Laura Lee Hope - "The Story of a Plush Bear"

John Buchan - "The Half Hearted"

Mary Jane Holmes - "Bad Hugh"

W. A. Fraser - "Caste"

Dillon Wallace - The Story of Grenfell of the Labrador

D >> Dillon Wallace >> The Story of Grenfell of the Labrador



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| Transcriber's Note: Throughout the whole book, St. |
| John's (Newfoundland) is spelled St. Johns. A list |
| of typos fixed in this text are listed at the end. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

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THE STORY OF GRENFELL OF THE LABRADOR

[Illustration: THE PHYSICIAN IN THE LABRADOR]




The Story of Grenfell
of the Labrador

A Boy's Life of Wilfred T. Grenfell

By
DILLON WALLACE,
Author of "_Grit-a-Plenty_," "_The Ragged Inlet Guards_,"
"_Ungava Bob_," etc., etc.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK CHICAGO
Fleming H. Revell Company
LONDON AND EDINBURGH


Copyright, 1922, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street




Foreword


In a land where there was no doctor and no school, and through an evil
system of barter and trade the people were practically bound to
serfdom, Doctor Wilfred T. Grenfell has established hospitals and
nursing stations, schools and co-operative stores, and raised the
people to a degree of self dependence and a much happier condition of
life. All this has been done through his personal activity, and is
today being supported through his personal administration.

The author has lived among the people of Labrador and shared some of
their hardships. He has witnessed with his own eyes some of the
marvelous achievements of Doctor Grenfell. In the following pages he
has made a poor attempt to offer his testimony. The book lays no claim
to either originality or literary merit. It barely touches upon the
field. The half has not been told.

He also wishes to acknowledge reference in compiling the book to old
files and scrapbooks of published articles concerning Doctor Grenfell
and his work, to Doctor Grenfell's book _Vikings of Today_, and to
having verified dates and incidents through Doctor Grenfell's
Autobiography, published by Houghton Mifflin & Company, of Boston.

D.W.

_Beacon, N.Y._




Contents


I. THE SANDS OF DEE 11

II. THE NORTH SEA FLEETS 26

III. ON THE HIGH SEAS 31

IV. DOWN ON THE LABRADOR 39

V. THE RAGGED MAN IN THE RICKETY BOAT 52

VI. OVERBOARD! 61

VII. IN THE BREAKERS 68

VIII. AN ADVENTUROUS VOYAGE 74

IX. IN THE DEEP WILDERNESS 83

X. THE SEAL HUNTER 99

XI. UNCLE WILLY WOLFREY 109

XII. A DOZEN FOX TRAPS 116

XIII. SKIPPER TOM'S COD TRAP 126

XIV. THE SAVING OF RED BAY 135

XV. A LAD OF THE NORTH 146

XVI. MAKING A HOME FOR THE ORPHANS 158

XVII. THE DOGS OF THE ICE TRAIL 171

XVIII. FACING AN ARCTIC BLIZZARD 183

XIX. HOW AMBROSE WAS MADE TO WALK 193

XX. LOST ON THE ICE FLOE 203

XXI. WRECKED AND ADRIFT 213

XXII. SAVING A LIFE 219

XXIII. REINDEER AND OTHER THINGS 225

XXIV. THE SAME GRENFELL 233




ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

The Physician in the LABRADOR _Title_

The LABRADOR "LIVEYERE" 40

"Sails North to Remain Until the End of Summer,
Catching Cod" 46

The Doctor on a Winter's Journey 84

"The Trap is Submerged a Hundred Yards or so from Shore" 130

"NEXT" 172

"Please Look at My Tongue, Doctor" 172

The Hospital Ship, STRATHCONA 220

"I Have a Crew Strong Enough to Take You into My District" 234




I

THE SANDS OF DEE


The first great adventure in the life of our hero occurred on the
twenty-eighth day of February in the year 1865. He was born that day.
The greatest adventure as well as the greatest event that ever comes
into anybody's life is the adventure of being born.

If there is such a thing as luck, Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, as his
parents named him, fell into luck, when he was born on February
twenty-eighth, 1865. He might have been born on February twenty-ninth
one year earlier, and that would have been little short of a
catastrophe, for in that case his birthdays would have been separated
by intervals of four years, and every boy knows what a hardship it
would be to wait four years for a birthday, when every one else is
having one every year. There _are_ people, to be sure, who would like
their birthdays to be four years apart, but they are not boys.

Grenfell was also lucky, or, let us say, fortunate in the place where
he was born and spent his early boyhood. His father was Head Master of
Mostyn House, a school for boys at Parkgate, England, a little
fishing village not far from the historic old city of Chester. By
referring to your map you will find Chester a dozen miles or so to the
southward of Liverpool, though you may not find Parkgate, for it is so
small a village that the map makers are quite likely to overlook it.

Here at Parkgate the River Dee flows down into an estuary that opens
out into the Irish Sea, and here spread the famous "Sands of Dee,"
known the world over through Charles Kingsley's pathetic poem, which
we have all read, and over which, I confess, I shed tears when a boy:

O Mary, go and call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
Across the Sands o' Dee;
The western wind was wild and dank wi' foam,
And all alone went she.

The creeping tide came up along the sand,
And o'er and o'er the sand,
And round and round the sand,
As far as eye could see;
The blinding mist came down and hid the land--
And never home came she.

Oh is it weed, or fish, or floating hair--
A tress o' golden hair,
O' drown'ed maiden's hair,
Above the nets at sea?
Was never salmon yet that shone so fair,
Among the stakes on Dee.

They rowed her in across the rolling foam,
The cruel, crawling foam,
The cruel, hungry foam,
To her grave beside the sea;
But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home,
Across the Sands o' Dee.

Charles Kingsley and the poem become nearer and dearer to us than ever
with the knowledge that he was a cousin of Grenfell, and knew the
Sands o' Dee, over which Grenfell tramped and hunted as a boy, for the
sandy plain was close by his father's house.

There was a time when the estuary was a wide deep harbor, and really a
part of Liverpool Bay, and great ships from all over the world came
into it and sailed up to Chester, which in those days was a famous
port. But as years passed the sands, loosened by floods and carried
down by the river current, choked and blocked the harbor, and before
Grenfell was born it had become so shallow that only fishing vessels
and small craft could use it.

Parkgate is on the northern side of the River Dee. On the southern
side and beyond the Sands of Dee, rise the green hills of Wales,
melting away into blue mysterious distance. Near as Wales is the
people over there speak a different tongue from the English, and to
young Grenfell and his companions it was a strange and foreign land
and the people a strange and mysterious people. We have most of us,
in our young days perhaps, thought that all Welshmen were like Taffy,
of whom Mother Goose sings:

"Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief,
Taffy came to my house and stole a piece of beef;
I went to Taffy's house, Taffy wasn't home,
Taffy came to my house and stole a marrow bone;
I went to Taffy's house, Taffy was in bed,
I took the marrow-bone, and beat about his head."

But it was Grenfell's privilege, living so near, to make little visits
over into Wales, and he early had an opportunity to learn that Taffy
was not in the least like Welshmen. He found them fine, honest,
kind-hearted folk, with no more Taffys among them than there are among
the English or Americans. The great Lloyd George, perhaps the greatest
of living statesmen, is a Welshman, and by him and not by Taffy, we
are now measuring the worth of this people who were the near neighbors
of Grenfell in his young days.

Mostyn House, where Grenfell lived, overlooked the estuary. From the
windows of his father's house he could see the fishing smacks going
out upon the great adventurous sea and coming back laden with fish.

Living by the sea where he heard the roar of the breakers and every
day smelled the good salt breath of the ocean, it was natural that he
should love it, and to learn, almost as soon as he could run about,
to row and sail a boat, and to swim and take part in all sorts of
water sports. Time and again he went with the fishermen and spent the
night and the day with them out upon the sea. This is why it was
fortunate that he was born at Parkgate, for his life there as a boy
trained him to meet adventures fearlessly and prepared him for the
later years which were destined to be years of adventure.

Far up the river, wide marshes reached; and over these marshes, and
the Sands of Dee, Grenfell roamed at will. His father and mother were
usually away during the long holidays when school was closed, and he
and his brothers were left at these times with a vast deal of freedom
to do as they pleased and seek the adventure that every boy loves, and
on the sands and in the marshes there was always adventure enough to
be found.

Shooting in the marshes and out upon the sands was a favorite sport,
and when not with the fishermen Grenfell was usually to be found with
his gun stalking curlew, oyster diggers, or some other of the numerous
birds that frequented the marshes and shores. Barefooted, until the
weather grew too cold in autumn, and wearing barely enough clothing to
cover his nakedness, he would set out in early morning and not return
until night fell.

As often as not he returned from his day's hunting empty handed so far
as game was concerned, but this in no wise detracted from the pleasure
of the hunt. Game was always worth the getting, but the great joy was
in being out of doors and in tramping over the wide flats. With all
the freedom given him to hunt, he early learned that no animals or
birds were to be killed on any account save for food or purposes of
study. This is the rule of every true sportsman. Grenfell has always
been a great hunter and a fine shot, but he has never killed
needlessly.

Young Grenfell through these expeditions soon learned to take a great
deal of interest in the habits of birds and their life history. This
led him to try his skill at skinning and mounting specimens. An old
fisherman living near his home was an excellent hand at this and gave
him his first lessons, and presently he developed into a really expert
taxidermist, while his brother made the cases in which he mounted and
exhibited his specimens.

His interest in birds excited an interest in flowers and plants and
finally in moths and butterflies. The taste for nature study is like
the taste for olives. You have to cultivate it, and once the taste is
acquired you become extremely fond of it. Grenfell became a student of
moths and butterflies. He captured, mounted and identified specimens.
He was out of nights with his net hunting them and "sugaring" trees to
attract them, and he even bred them. A fine collection was the result,
and this, together with one of flowers and plants, was added to that
of his mounted birds. In the course of time he had accumulated a
creditable museum of natural history, which to this day may be seen
at Mostyn House, in Parkgate; and to it have been added specimens of
caribou, seals, foxes, porcupines and other Labrador animals, which in
his busy later years he has found time to mount, for he is still the
same eager and devoted student of nature.

During these early years, with odds and ends of boards that they
collected, Grenfell and his brother built a boat to supply a better
means of stealing upon flocks of water birds. It was a curious
flat-bottomed affair with square ends and resembled a scow more than a
rowboat, but it served its purpose well enough, and was doubtless the
first craft which the young adventurer, later to become a master
mariner, ever commanded. Up and down the estuary, venturing even to
the sea, the two lads cruised in their clumsy craft, stopping over
night with the kind-hearted fishermen or "sleeping out" when they
found themselves too far from home. Many a fine time the ugly little
boat gave them until finally it capsized one day leaving them to swim
for it and reach the shore as best they could.

At the age of fourteen Grenfell was sent to Marlborough "College,"
where he had earned a scholarship. This was not a college as we speak
of a college in America, but a large university preparatory school.

In the beginning he had a fight with an "old boy," and being victor
firmly established his place among his fellow students. Whether at
Mostyn House, or later at Marlborough College, Grenfell learned early
to use the gloves. It was quite natural, devoted as he was to
athletics, that he should become a fine boxer. To this day he loves
the sport, and is always ready to put on the gloves for a bout, and it
is a mighty good man that can stand up before him. In most boys'
schools of that day, and doubtless at Marlborough College, boys
settled their differences with gloves, and in all probability Grenfell
had plenty of practice, for he was never a mollycoddle. He was perhaps
not always the winner, but he was always a true sportsman. There is a
vast difference between a "sportsman" and a "sport." Grenfell was a
sportsman, never a sport. His life in the open taught him to accept
success modestly or failure smilingly, and all through his life he has
been a sportsman of high type.

The three years that Grenfell spent at Marlborough College were active
ones. He not only made good grades in his studies but he took a
leading part in all athletics. Study was easy for him, and this made
it possible to devote much time to physical work. Not only did he
become an expert boxer, but he had no difficulty in making the school
teams, in football, cricket, and other sports that demanded skill,
nerve and physical energy.

Like all youngsters running over with the joy of youth and life, he
got into his full share of scrapes. If there was anything on foot,
mischievous or otherwise, Grenfell was on hand, though his mischief
and escapades were all innocent pranks or evasion of rules, such as
going out of bounds at prohibited hours to secure goodies. The greater
the element of adventure the keener he was for an enterprise. He was
not by any means always caught in his pranks, but when he was he
admitted his guilt with heroic candor, and like a hero stood up for
his punishment. Those were the days when the hickory switch in
America, and the cane in England, were the chief instruments of
torture.

With the end of his course at Marlborough College, Grenfell was
confronted with the momentous question of his future and what he was
to do in life. This is a serious question for any young fellow to
answer. It is a question that involves one's whole life. Upon the
decision rests to a large degree happiness or unhappiness, content or
discontent, success or failure.

It impressed him now as a question that demanded his most serious
thought. For the first time there came to him a full realization that
some day he would have to earn his way in the world with his own brain
and hands. A vista of the future years with their responsibilities,
lay before him as a reality, and he decided that it was up to him to
make the most of those years and to make a success of life. No doubt
this realization fell upon him as a shock, as it does upon most lads
whose parents have supplied their every need. Now he was called upon
to decide the matter for himself, and his future education was to be
guided by his choice.

At various periods of his youthful career nearly every boy has an
ambition to be an Indian fighter, or a pirate, or a locomotive
engineer, or a fireman and save people from burning buildings at the
risk of his own life, or to be a hunter of ferocious wild animals.
Grenfell had dreamed of a romantic and adventurous career. Now he
realized that these ambitions must give place to a sedate profession
that would earn him a living and in which he would be contented.

All of his people had been literary workers, educators, clergymen, or
officers in the army or navy. There was Charles Kingsley and "Westward
Ho." There was Sir Richard Grenvil, immortalized by Tennyson in "The
Revenge." There was his own dear grandfather who was a master at Rugby
under the great Arnold, whom everybody knows through "Tom Brown at
Rugby."

It was the wish of some of his friends and family that he become a
clergyman. This did not in the least suit his tastes, and he
immediately decided that whatever profession he might choose, it would
_not_ be the ministry. The ministry was distasteful to him as a
profession, and he had no desire or intention to follow in the
footsteps of his ancestors. He wished to be original, and to blaze a
new trail for himself.

Grenfell was exceedingly fond of the family physician, and one day he
went to him to discuss his problem. This physician had a large
practice. He kept several horses to take him about the country
visiting his patients, and in his daily rounds he traveled many miles.
This was appealing to one who had lived so much out of doors as
Grenfell had. As a doctor he, too, could drive about the country
visiting patients. He could enjoy the sunshine and feel the drive of
rain and wind in his face. He rebelled at the thought of engaging in
any profession that would rob him of the open sky. But he also
demanded that the profession he should choose should be one of
creative work. This would be necessary if his life were to be happy
and successful.

Observing the old doctor jogging along the country roads visiting his
far-scattered patients, it occurred to Grenfell that here was not only
a pleasant but a useful profession. With his knowledge of medicine the
doctor assisted nature in restoring people to health. Man must have a
well body if he would be happy and useful. Without a well body man's
hands would be idle and his brain dull. Only healthy men could invent
and build and administer. It was the doctor's job to keep them fit.
Here then was creative work of the highest kind! The thought thrilled
him!

Every boy of the right sort yearns to be of the greatest possible use
in the world. Unselfishness is a natural instinct. Boys are not born
selfish. They grow selfish because of association or training, and
because they see others about them practicing selfishness. Grenfell's
whole training had been toward unselfishness and usefulness. Here was
a life calling that promised both unselfish and useful service and at
the same time would gratify his desire to be a great deal out of
doors, and he decided at once that he would study medicine and be a
doctor.

His father was pleased with the decision. His course at Marlborough
College was completed, and he immediately took special work
preparatory to entering London Hospital and University.

In the University he did well. He passed his examinations creditably
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and at London University,
and had time to take a most active part in the University athletics as
a member of various 'Varsity teams. At one time or another he was
secretary of the cricket, football and rowing clubs, and he took part
in several famous championship games, and during one term that he was
in residence at Oxford University he played on the University football
team.

One evening in 1885 Grenfell, largely through curiosity, dropped into
a tent where evangelistic meetings were in progress. The evangelists
conducting the meeting happened to be the then famous D.L. Moody and
Ira D. Sankey. Both Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey were men of marvelous
power and magnetism. Moody was big, wholesome and practical. He
preached a religion of smiles and happiness and helpfulness. He lived
what he preached. There was no humbug or hypocrisy in him. Sankey
never had a peer as a leader of mass singing.

Moody was announcing a hymn when Grenfell entered. Sankey, in his
illimitable style, struck up the music. In a moment the vast audience
was singing as Grenfell had never heard an audience sing before. After
the hymn Moody spoke. Grenfell told me once that that sermon changed
his whole outlook upon life. He realized that he was a Christian in
name only and not in fact. His religious life was a fraud.

There and then he determined that he must be either an out and out
Christian or honestly renounce Christianity. With his home training
and teachings he could not do the latter. He decided upon a Christian
life. He would do nothing as a doctor that he could not do with a
clear conscience as a Christian gentleman. This he also decided: a
man's religion is something for him to be proud of and any one ashamed
to acknowledge the faith of his fathers is a moral coward, and a moral
coward is more contemptible than a physical coward. He also was
convinced that a boy or man afraid or ashamed to acknowledge his
religious belief could only be a mental weakling.

It was characteristic of Grenfell that whatever he attempted to do he
did with courage and enthusiasm. He never was a slacker. The hospital
to which he was attached was situated in the centre of the worst slums
of London. It occurred to him that he might help the boys, and he
secured a room, fitted it up as a gymnasium, and established a sort of
boys' club, where on Sundays he held a Bible study class and where he
gave the boys physical work on Saturdays. There was no Y.M.C.A. in
England at that time where they could enjoy these privileges. In the
beginning, there were young thugs who attempted to make trouble. He
simply pitched them out, and in the end they were glad enough to
return and behave themselves.

Grenfell and his brother, with one of their friends, spent the long
holidays when college was closed cruising along the coast in an old
fishing smack which they rented. In the course of his cruising, the
thought came to him that it was hardly fair to the boys in the slums
to run away from them and enjoy himself in the open while they
sweltered in the streets, and he began at once to plan a camp for the
boys.

This was long before the days of Boy Scouts and their camps. It was
before the days of any boys' camps in England. It was an original idea
with him that a summer camp would be a fine experience for his boys.
At his own expense he established such a camp on the Welsh coast, and
during every summer until he finished his studies in the University he
took his boys out of the city and gave them a fine outing during a
part of the summer holiday period. It was just at this time that the
first boys' camp in America was founded by Chief Dudley as an
experiment, now the famous Camp Dudley on Lake Champlain. We may
therefore consider Grenfell as one of the pioneers in making popular
the boys' camp idea, and every boy that has a good time in a summer
camp should thank him.

But a time comes when all things must end, good as well as bad, and
the time came when Grenfell received his degree and graduated a
full-fledged doctor, and a good one, too, we may be sure. Now he was
to face the world, and earn his own bread and butter. Pleasant
holidays, and boys' camps were behind him. The big work of life, which
every boy loves to tackle, was before him.

Then it was that Dr. Frederick Treves, later Sir Frederick, a famous
surgeon under whom he had studied, made a suggestion that was to shape
young Dr. Grenfell's destiny and make his name known wherever the
English tongue is spoken.




II

THE NORTH SEA FLEETS


The North Sea, big as it is, has no great depth. Geologists say that
not long ago, as geologists calculate time, its bottom was dry land
and connected the British Isles with the continent of Europe. Then it
began to sink until the water swept in and covered it, and it is still
sinking. The deepest point in the North Sea is not more than thirty
fathoms, or one hundred eighty feet. There are areas where it is not
over five fathoms deep, and the larger part of it is less than twenty
fathoms.

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