She
was the wife of Donald Blake.
When I came there at Donald's I had six partridges, and a piece of
porcupine and about half of the flour I started off with, and all
the bones of the porcupine that I carried along with me.
TOO LATE
Very soon Donald Blake and his brother came home. I told him of
our sad trip, and asked him if he could go up and take grub to Mr.
Hubbard and Wallace.
"Which river did you follow this summer?" Donald asks me.
"The Nascaupee River," I said, "and I came down by the same river
again."
"When did you come out to Grand Lake?" he said.
"Yesterday," I replied.
"And how did you get across the lake?
"I did not come across at all, but I followed the south shore all
the way."
Then he told me where the Nascaupee River was, and where it came
out from to the Grand Lake within 4 miles northeast from here. I
told him about which river we followed, the one at the head of the
lake. He then tells me that we have taken the wrong river, and
that the river we have followed was the Susan River.
Then I asked him, "What river was this one I crossed with the
raft?"
He says, "That river was Beaver Brook or Beaver River."
Then I learnt that this Beaver River was the Big River where we
left our canoe, and my thoughts were, "Oh! that if we had followed
the Big River, we would have all got out safe," and I could not
forget about it, and felt so sorry about it.
Donald got ready to start in the morning. He told me of two men 7
miles from here. I told him it would be better if we could get the
other two men, as they would make better time and have lighter
loads. So they started off the same night in their boat, and got
the two men, Allan Goudy and Duncan M'Lean.
Wednesday morning, October 28th. - Donald and three more started off
in their boat part of the way. They had their snowshoes also.
Taking lots of grub and some spare sealskin boots and some other
clothes, as I told them how the boys were rigged when I left them.
I wanted to go with them too; but they said they were going to
travel at night too, and thought I would not be able to stand it
out. I made a map for them and told them just where the tent was,
and told them which side of the river to follow, and that the tent
was just at the forks. I told them what I told Wallace before I
left him, not to leave the river and to follow the north shore of
the river all the time. So they said they would find the camp
without any trouble.
When Donald and the men had gone, Mrs. Blake was baking some
biscuits just after breakfast. The hot biscuits looked so good.
At last, I could not help myself, and had to ask her for some. She
put some in a dish and gave me butter, molasses, and tea. So I ate
and ate, and could not stop myself whatever, that at last I had to
just force myself to go away where I could not see those little
biscuits.
But oh! how I did suffer afterwards. I could not eat any thing
more that day. It pained me ever so much in my breast. I would
try and have a rest in bed, but could not, the pain was too much.
Then I would go out and walk about outside; but it was no use
whatever, and come in and sit down. This I kept on all day but I
wouldn't tell Mrs. Blake about it. I had no rest and suffered very
much and was getting worse all the time. I thought of myself: Well
I had nearly died of starvation, and after I did come out to where
I could get some grub to live on, and after all kill myself with
it. What a mean trick.
I did not know what to do with myself at last. Then I thought to
try some hot water and started to vomit. It did me good. I felt
much better after. I knew when I was eating those biscuits, that
it wouldn't be good for me if I ate too much, but I couldn't help
it. But it learnt me a good lesson. Afterwards I took good care
not to eat too much. But for some time after, about three weeks,
we suffered in our breast every time we ate, and so very, very
hungry all the time for more to eat. We then suffered nearly as
much as we did when we were first out of grub.
Next day Mrs. Blake telling me, "Donald built this house this fall.
It is a little over a week since we moved into our new house. And
the other house you see over there is Mr. Bakie's house. He is not
up yet. He is yet at the Northwest River post."
So I thought, "If Donald hadn't come up here when I came past!!! - I
guess I will just go into Mr. Bakie's house and see if I would have
found any thing there."
I went in his little store first, it wasn't locked, and found a few
pounds of flour and some bits of pork in a keg, and about twenty
pounds butter and also a good pair of sealskin boots.
So I said to myself, "Well, I guess I could find a load of grub
here and take a load back to Mr. Hubbard and Wallace."
But I thought about the river, and how would I get a load back
across the river?
