47 Sorrows. Janet Kellough
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turned again to family.
Thaddeus could tell that Betsy was worn out, what with the excitement of Luke’s arrival and the bustle of dinnertime. He knew he should shoo her off for her afternoon nap, but he also knew that it would be a waste of words — there was little likelihood that she would relinquish her lost lamb so readily.
Francis and Mrs. Carr rose from the table and busied themselves in the sink room, while Sophie was already organizing supper. Martha, bored by the conversation about people she had never met, ran outside to find her cohort of playmates.
“Let’s finish the teapot and take our cups out to the porch,” Thaddeus suggested. “It’s a fine place to sit on a hot afternoon.”
The Temperance Hotel had a wide verandah, and in the summertime the cool breeze that blew in from Lake Ontario wafted through it. The porch had been furnished with painted wooden chairs and rockers for the use of the guests, but it was here that Thaddeus spent most of his time when he wasn’t wanted elsewhere. I’m getting so old, he thought. Here I am sitting on the porch watching the world pass me by.
They settled in one corner, well away from a cluster of patrons who had chosen to laze away the afternoon. Luke made a great show of stirring his tea while his parents waited expectantly.
“I don’t bite, you know,” Thaddeus said. “You can spit out whatever’s on your mind.”
“Is it a girl?” his mother asked. “Are you planning to get married?”
Luke blushed furiously before he answered. “No, it’s nothing like that.” And then when his mother’s face fell, he added, “I just haven’t met anyone, that’s all.”
“Plenty of time for that, Betsy,” Thaddeus said. “After all, he’s a young man yet, and needs to settle before he can think of taking a wife.”
“I thought I was getting settled,” Luke said. “But now that I’m here, I’m wondering if my efforts might be better spent in a different manner.”
“Why don’t you just tell me what you have in mind, and then I’ll give you my opinion of it.”
Luke nodded. “I think I want to go into medicine. I think I’ve saved enough money to take at least the first year of courses.”
Thaddeus chuckled. “Luke the Physician? Apparently we named you well.”
Luke smiled. “I’d actually thought of that, you know.”
“A doctor?” Betsy said. “That would be wonderful!”
“After five years in Huron, I’ve decided that I’m just not cut out to be a farmer,” Luke went on. “It seems to me it’s just the same thing year in, year out, and you’re always at the mercy of the weather or the markets or the insects or something. But after a while, I did find that I liked looking after the livestock — you know, dealing with their injuries and diseases. I was having quite a lot of success, too. Eventually the neighbours noticed and began calling me when they had an animal that was doing poorly. After a while they started calling about themselves as well. There aren’t a lot of doctors along the Huron Road, and the settlements are so scattered, you see. I’d do what I could for them, but it was starting to make me nervous.”
“I can see that,” Thaddeus said. “After all, it’s one thing if you lose a cow. Quite another if you lose a person.”
“Exactly. I just don’t know enough — I haven’t had much experience with surgery, for example — and there are so many advances in medicine now, I’d like to know more about them. It seems to me that it’s a profession where I’ll never stop learning.”
Thaddeus knew about this thirst for knowledge. He had had it all his life.
“They say a wise man is one who knows he doesn’t know.”
“Then I must be the wisest man on earth,” Luke said.
“This all sounds wonderful,” Betsy said, “but why are you talking about changing your plans now that you’re here?”
“Because now I’m wondering if I’ve just been thinking of myself, and not you. I didn’t realize how sick you’ve been, Ma. Maybe I should be looking to my responsibilities. I know you don’t have to worry about Martha anymore, now that Francis is back, but I don’t think the rest of us can expect him to take care of you as well. It’s not really his place, after all.”
Thaddeus felt a surge of pride in this boy who would stop to consider his aging parents, but at the same time had no intention of letting his dreams fall apart on their account. He was about to say so, when Betsy replied.
“You will not!” she said. “Your father and I are fine. We’ve long since sorted out our arrangements here, and everyone, including Francis, is perfectly happy with them. Don’t you give us another thought.”
Thaddeus seconded her opinion. “I know Francis is really only a son-in-law, but he feels as much a son to me as you are. We sorted out our differences a while back and, in fact, we owe each other a great deal.”
Luke looked puzzled. After his sister had died, the name Francis Renwell had been enough to send his father into a rage. Lewis had never liked the man who had married his daughter, and, in fact, had held him responsible for her death.
“I was very wrong about Francis,” Thaddeus admitted. “He was rash and headstrong — just like your sister — but he was in no way responsible for what happened to her. I’ve come to realize that he’s a fine man, and now that he’s married Sophie, he’s settled down a great deal. And,” he added, “I’ve mellowed some too. I’m not so quick to make judgments as I once was. Be that as it may, your mother is right. We’re happy enough here. You go ahead. It sounds like a reasonable plan to me.”
The relief on Luke’s face was evident.
“So, where do you think you might go for the training?” Thaddeus asked.
“McGill has the best reputation. Besides, King’s College is still too much under the sway of the Church of England. I was raised a Methodist, after all. I’m not sure I could stomach any leftover Anglican cant.”
The old enmity between supporters of the Church of England and every other religion was slowly melting away now that the two Canadian colonies, Upper and Lower, had been refashioned as the Province of Canada, but the secularization of its institutions was not yet complete. McGill University in Montreal had had a School of Medicine for a number of years, Thaddeus knew, whereas the university in Toronto had only just established its program.
“I know you always hoped that at least one of your sons would follow in your footsteps,” Luke went on. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid it won’t be me.”
Thaddeus thought of the long years he had spent riding from settlement to settlement through snow and rain and cold and heat, and of the responsibilities he had shouldered onto his wife while he was away — responsibilities that had worn her down before her time. Of the poverty that even now plagued them. He had done it to save souls. Was it so different to want to save bodies? Luke and he were more alike than the boy knew.
“I’d say you’ve made an excellent choice,” he said. “And don’t you worry about us — we’re snug enough here.”
Chapter 6
Luke had planned to spend a week or so in Wellington before he continued his journey to Montreal, where he needed to register with the college and scout for an inexpensive place to live. After the years of chopping, ploughing, and cutting on his brother’s farm, he found the gentler village pace relaxing, the conversation varied and informed, and the food superb. Sophie truly was a genius in the kitchen. He was still profoundly uneasy about his mother’s health, however. She had the frail and fragile look that he had come to recognize as an indicator of more ill health to come. One of the reasons he had been so successful in treating animals, he realized, was his ability to sense when something wasn’t quite right with