Alaska -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
About the middle of the winter I was delighted to get a letter from
Nina. It was written from a point about two hundred and fifty miles
distant, in that great game-stocked region which lies west of the
Alaska Range, of which Mt. McKinley, "The Top of the Continent," is the
highest peak. It was a cheery, girlish letter--just such an one as I
might have expected from Nina--grown-up. It told me of her marriage,
two years before, to a young man whom I had known--one who had loved
her when she was a little girl, had followed her and her parents to the
western wilderness, waited patiently for her to grow up, and, now that
they were married, seemed to her all that was admirable and complete
in manhood. It was her one romance and was very sweet and perfect.
Nina and her husband were living in a large cabin on one of the trails
that led from the Interior to the Coast. Nina called it a roadhouse,
and, though low and dark, with only poles for floor, and pole-bunks
for beds, it was fitted for the accommodation of a dozen travelers.
Nina was queen of a wide realm. Her cabin was a hundred and twenty-five
miles from that of the nearest white woman. They were two hundred miles
from the nearest store. They were in the heart of the richest game
region of North America--the western foot-hills of the Alaska Range.
They were prospectors for gold in the summer; farmers, raising their
own potatoes and vegetables and wheat for their chickens; trappers
during the winter; hunters all the time; and hotel-keepers during the
six months when snow and frozen streams and lakes lured travelers along
the lonely trail.
There was in Nina's letter, however, no hint of loneliness; rather a
joyful tone of contentment, as one of God's favored creatures; and of
comradeship with the things about her--the mountains, the forests
and the myriads of animals, small and great. She invited me to come
and make them a long visit and have a big hunt. Her letter also spoke
of the one need in her life that I could supply--Bibles, books and
magazines.
Very few travelers came my way who had passed Nina's that winter, but
from most of them I heard of my little chum, and always in terms of
enthusiastic praise.
"I am a city man," said a young lawyer from Seattle, "and am in this
wild land just long enough to make my stake and get back to the rattle
of the street-cars. The 'call of the wild' has no allurement for me.
There is just one thing that could make me settle down in Alaska, and
that is to find such a mate as that little woman."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account