The making of a man

by W. D. Flatt

Mary, in her turn, occupied a place relative to her husband in the community. She was a leader among the women, often going to the homes of her neighbors to provide what comfort and help was necessary in times of trouble and stress. She was always ready to give advice and help. Many and many a bride came to her for help in her difficulties. Many and many a young man was given good advice when making plans for his future.

Thus was happiness provided for and love ruled alone. For twenty-seven years the two journeyed along life’s pathway happily and truly, and then, while Robert was yet a stalwart man and apparently in good health and strength, he was one day suddenly taken ill and received his call up the long, long trail which has no ending here on earth. It was a blow to him when he realized that the end had come, particularly when it came so suddenly and unexpectedly. It was hard for him to leave his helpmate in life. It was hard, too, to have to say good-bye to the home which had been so much to him. He felt, too, that he had a good deal in life yet to do, but as the end came near he seemed to appreciate that the One who called had more work for him to do somewhere else in a better place, and through his tears he answered briefly, “God’s will be done.” And as he journeyed on up the trail he did not go blindly, for the pathway was lighted up by the love which had been born in his soul as a youth and which by the faithful following of duty had been developed into a flaming torch which was to light him continually along the pathway.

One of the sturdy hero’s hopes had not been materialized. It had been a deeply-impressed wish in his heart that some time the opportunity should be provided to return to his father and mother in the old Orkney home. In this he had been disappointed. His parents naturally had preceded him in death, and his life had been such a busy one that the considerable journey back to the old home had never been provided for. However, his wish did find realization in another way, for he found his father and mother waiting patiently for him when he reached that land “fairer than day” from which the call had come for him.

For forty years Mary, as Robert’s widow, carried on his responsibilities, and with her family of fourteen these were by no means light. Never once did she flinch, however. As Robert had prayed with her during his lifetime, so she was now given strength to pray, and as she prayed she knew that her prayers were answered. She did her best to bring her children up as their father would have had them reared. When the time came she led them to the church in the neighborhood, and Sunday after Sunday, as she walked along the roadway to the church service, holding her children by the hand, she sang the same song which Robert had heard when he had first met her, back on the trail years before. When she had lived her life as God intended she, too, was called on high and was again placed at Robert’s side to live together as they had done on earth, but in the happiness that is only known in that great land beyond.

HOW “KID” MADE GOOD
A STORY OF THE CANADIAN LUMBER WOODS

“What are you doing here, Kid?”

This was the greeting that came to a lad of fifteen who, late one afternoon in the month of October, about thirty years ago, walked into one of the lumber camps which were then located along the French River in Northern Ontario. He was a light-haired boy with blue eyes showing a natural honesty beneath them, and with a bearing that would command the admiration of any real man.

The greeting came somewhat forcibly to the boy, particularly when it was given by Scott, the foreman of the camp, who was known throughout the district as a man who demanded the best from his men, though he treated them well in return, and the lad to whom he spoke was surely in touch with new experiences. To a boy who scarcely knew what hard work really meant, who through force of circumstances was forced to come up against work which was ordinarily tackled by physical giants, this meant new as well as trying experiences. It was a well-known fact that anyone who looked for employment in a lumber camp must become one of the crew and must abide by the well-defined though unwritten rule of those days of passing through the rather rough, but usually good-natured treatment, such as all green, first-year hands, were subjected to. This policy was followed in the belief, as prevails in a good many other institutions and industries, that the sooner a green hand got his bumps the quicker he would become a full-fledged hand. Charlie, the young man our story is concerned with, had found his way to what was known as Camp No. 2. Here Scott, the foreman, had seen many years’ experience in the lumber camps and in driving logs on the most difficult water. Furthermore, Scott had gotten his early training under one of the hardest bosses that ever wore shoe leather—a man firm as steel and cold as an iceberg. Naturally he had absorbed a good deal of these qualities, but with all this he had a kindly spot in his heart, under a rough exterior, for the green hand who seemed to have in him the right sort of stuff, particularly if the new man were willing.

Probably Charlie would have chosen some other vocation had his circumstances been otherwise, but at that time and in that part of the country nothing else seemed open to him. Only a few weeks before, through the death of his father, the family’s resources had been swept away, and when the mother and the smaller children had been left without support it seemed to the oldest son that it was his duty to get into something at once which would provide for them.

Charlie looked Scott in the eyes after his first query and replied that he was looking for a job. The answer to this was not assuring.