Billy Topsail & Company by Norman Duncan (ebook reader screen txt) 📖

be carried home. There were weeks when he could not walk at all. He was not now so merry as he had been. He was more affectionate; but his eyes did not flash in the old way, nor were his cheeks so fat and rosy. Jim Grimm and the lad's mother greatly desired to have him cured.

"'Twould be like old times," Jim Grimm said once, when Jimmie was put to bed, "if Jimmie was only well."

"I'm afeared," the mother sighed, "that he'll never be well again."

"For fear you're right, mum," said Jim Grimm, "we must make him happy every hour he's with us. Hush, mother! Don't cry, or I'll be cryin', too!"

Nobody connected Jimmie Grimm's affliction with the savage teeth of Tog.

* * * * *


It was Jimmie's mother who discovered the whereabouts of a cure. Hook's Kurepain was the thing to do it! Who could deny the virtues of that "healing balm"? They were set forth in print, in type both large and small, on a creased and dirty remnant of the _Montreal Weekly Globe and Family Messenger_, which had providentially strayed into that far port of the Labrador. Who could dispute the works of "the invaluable discovery"? Was it not a positive cure for bruises, sprains, chilblains, cracked hands, stiffness of the joints, contraction of the muscles, numbness of the limbs, neuralgia, rheumatism, pains in the chest, warts, frost bites, sore throat, quinsy, croup, and various other ills? Was it not an excellent hair restorer, as well? If it had cured millions (and apparently it had), why shouldn't it cure little Jimmie Grimm? So Jimmie's mother longed with her whole heart for a bottle of the "boon to suffering humanity."

"I've found something, Jim Grimm," said she, a teasing twinkle in her eye, when, that night, Jimmie's father came in from the snowy wilderness, where he had made the round of his fox traps.

"Have you, now?" he asked, curiously. "What is it?"

"'Tis something," said she, "t' make you glad."

"Come, tell me!" he cried, his eyes shining.

"I've heard you say," she went on, smiling softly, "that you'd be willin' t' give anything t' find it. I've heard you say that----"

"'Tis a silver fox!"

"I've heard you say," she continued, shaking her head, "'Oh,' I've heard you say, 'if I could _only_ find it I'd be happy.'"

"Tell me!" he coaxed. "Please tell me!"

She laid a hand on his shoulder. The remnant of the _Montreal Weekly Globe and Family Messenger_ she held behind her.

"'Tis a cure for Jimmie," said she.

"No!" he cried, incredulous; but there was yet the ring of hope in his voice. "Have you, now?"

"Hook's Kurepain," said she, "never failed yet."

"'Tis wonderful!" said Jim Grimm.

She spread the newspaper on the table and placed her finger at that point of the list where the cure of rheumatism was promised.

"Read that," said she, "an' you'll find 'tis all true."

Jim Grimm's eye ran up to the top of the page. His wife waited, a smile on her lips. She was anticipating a profound impression.

"'Beauty has wonderful charms,'" Jim Grimm read. "'Few men can withstand the witchcraft of a lovely face. All hearts are won----'"

"No, no!" the mother interrupted, hastily. "That's the marvellous Oriental Beautifier. I been readin' that, too. But 'tis not that. 'Tis lower down. Beginnin', 'At last the universal remedy of Biblical times.' Is you got it yet?"

"Ay, sure!"

And thereupon Jim Grimm of Buccaneer Cove discovered that a legion of relieved and rejuvenated rheumatics had without remuneration or constraint sung the virtues of the Kurepain and the praises of Hook. Poor ignorant Jim Grimm did not for a moment doubt the existence of the Well-Known Traveller, the Family Doctor, the Minister of the Gospel, the Champion of the World. He was ready to admit that the cure had been found.

"I'm willin' t' believe," said he, solemnly, the while gazing very earnestly into his wife's eyes, "that 'twould do Jimmie a world o' good."

"Read on," said she.

"'It costs money to make the Kurepain,'" Jim read, aloud. "'It is not a sugar-and-water remedy. It is a _cure_, manufactured at _great expense_. Good medicines come _high_. But the peerless Kurepain is _cheap_ when compared with the worthless substitutes now on the market and sold for just as good. Our price is five dollars a bottle; three bottles guaranteed to cure.'"

Jim Grimm stopped dead. He looked up. His wife steadily returned his glance. The Labrador dweller is a poor man--a very poor man. Rarely does a dollar of hard cash slip into his hand. And this was hard cash. Five dollars a bottle! Five dollars for that which was neither food nor clothing!

"'Tis fearful!" he sighed.

"But read on," said she.

"'In order to introduce the Kurepain into this locality, we have set aside _one thousand bottles_ of this _incomparable_ medicine. That number, _and no more_, we will dispose of at four dollars a bottle. Do not make a mistake. When the supply is exhausted, the price will _rise_ to eight dollars a bottle, owing to a scarcity of one of the ingredients. We honestly advise you, if you are in pain or suffering, to take advantage of this _rare_ opportunity. A word to the wise is sufficient. Order to-day.'"

"'Tis a great bargain, Jim," the mother whispered.

"Ay," Jim answered, dubiously.

His wife patted his hand. "When Jimmie's cured," she went on, "he could help you with the traps, an'----"

"'Tis not for _that_ I wants un cured," Jim Grimm flashed. "I'm willin' an' able for me labour. 'Tis not for that. I'm just thinkin' all the time about seein' him run about like he used to. That's what _I_ wants."

"Doesn't you think, Jim, that we could manage it--if we tried wonderful hard?"

"'Tis accordin' t' what fur I traps, mum, afore the ice goes an' the steamer comes. I'm hopin' we'll have enough left over t' buy the cure."

"You're a good father, Jim," the mother said, at last. "I knows you'll do for the best. Leave us wait until the spring time comes."

"Ay," he agreed; "an' we'll say nar a word t' little Jimmie."

They laid hold on the hope in Hook's Kurepain. Life was brighter, then. They looked forward to the cure. The old merry, scampering Jimmie, with his shouts and laughter and gambols and pranks, was to return to them. When, as the winter dragged along, Jim Grimm brought home the fox skins from the wilderness, Jimmie fondled them, and passed upon their quality, as to colour and size and fur. Jim Grimm and his wife exchanged smiles. Jimmie did not know that upon the quality and number of the skins, which he delighted to stroke and pat, depended his cure. Let the winter pass! Let the ice move out from the coast! Let the steamer come for the letters! Let her go and return again! _Then_ Jimmie should know.

"We'll be able t' have _one_ bottle, whatever," said the mother.

"'Twill be more than that, mum," Jim Grimm answered, confidently. "We wants our Jimmie cured."


CHAPTER IV


_In Which Jimmie Grimm Surprises a Secret, Jim Grimm makes
a Rash Promise, and a Tourist From the States Discovers
the Marks of Tog's Teeth_


With spring came the great disappointment. The snow melted from the hills; wild flowers blossomed where the white carpet had lain; the ice was ready to break and move out to sea with the next wind from the west. There were no more foxes to be caught. Jim Grimm bundled the skins, strapped them on his back, and took them to the storekeeper at Shelter Harbour, five miles up the coast; and when their value had been determined he came home disconsolate.

Jimmie's mother had been watching from the window. "Well?" she said, when the man came in.

"'Tis not enough," he groaned. "I'm sorry, mum; but 'tis not enough."

She said nothing, but waited for him to continue; for she feared to give him greater distress.

"'Twas a fair price he gave me," Jim Grimm continued. "I'm not complainin' o' that. But there's not enough t' do more than keep us in food, with pinchin', till we sells the fish in the fall. I'm sick, mum--I'm fair sick an' miserable along o' disappointment."

"'Tis sad t' think," said the mother, "that Jimmie's not t' be cured--after all."

"For the want o' twelve dollars!" he sighed.

They were interrupted by the clatter of Jimmie's crutches, coming in haste from the inner room. Then entered Jimmie.

"I heered what you said," he cried, his eyes blazing, his whole worn little body fairly quivering with excitement. "I heered you say 'cure.' Is I t' be cured?"

They did not answer.

"Father! Mama! Did you say I was t' be cured?"

"Hush, dear!" said the mother.

"I can't hush. I wants t' know. Father, tell me. Is I t' be cured?"

"Jim," said the mother to Jim Grimm, "tell un."

"You is!" Jim shouted, catching Jimmie in his arms, and rocking him like a baby. "You _is_ t' be cured. Debt or no debt, lad, I'll see you cured!"

* * * * *


The matter of credit was easily managed. The old storekeeper at Shelter Harbour did not hesitate. Credit? Of course, he would give Jim Grimm that. "Jim," said he, "I've knowed you for a long time, an' I knows you t' be a good man. I'll fit you out for the summer an' the winter, if you wants me to, an' you can take your own time about payin' the bill." And so Jim Grimm withdrew twelve dollars from the credit of his account.

They began to keep watch on the ice--to wish for a westerly gale, that the white waste might be broken and dispersed.

"Father," said Jimmie, one night, when the man was putting him to bed, "how long will it be afore that there Kurepain comes?"

"I 'low the steamer'll soon be here."

"Ay?"

"An' then she'll take the letter with the money."

"Ay?"

"An' she'll be gone about a month an' a fortnight, an' then she'll be back with----"

"The cure!" cried Jimmie, giving his father an affectionate dig in the ribs. "She'll be back with the cure!"

"Go t' sleep, lad."

"I can't," Jimmie whispered. "I can't for joy o' thinkin' o' that cure."

* * * * *


By and by the ice moved out, and, in good time, the steamer came. It was at the end of a blustering day, with the night falling thick. Passengers and crew alike--from the grimy stokers to the shivering