The Shagganappi

Front matter

RBOR I

LIBRARY (9/ r/ie UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO on deposit from Massey College

THE GREAT TOTEM POLE

Contents

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Introduction - -- -..-..^

The; Shagganappi - - - - - - - - ii

II

" My father is half French and half Cree ; my mother is about three-quarters Cree; her grandfather was French," replied the boy, while his whole loyal young heart reached out towards this great man, who was lifting him out of the depths of obscurity. Then His Excellency's hands rested with a peculiar half fatherly, half brotherly touch on the shoulders of the slim lad before him.

" Then you have blood in your veins that the whole world might envy," he said slowly. " The blood of old France and the blood of a great aboriginal race that is the offshoot of no other race in the world. The Indian blood is a thing of itself, unmixed for thousands of years, a blood that is distinct and exclusive. Few white people can claim such a lineage. Boy, try and remember that as you come of Red Indian blood, dashed with that of the first great soldiers, settlers and pioneers in this vast Dominion, that you have one of the proudest places and heritages in the world ; you are a Canadian in the greatest sense of that great word. When you go out into the world will you remember that, Fire-Flint?" His Excellency's voice ceased, but his thin, pale, aristocratic fingers still rested on the boy's shoulders, his eyes still shone with that peculiar brotherly light.

" I shall remember, sir," replied Fire-Flint, while his homeless young heart was fast creating for itself the foothold amongst the great nations of the earth. The principal of the school stood awkwardly, hoping that all this attention would not spoil his head pupil; but he never knew that boy in all the five years he had instructed him, as His Excellency, Lord Mortimer, knew him in that five minutes' chat.

" No," said the Governor, again turning to the principal, " I certainly do not like that term ' half-breed.' Most of the people on the continent of America are of mixed nationality — how few are pure English or Scotch or Irish — or indeed of any particular race? Yet the white people of mixed nations are never called half-breeds. Why not? It would be quite reasonable to use the term regarding them." Then, once again addressing Fire- Flint, he asked, " I suppose all the traders use this term in speaking of your parents and of you?"

" Of my parents, yes, sir," replied the boy.

" And you ?" questioned His Excellency, kindly.

" They call me the ' Shagganappi,' " answered Fire- Flint.

" I am afraid that is beyond me, my boy," smiled His Excellency. Won't you tell me what it means ?" The boy smiled responsively,

" It is a buckskin, a color ; a shagganappi cayuse is a buckskin color. They say I look that way."

" Ah, I understand," replied His Excellency, as his eyes rested on the dark cream brown tint of the boy's face. " Well, it is a good name ; buckskin is a- thing essential to white people and to Indians alike, from the Red River to the Rockies. And the cayuse — well, the horse is the noblest animal known to man. So try to be worthy of the nickname, my boy. Live to be essential to your people — like the buckskin ; to be noble — like the horse. And now good-bye, Shagganappi, and remember that you are the real Canadian."

Another handclasp and Lord Mortimer was walking away with the principal at his side, who was saying, " Your Excellency, you have greatly encouraged that boy ; I think he always felt terribly that he was a half-bree — half-blood. He would have loved to claim either all Cree or all French ancestry."

He is a fine lad and I like him," returned Lord Mortimer, rather shortly, for he felt a little impatient with the principal, who could so easily have lightened the boy's heart from the very first year he had entered the school, by fostering within him pride of the two great races that blended within his veins into that one mighty nation called Canadian. j

But that day proved the beginning of a new life for Fire-Flint; Lord Mortimer had called him Shagganappi in a half playful way, had said the name meant good and great things. No more did the little half-blood despise his own unusually tinted skin, no more did he hate that dash of gray in his brown eyes that bespoke " white blood," no more did he deplore the lack of proper coloring that would have meant the heritage of pure Indian blood. He was content to fight it out, through all his life to come, as " The Shagganappi," and when the time came for him to go to the great Eastern college in Ontario he went with his mind made up that no boy living was going to shoulder him into a corner or out-do him in the race for attainment.

**********

" Hello, fellows, there is an Indian blown in from the North-West. Cracker-jack of a looking chap," announced " Cop " Billings to his room-mates late one morning, as he burst into the room after his early mile run to find them with yet ten minutes to spare before the " rising bell."

" Shut up, and let a fellow sleep," growled " Sandy," from his bed in the corner.

" Indian?" exclaimed young Locke, sitting bolt upright ; " this ain't a Redskin school ; he's got to get put out, or I'm a deader."

" You'll be a deader if you try to put him out," sneered Cop Billings ; " first place he's got an arm like braided whipcord, and he's got a chin — hanged determined swatyou-in-the-face sort of chin — not a boiled-fish sort of jaw like yours," and he glared at the unfortunate Locke with sneering disapproval.

"Where'd you see him?" ventured little chunky Johnny Miller, getting into his clothes.

" Saw him in the library as I passed. The Head called me in and — "

" Stow it! stow it!" they all yelled; then Locke jeered, " The Head is never up at six-thirty — we are not rabbits."

"Just where you get left; the Head was up at fivethirty and went to the station to meet mister Indian."

" Well, I'll be jing-banged," exclaimed Sandy, nearly awake; " what's the meaning of it all?"

" Meaning's just this, my son," replied Cop, getting out of his limited running togs into something more respectable, " that if you chumps guessed all day you'd never strike just how the Indian came to this school. Who do you suppose wrote to the Head recommending him to take the Redskin, and kind of insinuating that the college would do well to treat him properly? None other than His Excellency Lord Mortimer, Governor- General of ' this Canada of ours.' Now, Locke, will you act good and pretty, and take your bread and milk like a nice little tootsy-wootsy and allow the Indian to stay?" Whew !" bellowed Locke, " I guess I'm it, f ellows."

"Just found it out, eh?" answered Cop; then, as the first bell clanged throughout the building and hustling was in order, he proceeded to explain that as he passed the library door on his way to the baths, Professor Warwick called him in and introduced him to the tall, lithe Westerner, who had wonderfully easy manners, a skin like a tan-colored glove, and whose English was more attractive than marred by a strong accent that sounded " Frenchy."

" When he found that I was heading for the baths he asked to come too," rattled Cop ; " been on the train over three days and nights coming from Winnipeg; said he felt grimy, so I took him along. Jingo, you should see his clothes — silk socks, silk shirt, top-coat lined with mink, an otter collar — must have cost hundreds." Says I, ' Well, pal, your governor must be well fixed.' Says he, ' My father is a trapper and trades with the Hudson's Bay Company. He trapped all these minks, and my other clothes — oh, we buy those at the H. B. C. in Winnipeg.' Wouldn't that phase you, fellows? But I forgot

his clothes when I saw him strip. Jiminy Christmas! I never saw such a body. I'm in bully training, but I'm a cow compared to * Shag.' "

" What a rum name !" said Locke, still a little resentful.

" Found out all about that, too," went on Cop. " Seems he has a whole string of names to choose from. Heard him tell the Head that his first name is ' Fire-Flint,' and his last name is ' Larocque.' Seemed to kind of take the Head where he is weakest.

" ' If you don't like it,' says the Indian, with a deadquiet, plumb-straight look at the Head, ' you may call me what the people up along the Red River call me ; I'm known there as the Shagganappi — Shag, if you want to cut off part of the word. The other boys may call me Shag if they want to.' Say, fellows, I liked him right there and then. He may chum up with me all he likes, for all his silk socks and shirts."

" What did the Head say?" asked little Johnnie Miller.

" Said he liked the name Shag," replied Cop. " ' Then I'm Shag to you, sir, and the others here,' speaks up his Indian nibs. Then he and I struck for the tubs, then they took him to get his room, and I came up here."

As Cop finished speaking the chapel bell sounded and all four boys scrambled down to prayers. As they entered the little sanctuary, one of the masters, standing irresolute near the door, beckoned to Cop. " Billings," he whispered, " Will you please go and ask Larocque if he cares to come to prayers? He's in room 17; you met him this morning, I believe."

"Certainly, sir," replied Cop, dashing up the nearest stairway.

" Bntrez'' replied an even voice to Cop's unusually respectful knock. Then the voice rapidly corrected itself, " Enter, come in," it said in English.

"How about prayers?" asked Cop. "Perhaps you're tired and don't care to come ?"

" I'll go," replied the Indian, and followed noiselessly where Billings led the way.

They entered just as Professor Warwick was beginning prayers, and although the eighty or so boys present were fairly exemplary, none could resist furtive looks at the newcomer, who walked up the little aisle beside Billings with a peculiarly silent dignity and half-indifference that could not possibly be assumed. How most of them envied him that manner! They recalled their own shyness and strangeness on the first day of their arrival; how they stumbled over their own feet that first morning at prayers; how they hated being stared at and spoken of as " the new boy." How could this Indian come among them as if he had been born and bred in their midst ? But they never knew that Larocque's wonderful self-possession was the outcome of his momentary real indifference ; his thoughts were far away from the little college chapel, for the last time he had knelt in a sanctuary was at the old, old cathedral at St. Boniface, whose twin towers arose under the blue of a Manitoba sky, whose foundations stood where the historic Red and Assiniboine rivers meet, about whose bells one of America's sweetest singers, Whittier, had written lines that have endeared his name to every worshipper that bends the knee in that prairie sanctuary. The lines were drifting through his mind now. They were the first words of English poetry he had learned to memorize :

"Is it the clang of the wild geese?

Is it the Indian's yell, That lends to the call of the north wind The tones of a far-off bell?

''The voyageur smiles as he listens To the sound that grows apace.

Well he knows the vesper ringing Of the bells of St. Boniface.

" The bells of the Roman mission — That call from their turrets twain To the boatman on the river, To the hunter on the plain."

To the hunter on the plain," said Shag's thoughts, over and over. Perhaps the hunter was his trapper father, who with noiseless step and wary eye was this very moment stalking some precious fur-bearing animal, whose pelt would bring a good price at the great Hudson's Bay trading-post; a price that would go toward keeping his son at this Eastern college for many terms. Shag's greybrown eyes grew dreamy. He saw the vast prairies sweeping away into the West, and his father, a mere speck on the horizon, the ever present " gun," the silent moccasin, the scarlet sash, the muffled step, all proclaiming " the hunter on ithe plain."

The prayers were ended and Shag found that he was not really watching his father coming up some prairie trail, but that before him was a different type of man, Professor Warwick, whose studious eyes now required glasses to see through, and whose hand was white and silken in its touch — how hopelessly lost this little man would be should circumstances turn him forth to gain his livelihood at hunting and trapping. Old Larocque himself would hardly be more incongruous teaching in this college. It was this thought that made Shag smile as he rose from his knees, with the echoes of the bells of St. Boniface haunting his heart.

Then the chapel emptied, each boy on breakfast bent. " Cop " Billings still remained at the Indian's elbow, but at the door one or two of the masters stopped to greet the new arrival, and a tall, remarkably handsome lad waited, apparently to speak. He was a boy that anyone would pick from a crowd of fifty — straight, well built, with fine, strong, thin hands, and a face with contradictory eyes, for they twinkled and danced as if nothing so serious as thoughtfulness ever disturbed them. As the two boys approached him he stepped impulsively forward, extending his hand to Shag with the words, " May I shake hands with you and say hello?"

" Thank you," replied Shag ; " the way you boys are treating me makes me feel less strange."

" Oh, no one feels strange here," laughed the handsome boy. " You must try and like us. So you're from .Manitoba, are you?"

" Yes, Red River," answered Shag.

" Father's been up there, and grandfather, too," said the other, falling in step with the two boys on their way to the dining-room. Come up to my ranch some time soon — to-night if you like. Cop will bring you," he added with a parting nod, as he left them for his own table at the other side of the room.

Cop stared hard at his companion. " Thunderation !" he blurted, " but you're the lucky kid !"

" Yes ?" questioned Shag. " Never mind the luck, but tell me who that chap is; he's very nice; I like him."

" Like him !" almost yelled Cop ; " I should think you would like him ! Why, he's the ' Pop ' !"

" ' Pop ' ? What's that?" said Shag, with a puzzled air.

" Popular, the most popular boy in college — ^^head in everything — clubs, classes, sports. Everybody is dippy over him from the Head right down to ' Infant ' Innis, that little geezer in shorts across the table, who is only eleven last birthday. Even Dirty Dick, the gardener, is batty about him; and here he's put himself out to shake your fin, and ask you up to his room — thing he's only done twice since he entered college. You are lucky, kid !"

"Does he think a lot of himself?" asked Shag with some suspicion.

" He ? Not much ! Just the bulliest old pal in the world. Why, he wouldn't be the ' pop ' if he threw on side," asserted Cop loyally.

" You haven't told me who he is yet," said Shag.

" Oh, I forgot," apologized Cop. It seems so funny that everybody shouldn't know. Why, he's Harry Bennington. You must have heard of Sir George Bennington, big railroad man. Queen Victoria knighted him for some big scoop he made for Canada or the Colonies or something. Well, Hal's his son ; but do you suppose that his dad's title makes any diif erence to Hal ? Not much ! But Hal's handshake will make a big difference to you in this college, I'll tell you that. Shag. You're made, that's what you are — just made; even Lord Mortimer back of you couldn't give you the place among the crowd here that Hal Bennington's grip did to-day."

Shag did not reply ; he was looking across the room at Sir George Bennington's son. He knew the name of the wealthy man whom Queen Victoria had honored, knew it well. His father. Trapper Larocque, had met Sir George in the old pioneer days of the railroad in the North- West. There was a little story about Sir George, well known in the Red River Valley; Trapper Larocque knew it, the Hudson's Bay Company knew it, Shag knew it, and was asking himself if Hal knew it. Then the boy from Manitoba took the story and locked it within his heart, sealed his lips above it, and said to his soul, " Hal Bennington won't know it from me, nor will anyone else. He's made my first day at this school an easy day; the fight won't be half what I thought it would. I owe much to him, and

above all I owe him my silence."

*********

"Coming up, fellows?" asked Hal genially, as Cop Billings stretched his big frame after grind in the evening at recreation hour before going to bed. The word " fellows " embraced him with a look that included Shag.

"Thanks, I guess we will," said Cop, and the three boys proceeded upstairs to the private room occupied by Hal and one other, a stocky fellow known as " Shorty " Magee, who was just settling to his letter-writing as the boys entered. He nodded curtly, said "Hello!" rather grumpily, and did not offer to shake hands when Hal introduced Shag Larocque. Shorty always hated to be disturbed at anything, even if it were the irksome weekly letter home. He shoved aside his notepaper, however, and sat with his hands in his trousers pockets, his feet stretched out in front of him, and a tolerant expression on his face.

Hal, always gracious and kindly, seemed more so than ever to-night, evidently trying to make up for his roommate's moroseness by his own geniality. He showed Shag his treasures, his collection of curiosities, his two lynx-skin rugs — animals shot by his father years before — his pet books, and finally came to his photographs.

" This is a splendid one of father," he said enthusiastically ; " it was taken when he was a young man surveying out West before they put the railroad through. That group of men to the left are axemen. It should interest you, for Professor Warwick told me you came here to study surveying."

" Yes," said Shag, that is my chosen work."

" Then," continued Hal, " that splendid-looking chap on father's right was his guide and personal cook — the one in the blanket coat and sash. He was part French but mostly Indian, I fancy — Why, what's the matter, Larocque?" for Shag had suddenly made some inarticulate exclamation, and had carried the photograph nearer the light,

" That is my father," he said quietly. As he spoke the words he was well aware that they might tell against him some time or other. He knew enough of the civilization of the white people to understand that when two boys attend the same school, one with a titled father and the other with a father who had cooked for the titled one, that things are apt to become strained ; but never for one second did he hesitate about claiming the Red River trapper as his sire. He would have despised himself far more than any boy in the school could possibly do now.

had he failed to say the words, That is my father." The attitude of his three Hsteners was certainly a study. Cop Billings stood staring at him for a moment, then said, " Well, if your dad did cook he gets you far better shirts and socks than mine does me." Shorty Magee uttered the four words, " Cooked for Sir George !" and with an ugly sneer turned again to his letter-writing.

Hal Bennington had sprung forward, tossing his arms about the Indian's shoulders and exclaiming, " Your father! Is French Pete your father? Oh, I'm so glad! Father will be delighted when I tell him. I have heard him say a hundred times that he would never have lived to be [ Sir ' George if it hadn't been for French Pete."

" Yes, they call my father French Pete because, although he is nearly all Indian, he speaks French so well," announced Shag.

Then followed a narration of two occasions when Shag's father had saved Sir George's life, once from drowning in the Assiniboine and once from freezing to death on the plains. The recreation interval was all too short for the boys to have their talk out, and when the " good-nights " came Hal wrung Shag's hand with a sincerity and heartiness that brought a responsive thrill into the fingers of the lonely boy who was spending his first night fifteen hundred miles away from home.

" Well," snorted Shorty, as the two boys left for the night, " going to chum around with the son of your fathers cook, are you ?"

Hal whirled on his heel, his hand clenched, his knuckles standing out white and bony ; then he checked the torrent of words that sprang to his lips and answered quietly, " Yes, I am."

" Going to take him to Sir George and Lady Bennington's city residence for the Easter Vac ?" sneered Shorty.

The answer came again quietly, " Yes, I am ;" then, after a brief interval, " if he will pay me the compliment of coming."

Shorty subsided; he had not expected this, and, truth to tell, he felt at that moment that his sneers had accomplished precisely the opposite effect to what he had intended; but Hal made no comment until just before they got into their beds; then he said evenly:

" Shorty, you and I are room-mates, we have been pals for over a year; we won't discuss Shag Larocque, for I see that we shall never agree about him."

"I hate a mongrel," sniffed Shorty; ''this fellow is neither Indian nor white."

" He's more Indian than white, and better for it, too," said Hal; " but, I say, Shorty — what nationality was your father?"

" Irish," said Shorty, with some pride.

"And your mother?" persisted Hal relentlessly.

" Oh, mother's parents were English ; she was born here in Canada," replied Shorty a little weakly.

" Oh !" was all Hal said, but it held a world of meaning.

" Now, see here, Hal," began Shorty apologetically, " I know what you are thinking, but I'm British right through and my skin's white, no matter how you take it. I'm white on both sides of the family; I'm not splashed with tinted blood like this fellow from the North- West that's strayed in here ; his skin's almost yellow."

" Yes," acquiesced Hal, " his skin is tinted — it is tinted, not tainted. There's a big difference, Shorty. Do you know, I'd give the world if I had as much of a copper-colored tint to my skin as Shag has."

"Rot!" ejaculated Shorty.

" No rot at all," cut in Hal ; " I love the Indian people. You call this chap a ' mongrel,' but I tell you he is Indian — anyone can see it, and I know it. His father may have cooked in camp for my father, and did so, but from what my father told me, he, French Pete, was an honest man, and a brave one, too, and his son's good enough for me, and I'm his friend until the last dog's hung."

That ended things for the time, for the college bells clanged out lights out," and the inmates, both white and Indian, slept.

" Yes, my dear boy," wrote Sir George, some weeks later, " by all means bring young I^arocque home for the Easter vacation ; I shall welcome the son of my old friend and guide with the greatest delight. I have frequently told you of French Pete's heroism and unselfishness, and if by a little hospitality I can show the son what I think of the father, I shall regard it as a privilege. Your dear mother will write you to-night, and will enclose a little note of invitation from us both to your friend ' Shagganappi ' — how that good old North- West word brings back my youth! I think I like your friend, even before I see him, just because he has adopted that name."

So it was all arranged that Shag should spend the Easter vacation at the palatial home of the Benningtons in Montreal. As Hal was so popular, this holiday invitation was always regarded as the greatest compliment by any boy who was fortunate enough to receive it, but never before had Lady Bennington written personally to invite one of Hal's friends.

It was such a dear little note, too ; Hal never admired his mother quite so much as when Shag handed him the invitation to read. Lady Bennington was famous as one of the few women who always say and do the right thing at the right moment. The note ran :

" Dear Shagganappi, —

Do come with my boy at Eastertide ; we want you — come.

Your friend, Hal's mother,

" Constance Bknnington."

So Easter found the boys at Montreal, Shag a little shy at first amidst all the grandeur and wealth of Hal's home, but covering that shyness with a quiet dignity that sat very well on his young shoulders. With a wonderful knack of delicacy, Hal would smooth out any threatened difficulty for the Indian boy — little table entanglements, such as new dishes or unaccustomed foods. But Shag was at times surprisingly outspoken, and the first night at dinner seemingly won Sir George's heart by remarking when the fruit plates and finger-glasses were served, " Now, Hal, don't be afraid that I won't understand this ; fortunately I dined on the dining cars on the way East." Everyone laughed then, including Shag, and Sir George said, " Then you are better up in things than I was at your age, my boy. I never saw a finger-glass until I was twenty." So this little confidence put them all on a kind of family footing; and during the rest of his visit Shag was not afraid to ask and learn any of the usages of wealthy city houses and manners that might puzzle him. When he left he had endeared himself to Hal's parents as no other boy had done before. Lady Bennington especially seemed to have become attached to him. Once when Hal was taking some snapshots of the grounds, she called Shag to her side, and, placing one hand on his shoulder, asked Hal to photograph them together. Shag almost trembled with pleasure, but his delight knew no bounds when a week after their return to school he received a little copy of the photograph framed in silver and inscribed on the back with " To Shagganappi Larocque, with love from Hal's mother."

" I don't know why you and your people are so good to me," he declared to Hal, when they both had duly admired the little picture. Hal stared at him rather oddly, but did not reply, and it was many months before Shag understood what that look meant; but when it was explained the Indian recalled many things that had once perplexed him.

It was late in May when Sir George and Lady Bennington left on their yearly visit to England, leaving Hal with the enviable holiday ahead of him of playing host at their summer residence in the Thousand Islands. He was privileged to ask what boys he liked; he could have his own canoe and sailboat, any of the servants from the city residence that he wished, and just put in one long, golden summer, swimming, boating, rollicking around, getting tanned and healthy. The only stipulation his parents made was that in addition to the crowd of boys asked he must invite one of the masters. It did not matter which one, so what did Hal do but " cheek it up " to the Head, who had no family to summer with, and who usually wandered off to some lonely mountain resort by himself for the entire vacation. Professor Warwick was amazed.

" Why, Bennington," he exclaimed, " whatever do you want an old codger like me for? There's young Graham, almost a boy himself, and Lewes, the science man, a funny chap. I always think Mr. Lewes is more fun than a cage of cats. I'm a dried-up old fellow that most of the boys are afraid of. You won't enjoy yourself with me around all the time."