After this digression the story of their adventures was continued. They told me about the gold they obtained before and after their companions left them, and of the arrangement which was made that they should register the claim in Dawson on their way down, as they expected to find there some proper authority, whether Canadian or American they did not then know. But I had been able to assure my friends that we were in Canada, that all the Klondyke was in Canada; it was known to be seventy miles at least from the international boundary. This had pleased them greatly, for they knew the name of William Ogilvy, the Canadian Government Surveyor, who had been deputed to run the 141st parallel of north longitude to settle this.
Their party being the discoverers of this rich spot, they expected to receive large claims along the creek, and Mr Bell declared that he believed they were all really rich. "And yet," he went on, "with all this gold, we should have starved to death but for God's mercy and you."
Then I recounted what Meade and I had done, adding that I supposed we also were wealthy.
After this we talked about our doings in Canada before we came to this far northern part. I told them of my going first to a district back of Peterborough, in Ontario, with the idea of settling. It was near Buckhorn Lake, very pretty and picturesque, with fine fishing and game, plenty of deer, and so forth, but no place for farming; therefore I came farther west, through Manitoba—which I did not exactly like—on to Broadview, in Assiniboia.
This caused them to exclaim, "Why, that is where we went! how strange. Who did you know there?"
I mentioned the Birds and Fields, the Scotts and Wallises, and I found they were acquainted with them all. We spoke of the peculiarities of the settlers and the district, how promising all seemed to be at first.
By degrees I made out that Mr Bell had been at one time in very comfortable circumstances in England. If he had but been content all might have been well, but his hobby was gardening and farming, and when he married he went into it. He had no experience, and did not possess the gift of money-making, so, naturally, in a very few years he came to grief. May was their only child.
Having some artistic skill and literary abilities, he attempted to make an income by their means. It was all but a failure. They dragged on a precarious existence till May was fifteen years of age, when they had a windfall, a legacy of £3000.
Next to farming in England, Mr Bell's favourite theme was emigration. For years he had declared if they had only done that when they first married they would have been wise and in due time wealthy, and now that this bit of good fortune had come to them, nothing would do but they must carry out his scheme. Friends remonstrated, experienced relatives tried to dissuade him. It was useless.
May had received a good education, and had led an outdoor active life, and her father's plan was that she should go with him to Canada, leaving her mother at home in the little Kentish village where they had lived for years. There she was to remain until they two had made a new home for her in the Great North-West.