Hurlo Thrumbo (pseudonym) - "The Merry Thought: or the Glass Window and Bog House Miscellany"

George Eliot - "How Lisa Loved the King"

Various - "Scientific American Supplement, No. 286"

Mary Antin - "From Plotzk to Boston"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Young Fur Traders

R >> R.M. Ballantyne >> The Young Fur Traders




"Give me a hand, Harry," gasped Hamilton, as he managed to twist his
head upwards for a moment.

"Here you are," cried Harry, holding out his hand and endeavouring to
suppress his desire to laugh; "up with you," and in another moment
the poor youth was upon his legs, with every fold and crevice about
his person stuffed to repletion with snow.

"Come, cheer up," cried the accountant, giving the youth a slap on
the back; "there's nothing like experience--the proverb says that it
even teaches fools, so you need not despair."

Hamilton smiled as he endeavoured to shake off some of his white
coating.

"We'll be all right immediately," added Harry; "I see that the
country ahead is more open, so the walking will be easier."

"Oh, I wish that I had not come!" said Hamilton, sorrowfully,
"because I am only detaining you. But perhaps I shall do better as we
get on. At any rate, I cannot go back now, as I could never find the
way."

"Go back! of course not," said the accountant; "in a short time we
shall get into the old woodcutters' track of last year, and although
it's not beaten at all, yet it is pretty level and open, so that we
shall get on famously."

"Go on, then," sighed Hamilton.

"Drive ahead," laughed Harry, and without further delay they resumed
their march, which was soon rendered more cheerful as the clouds
rolled away, the snow ceased to fall, and the bright full moon poured
its rays down upon their path.

For a long time they proceeded in silence, the muffled sound of the
snow, as it sank beneath their regular footsteps, being the only
interruption to the universal stillness around. There is something
very solemnizing in a scene such as we are now describing--the calm
tranquillity of the arctic night; the pure whiteness of the snowy
carpet, which rendered the dark firs inky black by contrast; the
clear, cold, starry sky, that glimmered behind the dark clouds, whose
heavy masses, now rolling across the moon, partially obscured the
landscape, and anon, passing slowly away, let a flood of light down
upon the forest, which, penetrating between the thick branches,
scattered the surface of the snow, as it were, with flakes of silver.
Sleep has often been applied as a simile to nature in repose, but in
this case death seemed more appropriate. So silent, so cold, so still
was the scene, that it filled the mind with an indefinable feeling of
dread, as if there was some mysterious danger near. Once or twice
during their walk the three travellers paused to rest, but they spoke
little, and in subdued voices, as if they feared to break the silence
of the night.

"It is strange," said Harry, in a low tone, as he walked beside
Hamilton, "that such a scene as this always makes me think more than
usual of home."

"And yet it is natural," replied the other, "because it reminds us
more forcibly than any other that we are in a foreign land--in the
lonely wilderness--far away from home."

Both Harry and Hamilton had been trained in families where the
Almighty was feared and loved, and where their minds had been early
led to reflect upon the Creator when regarding the works of His hand:
their thoughts, therefore, naturally reverted to another home,
compared with which this world is indeed a cold, lonely wilderness;
but on such subjects they feared to converse, partly from a dread of
the ridicule of reckless companions, partly from ignorance of each
other's feelings on religious matters, and although their minds were
busy, their tongues were silent.

The ground over which the greater part of their path lay was a swamp,
which, being now frozen, was a beautiful white plain, so that their
advance was more rapid, until they approached the belt of woodland
that skirts North River. Here they again encountered the heavy snow,
which had been such a source of difficulty to Hamilton at setting
out. He had profited by his former experience, however, and by the
exercise of an excessive degree of caution managed to scramble
through the woods tolerably well, emerging at last, along with his
companions, on the bleak margin of what appeared to be the frozen
sea.

North River, at this place, is several miles broad, and the opposite
shore is so low that the snow causes it to appear but a slight
undulation of the frozen bed of the river. Indeed, it would not be
distinguishable at all, were it not for the willow bushes and dwarf
pines, whose tops, rising above the white garb of winter, indicate
that _terra firma_ lies below.

"What a cold, desolate-looking place!" said Hamilton, as the party
stood still to recover breath before taking their way over the plain
to the spot where the accountant's traps were set. "It looks much
more like the frozen sea than a river."

"It can scarcely be called a river at this place," remarked the
accountant, "seeing that the water hereabouts is brackish, and the
tides ebb and flow a good way up. In fact, this is the extreme mouth
of North River, and if you turn your eyes a little to the right,
towards yonder ice-hummock in the plain, you behold the frozen sea
itself."

"Where are your traps set?" inquired Harry.

"Down in the hollow, behind yon point covered with brushwood."

"Oh, we shall soon get to them then; come along," cried Harry.

Harry was mistaken, however. He had not yet learned by experience the
extreme difficulty of judging of distance in the uncertain light of
night--a difficulty that was increased by the ignorance of the
locality, and by the gleams of moonshine that shot through the
driving clouds and threw confused fantastic shadows over the plain.
The point which he had at first supposed was covered with low bushes,
and about a hundred yards off, proved to be clad in reality with
large bushes and small trees, and lay at a distance of two miles.

"I think you have been mistaken in supposing the point so near,
Harry," said Hamilton, as he trudged on beside his friend.

"A fact evident to the naked eye," replied Harry. "How do your feet
stand it, eh? Beginning to lose bark yet?"

Hamilton did not feel quite sure. "I think," said he softly, "that
there is a blister under the big toe of my left foot. It feels very
painful."

"If you feel at all _uncertain_ about it, you may rest assured that
there _is_ a blister. These things don't give much pain at first. I'm
sorry to tell you, my dear fellow, that you'll be painfully aware of
the fact to-morrow. However, don't distress yourself; it's a part of
the experience that everyone goes through in this country. Besides,"
said Harry smiling, "we can send to the fort for medical advice."

"Don't bother the poor fellow, and hold your tongue. Harry," said the
accountant, who now began to tread more cautiously as he approached
the place where the traps were set.

"How many traps have you?" inquired Harry in a low tone.

"Three," replied the accountant.

"Do you know I have a very strange feeling about my heels--or rather
a want of feeling," said Hamilton, smiling dubiously.

"A want of feeling! what do you mean?" cried the accountant, stopping
suddenly and confronting his young friend.

"Oh, I daresay it's nothing," he exclaimed, looking as if ashamed of
having spoken of it; "only I feel exactly as if both my heels were
cut off, and I were walking on tip-toe!"

"Say you so? then right about wheel. Your heels are frozen, man, and
you'll lose them if you don't look sharp."

"Frozen!" cried Hamilton, with a look of incredulity.

"Ay, frozen; and it's lucky you told me. I've a place up in the woods
here, which I call my winter camp, where we can get you put to
rights. But step out; the longer we are about it the worse for you."

Harry Somerville was at first disposed to think that the accountant
jested, but seeing that he turned his back towards his traps, and
made for the nearest point of the thick woods with a stride that
betokened thorough sincerity, he became anxious too, and followed as
fast as possible.

The place to which the accountant led his young friends was a group
of fir trees which grew on a little knoll, that rose a few feet above
the surrounding level country. At the foot of this hillock a small
rivulet or burn ran in summer, but the only evidence of its presence
now was the absence of willow bushes all along its covered narrow
bed. A level tract was thus formed by nature, free from all
underwood, and running inland about the distance of a mile, where it
was lost in the swamp whence the stream issued. The wooded knoll or
hillock lay at the mouth of this brook, and being the only elevated
spot in the neighbourhood, besides having the largest trees growing
on it, had been selected by the accountant as a convenient place for
"camping out" on, when he visited his traps in winter, and happened
to be either too late or disinclined to return home. Moreover, the
spreading fir branches afforded an excellent shelter alike from wind
and snow in the centre of the clump, while from the margin was
obtained a partial view of the river and the sea beyond. Indeed, from
this look-out there was a very fine prospect on clear winter nights
of the white landscape, enlivened occasionally by groups of arctic
foxes, which might be seen scampering about in sport, and gambolling
among the hummocks of ice like young kittens.

"Now we shall turn up here," said the accountant, as he walked a
short way up the brook before mentioned, and halted in front of what
appeared to be an impenetrable mass of bushes.

"We shall have to cut our way, then," said Harry, looking to the
right and left in the vain hope of discovering a place where, the
bushes being less dense, they might effect an entrance into the knoll
or grove.

"Not so. I have taken care to make a passage into my winter camp,
although it was only a whim, after all, to make a concealed entrance,
seeing that no one ever passes this way except wolves and foxes,
whose noses render the use of their eyes in most cases unnecessary."

So saying, the accountant turned aside a thick branch, and disclosed
a narrow track, into which he entered, followed by his two
companions.

A few minutes brought them to the centre of the knoll. Here they
found a clear space of about twenty feet in diameter, round which the
trees circled so thickly that in daylight nothing could be seen but
tree-stems as far as the eye could penetrate, while overhead the
broad flat branches of the firs, with their evergreen verdure, spread
out and interlaced so thickly that very little light penetrated into
the space below. Of course at night, even in moonlight, the place was
pitch dark. Into this retreat the accountant led his companions, and
bidding them stand still for a minute lest they should stumble into
the fireplace, he proceeded to strike a light.

Those who have never travelled in the wild parts of this world can
form but a faint conception of the extraordinary and sudden change
that is produced, not only in the scene, but in the mind of the
beholder, when a blazing fire is lighted on a dark night. Before the
fire is kindled, and you stand, perhaps (as Harry and his friend did
on the present occasion) shivering in the cold, the heart sinks, and
sad, gloomy thoughts arise, while your eye endeavours to pierce the
thick darkness, which, if it succeeds in doing so, only adds to the
effect by disclosing the pallid snow, the cold, chilling beams of the
moon, the wide vista of savage scenery, the awe-inspiring solitudes
that tell of your isolated condition, or stir up sad memories of
other and far-distant scenes. But the moment the first spark of fire
sends a fitful gleam of light upwards, these thoughts and feelings
take wing and vanish. The indistinct scenery is rendered utterly
invisible by the red light, which attracts and rivets the eye as if
by a species of fascination. The deep shadows of the woods
immediately around you grow deeper and blacker as the flames leap and
sparkle upwards, causing the stems of the surrounding trees, and the
foliage of the overhanging branches, to stand out in bold relief,
bathed in a ruddy glow, which converts the forest chamber into a snug
_home-like_ place, and fills the mind with agreeable, _home-like_
feelings and meditations. It seemed as if the spirit, in the one
case, were set loose and etherealized to enable it to spread itself
over the plains of cold, cheerless, illimitable space, and left to
dwell upon objects too wide to grasp, too indistinct to comprehend;
while, in the other, it is recalled and concentrated upon matters
circumscribed and congenial, things of which it has long been
cognizant, and which it can appreciate and enjoy without the effort
of a thought.

Some such thoughts and feelings passed rapidly through the minds of
Harry and Hamilton, while the accountant struck a light and kindled a
roaring fire of logs, which he had cut and arranged there on a
previous occasion. In the middle of the space thus brilliantly
illuminated, the snow had been cleared away till the moss was
uncovered, thus leaving a hole of about ten feet in diameter. As the
snow was quite four feet deep, the hole was surrounded with a pure
white wall, whose height was further increased by the masses thrown
out in the process of digging to nearly six feet. At one end of this
space was the large fire which had just been kindled, and which,
owing to the intense cold, only melted a very little of the snow in
its immediate neighbourhood. At the other end lay a mass of flat pine
branches, which were piled up so thickly as to form a pleasant
elastic couch, the upper end being slightly raised so as to form a
kind of bolster, while the lower extended almost into the fire.
Indeed, the branches at the extremity were burnt quite brown, and
some of them charred. Beside the bolster lay a small wooden box, a
round tin kettle, an iron tea-kettle, two tin mugs, a hatchet, and a
large bundle tied up in a green blanket. There were thus, as it were,
two apartments, one within the other--namely, the outer one, whose
walls were formed of tree-stems and thick darkness, and the ceiling
of green boughs; and then the inner one, with walls of snow, that
sparkled in the firelight as if set with precious stones, and a
carpet of evergreen branches.

Within this latter our three friends were soon actively employed.
Poor Hamilton's moccasins were speedily removed, and his friends,
going down on their knees, began to rub his feet with a degree of
energy that induced him to beg for mercy.

"Mercy!" exclaimed the accountant, without pausing for an instant;
"faith, it's little mercy there would be in stopping just now.--Rub
away, Harry. Don't give in. They're coming right at last."

After a very severe rubbing, the heels began to show symptoms of
returning vitality. They were then wrapped up in the folds of a thick
blanket, and held sufficiently near to the fire to prevent any chance
of the frost getting at them again.

"Now, my boy," said the accountant, as he sat down to enjoy a pipe
and rest himself on a blanket, which, along with the one wrapped
round Hamilton's feet, had been extracted from the green bundle
before mentioned--"now, my boy, you'll have to enjoy yourself here as
you best can for an hour or two, while Harry and I visit the traps.
Would you like supper before we go, or shall we have it on our
return?"

"Oh, I'll wait for it by all means till you return. I don't feel a
bit hungry just now, and it will be much more cheerful to have it
after all your work is over. Besides, I feel my feet too painful to
enjoy it just now."

"My poor fellow," said Harry, whose heart smote him for having been
disposed at first to treat the thing lightly, "I'm really sorry for
you. Would you not like me to stay with you?"

"By no means," replied Hamilton quickly. "You can do nothing more for
me, Harry; and I should be very sorry if you missed seeing the
traps."

"Oh, never mind the traps. I've seen traps, and set them too, fifty
times before now. I'll stop with you, old boy, I will," said Harry
doggedly, while he made arrangements to settle down for the evening.

"Well, if _you_ won't go, I will," said Hamilton coolly, as he
unwound the blanket from his feet and began to pull on his socks.

"Bravo, my lad!" exclaimed the accountant, patting him approvingly on
the back; "I didn't think you had half so much pluck in you. But it
won't do, old fellow. You're in _my_ castle just now, and must obey
orders. You couldn't walk half-a-mile for your life; so just be
pleased to pull off your socks again. Besides, I want Harry to help
me to carry up my foxes, if there are any;--so get ready, sirrah!"

"Ay, ay, captain," cried Harry, with a laugh, while he sprang up and
put on his snow-shoes.

"You needn't bring your gun," said the accountant, shaking the ashes
from his pipe as he prepared to depart, "but you may as well shove
that axe into your belt; you may want it.--Now, mind, don't roast
your feet," he added, turning to Hamilton.

"Adieu!" cried Harry, with a nod and a smile, as he turned to go.
"Take care the bears don't find you out."

"No fear. Good-bye, Harry," replied Hamilton, as his two friends
disappeared in the wood and left him to his solitary meditations.




CHAPTER XIX.

Shows how the accountant and Harry set their traps, and what came of
it.


The moon was still up, and the sky less overcast, when our amateur
trappers quitted the encampment, and, descending to the mouth of the
little brook, took their way over North River in the direction of the
accountant's traps. Being somewhat fatigued both in mind and body by
the unusual exertions of the night, neither of them spoke for some
time, but continued to walk in silence, contemplatively gazing at
their long shadows.

"Did you ever trap a fox, Harry?" said the accountant at length.

"Yes, I used to set traps at Red River; but the foxes there are not
numerous, and are so closely watched by the dogs that they have
become suspicious. I caught but few."

"Then you know how to _set_ a trap?"

"Oh, yes; I've set both steel and snow traps often. You've heard of
old Labonte, who used to carry one of the winter packets from Red
River until within a few years back?"

"Yes, I've heard of him; his name is in my ledger--at least, if you
mean Pierre Labonte, who came down last fall with the brigade."

"The same. Well, he was a great friend of mine. His little cabin lay
about two miles from Fort Garry, and after work was over in the
office I used to go down to sit and chat with him by the fire, and
many a time I have sat up half the night listening to him as he
recounted his adventures. The old man never tired of relating them,
and of smoking twist tobacco. Among other things, he set my mind upon
trapping, by giving me an account of an expedition he made, when
quite a youth, to the Rocky Mountains; so I got him to go into the
woods and teach me how to set traps and snares, and I flatter myself
he found me an apt pupil."

"Humph!" ejaculated the accountant; "I have no doubt you do _flatter_
yourself. But here we are. The traps are just beyond that mound; so
look out, and don't stick your feet into them."

"Hist!" exclaimed Harry, laying his hand suddenly on his companion's
arm. "Do you see _that_?" pointing towards the place where the traps
were said to be.

"You have sharp eyes, younker. I _do_ see it, now that you point it
out. It's a fox, and caught, too, as I'm a scrivener."

"You're in luck to-night," exclaimed Harry, eagerly, "It's a _silver_
fox. I see the white tip on its tail."

"Nonsense," cried the accountant, hastening forward; "but we'll soon
settle the point."

Harry proved to be right. On reaching the spot they found a beautiful
black fox, caught by the fore leg in a steel trap, and gazing at them
with a look of terror.

The skin of the silver fox--so called from a slight sprinkling of
pure white hairs covering its otherwise jet-black body--is the most
valuable fur obtained by the fur-traders, and fetches an enormous
price in the British market, so much as thirty pounds sterling being
frequently obtained for a single skin. The foxes vary in colour from
jet black, which is the most valuable, to a light silvery hue, and
are hailed as great prizes by the Indians and trappers when they are
so fortunate as to catch them. They are not numerous, however, and
being exceedingly wary and suspicious, are difficult to catch, ft may
be supposed, therefore, that our friend the accountant ran to secure
his prize with some eagerness.

"Now, then, my beauty, don't shrink," he said, as the poor fox backed
at his approach as far as the chain which fastened the trap to a log
of wood, would permit, and then, standing at bay, showed a formidable
row of teeth. That grin was its last; another moment, and the handle
of the accountant's axe stretched it lifeless on the snow.

"Isn't it a beauty!" cried he, surveying the animal with a look of
triumphant pleasure; and then feeling as if he had compromised his
dignity a little by betraying so much glee, he added, "But come now,
Harry; we must see to the other traps. It's getting late."

The others were soon visited; but no more foxes were caught. However,
the accountant set them both off to see that all was right; and then
readjusting one himself, told Harry to set the other, in order to
clear himself of the charge of boasting.

Harry, nothing loath, went down on his knees to do so.

The steel trap used for catching foxes is of exactly the same form as
the ordinary rat-trap, with this difference, that it has two springs
instead of one, is considerably larger, and has no teeth, as these
latter would only tend to spoil the skin. Owing to the strength of
the springs, a pretty strong effort is required to set the trap, and,
clumsy fellows frequently catch the tails of their coats or the ends
of their belts, and not unfrequently the ends of their fingers, in
their awkward attempts. Haying set it without any of the above
untoward accidents occurring, Harry placed it gently on a hole which
he had previously scraped--placing it in such a manner that the jaws
and plate, or trigger, were a hair-breadth below the level of the
snow. After this he spread over it a very thin sheet of paper,
observing as he did so that hay or grass was preferable; but as there
was none at hand, paper would do. Over this he sprinkled snow very
lightly, until every vestige of the trap was concealed from view, and
the whole was made quite level with the surrounding plain, so that
even the accountant himself, after he had once removed his eyes from
it, could not tell where it lay. Some chips of a frozen ptarmigan
were then scattered around the spot, and a piece of wood left to mark
its whereabouts. The bait is always scattered _round_ and not _on_
the trap, as the fox, in running from one piece to another, is almost
certain to set his foot on it, and so get caught by the leg; whereas,
were the bait placed _upon_ the trap, the fox would be apt to get
caught, while in the act of eating, by the snout, which, being wedge-
like in form, is easily dragged out of its gripe.

"Now then, what say you to going farther out on the river, and making
a snow trap for white foxes?" said the accountant. "We shall still
have time to do so before the moon sets."

"Agreed," cried Harry. "Come along."

Without further parley they left the spot and stretched out towards
the sea.

The snow on the river was quite hard on its surface, so that snow-
shoes being unnecessary, they carried them over their shoulders, and
advanced much more rapidly. It is true that their road was a good
deal broken, and jagged pieces of ice protruded their sharp corners
so as to render a little attention necessary in walking; but one or
two severe bumps on their toes made our friends sensitively alive to
these minor dangers of the way.

"There goes a pack of them!" exclaimed Harry, as a troop of white
foxes scampered past, gambolling as they went, and, coming suddenly
to a halt at a short distance, wheeled about and sat down on their
haunches, apparently resolved to have a good look at the strangers
who dared to venture into their wild domain.

"Oh, they are the most stupid brutes alive," said the accountant, as
he regarded the pack with a look of contempt. "I've seen one of them
sit down and look at me while I set a trap right before his eyes; and
I had not got a hundred yards from the spot when a yell informed me
that the gentleman's curiosity had led him to put his foot right into
it."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Harry. "I had no idea that they were so tame.
Certainly no other kind of fox would do that."

"No, that's certain. But these fellows have done it to me again and
again. I shouldn't wonder if we got one to-night in the very same
way. I'm sure, by the look of these rascals, that they would do
anything of a reckless, stupid nature just now."

"Had we not better make our trap here, then? There is a point, not
fifty yards off, with trees on it large enough for our purpose."

"Yes; it will do very well here. Now, then, to work. Go to the wood,
Harry, and fetch a log or two, while I cut out the slabs." So saying,
the accountant drew the axe which he always carried in his belt; and
while Harry entered the wood and began to hew off the branch of a
tree, he proceeded, as he had said, to "cut out the slabs." With the
point of his knife he first of all marked out an oblong in the snow,
then cut down three or four inches with the axe, and putting the
handle under the cut, after the manner of a lever, detached a thick
solid slab of about three inches thick, which, although not so hard
as ice, was quite hard enough for the purpose for which it was
intended. He then cut two similar slabs, and a smaller one, the same
in thickness and breadth, but only half the length. Having
accomplished this, he raised himself to rest a little, and observed
that Harry approached, staggering under a load of wood, and that the
foxes were still sitting on their haunches, gazing at him with a look
of deep interest.

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