by Kit Pearson
I waited, holding my breath.
She went on to say that, fortunately, Mrs. Baines has a niece seeking employment, so no one will be inconvenienced by my leaving. Mr. Charles would collect me after church tomorrow.
I thanked her and returned to the kitchen, not daring to believe in my good fortune!
Later
Mrs. Baines and I were having a cup of tea, when suddenly there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Baines opened it.
A voice said, “Please, ma’am, I’ve come to see my sister.”
I knew that voice — Thomas! I threw my arms around his neck.
“Harry, stop choking me,” he laughed.
Mrs. Baines collapsed onto a chair, fanning herself with a tea cloth.
“Twins! As alike as two peas in a pod!” she exclaimed.
Tom explained that he had to get back to the market stall — he’d been given only an hour or so to look for me. I asked Mrs. Baines if I could walk a little way with my brother. She put a basket in my hand and gave me a quarter, saying she needed eggs, though I knew there were six in the larder! I felt like hugging her too. He’s kept his promise, I wanted to sing and shout. This is my brother!
On our way to market I told Tom all about the Hawthorns and how happy I was to be going to my new place. He told me he lives on the outskirts of Peterborough — in Ashburnham — not far at all. He told me he loved farming — everything about it: feeding chickens, cleaning out the pigsty, milking, and especially going to market every Saturday to lift crates and sell and deliver produce. Farmer Hughes and his wife treat him more like a son than a hired hand, he said.
“How in the world did you find me, Tom?” I asked him.
He said that it was Alice who answered the door at Hazelbrae when he came by to ask for me. She told him where I lived and he ran all the way here.
By the time he’d explained everything, we were at the market. I was sad to reach the produce stall so soon! There was still so much to tell each other.
“This is my sister Harriet, Mrs. Hughes,” Tom said, introducing me.
She shook my hand and smiled warmly and said she was happy we had found each other. And if I happened to be passing by one Saturday, she might see her way to spare Tom for a little while. She ruffled his hair fondly.
Tuesday, July 16, 1912
George Street, Peterborough
Already I feel as if I belong to a real family. Lizzie is my little shadow! Mrs. Charles wants to come to market to meet Thomas.
I will get a dollar a month to spend, and my first purchase will be a one-penny stamp, so that I may write to Angus. I shall tell him that both Tom and I have found good homes. I will write how much we miss him and hope he too may come to Canada one day.
A case of tonsillitis means that Insy has to go for help, far from her father’s trapline. Travelling out of the bush takes her on a surprising journey to a very different world.
RUBY SLIPPERJACK grew up in the bush north of Lake Superior. She still spends as much time on the land — a place that features strongly in all her stories — as she can.
The Charleston at the Trapline
The Diary of Insy Pimash
Northwestern Ontario
February 1924
Monday, February 4, 1924
First page in my new journal.
Mama just changed the cedar poultice around my throat and gave me some more medicine tea to keep my fever down. I have tonsillitis. I had to look up the word in an old dictionary Mama has.
My throat is very sore. My head hurts too. Mama just came back into the cabin with an armload of wood, letting in a cloud of cold air when she opened the door. Eli is outside sawing wood with the handsaw. I can hear him whistling — he always whistles when he’s doing something. Nina is over by the window with her doll. I can’t see what she’s doing from here. I’m going to try to sleep now.
Tehteh just got back from checking his traps. The first thing he did when he walked in was to come over to my bed and put his hand on my head.
I’ve been listening to my parents talking. It’s sounding like Tehteh has to take me to the hospital. I can hear Eli and Nina running around outside and laughing — probably playing with the dogs. Mama’s frying fish, but I don’t feel hungry.
I like the green yarn that Mama used to sew together the cut pages of paper for my new journal.
Tuesday, February 5
Lunch Break
Mama dressed me really warm this morning and Tehteh put a canvas over the sled and several blankets and put a backrest frame at the back so I could lean against it. He wrapped me up in the blankets and tied me to the sled like a big bundle. Boogy and Patch were already tied to the dogsled harness. Those two really like to run. They’re always excited to be going somewhere.
It was still dark when we left home. I watched the sun come up when we were crossing the second lake. It was nice and the ride was smooth until we came up to a long portage. The bumpy ride was really hard on my swollen throat. On smooth parts of the trail, Tehteh stood on the back runners of the sled behind me, but he would jump down and run, pushing the sled with a pole, whenever the dogs went uphill. I couldn’t see him from where I was sitting, but I know he would be dragging the pole to the right side when he wanted the dogs to turn right, and whistling once to make them turn left.
We stopped for lunch about halfway and rested the dogs. I couldn’t eat anything, so Tehteh made me some tea porridge, which I was able to swallow. He also heated my poultice in a frying pan!
At Old Man Mee-shichiimin’s Cabin
We finally came into the clearing to the community of Flint Lake and Tehteh stopped at the first cabin we came to. The old man who lives here always takes care of Tehteh’s dogs when he comes in for supplies.
I am lying on the old man’s bed now, writing this. Tehteh has gone to the General Store to trade in the furs he brought with us, for cash. Tehteh also brought big chunks of moose meat for the old man. The old man is now whistling happily away and cooking some on his wood stove. His name, Mee-shichiimin, is a kind of bristly berry, but I do not know the English name for it. Suits him well, I think.
I must have dozed off again. Tehteh is back from the store and food is steaming on the table. The old man came and gave me a bowl. He had made moose broth and thin dumplings for me. I ate the whole thing. The old man wanted to know why I was scribbling on these papers and Tehteh told him that Mama wanted me to write down everything I see so I don’t miss the writing lessons she makes me do each day.
On the Train
Right after the meal, Tehteh switched his moccasins for a pair of boots and carried me piggyback to the train station. I was not feeling well enough to notice much. There were a lot of people in the waiting room though. I lay on one of the benches against the wall. There was a stove in the corner — a tall stand-up kind. The ticket agent worked behind the counter with a pencil tucked above his left ear. I wondered how it stayed put.
I got really scared when the noise of the train got louder, but I didn’t see the engine. We went out when the train stopped. Once inside the train, we found two bench seats facing each other and we settled in. The conductor came by when the train started moving and Tehteh gave him our tickets. He was very friendly. He knew right away that I was sick.
Tehteh just gave me some water to drink. I can see a stove at the other end of the coach. It smells of old cigar smoke in here. I am lying on the bench and Tehteh is sitting across from me. There’s a constant drone of voices around us. Once in a while, I hear the engine whistle far ahead, but the constant clickity-clack and rocking motion is making me sleepy.
I can tell my fever is high again. Tehteh has put a cold wet towel over my forehead. We’d left the poultice at the old man’s place and all I had was the towel around my throat.
At the Hospital
It was growing dark when the train stopped at Ojibwe Hill. There was a driver waiting for us when we got off the train and he drove us to the Indian Zone Hospital. The automobile wa
s big and black and box-like. It jolted past the lights on the roads and gave us a very bumpy ride. It was much worse than the dogsled ride through the portages! It really hurt my throat. This was my first time riding in an automobile. I think I prefer riding in the dogsled.
When we got to the hospital, a nurse took me to a large bathroom where there was a nice warm bathtub already filling. She stayed to help me wash my hair with a nice-smelling shampoo. She left a gown and housecoat for me to put on and a pair of booties for my feet. When she returned, she brought a wheelchair for me to sit on because I was feeling dizzy, and she combed my hair. She said her name was Annie. Then she pushed me out and along the hallway until we came to the room where I would stay. There were two beds, one in the corner, but I took the bed by the windows so that I could look outside.
Tehteh is sitting on a chair beside my hospital bed. We’re waiting for the doctor. Tehteh looks very tired and his eyes are red, but he smiles at me when he sees me looking at him. He rubs my feet and says “oshibiiigen” — telling me to continue writing (but, I am too tired to write any more, so this is what I have written).
The Examination Room
Nurse Annie came in a little while later with the wheelchair, saying that the doctor was ready to see me. Tehteh wheeled me down the hallway, following the nurse. We didn’t have to wait long. The doctor was young, with sparkles in his eyes. He listened to my chest with the … the thing in his ears — I don’t know what that is called. Then, one look at my throat and he knew what was wrong with me. He said that I was not to eat or drink anything because they would be taking my tonsils out first thing in the morning. Then Tehteh wheeled me back to the room.
Later, Nurse Annie came and told Tehteh that she would show him where he could sleep and eat his meals. He came back just before bedtime. He said they have a storage room of some kind in the basement with beds in it. There were four other Ojibwe men there who were waiting for family to get well enough to go home. They eat in an area off the kitchen with two caretakers who live there.
Wednesday, February 6
Tehteh stayed beside my bed until I went to sleep last night. The nurses came to check on me once in a while. Now I can hear plates and glasses rattling down the hallway and I can smell food. It is early morning. I can just see a grey shade through the windows. Tehteh arrived just as an empty cot was rolled into the room to take me to the operating room. I got very scared until he took my hand and told me “soongaendun” — be brave. I wonder when the nurse will come to wheel me off to the operating room.
After the Operation
I opened my eyes and there was Tehteh sitting beside me. I’ve been sleeping a lot today. He pushed the hair off my forehead and whispered that I did really well and the tonsils were out and the doctor told him that I would be fine. A nurse showed up and they rolled the cot back to my room and got me back into my bed.
When I woke up again, Tehteh was there looking out the window. He gestured to a tray at the foot of the bed. He came and sat down beside me and opened the lid. It was lunchtime and they had given me a bowl of broth and a big mound of jelly and apple juice. My head felt much better. I could tell my fever was gone, but my throat was very sore. I swallowed the broth, but took my time with the jelly. It was red but I could not tell if it was strawberry or raspberry. Tehteh smiled and said, “minopagon?” I nodded yes, it was really, really good!
After I wrote that, I fell back to sleep. When I woke up again, Tehteh was sitting in the chair with his back to me, looking out the windows. I could tell from the dim light that it was late afternoon. Then he turned around and faced me. I looked at him and I could feel my face stretch into a smile and he grinned back at me. He had shaved his moustache! He had even had a haircut!
I could hear the rattling plates and glasses coming down the hallway again. The smell of the food was wonderful, but when Tehteh opened the lid on the tray, it was more jelly, juice and a mound of white stuff. I hesitantly opened my mouth when Tehteh brought the spoon toward me, saying “miichin” — insisting that I eat it. He said it is called rice pudding. It was really good! I ate everything. I told Tehteh “ando wiisinin kaygeen” and he left, saying that, yes, he would go and eat too. He promised he would be right back.
Later
Nurse Annie came into the room and nodded at my note pages and asked how I learned to write so well. I told her that Mama taught me and that she had learned it from a missionary couple on James Bay. Because Nurse Annie seemed interested, I told her that they had looked after my mama after her Cree parents died when Mama was ten. Then Mama worked as a maid for the old missionary’s wife. She was the one who taught Mama English and to learn to read and write. I even told her that the old woman’s wedding gift to Mama when she and Tehteh got married was a wooden box full of books that Tehteh had to carry over many portages up the Albany River to the Ojibwe territory, where his trapline was. Once there, Mama taught Tehteh English and he taught her Ojibwe.
Nurse Annie said she really liked that story. Then she asked me why I call my father Tehteh, so I told her that it just means “father.” She said goodbye to me then and gave me a hug because she wouldn’t be working when it was time for me to go home in the morning. She even gave me a couple of pencils so I wouldn’t run out!
Later on, another nurse came and got us and we went back into the examination room. The same young doctor appeared and this time he talked to me instead of Tehteh and he told me that I could go home in the morning.
Just before Tehteh left to go to bed, he told me that he was very busy while I was asleep in the afternoon. He had walked to town and gone into the big store there and bought a small gift for everyone in the family. He had also bought some supplies and packed everything into two boxes that he had left at the train station’s baggage area. They would be loaded on the train with us tomorrow morning.
Thursday, February 7
Leaving the Hospital: The Train Station Waiting Room
An older nurse came and flicked the lights on when it was still dark outside! I blinked and then got very excited when I remembered it was time to go home! She put a pile of folded clothes at the bottom of my bed. I asked where my own clothes were, because what she had were city clothes that white people wore. She said the laundry people throw all the clothes that people come in with into the furnace. She said that there was a whole room full of donated clothing that had been washed and ironed and she just placed an order for a twelve-year-old girl’s clothes. I told her that I was almost thirteen, but she looked at me and said that I was actually smaller than a regular twelve-year-old girl.
I was not too happy and I did not like her very much. She left saying I only had a few minutes to get dressed. I yanked on the pair of stockings, pulled up a pair of underpants, a cotton under-dress over my head and then I held up a really nice pink flowered shift dress with lace on the neck and sleeves. I liked it. It was a bit baggy, but it was really pretty! Then I pulled on a pair of boots that laced up the front. They were very uncomfortable. The last thing was a long city coat that wrapped over to one side with a really big shiny button, and then I jammed the matching hat on my head.
I marched out the door and I could see Tehteh standing at the nurse’s station at the other end of the hallway. I walked fast toward him and as he turned to look me up and down, I slowed. I heard him say to a young nurse with short hair and cropped bangs, who was leaning over the counter to look at me, “She is going home by dogsled to a trapper’s cabin, way up north. Do you think she’s going to make it dressed like that?” He smiled at her and she put a hand over her mouth, giggling. While we waited for the driver, the nurses turned up the radio behind the counter and started swinging their arms and legs — a dance they said was called the Charleston. It looked really fun! I memorized every move. I’m going to try that when I get home.
When the driver appeared, the young nurse gave me my medicine. It was a pink fluid in a bottle and she told me to make sure I took one teaspoon three times a day until it was all
gone. She handed us two paper lunch bags and we were on our way to that same big, black, box-like automobile, only this time it took us back to the train station. We passed by the restaurant window next door and I saw people sitting at tables eating breakfast. I tugged at Tehteh’s coat to see if we could go in, but he just shook his head. It is very loud and busy in the waiting room here.
On the Train
When the train finally came, it hissed and squealed very loudly — like a huge metal monster!! I hung on to Tehteh’s hand very hard as the train shook the floor. Many people got on the train, and again we took our seats at the back. Tehteh flipped the backrest to the other side so that his bench now faced mine.
When the train was in motion again, the conductor came by to collect the tickets. I was busy writing when he suddenly leaned over me and asked how I was feeling. I looked up and realized that it was the same man who had been very nice to us. I said that I was doing very well now, and thanked him for asking. He noticed my notepad and he smiled and said that I must be a very smart girl to be able to handwrite so evenly. Then he patted his pockets and came up with a bag of candies from his shirt pocket and handed them to me. I thanked him and as he turned to move away, he paused to ask Tehteh how I had learned to write like that and all Tehteh said was, “Her mother.” People were still moving around, taking off coats and lighting up cigars, and women were chatting by the stove. Tehteh patted my bench and said “neebaan” — so I went to sleep.
