XX
CHRISTMAS EVE at TOPMAST TICKLE
Returning afoot from the bedside of Long John Wise at Run-by-Guess—and from many a bedside and wretched hearth by the way—the doctor and I strapped our packs aback and heartily set out from the Hudson’s Bay Company’s post at Bread-and-Water Bay in the dawn of the day before Christmas: being then three weeks gone from our harbour, and, thinking to reach it next day. We were to chance hospitality for the night; and this must be (they told us) at the cottage of a man of the name of Jonas Jutt, which is at Topmast Tickle. There was a lusty old wind scampering down the coast, with many a sportive whirl and whoop, flinging the snow about in vast delight—a big, rollicking winter’s wind, blowing straight out of the north, at the pitch of half a gale. With this abeam we made brave progress; but yet ’twas late at night when we floundered down the gully called Long-an’-Deep, where the drifts were overhead and each must rescue the other from sudden misfortune: a warm glimmer of light in Jonas Jutt’s kitchen window to guide and hearten us.
The doctor beat the door with his fist. “Open, open!” cried he, still furiously knocking. “Good Lord! will you never open?”
So gruff was the voice, so big and commanding—and so sudden was the outcry—and so late was the night and wild the wind and far away the little cottage—that the three little Jutts, who then (as it turned out) sat expectant at the kitchen fire, must all at once have huddled close; and I fancy that Sammy blinked no longer at the crack in the stove, but slipped from his chair and limped to his sister, whose hand he clutched.
“We’ll freeze, I tell you!” shouted the doctor. “Open the—— Ha! Thank you,” in a mollified way, as Skipper Jonas opened the door; and then, most engagingly: “May we come in?”
“An’ welcome, zur,” said the hearty Jonas, “whoever you be! ’Tis gettin’ t’ be a wild night.”
“Thank you. Yes—a wild night. Glad to catch sight of your light from the top of the hill. We’ll leave the racquets here. Straight ahead? Thank you. I see the glow of a fire.”