Poor Man's Rock

eri

e with, the house empty and still, Dolly Ferrara gone back to her uncle's home. Even the Cove was bare of

twelve months in the infantry, nearly three years in the air, had taught him that death is a commonplace after a man sees about so much of it, that it is many times a welcome relief from suffering either of the body or the spirit. He chose to

slowly gathering a flood of feeling unrelated to his father's death, more directly based indeed upon Donald MacRae's life,

ile of note paper all closely written upon

nce that having come through so much you will go on safely to the end. But I'm not so sure about myself. I'm aging too fast. I've been told my heart is bad. And I've lost heart lately. Th

might have to my undertakings. Until you began to grow u

ey call good chums. I've taken a secret pride in seeing you grow and develop into a man. And while I tried to give you an education-broken into, alas, by this unending war-such as

at our doorstep. Long ago this place came into my hands at little more cost than the taking. It has proved a refuge to me, a stronghold against all comers, against all misfortune. I have spent much labor on it, and most of it has been a labor of love. It has begun to grow valuable. In years to come it will be of far greater val

-heartedly reclaimed from the wilderness, you should deri

that you must face the world with no resources beyond your own brain and a sound young body. If it happens that the war ends soon and you come home while I am still alive to welcome you, we can talk th

y yea

ld Donald traced out of a full heart and bitter memories all the passing years for his son to see and understand. He made Elizabeth Morton, the Morton family, Horace Gower and the Gower kin stand out in bold relief. He told how he, Donald MacRae, a nobody from nowhere, for all they knew, adven

, understanding more. It was all there in those wr

scar that crossed his father's cheek bone-Donald MacRae was again pursuing his heart's desire. But he was forestalled there. He had truly said to Elizabeth

ae whispered to himself, "that middle-aged woman with the

ensity that Donald MacRae must for a time have hated him-because Gower apparently never forgot and never forgave. Long after Donald MacRae outgrew that passion Gower had continued secretly to harass him. Certain things could not be otherwi

ereas Horace Gower, after one venture in which he speedily dissipated an inherited fortune, drove straight to successful outcome in everything he touched. By the time young Jack MacRae outgre

had taken things for granted. The war had come in his second year at

lowed,-and always in the background, as old Donald saw it, the G

which included the house and garden. Old Donald had segregated that from his holdings when he pledged the land, as a matter of sentiment, not of value. All the rest-acres of pasture, cleared and grassed, stretches of fertile ground, blocks of noble timber still uncut

justifying himself to his son for a failure which needed no justifying. He saw now why his father tabooed all things Go

is burned itself out he had never experienced so headlong an affection again. He spoke with kindly regard for his wife, but she played little or no part in his account. And Jack had only a faint memory of his mother, for she had died when he was seven. His father filled his eyes. His father's enemies were his. Family t

keel-blocks, rested a small knockabout-rigged boat, stowed away from wind and weather, her single mast, boom, and gaff unshipped and slung to rafters, her sail and running

ht. Nothing seemed right. In young MacRae's mind there was nothing terrible about death. He had become used to that. But he had imagination. He could see his father going on day after day, month after month, year after year, end

Rae blink and struggle with

t. Sitting still and thinking had become unbearable. He found himself on the path that ran along the cliffs and followed

into white drifting patches with bits of blue showing between, and the sun striking through in yellow shafts which lay glittering areas here and there on the Gulf. The swell that r

one, Long Tom Spence in the other. They did not ride those gray-green ridges for pleasure, nor drop sidling into those

rowers bent to their oars, tossing and lurching. MacRae reflected upon their industry. In France he had eaten canned salmon bearing the Folly Bay label, salmon that might have been taken here by the Rock, perhaps by the h

d around Poor Man's Rock, skirting the kelp at the cliff's foot, keeping body and soul together with unre

e was a government allowance. He could have invoked the War Relief Act against foreclosure. Between them they could have managed. But he understood quite clearly wh

in a patch of sunshine did not help to soften him. It stood on land reclaimed from the forest by his father's labor. It should have belonged to him, and it had passed into hands that already grasped too much. For thirty years Gower had made silent war on Donald MacRae because of a woman. It

t the daughter of a man whom he was beginning to regard as a forthright e

ne and he looked up. Betty was all in white, a glow in her cheeks and in her ey

ur father," she said sim

deeply. His eyes shifted for a moment to the uneasy sea. The

n it, although I don't know why you should. B

s if she scarcely knew how to take part of what he said. "Isn't it lovely after the storm? Pret

eemed to him a most u

he war is over?" she smiled. "

ok his

The armistice was signed yester

Now the tremendously important happening left him unmoved, unbelievably indifferent. He

know a lot of fellows will be-and their

d imperiously been relegated to the background for him. Temporarily or otherwise, as a spur to his e

thoroughly aware of himself as a likable figure in any girl's sight. Four years overseas had set a mark on many such as himself. A man cannot live through manifold chances of death, face great perils, do his work under desperate risks and survive, without some trace of his deeds being manifest in his bearing. Those tried by fire are sure

ad. I know I should be if I were in the army, although of course no matter how horrible it all was it had to be done.

wly, "didn't want to go

lection. Her eyebrows lifted. "Why did you have to?

ike myself who didn't hanker to stick bayonets through men we'd never seen, nor shoot them, nor blow them up with hand grenades, nor kill them ten thousand feet in t

Betty Gower chal

ine faintly purple in the distance. His gaze turned briefly to the leafless tops of maple and alder rising out of the hollow in which his father's

h having is worth fighting for. But that isn't what t

exaggerated bitterness that the Germans in Belgium had dealt less har

u mean by that," she remarked. Her tone was

absolving himself of any intention to make war on her he was wondering if her mother, long ago, had been anything like Miss Betty Gower. It seemed odd to

ded. It wasn't a story either Horace Gower o

ated herself on a rock and evinced an inclination to quiz him about things he did not care to be