The test of Donald Norton

A bear came out of the brush immediately behind the drying racks, attracted by the odor of curing fish. Once in the open she halted defensively, not because she had seen the man...

In the spring following Wen-dah-ban's journey to Fort Kenogami Pe-tah-bo advised the boy that it was time to go into the forest, build a small wigwam and remain there, fasting a...

In the north country June is the smile of a bitter old man. The sun is bright and warm, the waters are blue and placid, the poplars and birches open their buds and drip ointment...

In the century and a half of its existence Fort Kenogami had never known opposition. Isolated in that vast territory to the south and west of Hudson Bay, separated by hundreds o...

Donald opened his eyes before dawn one morning in his second winter at Whitefish Lake. For a moment he was conscious only of a great lassitude, of a head numb from pain.

"You've earned it!" he exclaimed. "Mactavish knows what he is doing. Your ladder's set against a star. I'm going to miss you terribly but that doesn't make me less glad. I fancy...

Philip Collinge had begun another attempt to teach his two sons to read and write English. Patiently and determinedly, he was working with them one evening when Donald burst in...

Donald Norton took little note of the agitation of his fellow-workers over the methods of the new district manager. His thoughts were elsewhere. His heart was torn by doubt and...

Before Donald had been gone an hour all Fort Bruce was buzzing with the possible reasons for his sudden departure. In "Bachelors' Hall" post managers and apprentice clerks spoke...

He believed what Nee-tah-wee-gan had said. He knew how hate swayed the woman, how it had so ruled her in that moment that she had spoken unconsciously, wholly unmindful of his p...

Before he left Fort Bruce John Corrigal had determined that he would arrive at Fort James after dark. He wanted to catch Donald off his guard, in a slack time of the year. In a...

Although Donald had failed to take advantage of the withdrawal of that hardened shell which had grown around the soul of John Corrigal, when the man and not the servant of the g...

The picnic party, laughing and shouting, a gaily colored procession as it streamed across the great, green clearing, left at eleven o'clock. From a window Donald watched it depa...

When Dale Millington reached Whitefish Lake in his second year he felt certain that his campaign against Donald was about to be successfully concluded. Before the ice had gone t...

Everyone in Fort Bruce knew of the fight in detail before night, just as it knew, too, that Corrigal had deposed Donald as a post manager and ordered him to report to the commis...

"You know what happened out there a few minutes ago," he said. "An old Indian woman, Nee-tah-wee-gan by name, was waiting for me outside the office. In the presence of a number...

In the long months that passed after his departure from Fort Bruce, Donald Norton won through to a greater dominance in the hearts of its people than he had gained while there....

Spring came and rotting trails cut off Fort Bruce from its world. The ice on the great lakes was blackening, the snow was becoming drab, the north stood forth in all its uglines...

Two days after his interview with Janet, Donald disappeared from Fort Bruce. He went in the night and it was thirty-six hours before his absence was discovered. Immediately the...

When Donald reached Fort James the next afternoon he knew as soon as he entered the trade shop that something had happened. Philip greeted him warmly, asked how affairs were pro...

The early darkness of mid-winter in the north had come while the two talked. After Donald's last despairing outburst both were silent. Philip could see the dim outline of his fr...

When Millington gained the shelter of the dwelling house after his disastrous attempt to play _windigo_ he dropped into a chair, spent physically after his run through the snow...

When Corrigal pushed Millington into the hall and closed the door the Fort James manager realized that his career with the Hudson's Bay was at an end. Yet even in that moment of...

"Only a fool would try such a trick on a man like him," Corrigal answered coldly. "You should have known you couldn't do it. He has enough influence over those hunters to make t...

"All her life she has been that way," Donald continued. "The last thing she said was '_keen nish-e-na-be_.' It is what she has said every time she has seen me since I left her w...

When Donald reached Fort Bruce with Millington he placed him in charge of the Mounted Police, who had returned, and then went to the Keewatin headquarters down the shore. He did...