "If I +had only one day to fish and only caught something on one hook in +twenty-eight, it would be a sorry day for me and you 'uns; but since +I've many days, it doesn't matter which day I get the fish, so long as +I get 'em. Now, I take it, it doesn't make much difference whether the +bounty and the blessing He's intended for each of us comes one day or +another, so long as it never fails to come. If this earth day was all +I couldn't believe in Him as I do, but when I remember that there are +days that have no ending, why it seems all right to have some getting a +little more this day and others a little more that day. It's all in the +life time of the soul. How long we stay in this room of Hisn' and how +much He gives us don't matter much in the long years o' eternity. Do +you begin to see how it is, Effie?" + +Then Jim closed his Bible and was silent. Without the rain came down +and beat its loud tattoo upon the roof. The spruce log ceased to +crackle and the little kerosene light seemed to relax its effort now +that it was no longer necessary to read the print. I had learned in the +few weeks that I had known Jim, that silence even more than speech hath +her rewards. After a quarter of an hour of quiet, in which we could +hear in the occasional let up of the rain the tick-tock of the little +clock on the shelf, I ventured a question: + +"How long have you been married, Jim?" + +"Fourteen years," he answered, "and it was no mistake that we made when +we built this home. There's been rain, but the sun came out the quicker +because of the together-spirit we had. Would you be interested, sir, in +hearing how we started out?" + +My face answered him and he began to tell me such parts of his own love +story as it pleased him to tell. + +"I was not married until after I was converted, that was a good thing! +There is a good many reasons why a man should be converted before he is +married. If there is anything in this life, more'n another in which the +hand of God should be felt it's marriage. + +"I'd had friends among the girls before I was converted, but I'd never +thought of settling down, until after that morning. Then I come to see +that a man needed a home on shore as well as a boat on the sea; that a +man would be likely to catch more fish if he had some one waiting on +shore and that fish never tasted so well when eaten alone. + +"I got to readin' the book of Genesis one night. I never read the +Bible much till after I was converted, and then it became a new book +to me and I began diggin' in it for treasure and I'm by no manner a +means thru diggin' and findin' treasure. I come across the command in +Genesis: To be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. I halted +there that night for a spell o' thinkin' and I came to the conclusion +that I ought to do my part and leave some one else to take my place +and fish when I lay down the hooks. The next thing was to find the +right one. Now a Bible readin' man is a prayin' man. And I shut the +book and I prayed, for if there is anywhere a man needs guidance it is +in finding the right one and keepin' offen the rocks o' trouble and +despair in such matters. + +"The next morning I went fishing the same as usual. I've noted that the +Lord never hurries an answer to a man who prays and then stands round +idle waitin' for his answer. Seems the Lord loves to surprise a man +with his answer while he's in the midst of work. + +"So the weeks went by till one late afternoon I was walking along the +flakes and I see a young woman splitting cod in the front yard of a +house, and the western light rested on her hair and it shimmered and +she looked up as I come by and we both smiled. Sir, then, I knew, just +as plain as a straight, taut line that she was the one and I had my +answer from the Lord, but I had still to get her answer. Some times you +have to wait for a woman's answer same as you do for the Lord's. + +"The next afternoon, about the same time, I come by her house, and +just as I expected she was there splitting cod, and that afternoon we +talked. I'd inquired and found her name was Effie Streeter. Now what I +said and the walks we had together wouldn't interest you, and anyhow +they belonged to us. But perhaps you might like to hear a little of our +engagement day. It come out just as I planned only a little better. + +"I was pretty sure then and it has been confirmed to me many times +since that a woman likes to have her joys come as surprises. Now if +I'd a proposed to her on the ordinary walk on an ordinary evening, she +might have accepted but it wouldn't have come with the happiness that +comes when you're not expecting, then it's like light out of dark cloud +or flowers that come quick after a long winter's snow. + +"One night I stopped in at her house and told her I had to go on +business over beyond Brigus and would like to have her go with me on +the train the next morning. It would be a short trip and we would be +back at night, on the train. + +"A fellow doesn't have much choice of trains here, but some seasons you +can go somewhere and get back the same day, but not every season. + +"It was the middle of July, but as I started for the station, thinks I, +it might be colder up at Brigus and I took along my great coat, so she +would be sure to be warm. We made the ride up, without event. It is a +lovely ride to Brigus, as you know, sir. + +"I don't remember much that we said on the way, do you, Effie?" and he +turned to her acquiescing smile. "But I had the place all selected and +I never expect to forget that day, either here or in Kingdom Come. + +"Under the shadow of a spruce we sat down and before us were acres and +acres of sheep laurel. The winter before had been cold and that summer +the laurel was redder than ever I have seen it, before or since. Away +beyond was Conception Bay with its hills and the wonderful blue water. +I don't know, sir, what scenes there are over seas, but I doubt if +there's a lovelier view anywhere in the world than that. + +"I had rehearsed pretty well what I was going to say and I have never +forgotten it to this day, and I am glad I haven't. Some forget what +they say before marriage and it brings a black shadow after marriage. + +"It was so very beautiful, that we set a spell, a holdin' hands and +lookin' with our souls as well as our eyes. + +"'Effie,' I said, 'I've brought you here to say a great word and I felt +it ought to be said in the fairest place in the world. This is the +loveliest place I know and if I knew a fairer one I'd have taken you +there. The word I am going to say is the one God said when it was dark +and He decided to make it light. It's the word He said when the world +was tired and He decided to send His Son and it's the one word the Son +spoke that has been changing the world since. That word is, Love!' Then +I felt my own unworthiness and I stammered and I lost something out o' +my speech and I've never found it, but I added,--'I'm only a fisherman +but what I want to give you is as much as I can of the very same love.' + +"Sir, that was all I had to say and she understood. Right after that a +strange thing happened. It had been clouding up and it began to snow. +Yes, we have once in a while a snow storm in summer, and we did that +year. Then I took the great coat I had brought and wrapped her tenderly +up in it and I said: Love has a good many duties, but I guess one on'em +is to keep you warm. + +"The snow came down and it covered the earth, but it didn't cover the +blossoms and there was a world of white with pink beauty scattered on +it, all the spruce and firs standing and looking and worshipping, if +trees worship. And I said: I guess it's the Lord's way of saying, He's +glad it's all settled. Now, if He had sent the rain we might a doubted, +but He's sent the snow so's we wouldn't doubt and we never have. + +"Now our trains sometimes take an uncommon long time, and you folks +from the States laugh at our railroads, but do you know I never went a +journey where the train made such a fast time as that night. We were in +St. John's afore we knew it." + + + + +IV + +SOME MIRACLES + + +"You orter been here a short while ago," Jim chuckled, as he addressed +his friend Bob McCartney, who entered soon after Mr. Jewett had left. +"We had a queer one here who believed you and I and the rest o' the +sinners were out o' sight of the Lord. Told us the Lord didn't know +nothing except the good and this world was just shadows and delusions." + +"Well," said Bob, "there's a few real things left and last night Harry +Marchant got up agin one of 'em. Towards night I met him on the Bowring +Road. He motioned to me afore I got to him to keep my side o' the road. +He acted just as though he had leprosy. When he got within hearing he +shouted: + +"'Bob, you never did me a bad turn and I'm not agoin' to do you one. +You keep your side of the road and don't ever speak to me when I go +by. I was comin' along a spell back and I met some skunks, not one, +but a mother and father and two children. They was walkin' separate +and I tried to dodge, but I couldn't dodge four ways at the same time. +I'm goin' home now to bury my clothes, scour my skin and try to forget +myself.' Now, Harry Marchant didn't meet no shadow and he was bathed in +the very oil o' gloom." + +We all laughed, but Jim was the first to sober up. "See here, boys, we +mustn't poke fun at the queer one. Some folks probably get a blessing +without thinking straight. Mebbe he's on the way to a great faith. +There's more'n one way across the sea and we all got to go thru the +same narrows to get into the Harbor. + +"There's this much to be said in favor of the fellow, he's beginning to +read his Bible. Seems strange though that outen the same book men draw +so many different things. Then, it was written by many a different one +and it's intended for all. Perhaps when we get too far astray He'll +send us another Son and a new Book. + +"Though I don't believe in his notion of getting rid of a real world +with real things in it, an' pushin' God out of this world, I do believe +in miracles. Now some folks come to a miracle in the Bible and they +sit down in front of it like the Marys at the tomb and they never are +able to roll it away or pass it. Just beyond that miracle is a great +truth, there always is, and these folks never get beyond wondering and +doubting about how it happened to be there. + +"Take the story of the miracle that happened to Jonah. I don't pretend +to say whether he ever had a berth in a real whale or not. It may be +the boat was called a whale and he took passage on her against orders. +But either way it's a beautiful truth we find, after we get over +worrying about the whale. The point, I take it, is, the man was trying +to run away from his duty and the story tells how he fared and how he +came back and was established as a prophet. A good many folks seem to +be still worrying about the whale and forgetting all about the truth. +I'm not sayin' it didn't happen. It could a happened and stranger +things have happened, I am only saying that whatever you believe about +the whale the truth is there to help just the same. + +"I don't like the way a good many folks talk about miracles, anyhow. +They look at 'em once or twice and then they say that it couldn't +a happened. Why it doesn't follow because the Lord couldn't work a +miracle on them He couldn't on somebody else. It may only prove they +was too hardened in their sins and their doubts to be worked on, at +least, for the present. Then it may be the thing has happened, right +before their eyes only when it comes to great things and spiritual +facts they are more'n half blind. + +"Raisin' from the dead I suppose would be considered the biggest +miracle of all, and perhaps it's about the hardest to believe. But at +some time or other, I have never been able to tell when, and I don't +knows any one else can either, the Lord God puts a soul into every +child of His. It is something that a father or a mother cannot put in +of themselves, and it is something that can't be destroyed. A good many +have tried to destroy their souls; but it's my belief they haven't +succeeded, not any one of all that have tried. Now, if He is the only +one that can put a soul into this earth house, He's the one that knows +best when to take it out, and it might be very easy, on an important +occasion, for Him to slip the soul back in again for a few days. He +did that in the case of His Divine Son and the Son did it on several +occasions, when He thought the soul ought to keep in its earth house a +while longer." + +"Did you ever hear anything about reincarnation, Jim?" I inquired. + +"Big word, isn't it," said Jim, immediately giving full attention to my +subject. "No, I don't know as ever I did. What is it, a doctrine or a +medicine?" + +"It's the belief, Jim, that souls return to the earth again in new +bodies. Some believe that only in animals and lower forms does this +happen and others that even when souls have been on this earth, they +return again to complete their experiences. I was thinking that your +idea of the ease with which God might slip in or out a soul might +make it easy for you to believe in this rather strange doctrine of +reincarnation. What do you think of it?" + +"Sounds fairly sensible to me, on first thought. I don't remember +anything in the Book about it, though I don't pretend to say I know +all that's in that Book. It might explain some things that's hard to +explain now with our present eye-sight. There's old lady Farrar, that +I was a'telling you about, who cured herself of weakness and was about +twenty years younger at eighty-five than eighty. She never had any real +luck or any great blessings until she cured herself. She was one of the +unfortunate kind, most always ailin' and when you went to see her she +had some new misfortune to tell you about. She lost every one of her +children and two husbands besides. Folks said it wasn't any great loss, +so far as the husbands were concerned, but then they were hers and she +took on considerable. Yet she has always been a decent woman, kept the +commandments far as her neighbors could judge; paid her bills, when she +could; went to church and said her prayers; and she had only a triflin' +amount of good fortune. She had to wash and scrub for the neighbors to +make ends meet and the splicin' was often poor. + +"Just compare her life with the lives of other women folks whose +husbands usually had a good catch and got good prices, whose children +never died and who prospered thru the years and even handled the +commands in a slippery fashion. It is hard to think justice has been +done in both cases or perhaps in either case. But if this miracle of +slipping a soul back into a body and sending it to school again is +true, that you are telling me about, why it clears up a lot of the +problems. Mrs. Farrar didn't pass the examinations the first or second +time she was here and she was sent back to study more and she is +getting about what she ought to have in His judgment. + +"I think, however, that reincarnation idea that you mention, I would +need to think a good deal about before I cared to tie too fast to it. +I presume I'll end up in putting it into quite a big package of goods +I am saving for shipping across the stream when I take passage. I've +marked them 'For His Judgment' and when I get over there, I'll sort 'em +and see if they're worth saving, and if I'm still doubtful about any on +'em I'll just get Him to pass judgment on them. That's seems to be a +sensible thing to do. + +"But we was talking about miracles here and now. To me the greatest +miracles Christ worked were not in curing diseases, but in curing sins. +I have always thought it a miracle that He could take Peter with his +stubbornness and his habit of speaking up too quick and make him strong +enough, sound enough, to be a real corner stone in His new church. I +callate Peter was pretty well along in years when the Master called him +and old folks ain't as easy to work on as those that are young and more +pliable. I count it a miracle that He made over Peter so well. + +"I have always been a good deal interested to find out what became +of Judas Iscariot who betrayed Him. He wasn't a fisherman like Peter +and he was harder still to work on. I know some of the ministers have +got rid of him, by tossing him over board and letting him drown in +perdition. But the Lord God that went after the sheep would a some day +heared the moaning of Judas and a-gone to his rescue, seems though. If +the Lord could work a miracle on Peter couldn't He some time, some how +do it on Judas? He must a had some beginning points on him some wheres." + +"I tell you the Lord has plenty a chances to work miracles if He +wishes, right round here. There's Rascal Moore. He ain't been converted +yet." + +"_Rascal_ Moore, did you say, Jim?" I interrupted. + +"Well that wasn't the name his mother gave him, but she didn't know he +would take all his father's bad points and add a few more evil ways. +She named him, Pascal. But Rascal fits him better and everybody knows +him by that name, and I have to think twice to remember he ever had +another name. + +"Rascal has done more to hurt the salt-fish business than any fisherman +I know. He manages to get hold of the most ornery, two-cent fish there +are in the sea. These fish have a hankering for Rascal, I guess, and +they scoot straight for his nets. When he gets 'em, he never cleans +well and he always hurries the curing, and he is none too particular +about either counting or weighing. He'll sell a little cheaper or lie +a little stronger and get rid of 'em, usually to an exporter and they +go perhaps to Naples and they're so poor, the folks who buy them never +want any more Newfoundland cod-fish. The government ought not to wait +for the Lord to punish Rascal, they should get after him right away. + +"Rascal has other sins to account for. Everybody feels, though they +don't hardly dare say so, that he killed his wife, and he's so mean +he's never married since. If there's been a piece of deviltry carried +out anywheres within fifty miles of St. John's that he hasn't had a +part in, I have yet to learn o' the fact. + +"I say to convert Rascal Moore would be a real miracle. And it will +be done and I would be glad to see it done on short order. I know it +can be done, for I have seen other folks as mean, ornery and selfish +as Rascal come meekly to the judgment seat, I have seen 'em rise outen +their old selves and become new and clean as a sunshiny morning after +the air has been washed in a fog. I have seen so much done by the Lord +on His own account and working thru the hands of His servants that I +never doubt that Rascal Moore will be made right. + +"Yes, sir, I believe in miracles and I see them every day. Brown earth +a-turning into blades and blossoms, in some wonderful way that He +planned. No less wonderful I see bad men becoming good men; sick men +becoming well men; and they that have been under the heels of sin and +slavery standin' up on their own feet. When I can't explain something +I still feel it is happening under the law and it's another of His +miracles." + + + + +V + +"I ASKED FOR FISH" + + +My business in St. John's had been brought to a conclusion and it was +time that I crossed to Port-aux-Basques and made my way thru Nova +Scotia and back into the States. There was only one reason for my +staying, and that was the chance of seeing a little more of Harbor Jim +and perhaps learning a little more of his philosophy. + +So it happened that again I was in the little fisherman's cottage +and Mrs. Jim was brewing tea for me, for she never permitted even an +inquirer to come to her door without his cup of tea. I put a question +to Jim that fortunately set him to talking about prayer. I had expected +to draw out a fish story but I found him launching into an account of +his belief in prayer and his ventures in talking with His Father. + +"What was the best catch you ever had, Jim?" I questioned him. + +"It was last April and it come in direct answer to prayer," Jim +answered promptly and without the least embarrassment. + +"In answer to prayer?" I said, and the tone of surprise was in my voice. + +"Why not," said Jim. "You believe in prayer, I suppose, then why limit +it. I needed a big catch. I'd had to paint the house and there had +been many expenses and I had to have a big catch to tide things over. +You will remember that the Bible takes for granted folks will pray for +fish, for it says: + +"'If ye ask for fish will he give you a stone.' + +"No, the man that asks for fish and asks right gets fish and the man +that asks for bread gets bread. It doesn't matter what you want, prayer +will fetch it. You remember He said: + +"'Ye shall ask _what ye will_ in my name and I will give it you.' + +"I don't pretend to set myself up to judge of what the parsons should +or shouldn't do. I am more or less an ignorant man, so far as schools +go, though I have read a heap since I was converted, and what's more +important, I have looked and thought a good deal. And I've looked in +more'n one direction. Old Mr. Squibbs who used to live out to Heart's +Delight was an odd stick. His wife died and he took to livin' alone and +he got kinder warped. He built him a house with only one window and he +always had only the one view when he looked out. Thinks I, some folks +are like old Mr. Squibbs, they have only one window and looking out +o' that window they see only a few things and no wonder they're often +a little lackin' in the loft. But I've tried to keep all the windows +of my mind and soul open and to let the light in and to look out on +all sides. The result o' all this lookin' and a thinkin' is that some +parsons and some folks, parsons is folks, though they are commonly +reckoned in a different class, don't understand the nature o' prayer. +They take it the Lord has got kinder out o' touch with the doings of +His children, and it's up to them to let the Lord on to the situation. +I have heared some prayers in churches that sounded like a newspaper +recounting the happenings. Strikes me they must have a queer notion of +the Lord, to think He don't know what's happening to His own created +children. + +"There's other prayers appear rather impudent. They tell the Lord just +what He ought to do. Who are we, poor creatures on the earth, who can't +see back of us, or before us, but a very little way and then only when +it's a clear sky, who are we that we should rise up in our conceit and +tell the Lord what He had better do. It's turning the boat round and +headin' it the wrong way. We are to ask Him what He wants us to do. We +are to come to Him not to give knowledge but to get wisdom. + +"Parson Curtis called me impudent because I asked the Lord for a mess +o' fish, and a big mess, too. But I don't agree with the parson on this +matter. I don't know why we shouldn't ask Him for what we think we +need, but there's a right and a wrong way of asking. Mind you I didn't +presume to tell the Lord how to send them or where. I just left it in +His hands. I prayed something like this: + +"'Kind Father, we were talking over blessings last night and I +mentioned a good many that You had sent us; and then when I'd finished +sayin' my thanksgivings, I asked that You make it possible for me to +find a mess o' fish and a good-sized one. Now I know You'll say no, if +it's best, and I'll not murmur or complain; but if it seems to You to +be best, You'll know the way to send them and when it's best. It's all +in Your hands and I'm not dictating to You, Father. But I want You to +know that we are needing fish and that I'm a-goin' to keep my eyes open +and my boat trim and my hooks and sinkers right and my nets all mended, +and I'll be waitin' for the Word.' + +"That's just about the way I pray. I am not afraid to come boldly to +the throne of grace. He would never find fault with my grammar, for +doesn't He encourage the little folks to talk with Him. Sure, that's +just what it is talking with Him. When we talk to one another, it's +conversation; when we talk to ourselves, it's thinking; and when we +talk to God, it's praying. + +"I never yet have told the Lord how to do anything, or how to fetch my +gifts. For since all things and all powers and all means are in His +hands, He doesn't need to be told. I most likely wouldn't know the best +way for transporting His gifts. I have to ask humbly and faithfully and +then to keep the doors open, so's whoever He sends will find me ready +and waitin' to receive. + +"Then again, I seldom pray for an easy time or a smooth sea. I want to +be strong and I don't mind wrestling like Jacob with the strange one, +so long's I come out the winner. I don't mind if the sea is ruffled, +or the waves mount, or the wind lashes the sails, so long as I know He +has an eye on me and keeps me. I have found that if He sends me extra +work, He always sends along extra strength, and the blessed part of it +is that the strength comes at just about the time the work does. + +"I pray sometimes for health for my body, but I am much more likely to +pray for the health of soul. For I dread sickness of soul, more'en I do +sickness of my body. It is far harder to get rid of selfishness than to +get over a stomach-ache. I'd rather see my little Clara sick with the +measles than to see her developing dishonesty." + +"How long does it usually take the Lord to answer your prayers," I +asked, and not jocularly, but in the hope of finding out what results +had come to Jim as a result of his sincere prayers. + +"How long does it take before it rains, do you know? Can you tell +when the frost will take my cabbages or the snow heap up my door-way? +Neither can I tell when the Lord will send what I ask. He knows better +than I do. He knows the value of delays, and how long to try my +patience. I wouldn't say He hurried, for the more I come to know of +Him, the more I find it true that He has taken time to do most things +He has done. You can get an idea of how He works by looking at this +earth that He took so long to fix up for us. As I've told you before, +I think the Lord loves to surprise us children and often He sends a +blessing when we are least expecting it and the answer comes on a dark, +stormy day when it's like a ray of sunshine breaking thru a cloud. + +"I talk over all my needs with Him, but I don't devote all my praying +to myself. I've done quite a lot of praying for Rascal Moore, and some +day the Lord will surprise Rascal and me and he'll be converted. Of +course I pray for my own wife and my own little girl and I pray for Bob +McCartney and I also remember Spotty, my dog. If I had a cow, which +I haven't just now, I'd pray for her. They are God's offspring, and +they were planned by Him and they need His care to provide fresh green +and abundant water. It's a responsibility for which we need help, the +caring for the other children." + +"You are wandering away from your fish story," I reminded him. "What +about that big catch? How did it happen?" + +"It was very simple. I went out to the fishing grounds. It would have +been asking too much of the Lord to have demanded that He send them +ashore. I went where I'd be likely to find fish. And when I got to the +grounds, I heared a voice say, 'Let your nets down on the starboard +side.' And I did as He told me and I had the best catch of the season." + + + + +VI + +LIVIN' ALONG + + +Several months had passed without a word from Harbor Jim, when one +morning going thru a batch of mail, that was given over to business +matters, I came upon a rather soiled envelope that was post-marked "St. +John's." I was quite sure that it was from Jim and I pushed aside the +communications from firms that offered me oil stock and a fortune and +the letters of others who were suing for favors of one kind and another +and turned with the relish of a boy to read the message from my friend. +I am willing that you should read it, but I have made some corrections +in spelling and a few in grammar, that you may read it about as he +would have read it aloud, about, I think, as he intended it to read. + +"Dear One, + +"It's a long time since we've seen you on the flakes. It's a long time +since we've read the word o' the Lord together beside the evening +lamp. I'm not thinking of coming to New York to see you. I know I have +been invited manys the time, but I'm not risking a leg yet in your +full streets. It's gettin' bad enough in St. John's with all the autos +a-whisking down Water St. It's a fine thing that we can send a message +up there to you. It was a kind Father that made it possible for us to +get acquainted with each other as well as with Him. I often think of +the Master's ideas on the subject. You remember He told us if we really +got acquainted with our brothers we should know the Father, and without +that acquaintance we couldn't really know Him. + +"There ain't no great thing happened to tell of. I've just been livin' +along. Eatin' and sleepin' every day and fishin' most days. But I've +been prayin' every day and a receivin' of replies day by day. The +Lord's been with me all the way. Yes, just as much as though I could +write you of a great, sudden happening. There's a good many folks I +find who recognize the Lord's doings in the big, flashing things of +life and forget Him altogether except at them special times. It's +rare that I sit up with a corpse, which I often do, without hearing a +confession about the Lord's hand and the Lord's doing in the coming of +the stroke; but it's most likely that same man who is very conscious +and pitiful didn't have much thought or dealings with the Lord till his +sorrows come upon him. + +"Now the Lord is in the Valley of the Dark Times and He's on the Bright +Height of Victory, but He's also along the Common Way, the level road +that makes up the every day's travel. That's what I used to forget and +that's what I'm beginning to remember and it makes heap a different in +your knowledge o' life itself and the joy you get outen it. + +"There's countless folks know He never fails in time o' need, but I'm +one who finds that He never fails at any time and that every day is a +day o' need. + +"It may be I've met the wrong kind o' folks some of the journey, but +I've found a good many that make a heap a trouble just out o' living. +They remind me o' Martha who got so fussed up doing common housework +she couldn't understand the need o' spiritual house-keeping at all. +Folks don't seem to have time enough to live their lives easily. They +start off with a hitch and they break down afore they get very far. +Seems though they thought there want goin' to be another life after +this one and they'd got to do all eternity's work in this little span +o' time. Don't seem reasonable and natural to expect a man to do the +work o' two worlds in one. The Lord don't expect it neither. + +"The Lord Jesus had about the biggest task on hand that any man ever +had. His job was to save the world. He had only three years for His +ministry and if he had lived as some of the folks hereabouts are livin' +He would have so consumed Himself with worry and fret that He would a +died with a fever afore the first year was over. One thing I note as I +read His story is that He moved majestic like He had time to do what +needed to be done. I guess it's the things that we could get on with +out that take the most time and gender the most worry. + +"There's always time enough to do what the Lord intended to be done +in this life, else He wouldn't have assigned it. He wouldn't run His +universe on a leisurely and comfortable plan, if He expected us to +wear ourselves out hustling. I take it He counts a thousand years +are as one day not only for Himself but as well for us children. +Thinkin' of His plan kinder takes the fever outen your veins, kinder +makes you understand what His Son meant about the peace that passeth +understandin'. + +"Effie is the same as ever. She's just livin' along, same's I. The +children are doin' well at school. Bob McCartney was over night afore +last. His boy has got the rheumatics, but I guess tain't nothin' +permanent. The government is thinkin' o' takin' over the railroad +again. Our railroad has had a hard time and it's been found fault with +a good deal, but it's got an iron constitution and I guess it can stand +it. As I told you once, it's all the railroad we've got and it's a +powerful lot bettern no railroad. + +"I am thinkin' often these days of little Peter. I can think now +without swallowin' hard and I'm beginnin' to get comfort instead of +trouble when I think. I have been thinking about the conditions o' +life over there. Sometime when your down here I'll talk with you about +the Heaven Home, but it would take too long to write it out and then +I don't knows you would be interested. Any how it would come out easy +with your kind o' questions. I like you, but I do think your about the +hardest questioner I ever knowed. + +"Respectfully yours, that's how letters are signed when a man writes +you for fish or bait or somethin', but I don't see why it ain't proper +for a friend, for certain we ought to respect our friends, and the fact +we can respect 'em makes us the more sure their friends. + +"Jim." + +"P. S. I saw Bob McCartney last night. He was lookin' well and had his +behaviour (silk-hat) on. He had been to a party." + + + + +VII + +THE HEAVEN HOME + + +When again the good fortune brought me to Newfoundland and led me out +to the fisherman's cottage, I did not forget Jim's promise to tell +me of his observations concerning the future life. We had, thru our +increasing friendship, come to understand each other. I had learned +when to keep silent and I knew Jim's moods and when to intrude would +be the height of ingratitude and when to enter would be the act of an +accepted friend. + +The reading of the Book had been finished for the evening and there was +yet a half hour before my friend would count it his time to retire. +"How about the Heaven Home, I think that is what you called it," I +asked, and Jim, without parleying, was ready to speak freely in answer. + +"Yes," he said, "I like the word home, as applied to it. I couldn't +think of Peter as wantin' to stay in a mansion. In the Comfort Chapter +in John, I've always read the word 'home' in place of 'mansion.' The +parsons tell me that there are some mistakes in the translatin' o' the +Good Book, and I am sure that it's a mistake here. There ain't enough +comfort in the thought of a mansion for most of us common run o' folks, +and it was for us that He come and told of this life and the life to +come. + +"I'm sure it's a home. I think it must have in it things that match up +with what we got here. I don't see how we could feel at home without +something like tables and chairs. We had a parson one time who knew all +about it over there, accordin' to his tell. He told us about the crowns +and harps and the golden streets and the singin' that went on all the +day long. But I callate no Lander would care for such a life as that, +and if that's what it's like there's precious few of us 'uns over there. + +"Now if it's a home as I think it must be since the Father has planned +it, there must be homelikeness there. There must be somethin' that +corresponds to tables and chairs and all the little things that go to +makin' up a real home, else how could a man be happy over there, who +had just left a happy home here. I'm not sayin' we shall always need +them things, but I am a sayin' that in the very next life we must have +things we are used to for a spell till we get to the point where we +don't need them, but somethin' else. Sounds sensible to me to think +that way. + +"You remember that after the Lord was dead and Peter was plumb worn out +and discouraged; there didn't seem to be no hope nowheres; he decided +to go fishin'. I callate there are times when a man would rather go +salmon fishing than to do anything else in the world, provided he knows +what good salmon fishin' is. Now for these fishermen about the only +thing the Lord can do, if He wants to make 'em happy as He promised to +do, is to give 'em a chance at fishin'. + +"I wouldn't be at all surprised some morning in Heaven to be trailin' +along the bank o' some good stream fishin' and lookin' up sudden to see +the Lord there a fishin' too. + +"You smile, but why not? Do you think the Father is so foolish as to +drop us down in a strange place where we don't understand and we don't +know what to do. Does it appear to you that the Lord would take a +little fellow like Peter and send him around with a harp. I'll tell you +what Peter would want to do, he would want to jump rain barrels so as +he would know how to jump ice pans when he got older. + +"What good would it do to take any little fellow outen the primary +school and put him right into college. It wouldn't do him or the +college one particle of good. It would be a sheer waste for everybody +concerned. I think the Father is wiser than that, and it's always +kinder amused me and somewhat disgusted me that the parsons have +imagined heaven to be so teetotally different from this life. + +"I've seen so much of His wisdom here, I can't come to think that He's +working blind and foolish over there. Will I know little Peter, sure I +will, or it wouldn't be heaven. Then his new little body must look like +the present one, only stronger and it won't hurt it so much when he +pinches it. + +"He'll get into the place that fits for him, not because he's sent, +but because he just naturally goes where he belongs. And as it is with +little Peter so it will be with every one. Perhaps by this time he has +seen the Christ, for the kingdom is always found quicker by a child +than by a grown man. Children see things that we older folks find it +hard to see." + +"How about Rascal Moore?" I asked. + +"Just now he's taken his cat and dog and he's gone to the woods.[2] +Mebbe there a stick will hit him and knock a little sense into him. +He's by no means hopeless. I've seen worse ones than he is get sense +afore they died. But you mean what would become of him if he went just +as he is. Well, there must be sufferin' for the likes o' him. You +can't, and I find the Lord Himself don't, seem to make a sinner into a +saint all of a sudden. He may wake him up sudden and start him, but it +takes time to get him rounded off. He'll go where he belongs just as +the others; and if for a while he belongs in an uncomfortable, painful +place why there's where he'll go. I never could see the sense in trying +to think that everybody would go right off to one same place and be in +heaven. There's too much difference in folks; there's the converted and +the unconverted; there's the sinners and the saints; and though you put +'em in the same place, it wouldn't be the same place for them. It don't +seem probable to me either that they can't never change their places +when they get over there. There's a good deal o' changin' here, so +there's likely to be over there. + +"There are changes in the earth homes, there'll be changes in the +heaven homes. And it will be well so long as the changes are for the +better. I can't think that will always be the case, howsomever, for +it ain't the case here. But gradual I'm expectin' conditions will +improve and the handicaps are less over there. With the help o' Moses, +Isaiah and the prophets and saints we ought to get on at a fair pace. A +tremendous lot o' mothers is over there; they've been a goin' out one +by one for a terrible long spell, makes me dizzy when I get to thinkin' +o' some o' these subjects. Mothers don't loaf so long as there's chance +to help kids, an' I'm callating that they'll do some pretty good work +along lines o' convertin' over there. + +"I expect to hear the baccaloo[3] over there and I'd rather hear a +baccaloo than a nightingale or a lark for it would seem more like home. +That's the big thing and the Lord ain't likely to disappoint me or any +one who is lookin' for a home over there. + +"The heaven home is a good sight nearer than most folks think. The +journey is short and it's only our poor sight and our hearin' that has +made it so far away. I know Peter's often near me while I'm at work and +it's a comfortable feeling, not a scarey one to think he's liable to +be around most any time and I must be on my guard not to let slip any +string o' words that would be bad for him to hear. It chucks a fellow +up to feel that he must be on his best for the little fellow sees and +knows. I want to be such a father as he'll respect. It must be mighty +oncomfortable for some folks when they get over there, for some folks +don't do no growing after they lose their loved ones and how in sank +they expect to be fit company for their folks when they themselves get +over there is more'n I can tell. + +"Because there's homes there don't in no way interfere with it's bein' +a beautiful place. It don't have to have golden harps to make it worth +while. There's probably rivers that are prettier than 'ourn, and there +must be pink calmia, fox-gloves and sweet william, pansies, tea-bushes +and a good many others that I don't happen to think of. There must be +places in heaven that look like Deer Lake, Gaff Topsail, Kelligrews and +Brigus. Mebbe there's places in heaven like New York, too, though from +what you say it will need some changin' to be kept as a heaven city. + +"I don't want you to think that I'm a gump[4] because of these ideas, +but to me they've been a good deal of comfort and whenever I get to +doubting at all about things over there I just recall it's a home and I +settle back content." + +[2] Gone to a lumber camp. + +[3] A loon. + +[4] A very foolish person. + + + + +VIII + +CHRISTMAS WITH JIM'S FRIENDS + + +There was the calendar right before me on the wall, with figures big +enough to mentally hit me and hit hard, and I should have remembered +that the road of the year had turned toward Christmas. But before me +was an unfinished news article that even a hungry and insistent stomach +did not seem able to push to a conclusion. Beyond my desk out of the +window I looked now and then down upon the hurrying throng who were +making their way across City Hall Park to Brooklyn Bridge. It was the +hour when you do not know whether to call it day or night. It was +indescribable in another way,--it was either misting or raining. I +suppose a Scotchman would have called it mist and an Irishman rain. I +think that any one looking out that night would have found it hard to +see in the gray view anything suggestive of Christmas. I turned from +the wet view to my unfinished work only to be again interrupted. + +A Western Union boy burst into my office with a telegram. It was from +St. John's and I wondered as I tore it open if anything had happened +to Harbor Jim. It was short and for once the operators had apparently +followed the author's spelling. + + come fur chrismus cant take no fur an answer no how biggest + an best you or yourn hev ever seed come jim + +A few days afterward a long letter came enforcing and elaborating the +invitation. Jim wrote that he was already at work upon a Christmas that +would eclipse anything New York had ever had. He had taken the idea out +of a city paper that I had sent him a year before and had developed it +and he wouldn't care to go forward with it, unless I could be there. + +That is how it happened that a few days before Christmas, on the last +steamer that would get me there in time, I was steaming into St. John's +Harbor. Our boat was sheathed with ice and as in the morning we came +thru the Narrows there were knobs of ice floating around us. The hills +were white and the brown stone now and then stuck thru where the snow +had lost its footing. + +Landing I found the people in furs and the sleighs making merry music +with their bells. A fellow agreed to drive me out to Jim's for two +dollars and a half and I went in his sleigh, he called it, but in New +England it would have more properly have been called a pung. + +Jim almost literally wrapped me in his arms and outdid himself in the +cordiality of his welcome. + +"How's fishing, Jim?" I asked when the first greetings were over and I +had my feet up in front of the stove. + +"Fishin', why land o' Goshen, this ain't no time for fishin'. There +ain't but one thing on my mind an' that is Christmas. Don't you see +what we are a' doin'?" + +A kettle of oil was on the stove and the dipping of half grown candles +had been recently finished. On the floor were half a hundred full grown +candles. + +Jim could talk only of Christmas. "I've been thinkin'," he said, "that +if there should ever be a second coming of the Lord or He should send +another Son to His people He couldn't pick out a better place than +this. Suppose it was to be another birth. I callate this land has just +as good a chance as Palestine and hereabouts is as fittin' a place as +Bethlehem. Look out there at the snow! Makes you think o' a baby's +blankets, it's so white and clean and pretty. Our nights man't have +stars as brilliant as that one greater star of the first Christmas +mornin', but I don't believe they have flyin' lights[5] like 'ourn. I +hev noticed that the Lord tries to be as impartial as He can and since +He sent His Son to the East last time, if ever He should send again why +I think He'd be likely to send Him somewhere hereabouts. You remember +the Son liked fishin' an' He'd be delighted with Newfoundland." + +The door opened and Bob McCartney walked in. + +"What's the matter, Bob; what you got your good behavior[6] on fur?" +asked Jim as his friend entered. + +"Ain't the occasion worth it? You sed yourself that it was to be the +biggest Christmas the Landers ever hed; and I'd like to know if we +aren't in a way celebratin' now while we're gettin' ready." + +"Who's coming to this Christmas, Jim?" I asked, taking my turn at a +question. + +"Well, everybody in this town, quite a mess o' folk from St. John's +and Quidi Vidi. Some from Brigus, Kelligrews and Heart's Ease. Aunt +Saray Bailey is a' comin' from Nancy Jobble.[7] It's such a general +invitation that they ain't no definite countin' no how, but their +comin'. Everybody that meets anybody hereabouts and nowadays jes' says +are you a' comin' to Jim's fur Christmas." + +Gradually by prying questions I found out what Jim was planning to do. +He had been extremely interested in the account I had sent him of the +illuminated tree in Madison Square, and had resolved to have the trees +on a neighboring hill-top all illuminated where they stood. In place of +electric lights he was engaged in making tallow candles by hand. + +The day before Christmas, Mrs. Jim was up very early and when I came +down to breakfast she greeted me with this: + +"Got to make a biler full o' tea this morning fur the Decoratin' +Committee will be here shortly." + +"Yes," added Jim, "they'll be here shortly and then we'll be a carryin' +out Christmas. Up your way they fetch it _in_, but we're a goin' to +carry it out, good and proper, this year." + +The first arrival was Bob, who had caught the full contagion of Jim's +spirit, and the second was Parson Curtis. + +"Hello, Pa'son Curtis," said Jim as he ushered in his guest. "Did you +come to look on or to work?" + +"Put me in among the workers, Jim," replied the parson. + +"That's right, Pa'son," Jim spoke with heartiness. "I like a pa'son +that ain't a mite afraid o' work. I callate that our Lord was one o' +the greatest workers this world ever seed, and it's a good thing fur +those who are a takin' His place to be up in the front row o' workers. +Here's a bag o' candles and here's a coil o' wire. You can take 'em up +the hill and begin hitchin' 'em to the tallest tree. You can begin on +the low branches an' when the younger fellows get here we'll let 'em +shinney up to the taller branches." + +By eight o'clock, fifty men and boys were at work, many of them +bringing their own donation of candles, and each time that Jim saw more +candles coming he beamed, for it meant more trees could be included in +the scheme. + +With banter, jest and story the work of attaching the candles went +on thru the morning and at noon we went back to Jim's for dinner. We +all knew what to expect and we were not disappointed, when with keen +appetites, we crowded the little house and waited our turn for a hot +plate of brewse. It's Newfoundland's distinctive dish and salt fish and +pork never tasted better than that noon after our climbing up in the +trees. + +Walking back to finish our work in the afternoon I said to Jim: + +"It strikes me it is a little unfortunate that the hill we are +decorating has no tall spruce on top. The trees are well arranged on +the slopes but the top of the hill itself hasn't a tree on it!" + +"That's what pleases me about it. That's why I selected it, because it +leaves room for the Candles of the Lord," answered Jim. "There on the +top is where the Light o' the World will shine out tonight. When we get +the rest of the work done we'll place it." + +An hour later Jim came dragging a sled with a huge candle, four feet +high, at least, and it was carefully erected in the centre of the open +place on the hill. At three o'clock the work was finished and Jim +addressed the workers: + +"Thank you all. We'll knock off for a spell. Those that lives near can +go home. Those that lives too far will find plenty at my house. Be back +every one of you an hour before sunset. The sun won't wait for any o' +ye and if you don't get here the lightin' will go on jes' the same, but +I wants you all to be here, sure." + +They began to arrive before the appointed time, but I waited within +until it began to grow dark, then I stepped to the door and watched the +multitude coming up from the valley. I remember once I went out with +the crowds and climbed Mt. Rubidoux in California on an Easter morning. +A little in advance of the larger contingent I stood and watched them +coming up out of the darkness of the roads below into the growing light +of the mountain top and the new day. I thought of that experience again +as I watched them coming along the road to climb the hill and keep +Christmas Eve with Jim. Only in this instance the picture was reversed +and I saw them coming out of the light into the gathering darkness of +the night. + +There were many from St. John's who had come out for the lark of it. +Men that worked along Water St. and Dock St. Girls from the stores came +in little groups full of tickles and nudging one another as things +happened to meet their fancy. Women in black were in the crowd who had +been before along a sorrowful way and turned to make this journey that +they might find light. Some of them plainly showed by their demeanor +that they were conscious of the fact that Christ was the best part of +Christmas. + +Boys were in the throng, many of them swaggering along with sticks, +copying the manner of English soldiers who feel their importance when +on furlough. Little girls tripped along, some of them singing a little +Christmas song that begins + + "I saw three ships come sailing in, + On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day." + +The chatter of the many voices did not altogether drown their childish +voices and they rose like bird notes above the rushing winds of a +forest. + +It was slippery walking and now and then some one would fall, but a +hand would be reached out to them and they would again go on with a +laugh. Everywhere was the glitter. That is what the Newfoundlanders +call the spectacle of a snow and icegirt earth. During the day many of +our hands had been nearly frozen because of the ice on the trees and +they were festooned and sheathed with ice where their branches were a +little out of the wind and it had not stripped them of snow during the +recent storm. It was a white, shining world, softened by a waning light. + +Now the fellows who had been appointed had been at work some time with +torches and as we looked up tree after tree put on a garland of jewels +and stood forth resplendent for the feast. Parson Curtis had lit the +first torch from the Candle of the Lord, as Jim called the big candle +on the hill-top, and each torch had been lit from his. + +Murmurs ran thru the crowd as the scene grew more beautiful with the +lighting of more trees and the deepening of the night shadows. It was +now quite dusky, but the snow kept the light so that we could see the +workers finishing the lighting. + +When all was ready, standing beside the Candle of the Lord, Jim spoke: + +"Brothers in Christ, we all are that tonight. I am glad you have come +to celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pa'son Curtis will +lead us in prayer." + +Jim knelt in the snow and the great company followed his example. The +prayer was short and Jim was ready to announce the singing of the first +of the Christmas hymns, when some one I didn't know made his way thru +the crowd, and waiving all formalities, touched Jim on the arm and +spoke hurriedly: + +"Rascal Moore's took sick. He's got a ketch in his glutch[8] and the +Missus wants you to come over right now to sit up with him. She can't +manage him no how and she's sent for you." + +I was standing beside Jim, watching now his face and now the lights. +I looked squarely at him now and thought of the weeks of preparation +that he had gone thru and how like some rare flower that blossoms only +in the night it had unfolded petal by petal before his delighted eyes. +I thought, too, of Rascal Moore, who had so long been living up to his +name. It seemed unfair indeed to ask him to go now on this Christmas +Eve that he had planned for and was making so successful. Let any one +else go if they would, but surely not Jim. + +"Tell 'em I'm on my way," was all he said to the messenger, and he +moved along as he spoke. + +Turning to me he said, what made me feel that he was still human, and +without these words I think I must have doubted it. "It would have been +a little easier if it had a' been Bob instead of Rascal." + +The program began, though Jim was leaving and had turned his back on it +all. Will Cunningham, whose tenor voice often led in the little church, +started the Christmas hymn "Holy Night, Peaceful Night," and the crowd +sang. The female voices seemed in preponderance and I fancied the +men all thru the crowd were doing what the few around me were doing, +heaping choice epithets upon Rascal Moore. + +Jim was yet to see more of his Christmas trees. He may have forgotten +it, but his friends remembered that Rascal Moore's place was just about +at the foot of the hill and some one started taking off the candles +from the trees that were a little beyond and decorating those that were +in the direct line toward the Moore house. There were so many hundreds +the work was speedily performed. The candles were re-lit and by seven +o'clock there was a row of lighted trees extending straight down the +hill to the Moore house and at the top of the hill the big candle could +now be distinctly seen against the black back-ground of the night. + +It may be the angels are a little nearer on Christmas Eve and they +decided to add to the wonderful beauty of that night for which Jim +had worked and prayed. For now the northern lights came, adding great +plumes of light, flashing across the sky in a glory burst of light. + +"It's the dead men playing. Come to earth, they have, for Christmas +Eve," explained Bob. + +When all was ready some one knocked at the Moore door and brought Jim +to the porch and he stood bare-headed looking up the wonderful avenue +of light to the top of the hill. Then he lifted his eyes from the earth +lights and the black crowd to the sky. + +"The heavens declare the glory of God," Jim spoke quietly, but many +could hear his words. "Mebbe little Peter is here tonight playing in +the heavens and joinin' us in our songs. The Lord of Joy has come +again!" + +"What did you leave us for, Jim?" some one in the crowd shouted. + +The hundreds stood waiting for Jim's answer. It was a hush of +expectancy, such as fitted that holy night. + +Jim answered slowly, measuring his words: + +"I heard my Father calling and I went to answer Him!" + +[5] Northern Lights. + +[6] A silk hat. + +[7] Lance du Diable. + +[8] A sore throat. + + + + +IX + +HONEY-MOONING ON THE FLAKES + + +Jim lapsed into silence and his wife, laying down her mending, poked +the fire and soon had tea brewing. The Landers are tea drinkers like +the English. + +"It's a beautiful story, sir, and we often live it over again," Mrs. +Jim said as she poured the tea. I noted the flow-blue china and, +answering my query, she said: + +"It was my grandfather's. He brought it from England sixty years ago. +Of course we're awful careful of it, but we use it, for Jim says the +only way to have plenty is to use what you have. We always keep a pot +handy and there's always a ready chair, for many a time a neighbor +drops in and we wouldn't want to let them go on without a cup o' +tea,--a cup o' kindness, Jim calls it." + +"Now, I've read books," continued Jim, "and they always end just where +they really should begin. When in the book story they decide to get +married, then they stop short. If I should ever write a story, which I +ain't likely to do, with my little learnin', I'd not stop there, but +I'd let that end only the first chapter and I'd let the story go on +with its joy and sorrow and its hope and its fear and the problems big +and little; the blessings so rare that follow along even as they do in +real life. + +"If I'm not tiring you, I'd be glad to give you another half chapter +afore we all quit and turn in for the night." + +Jim put down his empty tea cup with a smack of appreciation at his +wife's proper brewing and deliberately cut off a fresh slice of tobacco +and crushed it into the bowl of his pipe, and I knew that for at least +a half hour, the story would go on, the story that was so real to him +and now so fascinating to me. + +"Bein' both of us very sure, and the Lord havin' given the sign o' His +good pleasure, there beyond Brigus, we didn't wait long afore we were +hitched up. + +"We begun right here in this house and we started right in here the +first night and we went to work on the flakes the next morning. We +didn't go off no where's for a honey-mooning. + +"I reckon there's no place a real woman would rather go at that time +than to the new home where her life is agoin' to be lived, and that +vacationing then ain't best for either. In any case we never thought a +travelling, for you see the cod was running well and 'twas the height +of the season and we had to fill the flakes, while we could. + +"A man and a woman who gets married has to get acquainted and adjusted +one to the other and there's no better place for learnin' to conform +than right where they are agoin' to live and raise their children. + +"Course a couple can just pretend for a spell there ain't any work +to be done, but there is, and I reckon the sooner they face it, the +better for all concerned. If you're agoin' to cut bait, there's no use +standin' round dreadin' it. + +"When I was a boy we used to have in our house a religious book with +pictures of saints in it and every blessed one on' 'em had a ring +around their head, halos, I think they call 'em; now I callate that a +home ought to have some kind of a halo over it and it's easier to get +it fastened on just right when your startin' married life and if you +don't get it on then, like's not you'll never have a real home but just +a house for feeding and sleeping. + +"We got the halo fixed on, eh, Effie," and the fisherman's eyes +confirmed his words. + +"So, next morning we put on our fishin' clothes and went out on the +flakes. We'd clean fish for a spell and then we'd split and spread +for a spell. Now I know from the standin' point o' city folks fishin' +clothes ain't very scrumptious to look at and they are kinder soused +with smell, but our clothes didn't interfere none with our honeymoon. + +"Her dress was kinder faded blue, but I always liked blue. It's +heaven's color and often the sea borrows it, and that morning it made +her cheeks more wonderful pink than I'd seen 'em before. + +"There was a kind of down-right, deep-seated satisfaction to both of us +in feeling we was at work; both of us a doin' what needed to be done +and a sharin' of the burdens or the joys which ever you wants to call +'em. For I have found that some folks get their joys and burdens mixed +up and don't seem to know one from 'tother till it's too late and they +wake up with a start when they can't change 'em. + +"Sharin', I said, and that's a word we set out to understand when we +commenced an' with us it's always been a big word ever since. + +"After breakfast that first morning we went to the flakes, I took +out my wallet and said to her: 'There's no sense of my carryin' this +round when you are more likely to need it than I. I'll leave it here +behind the clock and when you need money, it's yours and bein' yours +you don't have to give any account of it 'cept to your own conscience. +More properly speakin' it's 'ourn, for now we're married there ain't no +longer yourn or mine, but 'ourn.' + +"I callate that if a man can trust a woman to bring up his children, +trust her with his house and his reputation and his disposition, he +ain't no cause to fear to trust her with his wallet. + +"Bob McCartney always says a woman ought to have an allowance, but I +tell him too much book-keeping is bad for a married couple and then +how's a man able to judge the amount of an allowance anyhow. I guess +most women earn more'n an allowance, and a sharin' always seems bigger +than an allowance. + +"I've heared folks liked honey-moons 'cause they got away from pryin' +eyes, but I want you to know that our honeymoon want never once +interrupted. The neighbors see we had work to do and they had theirs +and we both of us did it. The children of the neighbors was often round +with us then, but they made us think of 'ourn that was to come, in the +favor of the Lord. And if when I helped her along from plank to plank, +I held her hand a little longer than absolutely necessary, who was to +care. + +"There's been no decided change in the years; we've been honey-mooning +along just about the same. Course with the children she had more to do +in doors, but she's always managed, if there was an extra run o' fish +to come to the flakes and help me over the rush; and if one o' the kids +was sick or anything extra come, why I've always toted the load for +her." + +During the last few sentences Jim was watching the clock intently and +as he spoke the last sentence, he crossed the little room and began +winding the clock. I looked up and there, sticking out from behind the +clock, was a worn, brown wallet. Evidently he was still living up to +his habit of sharing. + +"It's time all decent folks was in bed," he said. "We done want to ape +the city folks." + +So bidding them good night I went out into the night. The rain had +ceased and there were fast hurrying clouds breaking up and I could see +the moon high over the spruces. I felt my way along the road back to +St. John's. + + + + +X + +JIM AND HIS BOOK + + +"They that seek the Lord understand _all_ things." Jim spoke with his +usual deliberation. Again, I had found my way to the little house, +where now I felt welcome. It was "lightin' an' readin'" time as Jim +called it. + +"They that seek the Lord, understand _all_ things," repeated Jim. I'm +finding it true more and more. It is true that the Lord giveth to a man +what is good in His sight, wisdom and knowledge and joy. + +"We began sharin' the book, just as we began sharin' the wallet. I +callated that since the Lord by wisdom founded the earth we'd have to +found our earth home the same way. + +"I'm not educated with figgering knowledge. I never got much school +wisdom, for I never went much, and what I did get was mostly from the +fellow that set on the bench with me instead of from the teacher. The +teacher was so busy with fifty odd pupils, varying from four to twenty +years in age, that he didn't have much time for any one. He had to skip +from the multiplication table to algebra and often he skipped some of +the pupils, and I was apt to be the one he overlooked. + +"I know my limitations. A city chap told me about them once and I +thanked him." Jim chuckled at the remembrance. + +"'Look ahere,' the city chap said to me, 'do you know you've lost +all the G's out of your vocabulary. Your words don't look nor sound +natural. You better start in putting them on. And there is no such word +as ain't. Remember that or you can't talk in polite society.' + +"I presume he knew, for he talked as though he was on good terms with a +dictionary; and when he went fishing and caught the hook in his hand he +said words that weren't in the dictionary, and that came near breaking +the first commandment. I've got some of those G's put back on, but not +all. Two things is helping me on the job, the reading of the Good Book +and the children. + +"Book learnin's a fine thing. I'm stumblin' along thru a book or two +myself, but I callate the prophets didn't refer to book knowledge when +they wrote of wisdom, but rather heart and soul wisdom. The promise +I recollect was this: 'For wisdom shall enter into thine _heart_ and +knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy _soul_.' + +Then he reached for his Bible, but before he opened it he said: + +"This is the most valuable thing in this house. I've been in houses in +St. John's fussed up with furniture and things, so many you felt you +would disturb 'em by setting down, but this book wasn't no where to be +seen and once I asked a woman to let me look at the Book, and she said +she'd have to keep me waitin' till she found it, but she was quite sure +she had it. Guess its wisdom never got very far into her soul. + +"It's a satisfyin' book. Readin' of it is like quenching your thirst at +a hill spring. In the days afore I was converted as a young fellow with +the rest, I used to sail over to the French Island of St. Pierre and +smuggle in a few gallons of rum. But it never quenched my thirst. It +would leave me afterward, all-fired thirsty. But open this book and you +find fountains of cool water. + +"I've tried in the years to halt at the springs as Moses and his people +did when they crossed the desert and come to a spring. There's many a +river of the water o' life flowing sweet and fair as we journey thru +the good book, but to me the promises are the springs and wife and I +have lingered longest at the springs. We've marked them and there's a +good many of them and we haven't found them all yet. She has helped me +mark 'em. A fisherman's hands get a bit calloused and clumpsy and she +does most of the markin', but I do my share of the discoverin'. It's +always a happy night, when we find a new spring and rejoice in a new +promise, but it's a glad night when we quench our thirst at any one +of the never-failing springs. Their all of 'em fresh an' sparklin'; +there's nary a one of His that are salt or bitter. + +"Effie keeps a pencil handy there with her sewing things and when I +find a new promise, I hand over the book to her and she underlines it. +Then the favorite springs we mark in the margin, so we'll find 'em easy +as we journey." + +He opened the book, _his_ book it was in more ways than one. It was +very much worn; its leaves were thumbed and now and then as he turned +the pages a fish scale dropped out. + +"Here are the Great Mountain Springs. The Master indicated them with +a big, Blessed, so we wouldn't miss them, perhaps the clearest one +is this, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, but +they've all got sparkling water; their all promises that quench the +soul's thirst. + +"You will find some of these same markers in the Old Testament, though +few folks seem to search there for the Blesseds. Here are some of the +springs that are marked for our use. + +"'Blessed are they that wait for Him!' + +"'Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.' + +"'Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto +Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the +goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple.' + +"'Blessed is he that considereth the poor.' + +"'Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee, in whose heart are the +highways to Zion.' + +"Let me turn the pages slowly and when I come to a favorite spring +we'll halt a moment," commented Jim as he continues his reading. + +"'He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy +ways.' + +"It won't hurt you a mite, if you hev to wait awhile atween the verses. +Most parsons read the Bible too fast. They go scurryin' thru the +readin' like as though a shower was comin' an' they had to get in out +of it post haste." + +"'Fear not; I am with thee; be not discouraged; for I am thy God; I +will strengthen thee, yes, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee +with the right hand of my righteousness.' + +"'With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.' + +"That there first part has puzzled me somewhat, for I've known many +a one to die young. My folks used to say the good died young, cause +the Lord had need of 'em over there. Struck me as kinder queer. But I +reckon He meant here just what He said, as He does elsewhere. It's His +intention to have long life and goodness go together, only some of us +interferes with His plan, but He lets us interfere 'cause it's best and +will work out His way in the end." + +"'He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in +trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.' + +"'Behold I will bring thee health and a cure.' + +"'The Lord shall be thine _everlasting light_, and the days of thy +mourning shall be ended.' + +"'There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh +thy dwelling.' + +"Did you think," said Jim, interrupting his reading, "that there were +so many bright, clear springs for the traveller?" + +Then, without waiting for any answer, he continued slowly turning the +pages, reading me from his marked places. + +"'Delight thyself in the Lord and _He_ shall give thee the desires of +thy heart.' + +"'The joy of the Lord shall be your strength.' + +"'He that endureth to the end shall be saved.' + +"There are signs put up, too, not only to mark springs but to inform +us," interpolated Jim. + +"Now once as we was journeying, it come over me that these springs may +have been intended for others and not for us and that very night, I +come upon this sign and it took every bit of doubt out of my heart. + +"'For the promise is unto _you and your children_.' How could it be +plainer than that?" + +As he closed the Book I said: "I, too, have a Book but I think +sometimes I have lost my way as I journeyed and I am going to put up +sign-boards of my own now, so I'll never lose my way again. There is +no use to camp in dark valleys when just beyond are the hills and the +springs. It's unwise to wander thru deserts of generalizations when the +promises are close at hand." + +"Yes," added Jim, "what do we care whether King Agag was hewed to +pieces or not. We know the words of salvation." + + + + +XI + +RAILROADING WITH THE KID + + +If there is anything that I have told you about Harbor Jim that sounds +feeble or sickly sentimental, I have told you an untruth. Turn back to +where I said it, and cross it out. It doesn't belong in this story. +It's rank injustice to Jim. + +I have fished with a good many of the Landers. I have been fishing off +the banks when the weather has kept every man of us praying, who knew +how to pray, and I have had a chance to judge of these bronzed fellows, +big of hand and foot and the same of heart, most of them, as they met +the wind and weather, the fortunes of life on the sea and the shore; +and I want you to know I never have known and loved a manlier man than +Jim. + +Maybe that was why I was surprised one morning as we were returning to +camp from a trip up the Humber River after salmon, to see the tears +rolling down his cheeks and to note that he hastily took his sleeve and +wiped his face and swallowed hard. + +In this land of uncrossed lakes and unfished rivers, there is probably +not a fairer one than the Humber River and there are reminders of +Norway both on the lower and upper Humber. + +It was with some difficulty that I had persuaded Harbor Jim to leave +his home for the trip inland to the Humber for salmon fishing. The +Lander does not take readily to a vacation, indeed, the average Lander +cannot afford to take one. After several days of argument, Jim gave in, +with this sentiment: + +"I think the Lord must a been a good fisherman, else He wouldn't a +picked fishermen to follow Him. He wanted to swap stories with 'em now +and again. The Master knew by the ruffle and the shadow on the lake +when the fish was schooling and he told Peter where to let down his +nets. I have an idea He went away sometimes to fish as well as to pray +and that fishin' with Peter and John, they come to know each other +better." + +After that Jim was as keen as a boy to get ready the lines and the +flies and to pack our little outfit. We went on the train to Deer Lake, +crossed the lower end of the lake and went up the river. We fished near +Steady Brook Falls and away up at Big Falls and the weather was all +that could be desired. We caught more salmon and trout than we needed +and we were bringing out all that the law would allow us to transport. +It had been the best week's fishing I had ever had, and there had +been some surprises. We had by chance fallen in with an old friend of +mine from the States and another day we had seen a stag of great size +following the birds down to a pool. + +All had gone so well with us that I was at a loss to account for this +sudden demonstration of feeling. It was not like Jim. I knew him and +his way well enough, to know that he would not wish to be questioned, +so we tramped on in silence over the carry, and it was not for an hour +afterward that he ventured an explanation. + +"There at the carry you may have thought it strange, the way I acted +up. That little fellow we seed there playing with his father's canoe, +made me think of little Peter. I've never mentioned him, I seldom do, +but I think a good deal about him and often I believe he is with me. He +made the carry and past over to Kingdom Come three years ago. + +"Do you know sometimes when I used to watch my little Peter playing, +and the light and shadows would be around him, I used to think, pardon +me, he looked like the pictures I've seen of the carpenter's Son, His +Son. He was our first child, born out of our first wonderful love, but +he never was a strong child. I don't know why. I never could think +of him as becomin' a fisherman. He used to like better'n the average +child, to journey with us thru the land o' the springs during the +evenings, and I thought mebbe the Lord would call him to be a preacher, +though I never let on to him, what I was a thinkin'. + +"When he was eight, he got kinder spindlin' and at the same time +he wanted to go to the woods and to see the island. He had another +hankering, too, that was to ride on the trains. He used to collect +engine numbers any time he was in St. John's. His mother used to say +that she believed he'd be an engine driver instead of a preacher. + +"At first I didn't pay much attention when he asked to go, but as he +got thinner and paler, I began to take trips with him on the railroad. +We had great times together going to places and for a time they seemed +to chuck him up a bit. We went down to old Placentia one time. Ever +down there? It's a lovely old place; lies sprawled out on a sandy beach +with arms reaching round it and the hills sending down beauty on to +it. We climbed the hill across the gut from the town, Castle Hill, and +saw the crumbling ruins of the old French Fort and we went across to +Bradshaw's and saw the Communion set that was presented by King William +the Fourth. + +"Sometimes we would take mother along and go to Top-sails and look +down the bay as we ate our lunch. Then one time we went over to Belle +Isle and saw the men working in the iron mines under the sea and Peter +talked about what he saw for weeks. I was worried a good deal about +him, but we both felt better on the trips. There was always something +to see. For miles our railroad gives you Conception Bay with now a +frame of hills and now one of spruces. Then in the centre of the +island are great lonesome barrens where the caribou come to feed and +the little nameless lakes are clustered. Peter had 'em all named, but +I think he used to change the names sometimes. There were so many his +little mind forgot the long list. + +"Then 'twas fun to be on our railroad. It's a road that throws you +about some; makes an impression on you, and a good hard one, sometimes. +But it's the only railroad we've got in the Dominion and without it +our country wouldn't have the farms it has now, nor friends like you, +coming and going. + +"I remember when we took the sleeper, the kid and I. We didn't often do +that; we couldn't afford it, but this time we were going over to the +Codroys and I put the little fellow to bed and sat down for a spell of +thinking, across the aisle from him. Suddenly the train gave a lurch. +Guess the engineer got kinder hot stoppin' to drive cows off the track +and we was a hittin' it up as much as thirty miles an hour. What do you +think? Little Peter come a flyin' down from his berth right into my +arms and he says, not hurt a bit, only tickled: + +"'Pa, a fellow has to be put to bed more'n once to stay put on our +road.' + +"He always called it our road, though he knew its short-comings as well +as I. + +"We only took one winter trip and that was a long one and I blamed +myself many a time for taking the risk, though I don't know's it hurt +him any, and I'm sure I always kept him warm and covered. When we got +to Gaff Topsails, the track ahead was solid, sheer ice and the wind +swept fierce across it from the south. They strapped the train on the +track, so's it wouldn't tumble over. Seems funny now, but it wasn't +then. But we didn't suffer any. They had lots of food-stuff aboard +and when it give out the train hands went across the snow to the next +town to get more. It took us fifteen days to get to Petrie's. The +store-keeper at Petrie's had been up to St. John's to buy goods and he +was on the train with us, anxious to get home. He was kind to little +Peter and rode him pig-a-back every day, when it was too bad for him to +walk about. + +"The store-keeper reached Petrie's in thirteen days, two days ahead of +the train, by walking the last ten miles. His folks was surprised, for +they didn't expect him until the train got in. + +"Still that trip we made better time than the trains sometimes do in +the winter. One train took twenty-six days to get across the island. + +"On these trips, Peter and I would come home with many a story to tell +mother and little Peter would be wildly excited and there would be big, +red spots in both his cheeks; and when the excitement of the trip was +over he would grow weary. He would cough and want to eat less and sleep +less, but always he was cheerful and a-planning for railroading with +his Dad." + +It came time to camp for the night and Jim stopped the story, as he +started our fire and I began to put up our tent. + + + + +XII + +THROUGH THE VALLEY WITH THE LITTLE FELLOW + + +When we had eaten our fill of fried salmon and blue-berry duff, that no +one could stir up and bake better than Jim, and the camp was tidied for +the night, Jim went on with his story. + +He had come to the hard part of the story, the saddest part of his +life, and I was glad that it was dark; I knew it would be easier for +him. I was glad, too, that the camp fire was dying down, for thus I +would see less of suffering that might be revealed could I see his face +in the brighter light. + +"I had the Grenfell doctor come. I'd sent ahead to have him met at +the Hospital Ship and a doctor, a great man from the States, on his +vacation, they said, come over here to our place. He was giving his +vacation because he loved Grenfell and the fishermen. + +"Little Peter answered all of his questions and I was sheer proud of +him. I could see the Doctor liked the little man. He said to Peter, +when he had finished examining him: + +"'I'll make you better, my little man, if I can. You take all the eggs +and milk the hens and the cows will let you have and grow so fat your +mother won't know you.' + +"But to me, he said, when he walked down the road a piece with me: + +"'You're Harbor Jim, they tell me, a man loved hereabouts for the +fights you've made to reach the harbor in a night of storm. I am hating +to tell you, Jim, but it's goin' to be a hard fight this time, the +hardest fight you ever had. There's a chance; but one lung is all gone +and the other's bad. I'll do my best, but if you have to go thru the +valley with the little fellow, I'll only hope you won't forget to live +up to your reputation.' + +"Then he left me all manner of directions, about eggs and milk that was +to give him ammunition for the fight. Told me to soak him in sunshine +and so on. And I did just as he told me. I gave him his cod-liver oil, +when I had to invent fairy stories to get him to swallow it. I wrapped +him up in blankets and sat him in the sunshine. His mother did as much +or more'n I did. I used to listen of a night to see if he breathed all +right. I listened, when ever Effie was asleep, to see if I could tell +if he breathed as strong as he did the night before. + +"Those days my heart was sore all the while, but I couldn't let on for +fear she'd know just how I felt." + +Jim swallowed hard, but he had made up his mind to tell me the story +of little Peter and he wasn't the man to back down. He had a knife and +a piece of a birch and he was whittling away. The light would flare up +a moment and I could see him looking straight ahead into the fire and +whittling faster. + +"Then I had to cover it up from him; for little Peter was sure that he +was getting better. Seems though the worse he got, the surer he was +he'd be better tomorrow. When he got so weak I had to carry him across +the room, he began to talk more about spring and railroading again with +his dad. + +"Sometimes when I'd been off and was comin' home, I dreaded so seeing +him, thus weak, that I'd rather a-gone thru the Narrows on the darkest +night God ever made, than to face Peter with a jolly quip. So many +times then, and so many times since, I have thought, if I only could +have toted the load for him. If only my hand could a-held it up for +him. He was so little and frail and I was big and strong. And it was +the utter, awful helplessness of it that made it so hard to bear. We +wanted to help so bad and there was so very little that either of us +could do. + +"We didn't have Clara then. She didn't come until afterward, and then +Peter was all we had. It didn't seem that we could give him up. I +reasoned with myself and I didn't one night forget the Book. But there +were nights when we halted at the springs that our mouths were so dry +and parched that even the Water of Life seemed not to be sufficient to +quench them. + +"We went deeper and deeper into the valley. He grew weaker and weaker. +Just like a little flower that is fading away. One night he grew worse. +It was February, and I put on my snow shoes and started for St. John's +for a doctor. I walked away into the night and I got a doctor and was +back afore dawn. + +"The doctor took his pulse and said: + +"'He'll be crossing at the dawn.' + +"Little Peter often listened to the Book and he was beginning to love +it, too; and just before the sun broke that cold, February morning, he +whispered: + +"'God is light; in Him is no darkness at all.' + +"Then it was morning, but oh, it was night and the valley for us! +The doctor left us and we sat alone, her hand in mine. Effie didn't +say anything; I think if she had I couldn't a bore it. And there was +no minister present. I was glad of that, too. I guess they all want +to help, but a good many on'em that I have knowed want to argue and +to tell you it's all right and you don't want to talk just then and +arguments don't offer much comfort. The time had come when only one +could comfort us and we had to find Him. Some do not find Him for days, +some for weeks, some never find Him again. + +"The words that kept saying themselves over to me were these: 'Be still +and know that I am God.' I was some impatient, some bitter. I know I +oughtn't to have been, but I was, and I answered the Lord: 'I _am_ +still; see me suffering here; is that all the message?' + +"It was a good thing we had something to do. We had to see to the +little wasted body. We had to arrange for the service. We had to tidy +up the house. We shared it all, the new sorrow and the pain, just as +we had shared the wallet and the joys. The minister come way from St. +John's and I was grateful to him. I don't remember just what he said, +but I am sure that Peter was worthy all the good he said of him; and I +know that I needed all the prayer he made. + +"But when it was all over and the house was so quiet, it was harder +still. It didn't do no good to listen for his breathing. There was no +need to think of eggs or milk for the little fellow's breakfast. He was +gone! + +"I was very tired and I was about to turn in that night after the +funeral, when Effie said: + +"'We need to halt by the springs more than ever.' + +"I knew she was right, so with a sad heart I opened the Book. I never +knowed just how it was, perhaps the Lord himself guided my hands, but +we come to a little halt at the 14th chapter of John. It was the Spring +of Comfort and Peace, we so much needed. It was the place where so many +have camped before in their night of sorrow and gone forth strengthened +and rejoicing in the morning. We were very thirsty and it was real +water, the water of life and we drank as we never had drank before. He +spoke to us and said: 'Let not your heart be troubled!' + +"I won't repeat that chapter, but it has never lost its power, to +refresh and comfort since the day He first uttered the words. If you +ever have to go again thru the valley yourself; halt there. It will be +the wisest thing you ever did. + +"After that I was able to think clear again. I said to myself. I +trusted the Father before and He never did me wrong. I can't just +see, but I can trust and it will grow brighter and so it has, though +sometimes I don't see quite plain, even yet. I know that He must have +a place for the little fellow and He must know what Peter needs. He'll +know how to pick the best teachers and all the experiences he needs. My +Father is looking out for him. He can do no wrong." + +For a little while all was quiet but for the chattering of the river as +it hurried on down to sea. The wind freshened in the trees. Messages +were passing above us. Jim brought a bundle of fresh wood and the fire +leaped into a cheerful blaze. There was not any more that needed to +be said. We both made an effort to shake off the sadness and fell to +talking of the weight of the day's salmon catch, as we undressed. We +carried but one little tent and slept together. Some hour after we had +gone to bed, I imagined Jim was trying to find out if I was asleep +without disturbing me. At last he decided that I was awake and said: + +"I'm sure it's all right about little Peter. We're out of the valley +now and are finding again the sunny plain." + + + + +XIII + +THE QUEER ONE + + +"Sartin sure! By the big dipper, it's sartin shame!" Bob McCartney +stood at my door all excitement as he delivered himself of these +explosives. + +Bob is a short man and middle-wide, and he is on the increase. This +particular morning he stood on my stoop, the very personification of +heat. He took off his hat and mopped his head and his red face and +without waiting went on with his message. + +"The Missus Jim is took sudden and terrible sick. Doc Withers is +there and don't know what ails her. Think of anything she could take? +Anything you know of she could do? Everybody is suggestin'! Neighbors +comin' an' goin' all the while, tryin' to do something for the Missus +Jim. Didn't seem to be anything more I could do. You can't try +everything to onct, so think's I, I'll go and see him. He comes from +New York an' mebbe he'll have a new idea." + +"It might be a good thing to let one or two ideas have a chance," I +replied. "I've noticed that ideas that get rushed and crowded don't do +as well." + +Bob brightened and pulling on his cap, backed down the stairs. "I'll +tell 'em to go slow and let the first ideas have a chance." + +I wisely concluded that Jim would have all the help and more than he +needed and I did not call for three days. When I did Mrs. Jim herself +answered my knock and from just behind Jim shouted: + +"She's all right again. Didn't prove so bad as we thought. Something +got inside of her that didn't belong there and soon's it got out, she +come along all right." + +"Was it the doctor or you, Jim, that cured her?" I asked, as I sat down. + +"I've been thinking o' that a good deal, this day," he answered. + +"Everything traces back to the Almighty, when you let your thought +travel far enough, and I'd like to thank Him, first. I prayed a good +deal and though I don't need no thanks, I believe those prayers helped. +Then the neighbors helped. They loaned hot water bags and fetched +pillows, an' done all manner o' things, 'till thinks I, nobody ever +had such neighbors as us. Then there was Doc Withers. Now some folks +give all the credit to the docs, but I don't; neither do I take all the +praise from 'em. Their His servants, too, and I callate dividing up the +responsibility and the thanks for a cure is a mighty difficult task. I +know I ain't worthy to do it myself." + +A knock, a quick, nervous knock came just then and Jim answered it, +throwing wide the door, as he always did, with his cheery, "Come right +in." + +A thin, tall man with a long rain-coat and big, black-rimmed glasses +stepped in. Snatching off his gray Alpine hat, he introduced himself. + +"I'm Clarence O. Jewett, of Boston. Am visiting in Newfoundland, +spending two and a half days here. Came in on the steamer 'Rosalind' +from Halifax, yesterday, going back tomorrow. In St. John's I was told +of Harbor Jim and that his wife was very ill, and I hired a car and +came out here and I am ready to give your wife a treatment. I have +been thinking that perhaps the Lord is using me to bring the only, +real, true religion to Newfoundland. When your wife has seen the light +and comes to know the truth that sin and everything material is a +delusion, deception and a snare, she will understand that being perfect +she cannot really suffer from an illusion. This earth and all things +upon which we look are but shadows. When your wife is whole again and +understands the non-reality of matter, she will testify and others may +hear and heed, until many on this island will come to praise the Lord +and to remember Clarence O. Jewett, of Boston, who brought the only, +real, true religion--" + +At this moment, Mrs. Jim, who had stepped out at the knock, re-entered +the room and Jim had his first chance to speak. + +"This is the Missus. The news you received is a little late, for she +has recovered. Since you are a mound-tripper and doin' the country, +probably we ought not to keep you. The road across is about five +hundred miles, and if you're goin' to see any more'n St. John's, you'll +have to hurry afore your ship sails. There was a man down here last +year who staid two days in St. John's and then wrote a book about +Newfoundland, but he skipped a few things." + +The man was keenly disappointed. He changed his weight from one foot to +the other, for he had not yet taken the seat that Jim had offered him. +He took off his glasses and wiped them and then seating himself and +clearing his throat, resumed. + +"The cure is but temporary. Your wife will not be well until she has +learned that there is but one thing to know and that is the truth and +the truth about the truth. And though you cannot expect to understand +it, I will start you on the way toward the one, only, real, true +religion." + +"Am I supposed just to listen?" asked Jim, "or do you think I might +know enough to ask a question now and then?" + +"Certainly, certainly," the queer man replied. "I have an answer for +every question that is absolutely logical. Take the question of the +existence of evil; that is the most puzzling question in all the world. +I have an answer to it that is entirely satisfactory. Nobody can +contradict it. Evil is matter. Matter does not exist. Therefore evil +does not exist and since it does not exist, it never could have been +created. Evil and matter are just wrong statements of mind. Do you see? +Is it perfectly clear to you?" + +Jim gulped, as though he was in swimming and had accidentally swallowed +some salt water. I had come to have a profound admiration for Jim and +was coming more and more to appreciate his wholesome philosophy, and +now I was waiting to see what Jim would do with this man's statements. + +"You have doused me beyond my depth, I guess," was the somewhat puzzled +reply of Jim. "It isn't plain to me. But heave ahead a little and mebbe +I'll get some idea of what port you're sailin' to. The only thing you +have said so far that has any familiar sound to me is what you said +about the one, only, real, true religion. I've heard that several times +before. Seems though most every kind o' religion and every different +church feels that it's got the one, only, real, true religion. Strikes +me, every blessed one on'em has got some of the real religion and also +some foolishness and smallness and no one on'em has got the pure, +undiluted article that Jesus Christ brought to the world. I think He +come the nearest to livin' the real religion. But how'd you discover +that your's was the only religion?" + +The queer man evidently thought the question irrelevant, for he was off +again. + +"It is now proved that all is mental or mind. _Your_ thoughts are +the opposites of mind. They do not exist. They are even as all other +things, non-existent, non-real. God is the only reality. There is no +thing outside of God. You are not separated from Him." + +"Then," interrupted Jim, "how about the Prodigal Son? Didn't he get +separated from his Father?" + +"That is speaking in terms of no-mind. You have not yet grasped the +thought. Nothing can exist but good. God never saw the Prodigal Son +until he came back, because he never has or can see anything evil." + +"Your God may not see or know evil, sickness or suffering or anything +that makes a man miserable. I say, _your_ God mayn't, but _mine_ does. +It's his _knowledge_ that makes Him compassionate. If He didn't know +what was happening to His own children, that He had created and planned +for, then I'd rather pray to Bob McCartney. Think, sir, what kind of a +mother would your mother a-been, if she hadn't known when you cried, +and you hadn't a-been able to climb up and lay in her arms and be +comforted and forgiven? She wouldn't a-been a mother and God wouldn't +be a God unless He knew what was a-happening to His own children! Why +man alive didn't He make the world; aren't they His, the cattle on a +thousand hills, the lightenin' and the thunder, the sweet grass and the +flowers and all things in and on and under the earth? If He has gone +off and forgotten it all and don't know good and evil, if He don't know +when we're tired and failin' and tryin' again, why what would be the +use o' prayer or, for that matter, for livin' at all?" + +The queer man, at this point, removed his rubbers, but made no comment +upon Jim's questions. Perhaps his feet were so warm it was hard for him +to keep his head cool. + +"You are utterly deceived," he continued. "You are confusing the real +and the non-real. You are following after shadows that do not exist at +all. You do not know the truth. You are bound. You are looking at the +mist of matter that will disappear as the knowledge of truth develops +within you. If you will begin to deny the existence of evil, you will +begin to banish disease and ultimately you will understand that all +things are but illusions." + +"Pears to me," Jim said, as the queer man paused for breath, before +launching more sentences about the truth. "Pears to me, you're sailin' +round in a circle, and havin' a hard time dodging the winds o' logic. +Call the flower, the mountain, and the man, shadows and illusions; if +you will. I don't object to that, only I want you to agree with me +that they are beautiful. The only thing I am afeared of is that you'll +make some folks think this is not _His_ world at all; and I want them +to know that this is His world and that He planned these things you +have re-named shadows and illusions. I callate there's danger in your +statements when you come to follow them out. Then, too, these shadows +have been actin' about uniform for as long ago as the book o' Genesis +and afore that, and I don't propose to try to get much farther back, +for it makes my eyes ache to see back o' that. + +"When you tell me this body o' mine is an illusion, it kinder riles me, +for I believe the Good Father planned this body as much as He planned a +soul for me. It's a house for my soul as long as I'm in this earth and +I callate it's to be treated holy while it houses my soul. I know it +will get kinder old and dingy bye and bye and I'll be quitting it, but +that ain't no good reason for neglectin' it now. + +"Of course if what you say was true and there was no material and it +was all in thinking, then we wouldn't have to wear clothes, nor eat +food and you wouldn't have to wear your specs, nor your goloshes, +because it's a little damp under feet this morning. You may be +different, Mr. Jewett, with your one, only, real, true religion, but we +Landers up here all get a little older as days go by; we all like to be +cheered by food and fuel, and we all feel the difference between winter +and summer, and we all travel sooner or later to the better land. Seems +to be His plan." + +The queer man was gathering words for new statements; but while he was +listening to the last of Jim's replies, he was looking intently at his +hands. If it may be permitted to speak in ordinary fashion of a man of +his philosophy, his hands were dirty and he had become painfully aware +of it. Jim noticed his concern and remarked with a certain acerbity of +tone: + +"You don't clean your hands with soap and water, do you?" + +The queer man in turn showed some increase of warmth as he replied: + +"I certainly do when I need to, that's only common sense." + +"Well," mused Jim, this time very slowly, "do you know, I don't believe +in using too much soap, it's caustic and it's harmful sometimes to the +skin, but do you know, once in a while I get a bit riled and dirty +inside o' me and I decide that it's only common sense to clean that +just as I would my hands." + +The queer man sniffed and asked for a Bible. "Have you a Bible?" + +He won't get ahead very fast, if he thinks Jim doesn't own a Bible and +know its contents, I thought; but I kept my thoughts to myself, for +the man had utterly ignored me, thus far, for Jim was keeping him as +busy as he cared to be. Before Jim could answer he saw his Bible on the +little table and it opened easily and he saw at once the markings and +said: + +"Glad you read your Bible, but it needs another book beside it else +you can't understand it and it's a closed book. You need a key to the +Scriptures." + +"I callate," replied Jim, "that a man ought to be able to read his +own Bible and interpret it for himself. The Lord has given every man +a key in his own mind and heart. The fathers that have lived and died +didn't have your key, but they got comfort out of this Book. Ever since +the words were uttered they have been helping and some on 'em is so +simple and beautiful that little fellows can read and be blessed in the +reading." + +The queer man read now from Jim's Bible: + +"And Jesus went about preaching the gospel of the kingdom _and healing +all manner of diseases_." + +"Do you believe that? There it is plain, too plain to be contradicted." + +"Yes, I believe," answered Jim. + +The queer man was surprised and it gave Jim time to add: + +"Jesus also said: 'According to your _faith_ be it unto thee. All +things are possible to Him that _believeth_! + +"There's an old Indian lives down the road a piece, who was all tied up +with rheumatiz. He got back the other day from New Mexico, all cured. +He'd never heard of you or your key to the Scriptures. He'd been to +a place called Chimayo. Went to a little clay church down there and +scraped up some of the clay from the floor and mixed it with water and +drank it and has come back well. Every year or two somebody goes from +St. John's away to Quebec and out to a place called St. Ann's, where +they got a wrist-bone of hers, so they tell, and some of 'em come back +well again. + +"There's an old lady in Quidi Vidi nigh on to eighty-five. She got sick +when she was eighty, grew feeble and pindling. She took to readin' this +Book and praying all by herself and she got her strength back and she +is as chipper as any woman of sixty in the Dominion. + +"What was it cured her; what is it that cures lots of folks for a time, +though we mustn't forget that we all go hence according to His plan. +He's evidently got a good many rooms in His big house and He doesn't +intend for us to stay too long in any one. + +"Did these folks that drank mud, prayed in front of a wrist-bone, or +just prayed, believe that they was living in the shadows; did they +build up an airy, fairy world and re-name things; not a bit of it; they +was cured just as you and I might be, can be cured. Mr. Jewett, they +had _faith_! + +"I believe it's the measure of faith we have that counts. The Lord +speaks about our doing things He did and greater also, and we shall +just as our faith grows. I believe in praying because it makes that +faith grow; I believe in reading the Book for the same reason. If I +had faith enough, I could, like Him, remove mountains or walk upon the +sea; but it don't grieve me because I can't in a moment do the things +the Divine Son did. Faith always seems to me to be a bigger thing than +love. I guess faith is love that has learned how to bring things to +pass. + +"Let's not expect too much. Let's remember we and the world have yet +to do a good deal of growing. I don't measure God's greatness nor His +goodness by the number of times He cures my stomach-ache. It may be I'm +pretty careless and a certain amount of pain is about the only handy +Teacher He can find for me. It may be that in this first room some of +us will have to be somewhat ailing, but let's not forget He gives us +grace to bear as well as strength to heal. I only ask to be able to do +my work and not grunt. + +"I callate that if your one, only, real, true religion is devoting its +chief thought and its most time to simply curing aches and pains, it +ain't the religion of our Lord for He went about doin' _all kinds of +good_." + +The queer man was fidgeting and from his looks I concluded he was about +to seek new pastures. Jim, noticing this, continued: + +"I appreciate your coming, sir, proves there's good in your religion. +You've got the missionary zeal and that deserves to be kept. After all +we ain't so far apart, as it might seem, some ways; but we're starting +from different points. I believe this is a real world, an intended +world, with real folks and real facts and that it is a good world, +His World, and it's a goin' to be better; only not all to onct, by +re-naming the old and beautiful things He planned and sent." + +Mr. Jewett was wise in withdrawing, for Jim was gaining in power and +facility of expression. Now, as the man edged toward the door, Jim +extended his hand and said: + +"Don't lose your logic, 'cause there's no harm in mixin' logic and +religion. If religion is any good it'll stand logic. Remember the Lord +knowed what He was a-doin' and He ain't abandoned His children." + +When he was well outside, Mrs. Jim spoke: + +"Jim, do you think he has a screw loose in his loft?" + +But the queer man was back in a moment, with a less confident air, but +this time he had but one brief sentence: + +"Please, I left my rubbers." + + _Printed in the United States of America._ + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: + +Inconsistencies in the author's use of hyphens has been left unchanged, +as in the original text. Obvious printer errors have been corrected. +Otherwise, the author's original spelling, punctuation and hyphenation +have been left intact. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Harbor Jim of Newfoundland, by +Alden Eugene Bartlett + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43934 *** |