"But," protested George, "you are surely not going to take the veil like Marguerite de Bourgeois?"
"Certainly not."
"You are surely not going to wander off into the wild woods and lead the life of a squaw, are you?"
"Not exactly, but I hope to arrange with the Mission Board of the Dutch Reformed Church in New York, who are working among the Indians of Upper Canada, to take me as a teacher."
"But have not the Indians of Lower Canada, and especially the tribes scattered along your own river and its tributaries, a greater claim upon you? If your vow includes nothing less than martyrdom, the cannibals of the Nipissing or the Abbitibee tribes would be quite willing to aid you in carrying out your intentions," he said, a faint smile creeping over his serious face. "Chris, dear Chrissy," he said, as he stroked her soft flaxen hair, "I thought you had advanced too far in the Christ life to think of bartering with the Infinite. If He has given back your mother, receive her as a free gift, not to be paid for by the sacrifice of your own precious life, nor by the severing of earthly ties, but to be received and rejoiced in as a token of His free grace. Fulfil your vow, my noble girl; live for Him, work for Him, die for Him if need be, but one thing remember, that the highest destiny of woman lies in adorning the position God designed for her. It may please self to sever earthly ties, it may give you an inward feeling of being under no obligation to the Hearer and Answerer of prayer—a feeling that you are even with Him—but you will find that it is not the true road to happiness. Self is not your aim, nor is it comfort, nor enjoyment, nor social ambition; your chief end and mine is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If that sweetest of earthly ties formed at Quebec stands in the way of this, let us sever it here and now."
Tears were chasing each other down Chrissy's face as he spoke.
Few men can bear to see a woman in tears, and it was too much for George.
"Chrissy," he said, "don't cry, please, don't; but tell me, shall we sever it?" Her heart was too full for words, but every line of her face expressed remonstrance.
He stopped for a moment, as though waiting for an answer, when suddenly a shout went up which seemed to rend the very heavens, for it came from several hundred men. It brought George Morrison out of his tent in an instant. The crews of twenty-two large canoes belonging to the Company and twelve crews of Iroquois Indians, who were on their return from the winter hunt, with their families, furs, dogs, etc., had just arrived on the scene.
The bark canoes, measuring on an average thirty-six feet in length by six feet in width in the middle, which had been carried most tenderly over the portage on the naked shoulders of six men, were deposited in a semi-circle upside down.