Jalna: Books 1-4: The Building of Jalna Morning at Jalna Mary Wakefield Young Renny by de la Roche Mazo

Author:de la Roche, Mazo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC045000 – FICTION / Sagas
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2013-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

The weeks that followed were crowded with preparations for the journey by land and sea. The three boys had been born in Canada — Augusta in India, but she remembered nothing of the voyage out.

It was thought that the children were not yet strong enough for study. On his part Wilmott relaxed with almost conscious delight in the warmer weather, in the fullness of growth, in the abundance of fish in the stream, in the birdsong that thrilled the woods, and, not least, in the return of Tite as a single man. Rigorously he put from his mind the manner of this achievement.

Of all those affected by this journey, Nero understood least but felt most. He had been told nothing, yet knew all. He knew, for instance, that he was too big to conceal himself in a piece of hand luggage. His hope lay in so closely attaching himself to something that was accompanying the travellers that they would take him unknowingly. When the first trunk was carried down the stairs and set in the hall he placed his woolly body firmly beside it. When other trunks and portmanteaux appeared he investigated each one in turn and gathered them, as it were, under his guardianship. But when members of the family, dressed for travel, came to the hall Nero would raise such pleading eyes to them as might have moved a heart of stone. Yet so occupied were they by their own affairs that they scarcely noticed him. Now and again he would heave a profound sigh. On the last day before departure Tite Sharrow brought a stout leather thong and fixed it to Nero’s collar. Tite was strong but he was tired out after he had dragged Nero the wooded way to Wilmott’s cottage. It would be months before that loyal Newfoundland would return to Jalna, except to visit the house each day and make sure that all was in order and possibly be given a second dinner by Mrs. Coveyduck.

As for Augusta’s dove, it (now definitely she) had taken up with pigeons and was building a nest with the masterful assistance of the stout gentleman who previously had paid her such marked attention. Two days before the departure of the family the dove laid an egg which completely occupied her thoughts. It meant more to her than did all the months of devotion Gussie had lavished on her.

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