"
The oil lamp sputtered and began to smoke, and with a quick movement
Jan turned the wick down until they were left in darkness.
"M'sieur, it was then that the curse began to fall upon the woman and
the child. Do you not believe that about the sins of the fathers
falling upon others? Mon Dieu, it is so--it is so. It came in many
small ways--and then--the curse--it came suddenly--LIKE THIS." Jan's
voice came in a hissing whisper now. Thornton could feel his hot
breath as he leaned over the table, and in the darkness Jan's eyes
shone like two coals of fire. "It came like THIS!" panted Jan. "There
was a new missioner at the post--a--a Christian from the South, and he
was a great friend to the woman, and preached God, and she BELIEVED
him. The boy was very young, and saw things, but did not understand at
first. He knew, afterward, that the missioner loved his mother's
beauty, and that he tried hard to win it--and failed, for the woman,
until death, would love only the one to whom she had given herself
first. Great God, it happened THEN--one night when every soul was
about the big fires at the caribou roast, and there was no one near
the lonely little cabin where the boy and his mother lived. The boy
was at the feast, but he ran home--with a bit of dripping meat as a
gift for his mother--and he heard her cries, and ran in to be struck
down by the missioner.
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