Northern Lights, Volume 2.
Parker, Gilbert, 1860-1932
English
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NORTHERN LIGHTS
By Gilbert Parker
Volume 2.
TO-MORROW
QU'APPELLE
THE STAKE AND THE PLUMB-LINE
TO-MORROW
"My, nothing's the matter with the world to-day! It's so good it almost
hurts."
She raised her head from the white petticoat she was ironing, and gazed
out of the doorway and down the valley with a warm light in her eyes and
a glowing face. The snow-tipped mountains far above and away, the fir-
covered, cedar-ranged foothills, and, lower down, the wonderful maple and
ash woods, with their hundred autumn tints, all merging to one soft, red
tone, the roar of the stream tumbling down the ravine from the heights,
the air that braced the nerves--it all seemed to be part of her, the
passion of life corresponding to the passion of living in her.
After watching the scene dreamily for a moment, she turned and laid the
iron she had been using upon the hot stove near. Taking up another, she
touched it with a moistened finger to test the heat, and, leaning above
the table again, passed it over the linen for a few moments, smiling at
something that was in her mind. Presently she held the petticoat up,
turned it round, then hung it in front of her, eyeing it with critical
pleasure.
"To-morrow!" she said, nodding at it. "You won't be seen, I suppose,
but I'll know you're nice enough for a queen--and that's enough to know."
She blushed a little, as though someone had heard her words and was
looking at her, then she carefully laid the petticoat over the back of a
chair. "No queen's got one whiter, if I do say it," she continued,
tossing her head.
In that, at any rate, she was right, for the water of the mountain
springs was pure, the air was clear, and the sun was clarifying; and
little ornamented or frilled as it was, the petticoat was exquisitely
soft and delicate. It would have appealed to more eyes than a woman's.
"To-morrow!" She nodded at it again and turned again to the bright world
outside. With arms raised and hands resting against the timbers of the
doorway, she stood dreaming. A flock of pigeons passed with a whir not
far away, and skirted the woods making down the valley. She watched
their flight abstractedly, yet with a subconscious sense of pleasure.
Life--they were Life, eager, buoyant, belonging to this wild region,
where still the heart could feel so much at home, where the great world
was missed so little.
Suddenly, as she gazed, a shot rang out down the valley, and two of the
pigeons came tumbling to the ground, a stray feather floating after.
With a startled exclamation she took a step forward. Her brain became
confused and disturbed. She had looked out on Eden, and it had been
ravaged before her eyes. She had been thinking of to-morrow, and this
vast prospect of beauty and serenity had been part of the pageant in
which it moved. Not the valley alone had been marauded, but that "To-
morrow," and all it meant to her.
Instantly the valley had become clouded over for her, its glory and its
grace despoiled. She turned back to the room where the white petticoat
lay upon the chair, but stopped with a little cry of alarm.
A man was standing in the centre of the room. He had entered stealthily
by the back door, and had waited for her to turn round. He was haggard
and travel stained, and there was a feverish light in his eyes. His
fingers trembled as they adjusted his belt, which seemed too large for
him. Mechanically he buckled it tighter.
"You're Jenny Long, ain't you?" he asked. "I beg pardon for sneakin'
in like this, but they're after me, some ranchers and a constable--one
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