Monday, February 2, 1903
Davy has taught me to just sit and stare at the sky or a flower or Turtle Mountain in the snow. The clouds too. He tips his head back and waves to them. It makes me want to hug him.
Davy takes the time.
Wednesday, February 4, 1903
Davy has a cold. He often has them, but this time Mother says I must leave him home and go to school without him. It worries me. There are so many people milling around at the hotel. I wonder if she has noticed how much harder it is to keep track of him now he both crawls and walks. He wanders off and sometimes gets lost.
Later
Davy was so happy to see me when I came home, but he is terribly snuffly with his cold. His poor little nose runs and is red as a cherry from being wiped.
Monday, February 9, 1903
Davy did get lost! I came home and waited for him to come trundling up to hug me but he didn’t. I could not find him. I called his name and then began to look for him, but I could not find him anywhere.
Then Mabel, Arabella’s sister, said he had been banging on the door so she had opened it to let him see it was too cold to play outside. Then someone called to her and she told him to come back in and went to see what they wanted. She was sure he had followed her in.
But he hadn’t.
First we started searching the hotel. We looked everywhere, but there was no sign of him. If only he had answered when we called!
Then it dawned on me that Mabel had not actually seen him since she let him out and I got everyone to come outside and start seeking in the grounds. We have him back now. He was half frozen, just lying in the snow where he must have fallen.
Olivia was the one who found him. She tripped over him and she actually picked him up and lugged him back to the hotel. She said she could not leave him to come back for help because he had no warm coat and he was turning blue and not moving. He was stiff with cold. But when he saw her leaning over him, he smiled at her. Then he said, “O.” When she told us this, she got tears in her eyes, remembering.
“He knew me,” she said. “His foot was caught under a branch or something and he couldn’t get free.”
“Of course he knew you,” Mother said and hugged her.
Getting him thawed out was painful for him. He sobbed. But he is in bed with me now, packed all around with hot-water bottles. He is warm as toast at the moment, but I am afraid he is going to be very ill. He just lies there wheezing. His eyes are shut but he is not asleep, and every so often he whimpers softly. Then he reaches out his hand and I take it in mine and kiss it and he smiles. But only a very weak smile. He seems far away. He is not exactly unconscious, but something like it. His breathing is uneven and hoarse. Dr. Malcolmson calls it “shallow.” Everyone is worried about him. I did not dream so many people cared for him, but they keep dropping by to see how he is.
Olivia comes most of all. She stands and looks down at him and then she looks at me. When our eyes met last time, she whispered, “I’m sorry, Abby. I thought I didn’t love him. But I do.”
If he wakes up while she is here, he says, “O.” It took us a while to know for sure that “O” stood for Olivia. He says so few words.
She loves it.
Wednesday, February 11, 1903
Davy has pneumonia. It is so strange that he did not get sick when I did, but now he is even sicker. The doctor has come several times — he lives just down the road. He listens to Davy’s heart and then he shakes his head.
“His heart is having a hard go of it,” he said. “I’m afraid he may not be able to pull through. I will help him all I can, but he’s very ill.”
I cannot imagine what life would be like without Davy. I won’t go to school until he is better, whatever anyone says. So far, nobody has suggested I leave him. It is because I can get him to settle down. Whenever I go out of the room for even a minute, he starts to cry.
Wednesday, February 18, 1903
I have been so busy nursing Davy that I did not notice the days passing but, miracle of miracles, he is almost well again. And we are over halfway through February. He slept a lot, which allowed me time to do my schoolwork. So I’m not so far behind.
Jeremiah gave Olivia a beautiful valentine. I think his sister Polly helped him make it. It says, Will you be my Queen of Hearts?
Olivia was so delighted that I think maybe she is forgetting Tony. She is holding her head up and singing again. While she’s working in the kitchen, she sings, and she’s getting the others to join in now and then. Today they were belting out “Alouette!”
Yesterday I caught John helping himself to a fistful of sugar cubes from the dining room. He tried to worm his way out of explaining, but I got the story finally. He’s made friends with Charlie, a horse at the mine, and he was taking the snack to him. He says he feels sorry for the horses who go into the dark mine. They live in there for long stretches, and they actually wear helmets to keep from being injured by falling chunks of coal. John looked sheepish when he told me there is something special about old Charlie.
I could not stop grinning after he had gone. Imagine my cold-hearted brother stealing sugar for a horse! It would not surprise me if Mark did such a thing, but John doing it is incredible.
Cousin Mark is smitten by a girl at last. Her name is Nancy and she’s really nice. A bunch of them go riding together, leaving me to take charge of the telegrams. I never have to worry about remembering the Morse Code now — I’m getting really good at it.
Friday, February 20, 1903
Everyone went skating after school today. I wish I could whiz about like Miss Wellington. Olivia is good too. I skate on my ankle bones. Mother bundles Davy up and takes him out to watch for a few minutes. He smiles, but he is still so quiet, not back to his old self.
Saturday, February 21, 1903
There are more people moving into Frank. It is interesting to meet people from so many places. They aren’t all Canadians or even British. A family from Finland came last week. There are still only six hundred or so people, but they make quite a crowd when a bunch of them come to a Sing. I asked Bird why her people never come and she just looked at me. Then she said in a tight voice, “You know why, Abby.”
And I do. I don’t understand it, but they would not be made welcome at one. I think Bird would be if she came by herself, but not if she brought others.
She was not comfortable at school at first. Connor and I were her friends from the beginning, but it took the others a while. Since Christmas, though, everything sort of shifted. She was simply Bird, and we were just us. Maybe that is all there is to it. You have to get to know the ones who seem different to begin with and then they don’t seem different any longer.
I want to go to her home some day, but I have not been invited. There are mixed-up feelings on both sides. But all that really matters is that Bird and I are best friends and we will make sure we keep it that way. I am missing her right now because she and her mother have gone home for the weekend.
Later
John sneaked me into the mine today when the shifts were changing to introduce me to Charlie. We had to be quick and whisper because it is supposed to be unlucky to let a female into a mine. But I had to go while Bird was away or she would be beside herself. Her grandfather has made her so terrified of being near Turtle Mountain.
Charlie is a nice horse. I understand why John likes him. But I was glad to get out of there.
I heard the rumbling clearly. I was right about it sounding ominous. Loose pieces of coal lay on the ground, and one piece fell just a few inches in front of me. It would not have hurt me — it was too small.
John actually laughed and said the mountain is doing them a favour by throwing coal down, but they still have to sort through the rubble. The bits that fall are not all coal. Some are useless rocks.
John admitted that it was harder work than he had expected. I hope Bird does not find out I went in there.
We have examinations coming up, so I must study. I’ll be back to write in this notebook when they are over. Connor got me to help him learn the Grammar rules. I don’t know why he needed help. He’s really smart.