SHE SAID, HE SAID

Devil in Deerskins: My Life with Grey Owl (1972)

[After misunderstanding a job posting for a maid, that rather was for a person who could speak with a lonely Scandinavian maid,] I rose to go, and noting my discouragement she [Mrs. Madeleine Peck] added, ‘Do sit down, please. I’ve seen you and your husband passing by and wondered – what does he do?’

‘He’s a guide. We came here hoping that he would find a job.’ ‘But this is not that kind of resort. There is no fishing or hunting here.’ Then impatiently, she asked, ‘Can’t he support you? Have you any money?’

‘Yes,’ I replied indignantly, ‘he has always supported me. He doesn’t know that I’m here. No, we have no money at all. The last we had was from an article he wrote for a magazine and that’s all gone now.’

‘Who published the article,’ asked Mrs. Peck with great interest.

‘An English magazine called Country Life.’

‘How interesting,’ she exclaimed.

Warming to the subject, I went on, ‘He has a roll of paper with things written in it over at the camp.’

‘ I wonder if you could bring it to me?’ she asked.

‘Why do you want it?’

‘I’d like to see how and what he writes. I might be able to … Yes. Bring it as soon as you can, will you?’ 

‘I’d have to get it without his knowing.’ 

‘Just get it – no matter how – but get it.’

I did. Mrs. Peck read it with mounting interest. She reached for the phone and called her mother[-in-law]. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked. ‘Whatever it is, drop it and come right over. Yes. Right away.’

The two women read excerpts from Archie’s notes, exclaiming, ‘Marvellous, extraordinary – unique!’

‘Your husband has talent,’ Mrs. Peck told me, ‘there’s no doubt about it. My mother[-in-law] and I think the material would be ideal for a lecture. A talk on the wilderness. The people here would love it.’

Wondering what Archie would have to say about this, I asked in a very small voice, ‘A lecture’?’

‘Yes,’ she said, ‘exactly’. Do you think he would do it’?’

‘I don’t know. He’s never done it before. He doesn’t even know yet that I took that.’ I pointed at the manuscript. ‘And I dread the thought of telling him.’

‘Well, we must,’ Mrs. Peck said firmly, ‘That’s all there is to it. I’ll get him even if I have to drag him out.’

‘Yes! You do that!’ I said with relief.

‘I’ll be there this evening,’ said Mrs. Peck.

Walking back to camp I didn’t much relish the ordeal of informing Archie of my clandestine activities. Putting up a brave front, I walked straight into his arms, kissed him, and sat down beside him.

His first words were ‘Well, I’ve got a job. At least we’ll eat.’

I sat upright, somewhat deflated. ‘What doing? Guiding?’ ‘In a place like this?’ he jeered. ‘Of course not.’ He pointed to himself. ‘Meet the distinguished helper of a gardener.’ ‘Hmrnm,’ I murmured, ‘I almost got a job today too.’ ‘What!’ he exclaimed. ‘So that’s what you were up to. Why didn’t you tell me you were looking for a job?’ ‘Because you wouldn’t have let me if I had.’

‘What kind of logic is that?’ he laughed. ‘What sort of a job?’

‘As a maid.’

‘You – a maid?’ He glared in disbelief.

His expression unnerved me, and I said almost guiltily, ‘Yes,’ and then sputtered on about how she had specified a Scandinavian maid.

‘This is awful – it gets worse all the time.’

‘Don’t worry,’ I said, ‘she was very kind, very concerned. She even asked why you couldn’t support me and what kind of work you did.’

‘And what did you say to that?’ Archie began sarcastically.

‘I said you were a writer.’

He jumped up. ‘A writer! Oh, no!’

‘She thinks you can really write,’ I said earnestly. Archie’s anger mounted.. ‘How would she know?’

‘Becausc,’ said I hesitantly, ‘I took the notes you had in your box and gave them to her to read.’

‘What! You did that?’

‘Yes. And she’s coming to see you tonight.’

‘Why’!’ Archie asked, guardedly.

‘She wants you to lecture in some hall.’

He exploded. ‘A lecture. Mel What in hell have you got me into now?’ He whirled about and left the tent.

Since Mrs. Peck would be arriving in a few hours, I tidied up the tent and grounds about the outdoor fire. The tea-pail was boiling when Archie returned. He embraced me. ‘Sorry, kid. I lost my temper. Poor thing, you’re having it rough, and I shouldn’t have, especially when I know you just wanted to help.’

When Mrs. Peck and her mother[-in-law] arrived, I cast a worried look at Archie. I needn’t have, because their smiles and genuine friendliness disarmed him, and his face shone with a brightness I hadn’t seen in a long time.

‘Has your wife told you?’ Mrs. Peck smiled at Archie,

‘Yes – but …’

‘No buts. You just must give us this talk on wildlife. It’s beautiful.’

Archie backed away. ‘l’m sorry, lady, but you’ll never catch me at that. I wouldn’t know where to begin, let alone following through. I’d make a fool of myself – a bigger fool than I am.’

‘Now you stop this nonsense, Mr. Belaney.’ Mrs. Peck advanced upon him purposefully, fishing the manuscript from her purse. ‘A person who can write this has a duty to the public. I’ve always been against the slaughter of animals.’

‘But Mrs. Peck,’ protested Archie, ‘l couldn’t even if I wanted to.’

‘You have all the material in here.’ She held up his manuscript. ‘All you have to do is stand up and read it.’

‘That sounds easy. Why don’t you let someone else read it then. You’re welcome to do so.’

‘That won’t do at all,’ Mrs. Peck said earnestly. ‘You wrote it – you have the feeling for it. You believe in this, don’t you’?’

‘I certainly do,’ Archie replied emphatically.

‘You’ll be a knock-out in your buckskins.’ Mrs. Peck winked at me and then turned and rushed to her car, her mother[-in-law] right behind her.

Archie shook his fists in the air, shouting, ‘l can’t – l won’t, I won’t.’

Smiling sweetly at him they waved and drove away. Archie sighed, ‘That’s the end of that, I hope!.’

The next day Archie arrived home from work carrying much- needed groceries. I went to him, and we stood holding each other until Jelly Roll came tramping over our feet, pushing and pulling at our legs, crying loudly, demanding attention. We stopped to pet and make a big fuss over her. ‘Hey, give her an apple.’ Archie pulled one from the bag.

‘Poor Jelly Roll.’ I smiled at her eager face. ‘She’s had no apples for days and days.’ We laughed as she clutched it to her. ‘What did you do today?’ I asked Archie.

‘Pushed a wheelbarrow and the lawn-mower all day. Exciting, eh? I got an advance. Three dollars for the day’s work. Here is some news, only don’t get excited. The fellow I was working with said that there is a fresh-water pond somewhere near here.’

‘Oh Archie, wouldn’t it be wonderful.’

‘It’s on the property of a man [Mr. Astle] who owns half the town,’ he continued. ‘After supper I’m going to go and ask him if we can take Jelly down for a swim. No, I think I’ll do it right now.’

‘What about supper?’

‘It can wait,’ he said good-humouredly, preparing to leave.

Just then Mrs. Peck drove up. She approached us, all aflutter and beaming. She carried a huge basket, and before Archie could say a word, she called out, ‘Hello, hello. I’ve brought us a lunch so we can talk while we munch! Isn’t that clever?’ she added.

I invited her inside the tent, but Archie said, ‘Why not sit out here, it’s much nicer and less cramped.’ I brought her a blanket to sit on. She removed the cloth from the lunch basket and smoothed it out on the blanket. I couldn’t think of a thing to say in a situation like this, so I stammered ‘How good of you to do this. It’s lovely, but you shouldn’t have troubled…’

Archie broke in, ‘Sh, sh, Gertie, don’t say another word. I see some man-size sandwiches, and I’m ready for them. I’m a workingman, you know.’

‘Really? I’m so glad. Well, aren’t you going to join me?’ 

‘That we will,’ Archie agreed.

We sat down to roast beef and ham sandwiches, cookies, cake and fruit. Jelly Roll held the floor. We had to give her cookies and other bits to keep her out of our food. The conversation was mostly about beaver.

‘You know, if it weren’t for Mac and Mac [two baby beavers Anahareo and Archie had taken into their home], I’d still be a trapper, killing everything that crossed my trail,’ Archie told Mrs. Peck after she had listened to our story.

‘But how could you know what you were doing before you learned, from them, that animals have feelings much the same as ours?’ she asked with sympathy. ‘And that is what you should tell them tomorrow night.’

Archie stopped eating. ‘Tell who tomorrow night?’

‘The people who are coming to hear you lecture tomorrow night, remember?’ she enquired calmly.

‘Yes, I remember, and 1 also remember saying that I wouldn’t do it. I’m not going to – and that’s final.’

‘When you said that you believed in the things you wrote,’ Mrs. Peck rushed on, ‘I took it for granted you would do it. This puts me in an uncomfortable fix. I’ve rented the ball-room at the best hotel in town. Announcements are up, the invitations mailed. There will be a lot of people there. What am I going to do?’

‘Archie,’ I reproached him, ‘if there’s going to be a lot of people there, you should go and tell them what we want to do. Remember what we said when we had Mac and Mac?’

He stared at me, but said nothing for a long time. Finally he spoke to Mrs. Peck. ‘Did you say that I could read that stuff of mine?’

‘Yes, that’s all you have to do.’

‘O.K., I’ll go. I’ll touch it up and we’ll be there.’

Archie’s talk of his beloved wilderness was a success, but at its conclusion he got an attack of nerves. I too was in a state.

I don’t suppose we’d have been nervous had we not been so undernourished at the time. We were also worried about Jelly Roll, alone at camp. We couldn’t get away fast enough, but were held back by Archie’s enthusiastic audience.

After several attempts to leave we bolted for the door, determined that nothing would prevent us this time, only to be stopped by Mrs. Peck, carrying what looked like a hat-box and blocking our way. ‘I know how you must feel,’ she said. ‘I think that we are all a bit tense tonight, but it was well worth the effort. You were marvellous.’

‘Thank you, Mrs. Peck,’ Archie began, ‘but we must be going. The beaver … ‘

‘Yes, I know that. But what do you want me to do? Would you like me to open a bank account for you?’

Archie looked questioningly at her, then tiredly asked, ‘On what, Mrs. Peck? A dime?’

‘Oh, how wrong you are, Mr. Belaney, there’s more than a dime in here. Look!’ She pulled the lid off the box and inside was a huge stack of money.

‘What’s this?’ asked Archie, puzzled.

Her eyes twinkling mischievously, she answered, ‘This is what you brought in tonight.’

‘Mrs. Peck! You didn’t … ‘Archie spoke out harshly.

‘But Mr. Belaney, I thought you’ld be pleased,’ she said with disappointment.

‘My God. What if I’d been a flop?’ Archie gasped.

Mrs. Peck had sold over $700 worth of tickets to Archie’s lecture. It was fortunate that Archie hadn’t known about this beforehand, or he would have been twice as nervous – if that were possible. As we had awaited zero hour backstage, he’d said, ‘Do you know, I’d give anything to get the hell out of this.’

Silently, I had agreed with him. I was feeling guilty for getting him into such a jam.

‘l feel like a snake that has swallowed an icicle – chilled from one end to the other,’ he’d added dolefully.

I had burst into laughter, and hysteria took over. I couldn’t stop until Archie moaned ‘It’s time to go on!’

Following the initial lecture, Archie was invited to speak at parties, in other halls, and in other hotels. One day a scout-master asked Archie if he would give his troop a few pointers on woodcraft. Archie agreed, and they came to our camp for a pow-wow.

Archie began by showing the boys how and where to find dry wood in wet weather and how to make a quick outdoor fire without an axe.  He made them load their arms with twigs, lichen, dead limbs, etc. and said, as he arranged this fodder for for the fire, ‘When you travel in the bush, remember you must always pay attention to details. You take care of the little things, and the big things will look out for themselves. Here’s an example.’ He took out his match-safe [a watertight, tin cylinder to keep matches dry] from his pocket and held it out impressively for them to see. ‘It’s only a little thing, isn’t it? Well, many a man would be alive today if he’d carried one of these little do-hickies.’

He lit the fire. ‘To carry a rifle with a cartridge in the barrel is a very dangerous thing to do,’ he went on. ‘It takes but a second to pump one in; you’ll lose a second, but you might save your life. And another thing, in running a swift rapids in a canoe, in white water, with rocks and pools ahead – just make one little mistake there and you’ll be lucky if you get out of it alive. Maybe you won’t be as lucky as you think, because, after all, being in the bush without a canoe is like being up in the air without a plane, Take it from me, it’s the little things that count,’ he concluded, shaking his finger solemnly at their intent faces. At that moment the fire went ‘splut, splut’, and ashes and sparks shot up into his face in a cloud. Everyone jumped about, looking to see what had happened. There, on the ground, lay Archie’s match-safe, split wide open, right beside the fire.

‘Hey, Mr. Belaney,’ laughed one of the urchins, ‘is that one of the “little things” you were talking about? Ha, ha.’

Of all the times for Archie to pull a greenhorn trick!

We returned to Cabana with over a thousand dollars lining our pockets. The news of how we had got it travelled through the town like wildfire, and those kind and friendly people came to congratulate Archie, as happy for us as if we were their own kin.

There was another letter from Country Life, asking Archie to write a book. Although he was rather unnerved concerning this, he replied that he would try to do it.

Dave came to see us as soon as he heard we were back, and was as delighted with our good fortune as our Cabana friends, ‘What will you do now?’ he asked us.

‘I have two tickets to Doucet, … ‘ Archie began.

‘What!’ cried Dave. ‘You goin’ back dere? Why? Dere’s nuttin’ dere.’

Archie said, ‘You see, we were so damned broke and starving at Metis Beach, all I wanted was to get the hell out of this country before we died of starvation. I was belly-aching about my tough luck to a colonel [possibly Wilfred Bovey] who was in my outfit [Black Watch] during the war. He told me that he would arrange for our fare back north.’

I was ashamed, but I was more scared than ashamed, so took the tickets.’ He ended with a wry grin….