a
far, far country--It's cold, cold, Rufus--the way is--rugged--my feet
are slipping--slipping--give a hand--lad!--Praise to God--there's a
resting-place--somewhere!--Farewell--boy--be brave--farewell--I may not
come back soon--but I must--journey--to--a----far----far----"

There was a little gasp for breath. His head felt forward and Frances
sobbed out, "He is gone! He is gone!"

And the warmth of pulsing life in the form against my shoulder gave
place to the rigid cold of motionless death.

"May the Lord God of Israel receive the soul of His righteous servant,"
cried Mr. Sutherland in awesome tones.

With streaming eyes he came forward and helped me to lay the priest
back.

Then we all passed out from that chamber, made sacred by an invisible
presence.

* * * * *

VALEDICTORY.

'Twas twenty years after Father Holland's death that a keen-eyed,
dark-skinned, young priest came from Montreal on his way to Athabasca.

This was Miriam's son.

To-day it is he, the missionary famous in the north land, who passing
back and forward between his lonely mission in the Athabasca and the
headquarters of his order, comes to us and occupies the guest-chamber in
our little, old-fashioned, vine-grown cottage.

The retaking of Fort Douglas virtually closed the bitter war between
Hudson's Bay and Nor'-Westers. To both companies the conflict had proved
ruinous. Each was as anxious as the other for the terms of peace by
which the great fur-trading rivals were united a few years after the
massacre of Seven Oaks.

So ended the despotic rule of gentlemen adventurers in the far north.
The massacre turned the attention of Britain to this unknown land and
the daring heroism of explorers has given place to the patient
nation-building of multitudes who follow the pioneer. Such is the record
of a day that is done.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lords of the North, by A. C. Laut

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORDS OF THE NORTH ***

***** This file should be named 20418.txt or 20418.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/1/20418/

Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Josephine Paolucci and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by the Canadian Institute for Historical
Microreproductions (www.canadiana.org))

Up