The Night-Born | Page 7

religion--pagan, if you will; and
clothed in the living garmenture of herself.
"'And the rest of it was torn away,' she added, a great emptiness in her
voice. 'It was only a scrap of newspaper. But that Thoreau was a wise
man. I wish I knew more about him.' She stopped a moment, and I
swear her face was ineffably holy as she said, 'I could have made him a
good wife.'
"And then she went on. 'I knew right away, as soon as I read that, what
was the matter with me. I was a night-born. I, who had lived all my life
with the day-born, was a night-born. That was why I had never been
satisfied with cooking and dishwashing; that was why I had hankered
to run naked in the moonlight. And I knew that this dirty little Juneau
hash-joint was no place for me. And right there and then I said, "I quit."
I packed up my few rags of clothes, and started. Jake saw me and tried
to stop me.
"'What you doing?" he says.

"'Divorcin' you and me,' I says. 'I'm headin' for tall timber and where I
belong.'"
"'No you don't," he says, reaching for me to stop me. "The cooking has
got on your head. You listen to me talk before you up and do anything
brash.'"
"'But I pulled a gun-a little Colt's forty-four--and says, "This does my
talkin' for me.'"
"'And I left.'"
Trefethan emptied his glass and called for another.
"Boys, do you know what that girl did? She was twenty-two. She had
spent her life over the dish-pan and she knew no more about the world
than I do of the fourth dimension, or the fifth. All roads led to her
desire. No; she didn't head for the dance-halls. On the Alaskan
Pan-handle it is preferable to travel by water. She went down to the
beach. An Indian canoe was starting for Dyea--you know the kind,
carved out of a single tree, narrow and deep and sixty feet long. She
gave them a couple of dollars and got on board.
"'Romance?' she told me. 'It was Romance from the jump. There were
three families altogether in that canoe, and that crowded there wasn't
room to turn around, with dogs and Indian babies sprawling over
everything, and everybody dipping a paddle and making that canoe go.'
And all around the great solemn mountains, and tangled drifts of clouds
and sunshine. And oh, the silence! the great wonderful silence! And,
once, the smoke of a hunter's camp, away off in the distance, trailing
among the trees. It was like a picnic, a grand picnic, and I could see my
dreams coming true, and I was ready for something to happen 'most
any time. And it did.
"'And that first camp, on the island! And the boys spearing fish in the
mouth of the creek, and the big deer one of the bucks shot just around
the point. And there were flowers everywhere, and in back from the
beach the grass was thick and lush and neck-high. And some of the

girls went through this with me, and we climbed the hillside behind and
picked berries and roots that tasted sour and were good to eat. And we
came upon a big bear in the berries making his supper, and he said
"Oof!" and ran away as scared as we were. And then the camp, and the
camp smoke, and the smell of fresh venison cooking. It was beautiful. I
was with the night-born at last, and I knew that was where I belonged.
And for the first time in my life, it seemed to me, I went to bed happy
that night, looking out under a corner of the canvas at the stars cut off
black by a big shoulder of mountain, and listening to the night-noises,
and knowing that the same thing would go on next day and forever and
ever, for I wasn't going back. And I never did go back.'
"'Romance! I got it next day. We had to cross a big arm of the
ocean--twelve or fifteen miles, at least; and it came on to blow when
we were in the middle. That night I was along on shore, with one
wolf-dog, and I was the only one left alive.'
"Picture it yourself," Trefethan broke off to say. "The canoe was
wrecked and lost, and everybody pounded to death on the rocks except
her. She went ashore hanging on to a dog's tail, escaping the rocks and
washing up on a tiny beach, the only one in miles.
"'Lucky for me it was the mainland,' she said. 'So I headed right away
back, through the woods and over the mountains and straight on
anywhere. Seemed I was looking