At first he felt—like many of us would have done—so angry that he was on the point of throwing up the whole thing and leaving the service of the Hudson Bay Company.
But on second thoughts he felt that, after all, the managers were right. They had put him there to have charge of valuable stores and important work, and that it was his duty to stick there, and not to come in to civilised parts for his own sake.
So he accepted the wigging, and started back on the long, dreary journey to his gloomy post in Labrador.
He had luckily been able to see a doctor, and had got his eyes put right.
It was an awful journey: so bad that the two guides gave way under their hardships and died. But again Donald Smith stuck to it, and struggled on, and in the end he just managed to get to his post, worn out and exhausted.
But that sticking to it was exactly what was the secret of his success.
For thirteen years he stuck to his job in that awful country and then his employers saw that he was so strong on doing his duty that they promoted him to higher and more important work, till in the end he became Chief Factor or Head Manager of the Company.
Then came the idea of making the Canadian Pacific Railway right across
Canada.
People said it was a mad scheme; that it could never pay to make a railway into that vast wilderness which in those days had not been properly explored.
But Donald Smith looked far ahead, and saw the time when Britain would be overcrowded with people, and corn-growing, cattle-raising land would be needed for colonists.