An algonquin maiden

The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Algonquin Maiden, by G Mercer Adam and A Ethelwyn Wetherald This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: An Algonquin Maiden A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada Author: G Mercer Adam A Ethelwyn Wetherald Posting Date: September 26, 2012 [EBook #8661] Release Date: August, 2005 First Posted: July 30, 2003 Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ALGONQUIN MAIDEN *** Produced by Wendy Crockett, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions AN ALGONQUIN MAIDEN A ROMANCE OF THE EARLY DAYS OF UPPER CANADA BY G MERCER ADAM AND A ETHELWYN WETHERALD Entered according to Act of Parliament, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, by GRAEME MERCER ADAM and AGNES ETHELWYN WETHERALD, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture, Ottawa TO THE VETERAN PUBLISHER, John Lovell, Esq., OF MONTREAL, WHO HAS SPENT A LONG AND BUSY LIFE IN THE VARIED SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY, THIS MODEST EFFORT IN THE FIELD OF CANADIAN FICTION IS AFFECTIONATELY AND ADMIRINGLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHORS CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Young Master of Pine Towers CHAPTER II An Upper Canadian Household CHAPTER III "When Summer Days were Fair" CHAPTER IV Indian Annals and Legends CHAPTER V The Algonquin Maiden CHAPTER VI Catechisings CHAPTER VII An Accident CHAPTER VIII Convalescence CHAPTER IX On the Way to the Capital CHAPTER X York and the Maitlands CHAPTER XI After "The Ball" CHAPTER XII A Kiss and its Consequences CHAPTER XIII Rival Attractions CHAPTER XIV "Muddy Little York" CHAPTER XV Politics at the Capital CHAPTER XVI Love's Protestations CHAPTER XVII A Picnic in the Woods CHAPTER XVIII The Commodore Surrenders CHAPTER XIX At Stamford Cottage CHAPTER XX The Coming of Wanda CHAPTER XXI The Passing of Wanda CHAPTER XXII Love's Rewards AN ALGONQUIN MAIDEN CHAPTER I THE YOUNG MASTER OF PINE TOWERS It was a May morning in 1825—spring-time of the year, late spring-time of the century It had rained the night before, and a warm pallor in the eastern sky was the only indication that the sun was trying to pierce the gray dome of nearly opaque watery fog, lying low upon that part of the world now known as the city of Toronto, then the town of Little York This cluster of five or six hundred houses had taken up a determined position at the edge of a forest then gloomily forbidding in its aspect, interminable in extent, inexorable in its resistance to the shy or to the sturdy approaches of the settler Man versus nature—the successive assaults of perishing humanity upon the almost impregnable fortresses of the eternal forests—this was the struggle of Canadian civilization, and its hard-won triumphs were bodied forth in the scattered roofs of these cheap habitations Seen now through soft gradations of vapoury gloom, they took on a poetic significance, as tenderly intangible as the romantic halo which the mist of years loves to weave about the heads of departed pioneers, who, for the most part, lived out their lives in plain, grim style, without any thought of posing as "conquering heroes" in the eyes of succeeding generations From the portico of one of these dwellings, under a wind-swayed sign which advertised it to be a place of rest and refreshment, stepped a man of more than middle age, whose nervous gait and anxious face betokened a mind ill at ease He had the look and air of a highly respectable old servitor,—one who had followed the family to whom he was bound by ties of life-long service to a country of which he strongly disapproved, not because it offered a poor field for his own advancement, but because, to his mind, its crude society and narrow opportunities ill became the distinction of the Old World family to whose fortunes he was devoted Time had softened these prejudices, but had failed to melt them; and if they had a pardonable fashion of congealing under the stress of the Canadian winter, they generally showed signs of a thaw at the approach of spring At the present moment he had no thought, no eyes, for anything save a mist-enshrouded speck far off across the waters of Lake Ontario All the impatience and longing of the week just past found vent through his eyes, as he watched that pale, uncertain, scarcely visible mote on the horizon As he reached the shore the fog lifted a little, and a great sunbeam, leaping from a cloud, illumined for a moment the smooth expanse of water; but the new day was as yet chary of its gifts It was very still The woods and waves alike were tranced in absolute calm The unlighted heavens brooded upon the silent limpid waters and the breathless woods, while between them, with restless step, and heart as gloomy as the morning, with secret, sore misgiving, paced the old servant, his attention still riveted upon that distant speck The sight of land and home to the gaze of a long absent wanderer, wearied with ocean, is not more dear than the first glimpse of the approaching sail to watching eyes on shore Was it in truth the packet vessel for whose coming he had yearningly waited, or the dark wing of a soaring bird, or did it exist only in imagination? The tide of his impatience rose anew as the dim object slowly resolved itself into the semblance of a sail, shrouded in the pale, damp light of early morning Unwilling to admit to his usually grave unimpressible self the fact that he was restless and disturbed, he reduced his pace to a dignified march, extended his chosen beat to a wider margin of the sandy shore, and, parting the blighted branches of a group of trees, that bore evidence of the effect of constant exposure to lake winds, he affected to examine them critically But the hand that touched the withered leaves trembled, and his sight was dimmed with something closely resembling the morning's mist When he again raised his eyes to that white-sailed vessel it looked to his hopeless gaze absolutely becalmed The slow moments dragged heavily along The mantle of fog was wholly lifted at last, and the lonely watcher was enveloped in the soft beauty of the morning A light cloud hung motionless, as though spell-bound, above the mute and moveless trees, while before him the dead blue slopes of heaven were unbroken by a single flying bird, the wide waste of water unlighted, save by that unfluttering sail And now, like a visible response to his silent but seemingly resistless longing, a boat was rapidly pushed away from the larger craft, and the swift flash and fall of the oars kept time to the pulsing in the old man's breast Again ensued that inglorious conflict between self-respecting sobriety of demeanour and long suppressed emotion, which ended only when the boat grated on the sand, and a blonde stalwart youth leaped ashore The old man fell upon his neck with tears ... "And you trust her all alone?" "She is an Algonquin maiden She fears nothing." "And why is an Algonquin superior to a Huron, for instance?" The young man, leaning idly back, and caressing the Indian dog of the chief, pursued his... Here many of these emigres had made clearings on the Ridges, and reared chateaux for themselves and their households after the manner of their ancestral homes in Languedoc and Brittany Into the grounds of one of these mansions had the younger horseman disappeared to pay his hurried respects to the stately dame... CHAPTER II An Upper Canadian Household CHAPTER III "When Summer Days were Fair" CHAPTER IV Indian Annals and Legends CHAPTER V The Algonquin Maiden CHAPTER VI Catechisings CHAPTER VII An Accident