[A STORY OF STRIFE.]
FIRST-PRIZE STORY.
BY F. M. MACNAUGHTON.
Was Jake Lawson a coward? Well, according to Strife Settlement standards there could be but one answer to that question, for how could a boy be anything else who was afraid of the river? The river! Why, the Strife babies were almost born in it. Its roaring was the first sound they heard. It was the lullaby that hushed them to sleep, and the morning call that wakened them. Ask any Strife boy what was the first sight he remembered, and he would say the river. Ask him when he learned to swim, find ten to one he could not tell you. Every boy in Strife learned to swim very soon after he learned to walk, and thenceforth lived almost as much in the water as out. Jake, the youngest of the four stalwart sons of Lawson, the lumberman, had done as the others—bathing, swimming, fishing, paddling—-till the day when he had stood on the rocks overhanging the Big Rapid and seen his brother Jim drowned. To shoot this rapid was the ambition of every boy living within a day's journey of it, and one day Jim, then in his thirteenth year, said to eight-year-old Jake, "I am going to shoot the Big Rapid to-day, and if you want to see me you can run down to the rocks." So little Jake had trotted off, not for a moment doubting his brother's ability to successfully accomplish this or anything else he undertook. What could not Jim do? The handsome, strongly built, daring boy was the idol of the rather delicate little brother, and Jake stood on the rocks in fancy already announcing to his playmates that Jim had run the rapid, a feat not yet performed by any boy of his age. But poor Jim had undertaken a task beyond him this time, and Jake, looking helplessly down, had seen the canoe overturned and his brother swept away by the rushing, foaming waters. Once his head appeared above the current, and Jake fancied he caught an imploring look in the dark eyes, and then he remembered no more. When a Strife boy is missed he is sought by the river-side, and there Jake was finally found unconscious. A serious illness followed, and since then his dread of the river had been unconquerable.
The Lawsons mourned their son in their rough way, and when the bruised and battered body was recovered there were sad scenes in their humble home. But there were seven other children, and as time passed Jake's affliction, for so they considered it, was perhaps the greater trial. In the lumber region a boy who is not as much at home in the water as on the land is not worth much to his family, and Jake could give little or no assistance in the labor by which the family bread was gained. To his mother, who was often weak and ailing, he was of great assistance, there being as yet no grown daughter in the Lawson household; but the shame of his position preyed upon him. He knew that in the settlement he was an object of pity if not of contempt. He could fancy that the younger boys pointed at him as "that no-account Jake Lawson, skeered of the water and only fit to help women folk." And he knew that to strangers who came out to fish he was mentioned as the one boy over fifteen who had never shot the Big Rapid. He made many efforts to overcome his timidity, even "wrestling in prayer," but no help came. He used to force himself to go down to the banks of the Strife and watch the swirling, writhing, tossing waters, only to return with an access of terror. Why! the rapid seemed to him possessed of life! It was a very demon with teeth and claws, continually roaring for prey. Fierce eyes seemed to glare at him out of the foam, and shadowy arms to stretch towards him. At this stage he commonly turned and ran, only too thankful if he could gain home unobserved by the settlement boys.
He had one comfort. Education was not much thought of in the rough-and-ready backwoods family; "but bein' as Jake is so unlike other folks," said his father, "he might as well try to get a little larnin'. It's not as though we could ever make a man of him, so I don't keer so much about his spendin' his time; and they do say that book stuff sometimes comes in handy. I don't know nothin' about it, but if Jake can make a show anywhere let him get his chance." So, though the village school was six miles distant, Jake managed to attend pretty regularly for several years. The schoolmaster, who also did the little doctoring required in the settlement, took a great interest in the boy, in whom he soon discovered an unusual aptitude for study. He taught him many things not usually included in a village school course, and Jake while studying with him forgot his misery, but at home he could not get away from it. The roaring of the Strife seemed often like a voice proclaiming his cowardice. Sometimes he fancied that even strangers must hear it shouting "There goes Jake Lawson; he is a coward, coward, coward!" About this time his dream was to do some heroic deed and then die. Once owned brave, he would be too happy to live.
One afternoon he was feeling unusually depressed. A good job of lumbering at a distant drive had offered, and his brothers, with all the men able to work, had gone off gayly in the morning. Unusually good wages were offered, and old Lawson, who had been prevented from going with the others on account of a badly sprained ankle, had been unable to conceal his vexation that Jake could not join the party. He had said a few bitter words that the son could not forget, and then hobbled off to the yard. He had not been gone ten minutes when Jake heard a fall and a cry, and, rushing out, found that his father had stumbled over a log of wood, and, falling on an axe he was carrying, had made a terrible gash in his arm. By the spurting of the blood Jake knew at once that an artery had been severed. Without an instant's hesitation he tore open his father's shirt-sleeve and grasped his arm, pressing firmly against the inner edge of the biceps muscle, calling loudly at the same time for his mother. Mrs. Lawson came in haste and uttered a scream when she saw the quantity of blood that had already flowed from the cut, which was just above the elbow.
"Do not be frightened, mother," said Jake. "Father has cut himself badly, but I know just what to do. Please take the lace out of his shoe and give it to me."