Settlers of the Marsh

PENGUIN CLASSICS

SUNSHINE SKETCHES OF A LITTLE TOWN

FREDERICK PHILIP GROVE was born Felix Paul Grève in Radomno, West Prussia (now Poland), in 1879. He studied philology and archeology in Bonn and Rome, and became a prolific translator of World Literature. In 1912, Grove arrived in Manitoba, Canada, where he worked as a schoolteacher in rural areas. He married fellow teacher Catherine Wiens in 1914, and in 1922 settled in Rapid City, Manitoba, to teach and write. The Groves moved to Ontario in the fall of 1929, where he was briefly an editor with Graphic Publishers. Grove is the author of numerous books, including Over Prairie Trails, Settlers of the Marsh, A Search for America, Our Daily Bread, and Fruits of the Earth. He died in 1948 in Simcoe, Ontario.

PENGUIN CANADA

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Canada Inc.)

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
(a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
New Delhi – 110 017, India

Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New
Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank,
Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Classics edition copyright © Penguin Group (Canada), 2006.

This edition is an unabridged reprint of Settlers of the Marsh, published in 1925 by The
Ryerson Press.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Disclaimer:

Please note the following links contain information that is created and maintained by a variety of sources external to the Penguin (Group) Canada. While we have done our best to ensure that these resources are dependable, Penguin (Group) Canada is not responsible for the content, bandwidth requirements, or availability of these resources. All links to external website information provided within this edition should not be construed as an endorsement by Penguin (Group) Canada of the content or views of the linked materials. These sites contain the personal opinions of the persons who post the entries. Penguin (Group) Canada does not control, monitor or guarantee the information contained in these sites or information contained in links to other external web sites, and does not endorse any views expressed or products or services offered therein. In no event shall Penguin (Group) Canada be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any such content, goods, or services available on or through any such site or resource.

ISBN-13: 978-0-670-06509-7

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication data available upon request.

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Visit the Penguin Group (Canada) website at www.penguin.ca

Special and corporate bulk purchase rates available; please see
www.penguin.ca/corporatesales or call 1-800-399-6858, ext. 2477 or 2474

To Arthur L. Phelps

CONTENTS

I Mrs. Lund

II Niels

III Ellen

IV Mrs. Lindstedt

V Bobby

VI Ellen Again

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

This Penguin Classics edition is a reprint of the first edition of 1925, published by The Ryerson Press. Obvious errors have been silently corrected. A U.S. edition was published by George H. Doran in New York in the same year. McClelland & Stewart published its New Canadian Library editions in 1966 and 1989, respectively.

CHAPTER ONE

MRS. LUND

On the road leading north from the little prairie town Minor two men were fighting their way through the gathering dusk.

Both were recent immigrants; one, Lars Nelson, a giant, of three years’ standing in the country; the other, Niels Lindstedt, slightly above medium size, but compactly built, of only three months’. Both were Swedes; and they had struck up a friendship which had led to a partnership for the winter that was coming. They had been working on a threshing gang between Minor and Balfour and were now on their way into the bush settlement to the north-east where scattered homesteads reached out into the wilderness.

It was the beginning of the month of November.

Niels carried his suitcase on his back; Nelson, his new friend’s bundle, which also held the few belongings of his own which he had along. He wore practically the same clothes winter and summer.

Above five miles from town they reached, on the north road, the point where the continuous settlement ran out into the wild, sandy land which, forming the margin of the Big Marsh, intervened between the territory of the towns and the next Russo-German settlement to the north, some twenty miles or so straight ahead.

At this point the road leapt the Muddy River and passed through its sheltering fringe of bush to strike out over a sheer waste of heath-like country covered with low, creeping brush. The wind which had been soughing through the tree tops had free sweep here; and an exceedingly fine dust of dry, powdery ice-crystals began to fly—you could hardly call it snow so far.

It did not occur to Niels to utter or even harbour apprehensions. His powerful companion knew the road; where he went, Niels could go.

They swung on, for the most part in silence.

The road became a mere trail; but for a while longer it was plainly visible in the waning light of the west; in the smooth ruts a film of white was beginning to gather.

The wind came in fits and starts, out of the hollow north-west; and with the engulfing dark an ever thickening granular shower of snow blew from the low-hanging clouds. As the trail became less and less visible, the very ground underfoot seemed to slide to the south-east.

By that time they had made about half the distance they intended to make.