The Skeleton On Round Island: From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899 — John Shaqi
The Skeleton On Round Island: From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899Catherwood, Mary Hartwell
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The Skeleton On Round Island: From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899
Catherwood, Mary Hartwell
Mackinac Island (Mich. : Island) -- Fiction; Michigan -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
I cannot tell how that make me feel! I laugh, for it is funny; but I am
ashame, like my father is expose and Mamselle Rosalin can see him. If
I do not cover him again I am disgrace. I think I will wait till some
other day when I can get back from Cheboygan; for what will she say if
I stop the traino when we have such a long journey, and it is so near
night, and the strait almost ready to move? So I crack the whip, but
something pull, pull! I cannot go on! I say to myself, “The ground is
froze; how can I cover up that skeleton without any shovel, or even a
hatchet to break the earth?”
But something pull, pull, so I am oblige to stop, and the dogs turn in
without one word and drag the sledge up the beach of Bound Island.
“What is the matter?” says Mamselle Eosalin. She is out of the sledge as
soon as it stops.
I not know what to answer, but tell her I have to cut a stick to mend
my whip-handle. I think I will cut a stick and rake some earth over the
skeleton to cover it, and come another day with a shovel and dig a new
grave. The dogs lie down and pant, and she looks through me with her big
eyes like she beg me to hurry.
But there is no danger she will see the skeleton. We both look back to
Mackinac. The island have its hump up against the north, and the village
in its lap around the bay, and the Mission eastward near the cliff; but
all seem to be moving! We run along the beach of Bound Island, and then
we see the channel between that and Boblo is moving too, and the ice is
like wet loaf-sugar, grinding as it floats.
We hear some roars away off, like cannon when the Americans come to the
island. My head swims. I cross myself and know why something pull,
pull, to make me bring the traino to the beach, and I am oblige to that
skeleton who slide down hill to warn me.
When we have seen Mackinac, we walk to the other side and look south and
southeast towards Cheboygan.. All is the same. The ice is moving out of
the strait.
“We are strand on this island!” says Mamselle Rosalin. “Oh, what shall
we do?”
I tell her it is better to be prisoners on Bound Island than on a cake
of ice in the strait, for I have tried the cake of ice and know.
“We will camp and build a fire in the cove opposite Mackinac,” I say.
“Maman and the children will see the light and feel sure we are safe.”
“I have done wrong,” says she. “If you lose your life on this journey,
it is my fault.”
Oh God, no! I tell her. She is not to blame for anything, and there is
no danger. I have float many a time when the strait breaks up, and not
save my hide so dry as it is now. We only have to stay on Round Island
till we can get off.
“And how long will that be?” she ask.
I shrug my shoulders. There is no telling. Sometimes the strait clears
very soon, sometimes not. Maybe two, three days.
Rosalin sit down on a stone.
I tell her we can make camp, and show signals to Mackinac, and when the
ice permit, a boat will be sent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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