Troop One of the Labrador by Dillon Wallace

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"The instant they had discovered the accident two boys had run away to
summon an ambulance and to notify the police, and in a little while an
ambulance with a surgeon and two policemen came and took the men away.

"The boys were only about Andy's age, and I wondered at their training
and efficiency. When the ambulance had gone with the injured men I
walked a little way with the boys, and learned that they belonged to a
wonderful organization called 'Boy Scouts.' I had heard of Boy Scouts,
but I supposed it was one of the ordinary clubs where boys got
together just for play.

"I was so much interested that I looked up the head office of the Boy
Scouts, and asked questions about them. Then I bought these copies of
the _Boy Scout's Handbook_. They tell about the things the scouts do,
and how a boy may become a scout. I knew you chaps would be so
interested you would each want a book, so I bought a half-dozen
copies. The extra books we can give to other boys up the Bay."

"Could we be scouts?" asked Andy breathlessly.

"Yes, to be sure!" Doctor Joe smiled.

"'Twould be rare fun, now!" exclaimed David.

"All of us scouts, just like the boys in New York?" Jamie asked, his
face aglow.

"Yes," answered Doctor Joe. "I knew you chaps would like to be scouts.
We'll organize a troop, and we'll call it Troop One of The Labrador.
There are Boy Scouts of America, and Boy Scouts of England, and Boy
Scouts of nearly every country in the world except The Labrador. We'll
be the Boy Scouts of The Labrador, and become a part of the great army
of scouts. It'll be something to be proud of."

"How'll we do it?" asked David.

"I'll be leader, or scoutmaster as they call the leader," explained
Doctor Joe. "These books explain all about the things we're to do.

"Before you become tenderfoot scouts you'll have to learn some
things," Doctor Joe continued, after looking through one of the
handbooks, until he found the proper page. "You can tie all the knots
already. You do that every day. But there are plenty of boys, and men
too, where I came from that can't even tie the ordinary square knot.

"You'll have to learn the oath and law. You live pretty close to the
requirements of the law now, but it'll be necessary to learn it, and
I'll explain then what each law means. You'll have to learn what the
scout badge stands for and how it's made up, and other things."

Doctor Joe carefully marked the necessary pages and references.

"Now about the flag," said Doctor Joe. "You'll have to learn about the
formation of the flag and what it stands for. This book is for the Boy
Scouts of America, and the flag it refers to is the United States
flag. I'm an American, but you chaps are living in British territory
and you're British subjects, so you'll have to learn about the British
flag or Union Jack, as it's called, for that's your flag.

"The Union Jack is the national flag of the whole British Empire. The
English flag was originally a red cross on a white field. This is
called the flag of St. George. Three hundred years ago King James the
First added to it the banner of Scotland, which was a blue flag with
a white cross, called St. Andrew's Cross, lying upon the blue from
corner to corner--that is diagonally."

Doctor Joe opened his travelling bag and drew forth two small flags,
one the Stars and Stripes and the other the British Union Jack.

"I nearly forgot about these," said he, spreading the flags upon the
table. "This is the flag of my country," and he caressed the United
States flag affectionately. "I love it as you should love your flag.
The Union Jack is the emblem of the great British Empire, of which you
are a part. It is one of the greatest and best countries in the world
to live in. To be a British subject is something to be proud of
indeed."

"Aye," broke in Thomas, "'tis that, now."

"Yes," continued Doctor Joe, "I want you to be as proud of it as I am
that I'm a citizen of the United States, and I'm so proud of it I
wouldn't change for any other country in the world. When I reached St.
John's and saw the American flag flying over the office of the United
States Consulate, my eyes filled with tears. I hadn't seen that old
flag for years, and I stood in the street for an hour doing nothing
but look at it and think of all it represents. It makes my blood
tingle just to touch it. You chaps must feel the same toward the
British flag, for that's your flag.

"Now let me show you how the flag is made up," and Doctor Joe
proceeded to trace St. George's Cross and St. Andrew's Cross,
explaining them again as he did so. "In the year 1801 another banner
was added. This was the Banner of St. Patrick of Ireland. St.
Patrick's Cross was a red diagonal cross on a white field, and here
you see it."

Doctor Joe traced it on the flag.

"There," he went on, "you have the British flag complete. No one knows
exactly why it is called the 'Jack,' but it may have been because in
the old days, the English knights, when they went out to fight their
battles, wore a jacket over their armour with the St. George's Cross
upon it, so it would be known to what nation they belonged. This
jacket was sometimes called a 'jack' for short.

"The Union Jack did not become a complete flag as we have it to-day
until the year 1801, when St. Patrick's Cross was added to it. The
Stars and Stripes, the flag of my country, was first made in 1776,
and on June 14, 1777, it was adopted by the United States Congress as
the national emblem, so you see it is even older than the British
flag. The flags of all nations in the world have changed since 1777
excepting only the United States flag, and every American is proud of
the fact that his flag is older than the flag of any other Christian
nation in the world."

The boys, and Thomas and Margaret also, were fascinated with Doctor
Joe's brief story of the flags. They were quite excited with the
thought that they were to be a part of the great army of Boy Scouts,
and to do the same things that other boys in far-away lands were
doing, and the other boys that they had never seen seemed suddenly
very much nearer to them and more like themselves than they had ever
seemed before.

The three buried their noses in the handbook, now and again asking
Doctor Joe questions. They were so excited and so interested, indeed,
that they could scarcely lay the books aside when Thomas announced
that it was time to "turn in," and Andy declared he could hardly wait
for morning when they could be at them again.

And so it came about that Troop I, Boy Scouts of The
Labrador, was organized, and in the nature of things the troop was
destined to meet many adventures and unusual experiences.

CHAPTER II

PLANS

The cabin at The Jug had three rooms. There was a square living-room,
entered through an enclosed porch on its western grade. At the end of
the living-room opposite the entrance were two doors, one leading to
Margaret's room, the other to the room occupied by the boys. Thomas
himself slept in a bunk, resembling a ship's bunk, built against the
north wall.

The furnishings of the living-room consisted of a home-made table, a
big box stove, three home-made chairs and some chests, which served
the double purpose of storage places for clothing and seats. A
cupboard was built against the wall at the left of the entrance, and
between two windows on the south side of the room, which looked out
upon The Jug, was a shelf upon which Thomas kept his Bible and
Margaret her sewing basket--a little basket which she had woven
herself from native grasses. Behind the stove was a bench, upon which
stood a bucket of water and the family wash basin, and over the basin
hung a towel for general family use.

Pasted upon the walls were pictures from old newspapers and magazines.
There were no other decorations but these and snowy muslin curtains at
the windows, but the floor, table, chairs--all the woodwork,
indeed--were scoured to immaculate whiteness with sand and soap, and
everything was spotlessly clean and tidy. Despite the austere
simplicity of the room and its furnishings, it possessed an
indescribable atmosphere of cosy comfort.

Doctor Joe's bed was spread upon the floor. It was still candle-light
when he was awakened by Thomas building a fire in the stove, for in
this land of stern living there is no lolling in bed of mornings.

"Good-morning, Thomas," said Doctor Joe, with a yawn and a stretch as
he sat up.

"Marnin'," said Thomas.

"How's the morning, Thomas, fair for our trip to Fort Pelican?"

"Aye, 'tis a fine marnin'," announced Thomas, "but I were thinkin'
'twould be better to wait over till to-morrow for the trip. After your
long voyage 'twould be a bit trying for you to turn back to-day to
Fort Pelican without restin' up, and I'm not doubtin' a day
whatever'll do no harm to the potaters and things."

"I believe you're right, Thomas," and Doctor Joe spoke with evident
relief. "I thought you'd be getting ready for the trapping and would
like to get the Fort Pelican trip out of the way. We'll put the trip
off till to-morrow."

Doctor Joe dressed hurriedly, and went out to enjoy the cool, crisp
morning. Everything was white with hoarfrost. The air was charged with
the perfume of balsam and spruce and other sweet odours of the forest.
Doctor Joe took long, deep, delicious breaths as he looked about him
at the familiar scene.

The last stars were fading in the growing light. A low mist hung over
The Jug, and beyond the haze lay the dark, heaving waters of Eskimo
Bay. In the distance beyond the Bay the high peaks of the Mealy
Mountains rose out of the gloom, white with snow and looming above the
dark forest at their base in cold and silent majesty. Behind the
cabin stretched the vast, mysterious, unbounded wilderness which held,
hidden in its unmeasured depths, rivers and lakes and mountains that
no man, save the wandering Indian, had ever looked upon--great
solitudes whose silence had remained unbroken through the ages.

"If some of those Boy Scouts could only see this!" exclaimed Doctor
Joe.

"'Twere fashioned by the Almighty for comfortable livin'," said
Thomas, who had called Margaret and the boys and come out unobserved
by Doctor Joe. "There's no better shelter on the coast, and no better
place for seals and salmon, with neighbours handy when we wants to see
un, and plenty o' room to stretch. 'Tis the finest _I_ ever saw,
whatever."

"Yes, 'tis all of that," agreed Doctor Joe. "But I wasn't thinking now
of The Jug alone. I was thinking of the majestic grandeur of the whole
scene. I was enjoying the freedom from the noise and scramble, the
dirt and smoke and smudge of the city, with its piles upon piles of
ugly buildings, and never a breath of such pure air as this to be
breathed. I was thinking of these fine young chaps, the Boy Scouts I
saw there, who are trying to study God's big out-of-doors and must
content themselves with stingy little parks. It's the love of Nature
that takes them to the parks, and compared with this they have a poor
substitute. This is the world as God made it, with all its primordial
beauty. We're fortunate that circumstances placed us here, Thomas, and
we should be for ever thankful."

"I'm wonderin' now," observed Thomas, as he and Doctor Joe paced up
and down the gravelly beach, "why folks ever lives in such places as
you tells about. There's plenty o' room down here on The Labrador, and
plenty o' other places, I'm not doubtin', where they'd be free from
the crowds and dirt, and have plenty o' room to stretch, and live fine
like we lives."

"We're a thousand miles from a railway," said Doctor Joe. "Most of the
people in the cities wouldn't live a thousand paces from a railway if
they could help themselves. They take a car and ride if they've only
half a mile to go. They ride so much they've almost forgotten how to
walk. They like crowds. They'd be lonesome if they were away from
them."

"'Tis strange, wonderful strange, how some folks lives," remarked
Thomas, quite astonished that any could prefer the city to his own
big, free Labrador. "When folks has enough to keep un busy they never
gets lonesome, and bein' idle is like wastin' a part of life. A man
could never be lonesome where there's plenty o' water and woods about.
I always finds jobs a-plenty to turn my hand to, and I has no time to
feel lonesome. And I never could live where I didn't have room enough
to stretch, _what_ever."

"That's it!" Doctor Joe spoke decisively. "Room enough to stretch mind
as well as body. Why, Thomas, I've often heard men say that they had
to 'kill time', and didn't know what to do with themselves for hours
together!"

"'Tis wicked and against the Lord's will," and Thomas shook his head.
"The Lord never wants folks to be idle or kill time. He fixes it so
there's a-plenty of useful things for everybody to do all the time,
and they wants to do un."

"'Tis the measure of a man's worth," remarked Doctor Joe. "The
worth-while man never has an hour to kill. The day hasn't hours
enough for him. It's the other kind that kill time--the sort that are
not, and never will be, of much account in the world."

They walked a little in silence, each busy with his own thoughts, when
Thomas remarked:

"The Lord has been wonderful good to me, Doctor Joe, givin' me three
as fine lads and as fine a lass as He ever gave a man. Then He saves
the little lad's eyes, when they were goin' blind, by sendin' you to
cure un. And when I were breakin' my leg and couldn't work He sends
along Indian Jake to go to the trails to hunt with David and Andy, and
they makes a fine hunt and keeps us out o' debt. And this summer we
has as fine a catch of salmon as ever we has, and we're through with
un a fortnight ahead of ever before, with all the barrels filled and
the gear stowed, and the salt salmon traded in at the Post, and plenty
o' flour and pork and molasses and tea t' see us through the winter,
_what_ever."

"Last year at this time things looked pretty blue for us," said Doctor
Joe, "but everything worked out well in the end, Thomas."

"Aye," agreed Thomas, "wonderful well. I'm thinkin' that if we does
our best t' help ourselves when troubles come the Lord is like t' step
in and give us a hand. He wants us to do the best we can t' help
ourselves and when He sees we're doin' it He lifts the troubles."

"That's true," agreed Doctor Joe, "and if a man takes advantage of
every opportunity that comes to him, and don't waste his time, he's
pretty sure to succeed."

"Aye, that he is," said Thomas. "Now I were thinkin' that the lads
worked so wonderful hard at the salmon th' summer, I'd let un go with
you to Fort Pelican t' manage the boat, and I'll be staying home to
make ready for the trail. There's a-plenty to be done yet to make
ready without hurry, and a trip to Fort Pelican will be a rare treat
for the lads. But I'll go if you wants. I were just askin' if 'twould
be suitin' you if I stays home and lets they go?"

"Why, of course! That's great! Simply great!" exclaimed Doctor Joe.
"The boys will make a fine crew! Will Jamie go too?"

"Aye, Jamie's been workin' like a man, and he'll be keen for the
trip," said Thomas. "And last night I were thinkin' after I goes to
bed how fine 'tis that you're to be doctor to the coast. Indian
Jake's to be my trappin' pardner th' winter, and the lads'll 'bide
home. You'll be needin' dogs and komatik (sledge) to take you about.
There'll be little enough for the dogs to do, and you'll be welcome to
un. The lads can do the drivin' for you and whatever you wants un to
do. Use un all you needs. I wants to do my share to help you do the
doctorin'."

"Thank you! Thank you, Thomas!" Doctor Joe accepted gratefully. "This
will make it possible for me to see a good many people that I
otherwise would not be able to see, and make it easier for me also."

"Aye," said Thomas, "I were thinkin' that too, and the lads will be
glad enough to lend you a hand when you needs un."

It was broad daylight. While Thomas and Doctor Joe talked on the
beach, the boys had been busily engaged in carrying the day's supply
of water from Roaring Brook to a water barrel in the porch. Now Jamie
appeared to announce breakfast. While they ate the boys were able to
talk of little else than the scout books, and the fact they were to do
as boys did in other parts of the world. And they were delighted
beyond measure when they learned that they were to make the voyage to
Fort Pelican with Doctor Joe. It was an event of vast importance.

"There'll be plenty o' time in the boat to study the scout book
things," Andy suggested. "Maybe now we could learn to be scouts before
we gets back home."

"I've no doubt you can pass all the tenderfoot tests while we're
away," said Doctor Joe. "And since you're to take me about with dogs
and komatik this winter when I go to visit sick people, there'll be no
end of chances to show what good scouts you are."

"To take you about?" asked Andy excitedly.

Then Thomas must needs explain that they must do their share in
looking after the sick folk, and that David and Andy were to be Doctor
Joe's dog drivers when winter came.

"'Twill be fine to manage the dogs for you, sir!" exclaimed David,
turning to Doctor Joe.

"Wonderful fine!" echoed Andy.

"And will you be goin' outside the Bay?" asked David.

"Aye, outside the Bay and in it, wherever there's need to go," said
Doctor Joe.

"'Twill be tryin' and hard work sometimes," suggested Thomas,
"travellin' when the weather's nasty, but I'm not doubtin' the lads'll
be able t' manage un."

"We'll manage un!" David declared with pride in the confidence placed
in him and Andy.

To drive dogs on these sub-arctic trails in fair weather and foul
calls for courage and grit, and the lads felt justly proud of the
responsibility that had been laid upon them. There would be many a
shift to make on the ice, they knew. There would be blinding blizzards
and withering arctic winds to face, and no end of hard work. But these
lads of The Labrador loved to stand upon their feet like men and face
and conquer the elements like hardy men of courage. This is the way of
boys the world over--eager for the time when they may assume the
responsibility of manhood. Such a time comes earlier to the lads of
The Labrador than with us. In that stern land there is no idling and
there are no holidays, and every one, the lad as well as his father,
must always do his part, which is his best.

Fort Pelican, the nearest port at which the mail boat called, was
seventy miles eastward from The Jug. With the uncertainty of wind and
tide the boat journey to Fort Pelican usually consumed three days, and
with equal time required for return, the voyage could seldom be
accomplished in less than six days. Lem Horn and his family lived at
Horn's Bight, thirty miles from The Jug, and fifteen miles beyond, at
Caribou Arm, was Jerry Snook's cabin. Save an Eskimo settlement of
half a dozen huts near Fort Pelican and the families of Lem Horn and
Jerry Snook, the country lying between The Jug and Fort Pelican was
uninhabited. It was unlikely that evening would find the travellers in
the vicinity of either Horn's or Snook's cabins, and therefore it was
to be a camping trip, which was quite to the liking of the boys.

The boys washed the old fishing boat and packed the equipment and
provisions for the voyage. Margaret baked three big loaves of white
bread, and as a special treat a loaf of plum bread. The remaining
provisions consisted of tea, a bottle of molasses for sweetening,
flour, baking-powder, fat salt pork, lard, margarine, salt and pepper.
The equipment included a frying-pan, a basin for mixing dough, a tin
kettle for tea, a larger kettle to be used in cooking, one large
cooking spoon, four teaspoons and some tin plates. Each of the boys as
well as Doctor Joe was provided with a sheath knife carried on the
belt. The sheath knife serves the professional hunter as a cooking
knife, as well as for eating and general purposes.

For camping use there was a cotton wedge tent, a small sheet-iron tent
stove, three camp axes, some candles and matches, a file for
sharpening the axes and a sleeping-bag for each. Men in that land do
not travel without arms, and it was decided that David should take a
carbine and Andy and Doctor Joe each a double-barrel shotgun, for
there might be an opportunity to shoot a fat goose or duck.

Thomas's big boat had two light masts rigged with leg-o'-mutton sails.
Just forward of the foremast David and Andy placed some flat stones,
and covering them with two or three inches of gravel set the tent
stove upon the gravel. Here they could cook their meals at midday, and
the gravel would protect the bottom of the boat from heat. A
sufficient quantity of fire-wood was taken aboard, and the provisions
and other equipment stowed under a short deck forward where the things
would be protected from storm and all would be in readiness for an
early start in the morning.

CHAPTER III

"'TIS THE GHOST OF LONG JOHN"

The morning was clear and crisp. Breakfast was eaten by candle-light,
and before sunrise Doctor Joe and the boys, with the tide to help
them, worked the big boat down through The Jug and past the Point into
Eskimo Bay. In the shelter of The Jug, which lay in the lee of the
hills, the sails flapped idly and it was necessary to bring the long
oars into service. But beyond the sheltered harbour a light north-west
breeze caught and filled the sails, the oars were stowed, the rudder
shipped, and with David at the tiller Doctor Joe lighted his pipe and
settled himself for a quiet smoke while Andy and Jamie turned their
attention to their scout handbooks.

It was an inspiring morning. The sky was cloudless. The air was
charged with scent of spruce and balsam fir, wafted down by the
breeze from the forest, lying in dark and solemn silence and spreading
away from the near-by shore until it melted into the blue haze of
rolling hills far to the northward. The huge black back of a grampus
rose a hundred feet from the boat and with a noise like the loud
exhaust of steam sank again beneath the surface of the Bay. Now and
again a seal raised its head and looked curiously at the travellers
and then hastily dived. Gulls and terns soared and circled overhead,
occasionally dipping to the water to capture a choice morsel of food.
A flock of wild geese, honking in flight, turned into a bight and
alighted where a brook coursed down through a marsh to join the sea.

"There's some geese," remarked David, breaking the silence. "They're
comin' up south now. We'll have a hunt when we gets home. They always
feeds in that mesh when they're bidin' about the Bay."

Presently Andy exclaimed:

"I can tie un all! I can tie every knot in the book!"

"I can tie un too!" said Jamie.

"Yes! Yes! There are the scout tests!" broke in Doctor Joe. "Suppose
we all tie the knots and pass the tests."

Andy and Jamie tied them easily enough, and then Doctor Joe tied them
himself to keep pace with the boys, and Andy relieved David at the
tiller that he might try his hand at them; David not only tied all the
knots illustrated in the handbook, but for good measure added a
bowline on a bight, a double carrick bend, a marlin hitch and a
halliard hitch.

"That's wonderful easy to do," David declared as he laid the rope
down. "'Tis strange they calls that a test, 'tis so easy done."

"Easy for us," admitted Doctor Joe, "but for boys who have never had
much to do with boats or ropes it's a hard test, and an important one.
You chaps knew how to tie them, so in doing it you haven't learned
anything new. Let us make up our minds as scouts to learn something
new every day--something we never knew before, no matter how small or
unimportant it may seem. Think what a lot we'll know next year that we
do not know now; everything we learn, too, is sure to be of use to us
sometime in our lives.

"As we go along we'll find there is a great deal to learn in this
handbook, and all of it is worth knowing. We don't look far ahead.
Suppose we begin with the scout law. With your good memories you'll
learn it before we go ashore to-night. I want you to learn the twelve
points of the law in order as they appear in the book, so that you can
repeat them and tell me in your own words what each point means."

Doctor Joe turned to the scout law and explained each point in detail.
When he told them that "A Scout is kind" meant that they must not only
be kind to people, but that they must protect and not kill harmless
birds and animals, David protested:

"If we promises _that_, sir, 'twould stop us huntin' seals and deer
and pa'tridges and plenty o' things."

"Oh, no!" explained Doctor Joe. "It does not mean that. It means that
you must kill nothing _needlessly_. Here in Labrador we must kill
seals and deer and partridges and other game for food and for their
skins. That is the way we make our living. In the same way they have
to kill cows and sheep and goats and pigs for food in the country I
came from and to get skins for boots and gloves. In the same way we
are permitted to kill game when necessary. But we're not to kill
anything that's harmless unless we need it for some purpose. The
Indians and other people about here shoot at loons for sport. I've
seen them chase the loons in canoes and keep shooting at them every
time they came up after a dive, until the loons were too tired to dive
quickly enough to get out of the way of the shot, and then the poor
things were killed. The flesh isn't fit to eat and they're always
thrown away. That is cruel."

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