It transpired that his conversation which had so alarmed me
referred only to a favourite dog of his, and I, of course, had
unconsciously misled Gerald.
Mr. Marriott proved to be most interesting and amusing, anything but
eccentric; but I shall _never_ hear the last of my mistake, and to this
day he and Jack tease me unmercifully about my "dangerous maniac!"
[Sidenote: A story of the Canadian North-West Mounted Police, founded on
fact.]
Jim Rattray, Trooper
BY
KELSO B. JOHNSON
"Our Lady of the Snows" resents the title. It is so liable, she
complains, to give strangers an utterly wrong idea of her climate. And
yet, at times, when the blizzard piles the swirling snow over fence and
hollow, until boundaries are lost, and the bewildered wayfarer knows not
which way to turn, he is apt to think, if he is in a condition to think
at all, that there is some justice in the description.
But there was no sign of the stern side of nature as Jim Rattray made
his way westward. The sun shone on the wide, rolling plains, the fresh
green of the pasture lands, and the young wheat; the blue sky covered
all with a dome of heaven's own blue, and Jim's heart rejoiced within
him.
A strapping young fellow was Jim, not long out from the Old Country--the
sort of young fellow whose bright eyes and fresh open face do one good
to look at. North-country farming in England was the life to which he
had looked forward; vigorous sports and hard work in the keen air of the
Cumberland fells had knit his frame and hardened his muscles; and his
parents, as they noticed with pride their boy's sturdy limbs, and
listened in wonder to the bits of learning he brought home from school,
had looked forward half-unconsciously to the days when he in his turn
would be master of the farm which Rattrays had held for generations.
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