“Then would there not be opportunity to secure a considerable amount of land at a low figure in that country?”
“Most certainly! But it's fair to say that success there means work and hardship and privation. Of course it is always so in a new country; it was so in Ontario. Why, the new settlers in Manitoba don't know what hardships mean in comparison with those that faced the early settlers in Ontario. My father, when a little boy of ten years, went with his father into the solid forest; you don't know what that means in this country, and no one can who has not seen a solid mass of green reaching from the ground a hundred feet high without a break in it except where the trail enters. Into that solid forest in single file went my grandfather, his two little boys, and one ox carrying a bag of flour, some pork and stuff. By a mark on a tree they found the corner of their farm.” Martin paused.
“Do go on,” said Miss Brodie. “Tell me the very first thing he did.”
But Martin seemed to hesitate. “Well,” he began slowly, “I've often heard my father tell it. When they came to that tree with the mark on it, grandfather said, 'Boys, we have reached our home. Let us thank God.' He went up to a big spruce tree, drove his ax in to the butt, then kneeled down with the two little boys beside him, and I have heard my father say that when he looked away up between the big trees and saw the bit of blue sky there, he thought God was listening at that blue hole between the tree-tops.” Martin paused abruptly, and for a few moments silence held the group. Then Doctor Dunn, clearing his throat, said with quiet emphasis:
“And he was right, my boy; make no doubt of that.”
“Then?” inquired Miss Brodie softly. “If you don't mind.”
Martin laughed. “Then they had grub, and that afternoon grandfather cut the trees and the boys limbed them off, clearing the ground where the first house stood. That night they slept in a little brush hut that did them for a house until grandmother came two weeks later.”
“What?” said Doctor Dunn. “Your grandmother went into the forest?”
“Yes, Sir,” said Martin; “and two miles of solid black bush stretched between her and the next woman.”
“Why, of course, my dear,” said Mrs. Dunn, taking part for the first time in the conversation. “What else?”